The world will look back in shame at the "indiscriminate massacre" that President Bashar al-Assad's regime is carrying out in Syria, according to Paul Conroy, the Sunday Times photographer who was seriously wounded in the city of Homs.
By Sarah Titterton
9:28PM GMT 02 Mar 2012
Giving an emotional interview from his hospital bed in London on Friday, Mr Conroy compared the killing in Homs with the Srebrenica massacre, adding that the time for talking was past.
"As I'm talking to you now, people are dying," he told Sky News. "There was no restraint with the cameras there. God knows what's happening now the cameras are gone."
Mr Conroy managed to escape into neighbouring Lebanon after suffering leg injuries in the same bombardment that killed his colleague, Marie Colvin, and Remi Ochlik, a French photographer, on Feb 22.
Homs had suffered a "sustained barrage" that was "absolutely indiscriminate" said Mr Conroy. The "massacre and the killing are at full tilt," he said. "I don't know how people can stand by and watch this."
Mr Conroy, 47, an experienced freelance photographer from Totnes, Devon, said the shelling had begun "religiously" every day at 6am and was worse than anything he had experienced in other war zones.
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Syrian forces were "systematic in moving through neighbourhoods with munitions that are used for battlefields," the former soldier said, adding that "men, women and children" were "cowering in houses" and "beyond shellshock".
The Homs he left had been a city of "rooms full of people waiting to die". He said: "They see nothing other than waiting for the moment the soldiers come in or the shell comes through the door."
Mr Conroy escaped after five days sheltering in one building.
"I came out and the street was gone," he said. "And in every one of those houses there were people."
He continued: "People brought me in half a baby, saying 'where's the help?' And I have no answer. I don't know how we can stand by and watch this. It's not a war: it's a massacre, it's the indiscriminate massacre of men, women and children."
Mr Conroy added: "In the years to come we're going to look back, we're going to have the shame of sitting back and watching it again, as in Srebrenica, as in Rwanda, and we're going to say 'how did we let this happen under our nose'."
The French journalists William Daniels and Edith Bouvier, who was wounded in the attack that killed Colvin, flew home yesterday to France, where they were greeted by President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The bodies of Colvin and Ochlik were removed from Homs by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The corpses had been left inside the city during the bombardment and two previous attempts to recover them failed, leading to reports that Syrian rebels had buried them.
But the ICRC confirmed the bodies of the journalists had been handed over and were being transported to Damascus.
"Marie was a unique person. To work with her was just an absolute privilege," said Mr Conroy. "She was tenacious, one of the bravest people I know."
Javier Espinosa, a correspondent for the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, also escaped from Homs after being trapped in the bombardment. He told the BBC that he joined a convoy of nearly 50 people that tried flee Homs under cover of darkness.
"You had to cross through the lines of the army," he said. But the terror of the children travelling in the convoy was too great. "The kids were very afraid. They were crying, and saying, 'Mummy, mummy, mummy,' and I think that noise was the one that alerted the army. They started shooting – they started shooting all around, so we had to run for our lives."
In the chaos he and two others were separated from the group. Through a stroke of luck, he said they recognised the route out to Lebanon because it was the same way he had entered.
"So we managed to escape," he said. "We arrived at a house and the people inside helped us."
***
Showing 1-25 of 39 comments
Ben Millet
Today 08:37 AM
Is an article like this one all it takes to sway the public to support a military attack on Syria? Most of the comments are calling for it.
Now let's see... does this article reflect the truth? Mr Conroy is a photographer, his bosses are the media channels, so he's going to say what they've been saying all along that this is a fight between an evil regime and "the people". Not that it is a manufactured conflict involving heavily armed islamist insurgents backed by foreign intelligence agencies on the path to full out war which would empower a bunch of lunatics under the guise of "freedom and democracy".
AmIsraelchaielYahud
Today 08:09 AM
Where is galloway.tonge, cherie blairs sister, the lunatics rampaging thru the streets of London Birmingham Manchester waving their massacre card with Israel on surely can now change them to 22 muzzie states, or is there a spelling broblem, Iwant to donate my 10p to a flottilla fund, come on george stop leading from the back.....or are you being CENSURED by good old press tv the mouth piece of the monkey in theran the speaking one diner jacket
anniewarbucks
Today 08:06 AM
The world will look back in shame on 'indiscriminate massacre' in Homs
This is the wrong title, it should read>
The world will look back in shame at democratic governments failing to take necessary action to stop 'indiscriminate massacre' in Homs after one month and 200 deaths ... let alone after 10 months and 7000 deaths
savodj
Today 07:47 AM
He is saying: We must help AQ even more.
bedwin
Today 05:30 AM
When people fled their houses in Hama in 1982 and went to the basements Assad senior filled the basements with water and put gasoline in top and set it alight --this goes to show what kind of criminal mind we are dealing with
______ royalgreenjacket
Today 05:31 AM
Why is Turkey and Egypt turning a blind eye to this?
____________ savodj
Today 07:45 AM
Turkey would love to rule that area again.
And as a reward Americans will force EU to accept Turkey.
royalgreenjacket
Today 05:28 AM
I blame Turkey, Egypt and the gulf states, time these people started to be proactive.
bedwin
Today 05:28 AM
Little Bashar is mass killer like his father who killed and burned alive 50 thousands people in Hama in 1982 uncle Refaat killed more than 200 thousands across Syria and now this sick mad man is continuing the legacy
______ royalgreenjacket
Today 05:29 AM
Turkey, go in and sort out, 500000 troops, flex your power
bedwin
Today 05:25 AM
Hats off to this courageous man the fact remain as long as the family of mass killers stay in power more killing will happen
Heisham
Today 05:03 AM
The Arab spring has taken hold of Syria and the bravery of it's people is being witnessed by the world at large, as the Alawaite dictator of Damascus continues to spill the blood of the innocents unabated.
Sadly, for the people blood has to be spilled. Tyrants throughout human history will never relinquish their grip on power no matter how civilized they appear to be. Notice in this case, that Bashir el-Assad and his wife should have brought some decorum of human decency and humanity given that one was born and raised in London, and the other was trained for a short term as "Physician"- which means that, his profession must imbuded him with empathy towards human sanctityand thus his calling in life is always to respect human dignity. Instead we have a Butcher lke his father, and his now dead brethrens in Iraq ( Saddam and his sons) and Libya, (Geddafi and his sons).
Regardless how this works out, one thing is certain. That Bashar El Assad and his cliques must be brought to justice at the hands of his own people. If he has an exit strategy, his exit must be tighthly shut and I hope that it does.
These vile dictators speak only in the language of violence: They will kill you, or you kill them instead!
______ carl_s_jones
Today 05:17 AM
Do you write CaMoron`s speeches?? Maybe you write Mr Hague`s?lol
____________ royalgreenjacket
Today 05:57 AM
Where is the Brave Arab and Turkish Soldiers? If the west go in another Iraq.
carl_s_jones
Today 03:33 AM
Of course, Mr Conroy didn`t mention the British forces and MI6`s hired al-Qaeda mercenaries who were imported from their Libya operation??
As one Syria said on here the other day in reply to one of my comment, that Homs had been preparing for this conflict by building a network of tunnels under the city. The shelling starts at 6am...so during the night, these women and children could leave????? For that matter, the journalists could also leave????
CaMoron goes on about justice, just look at the mess that MI6 has left in Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq??
And this article makes an unusual change in that we can finally comment. Maybe this is because the DT believes the one sided political MSM case simply can`t be questioned....clearly the Syrians aren`t happy having to fight imported MI6 terrorists and clearly the Russians and Chinese understand the true nature of this uprising.
And this provides a wonderful backdrop to MI6`s failed assassination attempt on Prime Minister Putin!!!lol
Didn`t MI6 try and sink Krushchev`s ship on a state visit to Britain???lol
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...
MI6 had been told to leave the Russian leader alone, but they nutters couldn`t resist. This story came to light after former KGB officer Putin allowed Crabb`s killer a Russian diver, to speak to a documentary crew. Putin no doubt did this as part of MI6`s secret war against the oil rich state of Russia.
MI6 makes James Bond like kiddies tv!lol
marph45
Today 02:36 AM
dictatorship has a limited shelf-life. The desire for freedom is great. From 1776 to 2012, despots have always known that their authority will be resisted.
Simon_Cambs
Today 12:45 AM
This is the kind of barbarism that awaits Syrians if regime change is foisted upon them (taken from Libya):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Libya is fast becoming a failed state, run by fanatics and armed warlords - this is the kind of democracy that we have delivered to Libya. I will not be surprised if the Libyans soon start to fight the new tyranny that rules over them.
Syrians are lucky they have Assad and two Veto-wielding powers in support of him. War will not solve anything.
______ royalgreenjacket
Today 06:01 AM
Libya, Arabs killing Black Africans because of there skin, good job PM?
______ marph45
Today 02:24 AM
As usual it's the poor bloody civilians who suffer.
Welietoyouandwereproud
Today 12:09 AM
"The world will look back in shame on the 'indiscriminate massacre' in Homs."
Like it does on the 'indiscriminate massacre' in Fallujah?
______ royalgreenjacket
Today 05:30 AM
Arab and turkish problem, let them sort it out.
oneaminute
Today 12:07 AM
Devotees of the Religion of Peace killing each other. Anything new here? No.
Do I care? No.
Death and destruction is all they ever do well.
Compassion exhaustion caused by above.
cinnamona
Yesterday 11:49 PM
i could be surprised that the red cross is having such difficulties in syria. they have such an august history there. surely the syrians remember the red cross passports (issued in the rome office were they not?) and used by escaping nazis using the rat lines to south america (someone say argentina?), which of course, the syrians understood. some such passports, a few comparatively speaking, crossed their borders in the late 40's..
surely the syrians can not forget the red cross passport used by alois brunner, an SS officer and latter a syrian army officer who reputedly advised the syrian regime on humanitarian issues and the ironic sense of humour.
strange that the red cross should be meeting such resistance, or perhaps they are just saying that?, as the recent events are, in the age of the internet, so well publicised compared to the same in hama massacre in 1982 when there were no internet 'phones etc.. cynical of me, i know.
willb
Yesterday 11:47 PM
Nice to see what they are doing to an Australian war memorial in Libya...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
______ savodj
Today 08:15 AM
normal part of their religion.
_____________
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