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Syria’s White Helmets: rescuers in rebel-held areas
BEIRUT, July 22, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Syria’s White Helmets rescue force said
Sunday some of its volunteers had arrived in Jordan after being evacuated out
of a southern region where rebels agreed to a regime takeover.
Here is an overview of the group, whose volunteers are known for their
white hard hats and work in opposition-controlled parts of the war-torn
country.
– Thousands of volunteers –
The group emerged in 2013, when Syria’s civil war was nearing its third
year, and operates in battered opposition-held zones.
It was not until the following year that it took its current form and began
to be known as the “White Helmets” for the distinctive hard hats worn by its
members.
All are volunteers who had different occupations before the brutal
repression of anti-government protests in 2011 spiralled into full-blown
civil war.
In their previous lives, they were bakers, decorators or even students.
A vast majority of the group’s 3,750 members are men, but it does include
female rescuers. More than 250 members have died in the war, White Helmet
chief Raed Saleh says.
– ‘Save all of humanity’ –
Some of its members have received training abroad, returning to instruct
colleagues on search-and-rescue techniques.
The group has received funding from a number of governments, including
Britain, Denmark, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States.
But it also solicits individual donations to purchase equipment, including
their signature hard hats which cost around $145 (124 euros) each.
Since 2013, they have rescued thousands of civilians trapped under the
rubble after air strikes or caught up in fighting on different fronts of the
war.
The group’s motto — “To save one life is to save all of humanity” — is
drawn from a verse in the Koran, although the White Helmets insist they help
all victims, regardless of religion.
– Nobel nomination –
But the group has attracted criticism, mostly from backers of President
Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Assad himself, in an interview with AFP last year, accused the group’s
members of being “Al-Qaeda” jihadists.
He said their members “shaved their beards, wore white hats, and appeared
as humanitarian heroes, which is not the case”.
But elsewhere, the volunteers have been hailed as “real life heroes”
focused only on saving lives.
They were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016, but ultimately did
not win. A short documentary about them won an Oscar last year, helping to
bring them further international renown.
BSS/AFP/RY/1735 hrs