Swedish FM slams Assad, Russia for bombing civilians

BERLIN

Syrian regime’s Bashar al-Assad and Russia are both moving further away from peace and humanity, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said Thursday.

Addressing university students at the Hertie School of Governance after her official talks in Berlin, Wallstrom expressed great concern over continuing heavy airstrikes in Aleppo.

“It is totally and utterly unacceptable to bomb civilians, children and hospitals and convoys with humanitarian assistance. Assad and Russia moving further away from peace and humanity,” she said.

Hundreds of civilians have reportedly been killed or injured in the bombings since Sept. 19, when the Assad regime announced the end of a week-long truce sponsored by Washington and Moscow.

“Like all of you I see the images coming from Syria with a broken and angry heart. Let me assure you that both Sweden and the EU will continue to do what we can to put an end to the slaughter,” she said.

She said the EU would step up its efforts to deliver urgent humanitarian aid and lifesaving systems to civilians in the besieged areas.

She also said the EU would continue its political support for the opposition, and would use its influence to restore cessation of hostilities and revive talks for a political solution to the conflict.

Sweden is among EU countries that received large number of refugees last year due to the civil war in Syria, and other conflicts in the region.

Wallstrom defended her government’s open door policy for refugees who need protection, and urged other EU member states to show more solidarity with Sweden and Germany.

“For the European asylum system to be sustainable in the long term, all member states must shoulder their responsibility. And this was what both Germany and Sweden believed would happen,” she said.

“But we ended up [in] a situation where at some point there were few member states buying all the blankets, and other member states buying all the barbed wire in Europe. And this is unsustainable,” she added.

Germany and Sweden have been shouldering a large part of Europe’s burden in the biggest refugee crisis since World War II. Sweden has accepted 163,000 refugees in 2015, while Germany has taken in nearly 890,000 refugees, mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Wallstrom criticized several EU member states for failing to take appropriate steps to accept refugees from other members, despite promises made by the resettlement schemes agreed last year.

“The distribution of asylum seekers is very uneven. We need to find a common system where the member states share the responsibility to receive people with protection needs,” she said.

“It is a matter of credibility for the European Union,” she added.

EU member states agreed in September 2015 to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers, mainly from Greece and Italy, but the reluctance of various member states to take in more refugees have left the plan in limbo. As of September 2016, nearly 5,000 people were relocated.

Poland and Hungary have been leading the opposition to mandatory quotas for the relocation of refugees among the EU member states.