Amnesty opens window into horrors of Syrian war in Argentina

In an impressive attempt to give a common man a glimpse of what the people of war-ravaged Syria are going through, Amnesty International has set up a ‘Syria Room' at a subway station in Argentine capital Buenos Aires.

A banner outside the installation along the corridors of the Carlos Pellegrini subway station, just below the city's Obelisk monument reads: "To understand what is happening in Syria, nothing better than being there for a minute."

Residents are invited into a simulated Syrian living room.

A motion sensor, then triggers an explosion using television screens, set up behind a window frame, giving the impression you are experiencing the blast.

The installation intends to create awareness of the plight of millions of people crippled by war.

Syria is experiencing one of the worst humanitarian tragedies in its history.

This crisis has forced more than half of the population to flee their homes and has devastated thousands of families.

There are currently over 60 million people worldwide who have been displaced from their homes.

A 36-year-old businessman, Julio Cesar Montenegro, said he couldn't imagine living in Syria at a time like this.

"You don't even think about it. You see it only on the news. To see it from an angle as though you were in the place is something that gets to you. It gets to you because, if you have children, just imagine to be in a place like that. It makes you feel bad," Montenegro said.

The opening of the exhibition coincided with the failure of a week-old Syrian ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia.

The agreement was the second ceasefire negotiated by Washington and Moscow this year in the hope of advancing a political end to a war now in its sixth year, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

A 27-year-old manager, Abel Gimenez, said he felt fear upon seeing the video.

"Fear, you feel very scared to see it through that window. The truth is it must be difficult to live like this, thank God it did not happen here," Gimenez said.

"We have simulated a living room, which could be any house in Syria and through the windows, we simulated using television screens, the reality seen from a house in Syria. You can see bombings, destruction and the consequences of these years of sustained civil war afflicting the country," added Amnesty International Argentina Director, Lea Tandeter.

The installation will be open to the general public until September 27.