ICRC evacuates Syrian wounded, not Westerners

Red Cross and Red Crescent ambulances entered the besieged Homs district of Baba Amr on Friday and evacuated seven Syrians wounded in bombardments by regime forces, the ICRC said. But the ambulances did not evacuate two wounded Western journalists and the bodies of two others, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross told AFP, adding that negotiations in their case were still under way. "Three ambulances entered Baba Amr and they have left. They evacuated so far seven wounded Syrian citizens," Saleh Dabbakeh said. "Negotiations continue with the Syrian authorities and the opposition in an attempt to evacuate all persons, without exception, who are in need of urgent help," he added. The evacuation was organised by the ICRC along with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and was the first time rescuers had entered the flashpoint Baba Amr neighbourhood in 21 straight days of deadly bombardment. Eleven ambulances and other vehicles drove into the district, but only three ambulances left with wounded Syrians, although Dabbakeh earlier said the operation would also include the Western journalists. American reporter Marie Colvin and French photojournalist Remi Ochlik were killed on Wednesday when a rocket hit a makeshift media centre in Baba Amr, a rebel stronghold. French reporter Edith Bouvier and British photographer Paul Conroy suffered leg wounds in the same attack. On Thursday Bouvier was seen in a video message appealing for medical evacuation. "My leg is broken at the level of the femur, along its length and also horizontally. I need to be operated upon as soon as possible," she said in the video shot by anti-regime activists. "The doctors here have treated me very well, as much as they are able, but they are not able to undertake surgical procedures," she said. "I need a ceasefire and a medically equipped vehicle, or at least one in good condition, that can get me to the Lebanese border so I can be treated in the shortest possible time." Earlier Dabbakeh said that the ICRC and the Red Crescent would seek to evacuate from Homs "everyone in need of urgent help," not just the foreign reporters. Homs has been under siege and bombardment since February 4 with Baba Amr bearing the brunt of the onslaught. Syria accused rebels in Baba Amr of refusing to hand over Bouvier and the bodies of the two killed Western journalists to rescuers, the state-run SANA news agency reported. "The concerned authorities in Homs, moved by humanitarian considerations, sent several local officials and Red Crescent ambulances to evacuate the Western journalists who entered Syria illegally," SANA quoted a foreign ministry official as saying. "Despite efforts that lasted several hours, armed groups in Baba Amr refused to hand over the wounded woman (Bouvier) and the two bodies, thus endangering the life of the wounded French journalist," the official added. Diplomatic efforts were stepped up on Friday to evacuate the wounded Western journalists and the bodies of their two colleagues, with the French, British and Polish working closely together, a Western diplomat said. And the French embassy said that Ambassador Eric Chevallier returned to Damascus, more than two weeks after he was recalled by Paris in response to the Syrian regime's crackdown on dissent. Chevallier had gone to Homs on January 11 to repatriate the body of French journalist Gilles Jacquier who was killed by shelling there, the first Western journalist to be killed in the conflict. The Polish embassy has represented US interests in Syria since Washington closed its Damascus embassy for security reasons earlier this month. Meanwhile French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, in Tunis for an international "Friends of Syria" meeting on Friday, "solemnly" urged Syria to allow for the evacuation of the wounded journalists. More than 7,600 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime erupted last March, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.