Information on the Foreign Journalists Who Entered Syria Illegally
The Embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic in Malaysia presents its compliments to the esteemed recipients and in referring to the misleading western media campaign on the foreign journalists who entered Syria illegally, would like to provide the following information:
• The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic has considered the tragedy of the American journalist Marie Colvin in humanitarian terms only and has offered her family its deepest condolences following her death in Syria.
• The late Marie Colvin could have entered Syria legally if she so wished as Syria accept all applications from journalists desiring to enter the country.
• As soon as the Syrian authorities heard the sad news of the killing of Marie Colvin and her colleague, the French journalist Remi Ochlik in an area controlled by armed terrorist groups, it exerted all efforts to know the circumstances in which the two were killed and to remove their bodies immediately to be delivered to their respective countries.
• The Syrian authorities permitted three visits for intermediaries, the Syrian Red Crescent and the International Committee for Red Cross to evacuate journalists and remove the bodies of the said two journalists but without success due to the refusal by the armed groups as well as some journalists as some quarters were planning to take the bodies illegally to a neighbouring country.
• The procrastination from both the journalists there and the armed groups led to the delay in the requisite humanitarian work of removing the bodies and the ambulances not reaching the injured at a time when the Syrian authorities had a helicopter on stand-by to transfer the journalists, the bodies of the two deceased journalists as well as the wounded to Damascus for their safety.
• The Syrian authorities believe that some countries associated with the armed groups are encouraging them to commit more murder and to ignore the efforts by Syria, its Red Crescent and mediators to solve the problem.
• Syria affirms that it will meet all its obligations in the humanitarian field, whilst hoping not to permit any violations to its sovereignty and territorial integrity and for journalists to avoid placing themselves at risk and legal prosecutions.
With best compliments.
KL 2/MAR/2012