Syria Direct uncovers the reality of the US State Department’s “hotline” to report violations of the ceasefire in Syria, finding operators who struggle to understand Arabic and with “no idea what’s happening on the ground”:
On Saturday, the same day that the ceasefire went into effect in Syria, the US State Department established a hotline to record reported breaches of it.
Late Saturday night, Syria Direct reporter Osama Abu Zeid posted the following news item on his personal Facebook page: “Calm after [ceasefire] violations, with mortar shells fired on Aleppo, Homs, Telbisa, Latakia, Hama and Daraa.”
Fellow reporter Ammar Hamou replied on Facebook that the Americans had set up a hotline to report ceasefire breaches, but he did not have enough phone credit to call Washington DC. Reporter Orion Wilcox offered to call in and report it.
“I called at 12:45am Saturday morning, just 45 minutes into the ceasefire,” says Syria Direct reporter Wilcox.
“I didn’t expect an American to answer; he answered in English but switched to Arabic. I started telling him in Arabic about reports we were getting from Homs province of specific ceasefire violations.”
The person monitoring the hotline only asked where the incidents were happening.
“He’s really struggling and can’t understand me,” says Wilcox. “I’m like, why is this American guy on the phone who can’t speak Arabic? I’d give a detailed account of something happening in Homs province and he would listen and his answer was: ‘Homs.’ That’s it.”
Wilcox says he finally switched to English and asked the hotline monitor how he could effectively document events without understanding all the Arabic. The operator answered that other people were working the hotline, declined to comment further and hung up.
“We Don’t Think They Understood”
In an online statement Monday, US Special Envoy to Syria Michael Ratney said the CoH Coordination Team in Washington DC takes reports of violations “very seriously and follows up on each one,” adding that the “greater the specificity of these reports, the more useful they are for monitoring and follow up.”
Syria Direct interviewed activists on the ground who have attempted to file reports with the ceasefire hotline. Given the communication difficulties, at least one activist says he has given up on reporting alleged breaches to the State Department hotline.
“We attempted to call the [Department of State’s hotline], but we don’t think they understood what we were saying,” said Abu Odei al-Homsi, an activist with the Ceasefire Monitoring Center in the Homs countyside.
“Now we are calling the United Nations and the High Negotiations Coordinating Committee,” said al-Homsi, adding that the UN hotline is operated by a native Arabic speaker.
“We are mindful and working to address the difficulties that some have experienced when calling in to convey reports of violations in Arabic,” a State Department official told Syria Direct on Wednesday, adding that “we continue to develop and improve mechanisms to monitor the cessation of hostilities”.
The State Department on Tuesday called on “all parties” to continue reporting alleged violations.
Success “really does depend on all parties to report what they know, where they see it, and what they’re experiencing,” said State Department spokesman John Kirby.
“Over the last 24 hours [the State Department has] not been apprised of any claims of any additional violations of any significance.”
Syrians such as Salim a-Rihal from north Homs—an area that witnessed intense fighting and shelling on Tuesday—say that such statements point to a total lack of understanding in Washington.
“These statements show that America has no idea what’s happening on the ground in Syria,” said a-Rihal.
Syrian Village = “Land of Pepsi”
On Monday, Syria Direct’s Osama Abu Zeid called the hotline number advertised by the State Department’s Twitter account (1-202-736-7829) to report a series of Russian airstrikes on villages in southern Hama province earlier in the day.
The first State Department employee to answer the phone told Osama, in stilted Arabic, that he had the “wrong number” before disconnecting the line.
Osama redialed the same number, and another employee answered the call.
“Ok sir, I’m a Syrian journalist and I’d like to report a breach of the hudna [ceasefire] involving multiple airstrikes in the countryside south of Hama city—at the area where Hama governorate meets northern Homs province,” Osama said.
During the four-minute phone call, the operator struggled to ask basic questions regarding the incident.
At one point, when attempting to ask Osama if the strikes had resulted in any casualties, the operator instead said what appeared to be an accidental string of expletives.
Osama explained that local residents believed that Russian planes were responsible for the airstrikes based on the “intensity of the strikes” and the “number of planes” participating. Following this detailed explanation, the operator replied: “Russian.”
During the call Osama told the operator the name of the village (Hirbinifsah) four times and spelled it out.
However, when Osama asked whether the operator knew where the village was, he responded: “Yes, Harb Bebsi,” the latter being the word for “Pepsi” in Arabic.