Few food or medicine suppliers -- given the sanctions' language, the meanings of which is uncertain even for their own lawyers, some of whom have declared it incomprehensible -- want to risk the wrath of the US Treasury Department and be slapped with severe penalties including very expensive fines by dealing with anyone in Syria.

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Despite the multifaceted crisis facing Syria and the Civilian-Targeting US Sanctions, Damascus University excels

Franklin Lamb

Damascus

 Students everywhere are special people and this observer has discovered that Syrian students are among the very best.

Meeting and interviewing students again this past week, before and
following a frank and enlightening discussion with Prof. Dr. Mohammad Amer
Al-Mardini, the indefatigable President of Damascus University, about the
situation of the students and current instruction at the University, one
cannot ,even as a foreigner, fail to feel pride in Syrian students.

Good meeting places, among others on campus, include "outdoor cafes" --
a "street student union' of sorts -- consisting of a few chairs and portable
tablets. They are scattered among the dozens of vendor stalls that line "DU
Boulevard" outside the main DU campus in central Damascus. Here students
can buy everything from school supplies to mobile phones to snacks. It's
a perfect place to meet and chat with students.

One learns from them about the many effects on the education system
in Syria of the US-led sanctions. Some argue that the Obama administration
actually fuels the current crisis with its sanctions and achieves the opposite
result of what the White House and its allies claim they are seeking.
These freewheeling discussions leave a foreigner with a reminder why this student body ranks among the best in the World.   How Damascus University has to date reacted to this crisis evidences the same status.

Currently there are more than 200,000 full-time and "open-learning' students at Damascus University, the 6th largest in the World. The core institutes of the University were established in 1901; they were the medicine and law institutes that formed the basis of the Syrian University that was established in 1923. In 1958, it got its current name, Damascus University when Aleppo University was established.

All of the students are feeling in effects of the Obama Administration's harsh civilian-targeting sanctions and many are increasingly in the cross-hairs of the "humanitarian sanctions which Washington and Brussels claim "exempt food, medicines and medical supplies" and therefore "should be considered humane."

Among DU Faculties most severely affected by the US-led sanctions are the
Science Departments and the Medical and Nursing schools according to
administration and student sources. Chemicals used in various science
classes, medicines and medical equipment cannot be found as before and if
some are brought in from Europe or elsewhere, the University often has to
pay four times the normal price.

Utah's Brigham Young University gained the respect and appreciation of
many in Syria for its shipments to DU's nursing school of medicines and
equipment and even "model doll babies" which in Syria are used in baby-care
classes. All are now banned by the US sanctions which claim to exempt
medical equipment and medicines.

Damascus University, with its 36 specialized faculties and five higher institutes is no banking-hours institution and its proven commitment is to give the highest possible quality education to as many students as possible. Syria's largest university is now open for classes 365 days a year minus a few holidays and a few short breaks for her professors and overworked staff, partly due to the increased number of students arriving from across Syria. The DU administration and faculty work with faculties in war zones to guarantee students can continue their studies without missing key exams required for semester advancement.   Still, about 20% of college level students are unable to attend due to transportation and displacement problems.

One direct and predictable severe impact of the US-led civilian-targeting sanctions in Syria is that they have essentially stranded approximately 700 Damascus University students in Europe and half a dozen in the US, forcing some to take leaves of absence and find jobs to survive. This is because, as is well known among the US Treasury Department "craftsmen" who devise the sanctions, these students are no longer able to receive funds from Damascus University to pay for their foreign tuition or   living expenses because the banking system is suffering from sanctions and money transfer are no longer possible. More than 1500 Syrian students from other institution of higher learning are similarly stranded as a direct result of the US-led sanctions.

Never the less, Damascus University keeps its commitment to pay the students their tuition fees and their living cost as they are on full scholarships.   Currently, parents must pick up the funds from the University accountant and find a way to transfer them.   Should they decide to send it via Western Union, for example, a new "sanctions surcharge" of 70 euros for every 1,000 euros sent, is demanded by WU and other money transfer agencies, suggesting another form of war profiteering.

To make things even more difficult for the students, foreign   universities which might consider lending their stranded Syrian students   tuition money or might even consider aiding them with scholarships or a   grant have been "chilled" and are backing-off because these institutions do   not want to be accused of "sanction-busting" by the US Treasury hound dogs.
Few food or medicine suppliers -- given the sanctions' language, the meanings of which is uncertain even for their own lawyers, some of whom have declared it incomprehensible -- want to risk the wrath of the US Treasury Department and be slapped with severe penalties including very expensive fines by dealing with anyone in Syria.

One of the US Treasury hound dogs is David Cohen, Under-Secretary for
Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. Late last month, Mr. Cohen made a trip
to the region (including Israel) to brief allies and businesses as well as NGO's
"to be sure the sanctions were biting hard" to use a favorite phase of UN
Ambassador Susan Rice. The Obama administration, reportedly frustrated by
the fact that its multi-tiered sanctions have failed to topple the governments
of Syria and Iran, has been attempting to find and plug loopholes in the
sanctions and are intensifying warnings to the international community not
to mess with the US Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) or
the Office of Financial Assets Control (OFAC) by getting all wobbly-kneed
and going soft on full sanction enforcement.

Meanwhile, Syria's Department of Education is joining the struggle to shield
Syria's education institutions and is being joined by various student
associations. To date, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education have not cut their substantial disbursements to schools and faculties. Tuition remains among the lowest in the world (almost free; 5 US $ a year with the current exchange rate) at Damascus University, which also provides free housing for 15,000 students. The DU administration is currently under pressure to find more dormitory space for those needing housing.

  Still, despite the conflict, even in Daraa near the Jordanian border where the current crisis started, DU's campus continues to function.

Many DU students are also volunteering with assisting Syrian primary
schools which urgently need their help. According to a December 2012
UNICEF education assessment of primary schools in Syria -- at least 2,400
schools have been damaged or destroyed, including 772 in Idlib (50 per cent
of the total), 300 in Aleppo and another 300 in Deraa.   Over 1,500 schools
are being used as shelters for displaced persons. The Damascus University
community has also taken on the humanitarian challenge of assisting sister
educational institutions that have been affected by the current crisis
including campuses in Homs, Deir al Zur and Aleppo, among others.

This observer has met several Damascus University students among the 9,000 volunteers,
including Palestinian refugees, who are donating their time working with the Syria Red Crescent Society (SARCS). Many DU students are also volunteering by assisting at primary schools.

The grim reality for Syrian families, hospitals, health care facilities and now
university students and educational institutions across the country is that the claimed "humanitarian" exemptions for food, medicine and medical equipment is little more than News-Speak.

Rather than target the people who represent Syria's future leaders, the
White House would do better to cancel its sanctions and send Secretary Kerry
to Damascus to meet face-to-face with the Syrian people and government
and demonstrate a real American interest in stopping the bloodshed.
Armored vehicles and assorted "non-lethal aid" to one side in this conflict
will only prolong the killing, as any student here will attest.

Authors Website: http://mealsforsyrianrefugeechildrenlebanon.com/

Authors Bio:

Since 2013, Professor Franklin P. Lamb has traveled extensively throughout Syria. His primary focus has been to document, photograph, research and hopefully help preserve the vast and irreplaceable archaeological sites and artifacts in Syria.

Like Iraq, Syria is the cradle of civilization, and as such it has been a rich source of our shared global culture and historic heritage. Already endangered from illegal excavation, looting, international trafficking and iconoclasm; the theft and destruction of these sites has greatly increased as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.

Many of the endangered archeological sites and artifacts are over 7,000 years old. The oldest remains found in Syria are from the Paleolithic era (c. 800,000 BCE). The most endangered artifacts and archaeological sites currently are in Tell Halaf, the north of Syria near the Turkish border with Syria. These archaeological sites date as far back as 5,500 BCE. They include archeological sites and artifacts of the Babylonian, Sumerian, Egyptian, Assyrian, Phoenician, Aramaic, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, Ayyubid and Ottoman civilizations and empires.

Professor Franklin Lamb has also been working, sometimes under dangerous circumstances, to record and photograph the war damage done to religious icons, images, monuments, and ancient structures that span pre-Roman civilizations, and structures such as Islamic mosques, Christian churches and Jewish synagogues.

Professor Lamb is working tirelessly to record and photograph these sites and artifacts because they are in danger of complete destruction for religious, political and illegal trafficking reasons, especially due to the ongoing wars in the Middle East.

Professor Franklin Lamb's website and his latest book, "Syria's Endangered Heritage, an International Responsibility to Preserve and Protect" presents exclusive and never published before photographs, records, data, articles, and interviews from across the whole of Syria. His book can be purchased at his website http://www.syrian-heritage.com/.

In addition to Dr. Lamb's urgent archaeological work he is also deeply committed to rescuing and aiding refugee children in Syria. He is a volunteer with the Lebanon, France, and USA based "Meals for Syrian Refugee Children, Lebanon (MSRCL)", which seeks to provide hot nutritional meals to Syrian and other refugee children.

Lamb says that the goal of MSRCL is to be able to provide one meal a day to 500 children. More donors are needed in order for him to reach that goal. At $2.25 per meal x 500 children per day ($1,225), the budget for a month (30 days) requires approximately $36,000. Over 95% of each donation goes directly towards the cost of each meal. The MSCRL volunteer teams give their time, energy and even their own money to help the refugee children so that they will not become part of the "lost generation" of Syria.

Lamb's books and publications include "Pollution as a Problem of International Law"; "International Legal Responsibility for the Sabra Shatila Massacre"; "Israel's 1982 War in Lebanon: Eyewitness Chronicles of the Invasion and Occupation", "The Price We Pay: A Quarter Century of Israel's Use of American Weapons against Civilians in Lebanon in addition to the three volume set, "Palestine, Lebanon & Syria Palestine, Lebanon & Syria (Commentary and Analysis 2006-2016)." Due out during Fall 2016, in English and Arabic, is "The Case for Palestinian Civil Rights in Lebanon: Why the Resistance Sleeps."

Dr. Lamb's most recent book is "Syria's Endangered Heritage: An International Responsibility to Preserve and Protect". www.Syrian-heritage.com

Lamb's Academic Credentials include: BA, and Law Degrees from Boston University, Master of Law (LLM) Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy from the London School of Economics (LSE); Diploma in International Air & Space Law from the University College of London; Post-Doctoral Studies at Harvard University Law School of East Asian Legal Studies Center, specializing in Chinese Law; International Legal Studies at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Studied Public International Law at The Hague Academy of international Law, at the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, Netherlands.

Lamb's Professional and Political Activities include Assistant Professor of International Law, Northwestern College of Law, Portland, Oregon and Assistant Counsel to the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, During the Administration of President Jimmy Carter, Lamb was elected for a four year term to the Democratic National Committee, representing the state of Oregon. Lamb served on the Democratic National Committee Judicial Council with California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi as well as the Platform Committee on East-West Relations. Professor Lamb served on the presidential campaign staff for Presidential Candidate Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.