Newcastle Supports Syria is an important opportunity for us to speak out

Newcastle Supports Syria is an important opportunity for us to speak out

9 November 2016

THE full horror of the humanitarian crisis in the Syrian city of Aleppo will be brought home to people in Newcastle this weekend.

Amnesty International will bring Aleppo to life with virtual reality headsets showing the devastation wrought by Syrian government barrel bombing of the besieged city.

Using specially-created 360-degree photography by Amnesty-trained Syrian media activists, visitors to Newcastle Community Cinema will be able to get a taste of life in the war-torn Syrian city.

Using the virtual reality headsets, people can place themselves in Aleppo’s rubble-strewn streets for a powerful and disturbing “immersive” experience. The 360-degree images capture the apocalyptic scenes after barrel bombing attacks in civilian areas. 

The initiative is part of the Newcastle Supports Syria campaign being held in the town over the coming days.

Amnesty volunteers will explain how Aleppo has been subjected to intensive bombing by thousands of highly indiscriminate barrel bomb munitions — fuel tanks or gas cylinders packed with explosives, fuel and shrapnel — thrown out of hovering Syrian government helicopters.

Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland Programme Director, Newcastle man Patrick Corrigan said the truly shocking virtual tour will transport people from Newcastle to the bombed-out streets of Aleppo.

“Newcastle Supports Syria is an important opportunity for us to speak out and do what we can to end the suffering there,” said Mr Corrigan. “That’s why we are bringing our VR headsets to Newcastle, to give people here an opportunity to see the world through the eyes of citizens of Aleppo.

“The barrel bombing of Aleppo is one of the great crimes of the 21st century. The more we can document the evidence, the more likely it is we’re eventually going to see people brought to justice for these terrible crimes.”

Amnesty is working closely with a group of Syrian media activists from Aleppo. In the aftermath of barrel bombings and other attacks, these citizen journalists have visited various attack scenes to document the aftermath and to create a long-term body of evidence of widespread human rights violations. Amnesty has helped train the activists in 360-degree photography and provided the group with 360-degree cameras.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has claimed government forces do not possess or use barrel bombs, though their use has been widely documented. 

Syrian human rights monitors claim that almost 20,000 barrel bombs have killed over 8,000 civilians in the past two years alone. In a report last year, Amnesty detailed the horrific damage done by Syrian government barrel bombing of Aleppo, where scores of people a month were being killed in the attacks, with schools, hospitals, mosques and crowded market places all hit.

The virtual reality event will take place at Newcastle Community Cinema on Friday and Saturday evening from 7-9pm. Patrick Corrigan will speak about the human rights crisis in Syria at Newcastle Community Cinema on Saturday at 7.30pm.