Damascus, SANA – Foreign and Expatriates Ministry sent a letter to the UN Under-Secretary-General Stephen O’Brien on Saturday responding to the latter’s “misleading” statement on the Syrian government’s recent evacuation of civilians from Daraya city in Damascus Countryside.

The Ministry said in its letter that the statement issued by O’Brien’s stirred reaction in Syria, and especially among the civilians who were saved from the hell of the armed terrorist organizations in Daraya.

It added that O’Brien’s statements indicate his lack of knowledge about the situation in Daraya or that he has been mislead by some on the reality of what was done there.

The Ministry found it odd that O’Brien would repeat in his statements what was stated by the routed militants or by the sides which saw in what happened in Daraya their defeat.

The Foreign and Expatriates Ministry underscored in its letter that some officials in the UN General Secretariat, along with the international public opinion, are being subjected to unprecedented attempts of disinformation on what is happening in Syria in general.

This misleading was clear through O’Brien’s office claiming that over 4000 civilians had been there in Daraya, when the right number was only 492, according to the letter.

Commenting on the talk in O’Brien’s statements which claimed that some of the people in Daraya had been having grass for food, the letter said “the blame for that, if it was true and not part of the propaganda, lies not with the Syrian government, but with the terrorists whom you have exonerated of all the crimes they committed in Daraya to defame the Syrian government.”

The letter reiterated that the civilians who left Daraya were 492 men, women and children, while the gunmen numbered 1200, along with their families, stressing that those who were evacuated from Daraya were all in good health condition, which could have been verified by O’Brien’s office in Syria.

And that being the case, “the humanitarian aid that had been sent to the 4000 civilians you claimed were present in Daraya was actually being sent, as we later found, to the terrorists and criminals there, just like in other Syrian cities,” said the letter.

H. Said