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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Families Flee Syria's Hama as Ban Says Killings 'Must Stop'

2011-07-08

[An Nahar] Around 100 families have decamped Syria's central city of Hama fearing a military crackdown on massive protests against the regime of President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... , a rights group said on Thursday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that about 1,000 people in total had left Hama, where it said Syrian troops had killed 23 civilians since Tuesday. U.N. Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said the killings must stop. "In Syria meanwhile, the killing continues. This must stop," Ban said in Geneva. "I call on the Syrian leadership to deliver on its commitments and to allow our U.N. humanitarian assessment team and the human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... fact-finding mission mandated by the Human Rights Council in. "It's time to see progress here. We cannot go on like this." The crowds leaving Hama were headed for Salamiyah, some 30 kilometers from Hama which is around 210 kilometers north of the capital Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... . Syrian authorities have been trying to quell protests in Hama, traditionally a center of opposition to central government, and had positioned tanks on the main entrances to the city except in the north. Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organization for Human Rights, said on Wednesday there had been a worsening of the security situation with the "pursuit of search operations, liquidations and arrests in this city." Hama has been a symbolic city of opposition since the 1982 crackdown on a revolt by the banned Moslem Brüderbund against then-president Hafez al-Assad, father of the present leader. Some 20,000 people were killed in the revolt. The newspaper Al-Watan, which is close to the regime, said on Thursday that the situation in Hama was calm and that barricades erected in the streets by protesters had been dismantled. It reported that the authorities had told demonstrators to avoid any confrontations and clear the streets so residents could go to work and to avoid what it called a "last resort" military operation. According to Al-Watan, the protesters were calling for the former governor to be reinstated, for jugged demonstrators to be freed, for a pledge that the security forces would not intervene and for a guarantee of freedom to demonstrate. Last Friday, an anti-regime rally brought out half a million people in Hama, according to freedom fighters. The security services did not intervene and the city's governor was fired the next day by presidential decree. Human rights activists said on Thursday that anti-regime demonstrations took place overnight in several towns in response to a number of pro-regime rallies held on Wednesday. The activists said thousands demonstrated in the northwest town of Idlib, at Harasta in the southwest and near the southern town of Daraa, while hundreds of protesters rallied in Saqba, a Damascus suburb. The army on Thursday slapped a curfew on Jebel Zawiya in the Idlib region, a focal point of the military sweep in which 300 people have been jugged in the past two days, the Syrian Observatory said. "The unannounced curfew imposed on the villages of Nasfara, Kfar Awaid, Kfar Ruma and Kfar Nubol prevented residents from meeting their needs," said activist Rami Abdul Rahman. "It also prevented farmers from doing their daily work," he added. Meanwhile, ...back at the sandwich shop, Caroline was experimenting with ingredients... residents of Hama and the central city of Homs staged a general strike ahead of Friday demonstrations, which activists have called under the theme of "no dialogue" with the regime, Abdul Rahman said. "Dialogue makes no sense if security forces do not pull out of the streets and the regime does not stop its violence against citizens," lawyer Anwar al-Bunni told Agence La Belle France Presse. Rights groups say that more than 1,300 civilians have been killed and 10,000 people tossed in the calaboose by security forces since mid-March.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syrian troops kill 22 in Hama

2011-07-07

[Emirates 24/7] Syrian troops killed at least 22 people in an assault on the flashpoint central city of Hama that prompted US calls for an immediate pullback, human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... activists said on Wednesday. Troops also maimed more than 80 people as they pushed through improvised roadblocks put up residents after massive anti-government protests in the city of some 800,000 people, the National Organisation for Human Rights said. "The maimed are being treated in two hospitals in Hama," the rights group's chairman Ammar Qurabi told AFP in Nicosia, adding that troops had entered the Al-Hurani hospital. "A large number of Hama residents have decamped either to the nearby town of Al-Salamiya or towards Damascus," ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... Qurabi said. London-based watchdog Amnesia Amnesty International accused the authorities of committing crimes against humanity in its deadly crackdown on the unprecedented anti-government protests that have swept the country since mid-March. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the body of one of those killed in Tuesday's assault had been dumped in the Orontes (Assi) river in Hama, which is famous for its ancient watermills. A 12-year-old boy was among three people killed by security forces on the outskirts of the city on Monday, activists contacted by telephone from Nicosia told AFP. "Residents have mobilised. They're prepared to die to defend the city if need be rather than allow the army to enter," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the London-based Syrian Observatory. "Residents have been sleeping on the streets and put up sand barriers and tyres to block any assault," he told AFP on Tuesday. Another activist insisted that Hama, where as many as 500,000 people erupted into the streets for a demonstration on Friday against President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... regime, was putting up a "100 percent peaceful" resistance. The US State Department urged the Syrian government to withdraw its troops from Hama and other cities, saying it too had no evidence that the protests had been anything other than peaceful. "We urge the government of Syria to immediately halt its intimidation and arrest campaign, to pull its security forces back from Hama and other cities, and to allow Syrians to express their opinions freely so that a genuine transition to democracy can take place," spokesperson Victoria Nuland said. She added Washington was "very concerned about the ongoing attacks against peaceful demonstrators in Syria." "The government of Syria claims that it's interested in dialogue at the same time that it is attacking and massing forces in Hama, where demonstrations have been nothing but peaceful." Since security forces bumped off 48 protesters in the city on June 3, Hama has beat feet the clutches of the regime, activists say. The next day, more than 100,000 mourners were reported to have taken part in their funerals. Hama was the scene of a 1982 bloodbath in which an estimated 20,000 people were killed when the army crushed an Islamist revolt against the rule of the president's predecessor and late father, Hafez al-Assad. On a visit to Soddy Arabia on Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague called on the Syrian president to make good on his repeated promises of reform. "I made clear my view that President Assad's proposals for reform need to be implemented quickly and fully if they are to be of any significance," Hague said after talks in the Red Sea city of Jeddah with his Saudi counterpart Prince Saud al-Faisal. He stressed "the importance of the Syrian government taking rapid and concrete action to stop the violence and change the situation." In a report released on Wednesday, Amnesty made allegations of torture, deaths in jug, and arbitrary detention during an assault by Syrian troops that lasted several days in May on Tall Kalakh, a protest centre near the Lebanese border. "Amnesia Amnesty International considers that crimes committed in Tall Kalakh amount to crimes against humanity," the watchdog, said calling on the UN Security Council to refer the allegations to prosecutors of the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... . "The accounts we have heard from witnesses to events in Tall Kalakh paint a deeply disturbing picture of systematic, targeted abuses to crush dissent," said Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa deputy director, Philip Luther. Human rights groups say that more than 1,300 civilians have been killed and thousands more jugged since the protests started nearly four month ago.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

7 protesters killed in Syria

2011-06-22

[Bangla Daily Star] Syrian security forces rubbed out seven people on Tuesday during festivities in two cities between President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... loyalists and protesters demanding his removal, a leading activist said. The violence followed rallies organised by authorities in several cities in support of Assad, whose 11-year rule has been challenged by a three-month popular uprising, prompting him to promise reforms on Monday, which were dismissed by protesters and world leaders as inadequate. Activists said people were killed when army and security forces intervened on the side of Assad's supporters in the city of Homs and the town of Mayadeen in the tribal Deir al-Zor province, 40 km (28 miles) east of the bustling provincial capital, near the border with Iraq's Sunni heartland. Ammar Qurabi, head of the Syrian National Organization for Human Rights, said Assad loyalists, known as shabbiha, shot at protesters in Homs, Hama and Mayadeen, killing at least seven civilians and wounding 10. "It is difficult to say who started first, but the army's armored personnel carriers drove through the (anti-Assad) demonstration firing at people. One is confirmed killed but seven more people suffered serious wounds," a resident of Mayadeen said. Two residents in Homs said security forces fired at protesters who had staged a demonstration to counter a pro-Assad rally backed by secret police and 'shabbiha'. Witnesses in Deraa said security forces opened fire to disperse several thousand protesters in the city's old quarter who erupted into the streets in reaction to a pro-government rally in the Mahatta area which they said employees and army forces in civilian clothes had been ordered to attend. Syria has barred most international journalists, making it difficult to verify accounts from activists and officials. The International Committee of the Red Thingy said Syria had agreed to give the humanitarian agency greater access to civilians and areas caught up in the conflict. SECOND AMNESTY State television showed tens of thousands of people in central Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... waving flags and pictures of Assad who announced an amnesty for people who committed crimes up until Monday, the day of his speech. It was the second amnesty to be announced in three weeks. After the first, authorities freed hundreds of political prisoners but rights groups say thousands still languish in jail and that hundreds more have since been placed in long-term storage in an escalating crackdown they say has killed 1,300 civilians in three months. Authorities say more than 200 police and security forces have been killed by armed gangs. Activists said that public workers were required to take part in the pro-Assad rallies under threat of dismissal from their jobs, along with the security police and their families. After Monday's speech, activists said Syrian forces extended their security sweep near the northern border with Turkey to the merchant city of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... . Central neighborhoods in Aleppo have been largely quiet, with a heavy security presence and the political and business alliance intact between Sunni business families and the ruling hierarchy from Syria's minority Alawite sect. Syria, a country of 20 million, is mainly Sunni, and the protests demanding political freedoms and an end to 41 years of Assad family rule have been biggest in mostly Sunni rural areas and towns and cities, as opposed to mixed areas. "Road blocks in Aleppo are noticeably more today, especially on roads leading north toward Turkey and toward the east. I saw military intelligence agents arrest two brothers in their 30s, apparently just because they were from Idlib," a resident of Aleppo, who owns an import business, told Rooters by phone. He was referring to the northwestern province where troops and tanks have been deployed in towns and villages for the past 10 days to quell protests, according to witnesses. ARRESTS Tens of students at Aleppo University were placed in long-term storage on Monday and 12 people, including a mosque preacher, were jugged in the nearby village of Tel Rifaat, halfway between Aleppo and the Turkish border, following protests, witnesses said. Protesters at the university had criticized Assad's speech, only his third since the uprising, inspired by protests across the Arab world that ousted rulers in Tunisia and Egypt. Speaking at Damascus University, Assad reiterated a commitment to "national dialogue" and promised new laws on the media and parliamentary elections but protesters denounced the speech and Washington demanded "action, not words" from Assad. The military assault has sent thousands of refugees streaming over the border into Turkey, which has become critical of Assad, having previously backed his drive to seek peace with Israel and improve relations with the United States. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... said on Tuesday it was right to press Damascus to end the violence but said interference in the country's affairs was not the solution. A veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, Russia has withheld support for a Western-drafted Council resolution condemning the violence in Syria. "Interference from outside does not by any means always lead to the resolution of a conflict," Putin told a news conference with his French counterpart Francois Fillon. La Belle France has been among the most vocal critics of Assad's actions. At the same time, Putin said, "there is no doubt that it is necessary to apply pressure on the leadership of any country where mass disorder and particularly bloodshed is occurring."

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syrian mutiny, loss of town shows cracks in regime

2011-06-09

[Beirut Daily Star: Region] A deadly mutiny of Syrian soldiers and loss of control over a tense northern town appeared to show extraordinary cracks in an autocratic regime that has long prided itself on its iron control. Details about the events in Jisr al-Shughour remained murky on Tuesday. The government said 120 forces were dead, without explaining the enormous loss of life, and acknowledged losing "intermittent" control of the area. But the reports Tuesday from residents and activists -- and the television appearance of a soldier who says he switched sides after his hometown was bombarded -- were the clearest sign yet that the weekly protests of thousands of Syrians are eroding President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... 's grip. Foreign Minister Alain Juppe of La Belle France, Syria's former colonial ruler with whom Assad maintained good relations, said the president had lost his legitimacy to rule. British foreign secretary William Hague said Assad must "reform or step aside." La Belle France, Britannia, Germany and Portugal have circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would condemn Syria for its killing and torture of peaceful protesters and demand an immediate end to the violence. But veto-wielding Russia has voiced opposition. Juppe told news hounds after a council meeting Tuesday on HIV/AIDS that it's "inconceivable" that the Security Council is remaining silent when repression in Syria is getting worse and massacres are increasing. Juppe said the resolution's supporters are waiting for as large a majority as possible in the 15-member council before bringing the resolution to a vote, "and I think it's a question of days, maybe hours." Unlike the early days of the rebellion in Libya, Assad has managed to keep his government together. On Tuesday, the network La Belle France 24 aired audio it said was of the Syrian ambassador to La Belle France issuing a stinging resignation; less than an hour later Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe? broadcast different audio of a woman's voice denying she had quit and threatening to sue the French network. It was not possible to reconcile the two accounts or contact Ambassador Lamia Shakkour. Activists and residents of Jisr al-Shughour told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that a number of soldiers joined forces with protesters after days of crackdowns in the region, leading to fighting with officers and security guards in which dozens were killed. The Jisr al-Shughour resident said people were fleeing the area for the Turkish border about 12 miles (20 kilometers) away, fearing retaliation from a regime known for ruthlessly crushing dissent. The government vowed Monday to respond "decisively" to the violence there. "People were struck by fear and panic after the government statements last night, it's clear they are preparing for a major massacre," he said. Radwan Ziadeh, a Syrian dissident and a visiting scholar at the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University, said the scale of the mutiny was unknown. Ziadeh said the Syrian army was a strong institution "but in the end, the army is from the people. The outrage over the killings is growing and the longer it goes on the more deserters we're going to see," he said. An alleged army deserter identifying himself as Lt. Abdul-Razzaq Tlass appeared on the Al-Jazeera television network Tuesday, saying he was deserting because of the regime's "crimes" all over the country. He called on other officers to protect protesters against the regime. "Remember your duties," added Tlass, who shares a last name with a former defense minister and said he was from the town of Rastan in central Syria. The name Tlass is common among Syrian officers from Rastan -- which has also come under deadly government bombardment in recent days. Jisr al-Shughour drew the most recent assault by Syria's military, whose nationwide crackdown on the revolt against Assad has left more than 1,300 Syrians dead, activists say. A resident said tensions began last week with snipers and security forces firing repeatedly on peaceful protests and then funerals, killing around 30 people. A resident said tensions began last week with snipers and security forces firing repeatedly on peaceful protests and then funerals, killing around 30 people. The resident said a number of soldiers ultimately defected, angered by the thuggish behavior of pro-government gunnies known as "Shabiha," a fearsome name that some believe has roots in the Arabic word for "ghost." The resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals, said the gunnies were terrorizing residents and trying to stir up sectarian tensions. Jisr al-Shughour is predominantly Sunni but there are Alawite and Christian villages in the area. The Alawite minority rules over Sunni majority in Syria. "There was heavy gunfire and very loud kabooms from across the river on Saturday and Sunday," he said, adding he could not see what was happening from where he lives. "We heard there were massacres, bodies thrown in the river." There have been sporadic reports since the uprising began of troops defecting and even reports of military units fighting each other, but if the government's toll is confirmed, this would by far be the deadliest mutiny. Assad's army has always been the regime's fiercest defender. In many ways, Syrians say, the Shabiha are more terrifying than the army and security forces, whose tactics include firing on protesters. Most Shabiha fighters belong to the minority Alawite sect, as do the Assad family and the ruling elite. This ensures the gunnies's loyalty, built on fears they will be persecuted if the Sunni majority gains the upper hand. A prominent activist outside Syria with connections to the area said many Syrians had taken to carrying weapons in response to the killings of protesters. But he said festivities over the past few days were mainly between supporters of the Moslem Brüderbund and Syrian security forces. He said the weapons were smuggled from Turkey. "The area is effectively outside the control of Syrian security forces now," he said. Jisr al-Shughour was a stronghold of the country's banned Moslem Brüderbund in the 1980s. Human rights groups said at least 42 civilians have been killed there since Saturday. Some activists also told of a mutiny, with a few soldiers switching sides and defending themselves against attacking security forces. Other reports said many Syrians also took up arms to defend themselves. A resident of Jisr al-Shughour who spoke from a nearby village where he decamped days ago scoffed at reports of armed resistance. "Since the 80s, residents of Jisr al-Shughour are banned from possessing any kind of weapons, even a hunting rifle," he said. "So how can there be armed resistance?" Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, said it was unclear how such a large number of officers were killed. He said the likely cause was army infighting but added there may be cases of individual residents rising up against troops to defend themselves. He blamed the government for not explaining: "The statements by officials are full of threats, rather than explanations." Turkish authorities said 35 Syrians maimed in the festivities were being treated Tuesday at Turkish hospitals after crossing the border from Jisr al-Shughour. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said 224 Syrians were sheltering at a camp near the border and authorities were taking measures in case of an influx of refugees. Syria's government has a history of violent retaliation against dissent, including a three-week bombing campaign against the city of Hama that crushed an uprising there in 1982. Jisr al-Shughour itself came under government shelling in 1980, with a reported 70 people killed.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syrian forces shell town kill 41

2011-06-03

[Dawn] Syrian forces killed 41 civilians in an effort to crush pro-democracy protests, a human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... lawyer said on Wednesday, as opposition leaders met in Turkey to plot the downfall of Syrian President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad. One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... Lawyer Razan Zaitouna told Rooters by telephone from Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... the 41 dead in Rastan included a four-year-old girl killed as government forces shelled the central town on Tuesday.Five of them were buried in Rastan on Wednesday, she said. Syrian forces also killed nine civilians on Tuesday in the town of Hirak, rights campaigner Ammar Qurabi said on Wednesday. The nine, among them three doctors, one dentist and an 11-year-old girl, were killed by snipers and during the storming of houses in Hirak, where tanks had deployed this week, Qurabi, who heads the Syrian Human Rights Organisation, told Rooters. Rights groups say 1,000 civilians have been killed as Assad seeks to crush a revolt which has turned into the gravest challenge to his 11-year rule. The severity of the crackdown has provoked international condemnation and sanctions. "The revolution inside Syria has declared 'the people want the overthrow of the regime'. We echo it. The price of the blood being shed can only be freedom," Abdelrazzaq Eid, a senior figure in the Damascus Declaration umbrella opposition group, told a conference in the Turkish coastal city of Antalya. The gathering is the first official meeting of activists and opposition figures in exile since protests erupted 10 weeks ago in Deraa, a poor, agricultural city in southern Syria. "The dictatorship has presented nothing to show a modicum of good intentions. It has lost any legitimacy by firing at and killing its own people," Eid said, to the applause of delegates. Syrian authorities blame gangs, backed by Islamists and foreign agitators, for the unrest and say more than 120 police and soldiers have been killed. The meeting in Turkey brought together a broad spectrum of opposition figures driven abroad over the last 30 years, from Islamists crushed in the 1980s, to fleeing Christians. A regional Middle East player, Assad has sought since succeeding his father in 2000 to maintain Syria as an ally of Iran and supporter of myrmidon groups Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Hezbullies while seeking better ties with the West and peace with Israel. But Assad's handling of the protests has triggered US and EU sanctions on members of the ruling hierarchy, including himself, after four years of detente with the West. Syria's backer Turkey has also begun to criticise Assad. "Sacrifices" Delegates in Turkey said an ultra-loyalist army controlled by Assad's brother Maher, and a security apparatus which has suppressed dissent for decades, were preventing Damascus and Syria's biggest city Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... from joining the demonstrations. But they said international pressure and a series of gruesome killings have turned Syrian public opinion against the 45-year-old leader, pointing to a slow but steady expansion of demonstrations, despite an intensified military crackdown. "I am afraid there will be more sacrifices before Assad goes, but this is the nature of revolutions," said Naim al-Salamat, a researcher who lives in Ireland. Thirteen-year-old Hamza al-Khatib has become a potent symbol to protesters after video of his bloodied corpse was posted on the Internet. Activists say he was tortured and killed by security forces. Syrian authorities deny he was tortured and say he was killed when armed gangs shot at government forces. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Timothy Pickering ... said she was "very concerned" about Khatib's case. "I think what that symbolises for many Syrians is the total collapse of any effort by the Syrian government to work with and listen to their own people," Clinton told a news conference. "I can only hope that this child did not die in vain." Assad has issued decrees aimed at appeasing public grievances. Opposition leaders say they would not change the nature of a repressive political system in which arbitrary arrests, beatings and torture of political detainees are common. State news agency SANA said on Wednesday Assad ordered the formation of a committee tasked with setting the framework for a national dialogue. On Tuesday he announced an amnesty for political prisoners, but rights campaigners said the decree had numerous exceptions, specifying reduced sentences for many cases rather than release. La Belle France said the amnesty had come too late. "The Syrian authorities' change of direction will have to be much clearer and more ambitious than a simple amnesty," La Belle France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told La Belle France Culture radio.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syria opposition to meet in Turkey

2011-05-25

NICOSIA — Syrian opposition leaders are to hold a conference in Turkey next week in support of two-month-old protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, one of the organisers told AFP on Tuesday. “The Syrian opposition will organise a conference in Antalya from May 31 to June 2 in support of the revolt in Syria and claims of the Syrian people,” Ammar Qurabi, president of the Egypt-based National Organisation of Human Rights, told AFP. The conference will be open to all supporters of the opposition, independent personalities and representatives of all faiths, he said, referring to a group of reformers who called for democratic changes in 2005 under a statement known as the Damascus Declaration. Since the outbreak of anti-government protests in mid-March, at least 1,062 people have been killed by Syrian security forces, according to Qurabi. He said 10,000 people were arrested during the protests against the autocratic regime of Assad, who succeeded his father Hafez in 2000.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syria denies existence of mass grave at Daraa

2011-05-18

[Dawn] Syrian authorities on Tuesday denied the existence of a mass grave in the southern town of Daraa, which the army had raided to put down anti-regime protests, while acknowledging that the bodies of five people had been found in the flashpoint town. "Faked! The pictures are fake! Those ain't dead guys! Those are zombies!" "This information is totally false," an interior ministry official told the state news agency, referring to reports about the mass grave. "These reports are part of a campaign of incitement and lies against Syria," the official added. The SANA agency, quoting a local official in Daraa, said five bodies had been discovered in the town on Sunday and that the local attorney general had launched a probe. It did not specify how the bodies were found or how the victims died. But rights activist Ammar Qurabi maintained his account of the existence of a mass grave in Daraa, at the heart of protests roiling the country for two months and virtually shut off from the outside world. Qurabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria, said the mass grave he spoke about on Monday had nothing to do with the five bodies discovered by authorities. "Two mass graves were found on Sunday in close proximity of each other," Qurabi told AFP by telephone. "One contained 24 corpses and the other seven corpses, including the five mentioned by authorities as well as an unidentified woman and her child." He identified the five victims as Abdel Razzaq Abazid and his four sons, in their 20s and 40s. Qurabi said his organisation was not accusing any party for the killings and urged authorities to launch a probe. Rami Abdel Rahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, challenged Qurabi's account and insisted that only one mass grave existed, containing the bodies of Abazid and his sons. "The five went missing from Daraa on April 25, as they were fleeing the army assault on the town for fear of arrest," Rahman said by telephone. "Family members were informed last Sunday by local residents of a foul smell emanating from a hilltop some 150 metres (yards) from his home," he added. "They discovered the bodies and alerted authorities." Rahman also urged authorities to set up an investigative commission. Syria has been roiled by unprecedented protests for two months that have threatened the authoritarian regime of President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad. One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... More than 850 people, including women and kiddies, have been killed in the unrest and at least 8,000 incarcerated, according to rights groups. The authoritarian regime has blamed the violence on "armed terrorist gangs" backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Rights Group: Mass Grave Discovered in Syria's Daraa

2011-05-17

[An Nahar] A mass grave was discovered on Monday in the southern Syrian town of Daraa, at the heart of protests roiling the country for two months and virtually shut off from the outside world, an activist told Agence La Belle France Presse by telephone. "The army today allowed residents to venture outside their homes for two hours a day," said Ammar Qurabi, of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria. "They discovered a mass grave in the old part of town but authorities immediately cordoned off the area to prevent residents from recovering the bodies, some of which they promised would be handed over later," he said on the phone from Cairo. Qurabi said the Syrian regime must bear full responsibility for the crimes committed against "unarmed" citizens and urged the international community and civil society to pressure it to stop the "brutal repression" of its people. He said he did not know how many people were buried in the mass grave.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Deaths reported as tanks shell Syrian cities

2011-05-13

[Al Jazeera] Nineteen people have reportedly been killed in shelling by tanks in residential areas in Syria as president Bashir al-Assad attempts to crush anti-government protests, defying calls for an end to the brutal crackdown. Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria, said 13 people were killed in the southern village of al-Harah on Wednesday. Tanks also shelled a residential district in Syria's third largest city Homs and at least five people were killed, a rights campaigner in the city said. A sixth person was killed by a sniper shot to the head as he stood in front of his house. Most were killed in shelling, but gunfire killed several of the victims, Qurabi said. "Homs is shaking with the sound of kabooms from tank shelling and heavy machine guns in the Bab Amr neighbourhood," Najati Tayara, a human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... campaigner, said. The official Syrian news agency ... and if you can't believe the Official Syrian News Agency who can you believe? said one soldier was killed while in "pursuit of armed terrorist gangs". Reports have also emerged that troops have deployed tanks around the central city of Hama, known for a bloody 1982 revolt which was crushed by government forces. It is not possible to independently verify information on casualties as Syria bars international media from reporting inside the country. Rights groups say about 800 people have been killed since protests began in March. Reports of the latest bloodshed came as the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, urged Syria to halt mass arrests and to heed calls for reform. Ban said UN humanitarian workers and human rights monitors must be allowed into Deraa, as well as other cities so as to assess the situation and needs of the civilian population. "I urge president Assad to heed the call of the people for reform and freedom and desist from the mass arrest of peaceful demonstrators, and to co-operate with the human rights monitors," Ban told a news conference in Geneva. "I am disappointed that the United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involve making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... has not been granted access yet to Deraa and other places," he added. Fresh sanctions Assad initially responded to the unrest, the most serious challenge to his 11-year grip on power, with promises of reform. He granted citizenship to stateless Kurds and last month lifted a 48-year state of emergency. But he also deployed the army to crush dissent, in Deraa, where demonstrations first erupted, and then in other cities, making clear he would not risk losing the tight control his family has held over Syria for the past 41 years. Activists said security forces used batons to disperse a pro-democracy demonstration by 2,000 students on Wednesday at a university campus in Syria's second largest city, Aleppo. ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as hicks... Amid the continuing turmoil, Catherine Ashton, the EU diplomacy chief, said on Wednesday that the bloc would look at fresh sanctions this week against Assad's regime after already honing in on his inner circle. Asked by members of the European Parliament to explain why Assad's name was not on a list of 13 Syrian officials targeted by European Union sanctions, Ashton said "we started with 13 people who were directly involved" in cracking down on protests. "We'll look at it again this week," she added. "I assure you that my intention is to put the maximum political pressure that we can on Syria." Speaking to the New York Times, ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... a powerful cousin of the president said the Assad family was not going to capitulate. "We will sit here. We call it a fight until the end... They should know when we suffer, we will not suffer alone," Rami Makhlouf, one of the 13 people targeted by additional sanctions, told the newspaper. Makhlouf, a tycoon in his early 40s who owns several monopolies, and his brother, a secret police chief, have been under specific US sanctions since 2007 for corruption. Demonstrators have shouted the name of Makhlouf as a symbol of graft in a country that has been facing severe water shortages and unemployment ranging from government estimates of 10 per cent to independent estimates of 25 per cent. Makhlouf maintains he is a businessman whose companies provide jobs for thousands of Syrians. Presidential adviser Bouthaina Shaaban told a New York Times correspondent, briefly allowed into the country, that the government was close to re-establishing order after unrest it blames on "armed terrorist groups". "Now we've passed the most dangerous moment... I hope we are witnessing the end of the story," Shaaban said. State-run TV said on Wednesday the government had formed a committee to come up with a new election law that would be "up to international standards".

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

US fixin' to get ready to make plans to hold meetings about calling for Assad to go

2011-05-12

[Arab News] The US is edging closer to calling for an end to the long rule of the Assad family in Syria. B.O. regime officials say the first step would be to declare for the first time that President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... has forfeited his legitimacy to rule. That would be a shift from US statements demanding that Assad stop a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters. Those stopped short of saying he had to go. On Tuesday, more tanks and troops rolled into southern villages Tuesday near the heart of Syria's anti-government uprising, with activists saying the regime has isolated parts of the country. A human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... group reported that more than 750 people have been killed in a crackdown on seven weeks of unrest. The military has been sealing off various areas of Syria and conducting house-to-house raids in search for people whose names are on wanted lists, with many fleeing cities and towns for fear of detention by the regime of President Bashir al-Assad, activists say. Intense military operations have taken place in the Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... suburb of Maadamiyeh, which has been sealed off for days, said human rights activist Mustafa Osso. He said communications have been cut and checkpoints were preventing anyone from entering or leaving the area. "Maadamiyeh is isolated from the rest of the world," Osso said. The army also was conducting operations in the coastal city of Banias, the central city of Homs and the northern city of Deir el-Zor, Osso said. "Any area where there are demonstrations, the government is sending the army," he said. Another activist said troops backed by tanks entered southern villages near Daraa, the city where the uprising began in mid-March. Heavy gunfire was heard when the troops entered Inkhil, Dael, Jassem, Sanamein and Nawa after midnight, but it was not clear if there were casualties, according to the activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals. Thousands of Syrians have been jugged in the past two months, including about 9,000 who are still in jug, said Ammar Qurabi, who heads the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria. Qurabi told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that the group has documented the deaths of 757 people. The corpse count has increased as authorities intensify their crackdown on the uprising, which poses the most serious challenge yet to the Assad family's 40-year rule in Syria. Assad has said Syria was immune from the pro-democracy movements sweeping the Arab world that ousted leaders in Tunisia and Egypt. Protests of his rule, however, have spread rapidly across the country of 23 million people.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syria blames 'armed gangs' for bus ambush

2011-05-10

[Al Jazeera] The Syrian government says 10 civilian workers have been killed by an "armed terrorist gang" in a bus ambush near the city of Homs. The official state news agency carried images of the bus that it said was returning from Leb on Sunday when it was attacked. The agency quoted a doctor at a hospital in Homs as saying the victims had been shot at close range. The authorities have blamed armed gangs backed by foreign powers for the violence during Syria's seven-week uprising against the authoritarian rule of president Bashir al-Assad. But human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... campaigners cast doubt on the incident near Homs, the country's third largest city, where army and security presence is heavy. They said scores of unarmed protesters, including a 12-year-old child, had been killed by security forces in the city, and that no independent observers were allowed to verify official accounts. Troops backed by tanks entered residential areas in Homs and Tafas, a town in the south, early on Sunday amid the sound of gunfire, activists said. Night rally attacked In the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, a witness said Syrian forces killed at least two unarmed demonstrators on Sunday when they opened fire on a night rally. "There are two bodies on the ground and no one can reach them. There is still gunfire and people are fleeing the scene," the witness told Rooters from the Old Airport district of the tribal city. Deir al-Zour, the centre of Syria's oil production, has been witnessing rallies that have attracted up to 4,000 people each night since security forces killed four pro-democracy protesters on Friday, residents said. Demonstrators earlier tore down a golden statue of Assad's elder brother, Basil, who had been the presumed heir to the former president, Hafez al-Assad. In the coastal city of Baniyas, two pro-democracy leaders and at least 250 people have been jugged since army units stormed the city on Saturday, a rights organisation said. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sheikh Anas Airout, the preacher at the city's main Rahman mosque, and prominent activist Bassam Sahyouni were seized by security forces. Rami Abdul-Rahman, the observatory's director, said a 10-year-old boy was also tossed in the slammer in what appeared to be a move designed to punish the child's parents. 'City of ghosts' "Baniyas is a city of ghosts today, it's empty and totally isolated from the rest of Syria," Ammar Qurabi of Syria's National Organisation for Human Rights said. "There's a de facto curfew and people are not going out," he said. Activists said four women were killed on Saturday as they were demonstrating along with 150 others on the main coastal highway from Marqab village, near Baniyas, calling for the release of detainees. In Deraa, the southern city where the military has been deployed for two weeks to quell unrest, security forces allowed people to come out for few hours on Sunday to buy essentials but then imposed a curfew, according to activists. Syrian authorities have banned foreign media from reporting from the country. As a result of these restrictions, Al Jizz cannot independently verify these figures. Meanwhile, ...back at the scene of the crime, Lieutenant Queeg had an idea... concerns remain for the welfare of Dorothy Parvaz, an Al Jizz journalist, who has not been heard from since she arrived in the capital, Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... , more than a week ago.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

More Than 70 Dead, Scores Hurt in Syria 'Good Friday' Demos

2011-04-23

[An Nahar] More than 70 people were killed by security forces during massive demonstrations on Friday across Syria, in one of the bloodiest days since pro-democracy protests erupted in mid-March, according to activists and human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... groups. "The Syrian security forces committed massacres in several towns and regions today, so far killing 72 people and wounding hundreds," said the London-based Syrian Human Rights Committee in a statement received by Agence La Belle France Presse. Several Syrian rights activists also published provisional lists recording the deaths of more than 70 people across the country on Friday. Facebook page The Syrian Revolution 2011 also reported that at least 70 protesters were killed in the demos, identifying 60 victims in the following areas: "Ezreh (Ihsan al-Halqi, Anwar al-Obeid, Nizar Suleiman, Taher Hariri, Sufian Hariri, Sufian Suleiman, Adel al-Tawfiq, Ibrahim al-Qallab, Bilal al-Shouha, Hussein Diab, Abdul Ghaffar Shehadeh, Qassem Assaad, Mohammed al-Jarad, Mohammed Ziab) "Hirak (Osama al-Hiraki), al-Maadamiyah (Abdul Menem Qarqoura, Mazen Qarqoura, Ahmed al-Sheikh, Suleiman Ibrahim, Ahmed al-Ghandour, Mahmoud Maatouq, Ahmed Maatouq, Diaa Hazzaa, Iyad Sawwan), Douma (Khaldoun al-Droubi, Mohammed al-Saour, Mohammed al-Deirawani, Salim al-Qallaa, Abdullah al-Qallaa, Baraza (Kamal Barakat) "Al-Hajar al-Asswad (Mohammed al-Hamzat, Yaman al-Agha, Mohammed Raad, Mohammed al-Agha, Issa al-Bahtari), Zamalka (Wael Oryeti, Ahmed al-Mamlouk, Ezzeddine al-Naddaf, Ahmed Jebara, Mohammed al-Fattal), Harasta (Ali Darwish, Mohammed Dakhilallah, Khaled Hammad) "Jobar (Omar al-Homsi), Homs (Fawwaz al-Haraki, Mutaz Rouba, Jaddou al-Omar, Ammar al-Salman, Ramez Anas, Sami Hasan, Mohammed al-Sheikh, Mohammed al-Kahil, Mahmoud al-Jouri, Abdul Rahman al-Qadi, Mohammed al-Mohammed, Radwan Lalou, Salem Bakkour, Alaa Orabi, a member of Harfoush family, a member of al-Tawil family." Earlier, witnesses and activists reported at least 38 people killed in one of the bloodiest days since pro-democracy protests erupted in Syria in mid-March. Dozens of people were also maimed when security forces opened fire with live rounds to disperse protesters who erupted into the streets in several cities in response to calls for "Good Friday" rallies, they said. Ammar Qurabi, chairman of the Syrian National Human Rights Organization, spoke to AFP of "49 deaths and 20 people reported missing." Rights activists and groups reported 15 killed at Ezreh in Daraa province south of the capital, hub of the anti-regime protests that erupted on March 15. They also reported 15 killed in the city of Homs in central Syria. They said another 30 people were killed in areas near Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... , and said the rest of the victims were killed in other towns. The official SANA news agency spoke of "eight dead and 20 maimed including members of the security forces in an attack by armed criminals in Ezreh," and "two coppers killed and 11 maimed in Homs and Damascus by gangs." The protests come despite decrees on Thursday by President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... scrapping nearly five decades of draconian emergency rule and abolishing state security courts that operated outside the normal judicial system to try people seen challenging the regime.

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