“I’ve since heard from someone else that I was crying ‘No, no, no, no, no’,” Winberg told me recently, speaking publicly for the first time about her partner’s death. “I grabbed a blanket because I wanted to cover him up. Propagandists exploited the confusion on the ground. Tue 10 Nov 2020 22.00 EST 05.15 EST In November 2019, James Le Mesurier, the British co-founder of the Syrian rescue group known as the White Helmets, … So Le Mesurier quit Ark, taking the project with him, and relocated to Turkey. Not far away, freighters laden with cargo carved white wakes through the grey waters of the Bosphorus. At the same time, footage of rescue missions undermined the regime’s narrative and humanised its victims. “It was not illegal, but it was shady,” al-Sukkar told me. By mid-2015, around 500,000 people had been killed in the conflict. “We could not find a single penny spent that was not justified, or could not be explained,” he added. Read more One transaction in particular had remained unresolved since the June audit, and was raised again by SMK in November: $50,000 in cash that Le Mesurier had withdrawn from the Mayday safe in July 2018, to support a mission to evacuate up to 400 White Helmets members and their families from southern Syria to Jordan. Emma Winberg’s tribute to her late husband, at her home in Amsterdam. Footage of babies being lifted alive from bombed-out buildings and children being carried out of the smoking ruins of homes cut through the public’s fatigue surrounding the war. A veteran of business in the Netherlands, Vrieswijk had made his name rescuing companies in financial trouble. From then on, I followed his story closely. As frontline humanitarians, they are protected by international humanitarian law. If you select ‘Yes’ then The Syria Campaign can keep you updated about the White Helmets and other ways to support Syrian civilians. The White Helmets Quotes. The work of the Syrian civilian rescuers seemed to be a perfect fit. Those who took the job in recent years were less invested than their predecessors in Britain’s work in Syria, a reality reflected by the anodyne statement and the length of time taken to produce it. Genres. Upstairs, Winberg was being swabbed by detectives, who were taking her fingerprints and DNA, and treating her as a murder suspect. The 62-year-old Dutchman had been called in to go through the accounts of Mayday Rescue, a foundation he knew nothing about, operating in a field he had no exposure to. An organisation funded by so many governments, each answerable to their own politicians, was complex enough. The White Helmets’ work soon earned global accolades. Also on rt.com White Helmets co-founder stole aid money destined for Syria – report It is also worth a reminder that the Dutch government had withdrawn funding from Mayday Rescue in 2018 following an extensive investigation that had concluded a lack of assurances that funds were not being hijacked by the armed groups in Syria, including Al Qaeda. I went 180 degrees on this. It was also providing rescue trucks, ambulances and digging equipment. The house echoed with a crippling loss. Winberg, a former British diplomat, arrived at Mayday’s Istanbul offices with work in mind. The White Helmets were established thanks to tens of millions of dollars in funding from the UK, US, and Qatari governments. From 2016, Scott Pelley reports on a Syrian civil defense organization called the White Helmets, a self-appointed, all-Syrian volunteer group of rescue workers. Members of the White Helmets search for survivors following an airstrike on a rebel-held neighbourhood on the outskirts of Damascus in 2016. rom the moment that Emma Winberg first sat down with Le Mesurier, their lives changed. “The core of the provocateurs was a fringe anti-imperialist community that existed for a while alone. Soon the work space was teeming with officials. British security specialist establishes White Helmets. Known for their distinctive headwear, the rescue workers operate in the most dangerous place on earth and have saved more than 100,000 lives over the past five years. From September 2015, when Russia entered the war to save Assad from defeat, bombing raids on civilian areas reached unprecedented levels. The White Helmets, as they became known, began using head-mounted cameras to record what was happening on the ground. The idea quickly grew. The forensic accounting firm Grant Thornton was retained in the week after Le Mesurier’s death. From: Witness Syria’s White Helmets. All around, Syria was unravelling – a disaster that followed the monumental failings of the joint US-British invasion of Iraq, which hung like a pall over Whitehall and Westminster. I thought this was going to be quite a challenge.” Eleveld told the Guardian that he did not recognise the description of the meeting, insisting he did not mention anything that wasn’t covered in the SMK minutes. On 8 November, after being presented with draft minutes of the meeting with the Dutch auditors, Le Mesurier, facing what he feared could be an unravelling of Mayday, chose to tackle what seemed to him to be a quick win: explaining the circumstances behind the $50,000 withdrawal and the decision to backdate a receipt. The White Helmets are a civilian search and rescue group that save people caught up in Russian and Syrian airstrikes. The film follows the daily operations of a group of volunteer rescue workers of the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets. They claim that they receive no funding from outside parties with a vested interest in Syria, but a quick glance at the finances tells a different story. This is a burden that affects us emotionally and it takes a tremendous effort to deal with.”. Some of the rescuers had sought help from a UAE-based humanitarian consultancy, Ark, which Le Mesurier was then working for. (Le Mesurier had, at the time of his death, been attempting to relocate Mayday Rescue from Istanbul to Amsterdam, hence the Dutch connection.) Worse still, the reputation of his foundation, and the White Helmets, appeared to be at stake. The past few weeks have been a strange whirlwind for the “White Helmets” team, marked by the news of their Oscar nomination and the signing of … In the areas under attack public services no longer functioned so groups of volunteers formed to provide emergency response in communities across Syria. The White Helmets is a 2016 British short documentary film. The smears even got an airing at the UN security council, via a panel put together by Moscow. In late January 2020, back in Turkey, Winberg received a call from her Turkish lawyer, who informed her that she was no longer being investigated for murder and she was free to leave for good. Contrary to the later claims, Winberg wore a £1,795 dress, a gift from her mother, who bought it from a secondhand shop in west London. As their work in Syria expanded, the group became one of the most scrutinised and vilified organisations in the world. By mid-March, he was starting to doubt the tales of fraud and self-enrichment that he had heard when he first arrived in Istanbul. A member of the White Helmets, also known as the Syrian civil defence, holds a child pulled from the rubble following an airstrike in Aleppo in 2016. Former bakers, tailors, engineers, pharmacists, painters, carpenters, students and many more professions besides, the White Helmets are volunteers from all walks of life. White Helmets. Their work has done what the world has failed to – restore hope to people who now know that, no matter what, there is someone there to help. As Syria’s peaceful revolution descended into conflict in late 2012, the Syrian government began dropping bombs on homes and neighbourhoods in areas outside of their control. Fighting for life in a vicious war, they were nominated, last year, for the Nobel Peace Prize. These self-organised groups would respond to the cries of their neighbours and friends trapped under the rubble. Since late 2013, Le Mesurier had been helping to coordinate teams of volunteers in north-western Syria, where most of those who opposed the country’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, were located. Members of the organization have been filmed and photographed carrying guns and waving Salafi-jihadist flags, and have even participated in numerous public executions of citizens in militant-held territory. Movie & TV guides. The White Helmets is led by a democratically-elected Leadership Council that represents teams across the country, headed by Raed al Saleh who was formerly the Head of the White Helmets in Idlib, northern Syria. Winberg packed up the house and moved to Amsterdam, where she remains, trying to pick up the pieces nearly a year on. There were delays in grant reporting, and headaches about sourcing equipment for the White Helmets and paying suppliers. In the end, it was obvious that neither Emma, nor James, or any of the staff had embezzled money. The White Helmets (2016) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Donations are securely processed and 100% of the money raised goes directly to the White Helmets. The White Helmets (Trailer) More Details. This assignment appeared to fit the bill. Every penny of donor funding needed to be accounted for, and there were concerns that Mayday did not have adequate systems and structures to keep tabs on its many funding streams and accounts. James, without knowing it, had woken an army,” said Eliot Higgins, the founder and CEO of Bellingcat, an investigative journalism organisation that has focused on Russian influence in Syria and elsewhere. When the protests began, the regime answered with force, torturing protesters and firing on demonstrations. They had become alarmed by an email sent by Le Mesurier in the days before his death, in which he raised several financial issues that had been flagged during a meeting with Eleveld and the audit firm. When this day comes the White Helmets want to play their part in rebuilding a Syria where everyone's rights are realised. On top of that, Mayday’s executive salaries had been higher than industry standards. The White Helmets were celebrated by film-makers, celebrities and global leaders. When the bombs rain down, the White Helmets (also known as the Syria Civil Defence) rush in. Photograph: Ameer Alhalbi/AFP/Getty Images, How Syria's disinformation wars destroyed the co-founder of the White Helmets, ust before sunrise in Istanbul on 11 November 2019, a determined thumping on her iron front door stirred Emma Winberg from a brief sleep. In a country where more than half of the population have been forced to flee their homes, the White Helmets want to help rebuild these homes and help rehouse families who want to return. The work of the White Helmets has expanded in response to the needs of the communities they serve, now providing essential services to millions of people. This website is built and managed by The Syria Campaign – an independent advocacy group dedicated to building support for Syria’s heroes. Are you happy to receive updates from the White Helmets and other urgent actions from The Syria Campaign to support civilians in Syria? The White Helmets work across the shattered interior of Syria, wherever Assad’s aircraft roll out barrel bombs or Russian fighters direct their missiles. They stemmed partly from the preliminary findings of an advisory assessment presented to Le Mesurier in November by the Dutch auditor SMK – in that fateful meeting four days before his death – which was later summarised in draft minutes. Soon, claims appeared online that the White Helmets had been infiltrated by al-Qaeda, which had supposedly seized on the group as a way to obtain foreign funds. “I work in a world where everything is under stress.”. As Winberg was trying to restart her life, Vrieswijk was making headway in the investigation of Mayday Rescue’s finances. The Netflix documentary, The White Helmets, won an Oscar the following year. Middle East ‘Massacre’ as rescue workers say 157 bombs kill 20 people in one day. So, too, had Winberg. “It gradually became obvious that these allegations could not be true,” he said. “I gave up on love,” he told me in November 2018. A former British Army officer who trained White Helmets volunteers in Syria and died in mysterious circumstances in Istanbul last year was not murdered in an … By November 2019, Le Mesurier was exhausted and emotionally frail. The organisation was nominated multiple times for the Nobel peace prize. In a wartorn country like Syria, where everything runs on cash, the lack of electronic records made old-school bookkeeping essential. It was March 2016, and Winberg had sought a meeting in Istanbul with a man to whom she had twice been briefly introduced to at garden parties, and had considered charming, and intense. Winberg stumbled down the staircase and opened the first of two security doors. Available to download. In September 2018, when I first met Le Mesurier, he talked about the growing burden and stress of the disinformation campaign. For several years, even under the relentless attacks of vested interests, it seemed Le Mesurier, Winberg and the White Helmets were managing to navigate the constant disinformation. “James wasn’t there,” she said. The directors never set foot in Syria. That he was ultimately felled by petty jealousy and grave injustice makes his loss even more absurdly painful.”. Working in Turkey was becoming fraught, as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government grew less tolerant of foreign NGOs, forcing some of them to close. I tried to get them to take the blanket to put it over him and they refused, and pushed me back upstairs. The White Helmets in Aleppo, Syria White Helmets When airstrikes rain down on rebel-held parts of Syria, a group of 3,000 civilian volunteers are usually the first to respond. In both meetings, Vrieswijk was presented with a series of concerns about Mayday’s finances. Eleveld was the sole board member at the time. All 3,200 of these like-minded individuals unite under one shared motto: ‘to save one life, is to save all of humanity’. In the face of this unprecedented threat, the White Helmets are stepping up once again to help those at risk. The autumn sun crept above the horizon. Documentary Films, Social & Cultural Docs, US Movies. Across town, at the White Helmets offices, employees were waking to the shocking news of Le Mesurier’s death. She hoped to convince Le Mesurier to help with a project raising teams of locals to safeguard communities above the Mosul dam, which engineers had feared might collapse. In November 2019, James Le Mesurier, the British co-founder of the Syrian rescue group, fell to his death in Istanbul. An audit was requested by the British Government’s then aid arm, the Department for International Development (DfID) in late 2018, and delivered in June 2019. Follow the Long Read on Twitter at @gdnlongread, and sign up to the long read weekly email here. We had chosen purpose over personal fulfilment. They married in the summer of 2018 in the stateliest hotel on the island of Büyükada, two hours from Istanbul by ferry. It is also the tale of how a foundation that ran one of the most successful collaborative aid interventions in recent times collapsed, and how, in his final days, Le Mesurier unravelled under the weight of claims that would later prove to be false. On 7 November, four days before he died, he sat with a new team of auditors for a fateful meeting. Idlib remains out of the Syrian leader’s control, its people caught in a kill box, bombed by warplanes from above and threatened by competing groups of fighters on the ground. Recent email from BBC producer reads as a stasi charge sheet, October 2020: Dear Vanessa Beeley, I am writing to inform you know that I will be broadcasting a series called ‘Mayday’ about James Le Mesurier and the White Helmets on BBC Radio … Over the course of a long corporate career, he had evolved into a finance version of Pulp Fiction’s Mr Wolf – a go-to guy who fixes the trickiest problems. Over the course of a long corporate career, he had evolved into a finance version of Pulp Fiction’s Mr Wolf – a go-to guy who fixes the trickiest problems. The White Helmets unveils the dangerous and life-saving work of a volunteer rescue group of the Syrian Civil Defence, working in opposition-controlled Syria including Aleppo.. Nicknamed the white helmets, the volunteer rescue group seeks to provide medical evacuation, essential service delivery, and search and rescue services in areas afflicted by bombing. She hoped to convince Le Mesurier to help with a project raising teams of locals to safeguard communities above the Mosul dam, which. “The world is suffering from a crisis of hope. Hounded by war, can Idlib's desperate civilians outrun final assault? Their lives became integrated in nearly every aspect, including the running of the foundation. “And that’s when I just knew.”, Winberg had slept briefly after an anxious night. In a conflict where too many have chosen violence, the White Helmets wake up every day to save the lives others are trying so hard to take. James Le Mesurier during training exercises in southern Turkey in 2015. hen Cornelis Vrieswijk arrived in Istanbul in the second week of January 2020, he had little idea of what to expect. The impact of his death cannot be measured, cannot be told. The White Helmets, meanwhile, have secured direct funding from the US, Canada and several European governments, and are continuing their work. Vrieswijk had been hired by Mayday Rescue’s chief financial officer, Johan Eleveld, at the urging of donors. 252 volunteers have been killed in the line of duty since 2013. Le Mesurier, who had served as a captain in the British army during the 1990s, would help train volunteer rescuers and secure international funding for their work. In Aleppo, the most important thing to remember is that all life is precious. If the White Helmets Aren’t Heroes, Then Who Are They? They have backgrounds in various avenues of life: some previously working as pharmacists, bakers, tailors, some even students (like myself). The new BBC podcast Mayday covers the life and death of James Le Mesurier, the former UK military officer who founded the group The White Helmets, which has operated extensively in Syria’s proxy war.. As she drifted off, at about 4.30am, she had seen her husband staring at her from near the bedroom window of their third-floor flat. The White Helmets is a volunteer organisation that operates in parts of opposition-controlled Syria and in Turkey. Formed in 2014 during the Syrian Civil War, the majority of the volunteers' activity in Syria consists of medical evacuation, urban search and rescuein response to bombing, evacuation of civilians from danger areas, and essential serv… No. Framed photos of Le Mesurier were all around. Representatives from donor countries travelled from all over the world to be there. While the June 2019 audit, conducted at the request of DfID, had recommended introducing more stringent accounting controls and tighter governance, there had been nothing to suggest that Mayday’s future might be at stake. The White Helmets unveils the dangerous and life-saving work of a volunteer rescue group of the Syrian Civil Defence, working in opposition-controlled Syria including Aleppo.. Nicknamed the white helmets, the volunteer rescue group seeks to provide medical evacuation, essential service delivery, and search and rescue services in areas afflicted by bombing. So did friends from the earlier incarnations of the couple’s lives, including officers from Le Mesurier’s 1993 class at Sandhurst, where he had won the Queen’s medal for leadership. The White Helmets have their roots in the 2011 popular uprising. “But it was always there. 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