Journalists' bodies leave Syria
The bodies of Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik, killed in shelling while trapped in Syria, left the country on board a French plane to Paris.
Poland’s Foreign Ministry said the bodies left Syria late last night. No other details were given.
Earlier, Syrian Red Crescent officials handed over the bodies to embassy officials. French ambassador Eric Chevallier received the body of Mr Remi Ochlik and a Polish diplomat received the remains of American Ms Colvin.
US interests in Syria are represented by Poland after the US closed its embassy in Damascus last month.
The bodies, in brown coffins placed on stretchers, were transferred outside the Assad hospital in Damascus and driven away in an ambulance. The journalists’ belongings were placed in black plastic bags.
Veteran correspondent Ms Colvin, 56, and Mr Ochlik, 28, a photojournalist, had sneaked into Syria illegally to get an eyewitness view of the government crackdown in the country, where thousands have been killed since a popular uprising began a year ago.
But they were trapped inside the besieged Baba Amr district of Homs, a target of heavy Syrian military shelling, and died on February 22. The attack also wounded Edith Bouvier of the daily Le Figaro and British photographer Paul Conroy.
Ms Bouvier and French photographer William Daniels, who was not injured but also had been trapped in Homs, arrived in France on Friday after being smuggled through tunnels and snow from Syria into Lebanon.
On Thursday, videos released by activists in Syria said Ms Colvin and Mr Ochlik were buried in Baba Amr. But the Syrian government said the bodies had been disinterred and the government would repatriate them.
On Friday evening, Red Cross spokesman Bijan Farnoudi said the organisation had been given the remains of Mr Ochlik and Ms Colvin and would take them to Damascus.
Later, Polish ambassador Michal Murkocinski and Mr Chevallier identified their bodies at a Damascus mortuary, according to Poland’s Foreign Ministry.
Polish diplomats, in consultation with the US, were trying to transport Ms Colvin’s body to the US as soon as possible, the ministry said.
Meanwhile China offered a proposal today to end the violence in Syria, calling for an immediate ceasefire and talks by all parties, but stood firm against any intervention by outside forces.
The proposal, released by the Foreign Ministry, comes as United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon is calling on Syrian president Bashar Assad’s government to allow immediate access to humanitarian workers amid the military crackdown against anti-government groups.
Beijing’s plan is part of renewed efforts by China to seize the diplomatic initiative after being roundly criticised by the US and others for joining Russia in vetoing a UN resolution. That plan similarly called for an end to hostilities, but Beijing feared it would open the door to intervention against Assad’s authoritarian government, as it had in Libya.
Saying “the situation in Syria remains grave”, the proposal calls for an immediate end to all violence, as well as humanitarian relief and negotiations among all parties mediated by the UN and the Arab League. At the same time, it rejects any outside interference, sanctions and attempts to replace the Syrian government.
“We oppose anyone interfering in Syria’s internal affairs under the pretext of ’humanitarian’ issues,” said the proposal from an unnamed “leading official” and posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website.
It later said: “China does not approve of armed interference or pushing for ’regime change’ in Syria and believes that use or threat of sanctions does not help to resolve the issue.”
Beijing is usually reluctant to authorise sanctions or intervention against another country, fearing the precedent may one day be used against China, with its authoritarian government.
