About 300 people attended a vigil organised by the Sydney Druze community in solidarity with the people of Sweida/Suwayda, Syria, at Martin Place on August 16.
Rabie Aboufakher, whose family was forced to evacuate Sweida, told the vigil that more than 2000 Druze men, women and children have been massacred since July 14, when 250,000 Syrian regime forces and allied Bedouin fighters attacked the 鈥渉eartland of the Druze community in Syria鈥.
More were injured and further 150,000 have been displaced, he said, describing it as a 鈥渃ampaign of ethnic cleansing鈥 and a 鈥渕assacre鈥. 鈥淭hey were shot in cold blood. They were burnt alive. They were executed in hospitals, murdered in their homes and hunted in the streets just for being Druze.鈥
Vigil organiser Marwa Tamani told聽一品探花: 鈥淲e need the help of the world to lift the siege of Sweida. We need a humanitarian corridor because there is no food, no water, no supplies getting in.
鈥淭he hospital was out of service for a time and people are dying of malnutrition and from no medication鈥 We need more humanitarian aid, and that is our purpose today.鈥
Shaoquett Moselmane, a former NSW Labor member of the Legislative Council, and Baran Sogut, from the Kurdish community, also spoke. Moselmane accused Israel and the United States of 鈥渟upporting the destruction of minorities in Syria鈥.
鈥淲ho would have thought that the Druze of Syria would be subjected to this slaughter? I remember [Druze leader] Sultan Bashar as a heroic fighter for Syria, who stood up for Syria and led the revolution for Syria 鈥 and yet those criminals are killing the Druze in Sweida in the name of religion and a distorted view of the world.鈥 He called on federal and state Labor to 鈥渟tand with the people of Sweida鈥.
Sogut said the Druze have bravely resisted the terrorist attacks on Sweida and 鈥渟howed the world that democracy and peace will live鈥. He said the 鈥淎ustralian government and all international friends need to support peace and democracy in Sweida, as well as in Rojava in northeastern Syria鈥.
He said a recent conference in Hasakah, Rojava, had brought together Druze, Kurds, Armenians, Turkmen and local Arabs, which 鈥渟hows that people can unite... [and] represent themselves鈥.
However, Turkey has seen this unity conference as a threat, and is now urging the Hayat Tahrir al Sham regime in Syria to attack Rojava just like it attacked Sweida.