A Statement from Friends for a NonViolent World (FNVW)
FNVW Calls for Stopping the Bombing of Aleppo
It is time for all peace organizations to speak out clearly. We at FNVW since 2011 have supported both the Syrian nonviolent movement and nonviolent activists in their struggle for human rights and a democratic Syria for all Syrians without any group monopolizing power to impose its own agenda.
Throughout this struggle FNVW has opposed the United States as well as any other country or organization sending weapons and/or troops to any of the parties in the conflict. Friends for a NonViolent World affirmed that the United States must remain solely committed to diplomatic and humanitarian efforts to resolve this crisis. And we have been outspoken in our opposition to the extreme Salafist groups in the armed opposition and any party in the conflict who have committed crimes against humanity.
Both the Guardian and the New York Times document what has been happening in Aleppo.
“‘Hell itself’: Aleppo reels from alleged use of bunker-buster bombs”, The Guardian
“Why So Many Children Are Being Killed in Aleppo”, New York Times
We at FNVW unequivocally condemn the crimes against the Syrian people and crimes against humanity, Russia and the Assad regime are perpetrating in Aleppo. The intentional killing of civilians is a war crime. Putin’s and Assad’s brutal use of bunker busting bombs, thermobarbaric weapons, barrel bombs and phosphorus are resulting in devastating, unspeakable consequences for civilians. Government forces also have targeted the volunteer humanitarian group, the White Helmets, halting their rescue efforts.
The chart from the Violations Documentation Center in Syria answers the question of “Who kills civilians in Syria?”
These weapons do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Their goal is to terrorize into submission or displace people. The use of this lethal weaponry is immoral and contravenes international law.
FNVW calls on both the Russian and Syrian governments to immediately halt their air strikes and war crimes in Aleppo.
Author: Danny Postel
I'm a writer, editor, and researcher.
I'm currently Politics Editor of New Lines Magazine. Previously I was Assistant Director of the Center for International & Area Studies at Northwestern University and Associate Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver. I'm the author of Reading Legitimation Crisis in Tehran (Prickly Paradigm Press, 2006) and co-editor (with Nader Hashemi) of three books: The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future (Melville House, 2010), The Syria Dilemma (MIT Press, 2013), and Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East (Hurst/OUP, 2017).
My writing has appeared in The American Prospect, Boston Review, The Cairo Review of Global Affairs, Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory, Critical Inquiry, Dædalus (the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences), Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, the Deusto Journal of Human Rights, Dissent, Global Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Current Affairs, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, In These Times, Middle East Policy, Middle East Report (MERIP), The Nation, New Politics, the New York Times, The Progressive, Salmagundi, and the Washington Post, among other publications. My work has been translated into Arabic, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, and Spanish.
I taught English as a Foreign Language at St. Augustine College, the Latino Outreach Program of National Louis University, and the Howard Area Community Center (1993-1998), taught Spanish at St. Tarcissus Elementary School, now part of Pope Francis Global Academy (1995-1999), was an editor at Encyclopædia Britannica (1999-2001), a staff writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education (2001-2003), a visiting instructor in the journalism program at Columbia College Chicago (2004), Senior Editor of openDemocracy magazine (2004-2007), Communications Coordinator for the organization Interfaith Worker Justice (2007-2011), Editor of The Common Review, the magazine of the Great Books Foundation (2010-2011), and Communications Specialist for Stand Up! Chicago, a coalition of grassroots groups and labor unions in Chicago (2011-2012).
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