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Decomposition!

Over the last few weeks, the momentum has clearly shifted in favor of the rebels, and barring setbacks and surprises, the liberation of the north and south will be completed by the summer. The battle for Damascus will continue to pick up steam, then, all hell will break loose along the coast and in central Syria. The fragmentation continues.

 

Today’s Death Toll: 102 martyrs, including 4 women, 11 children and 14 under torture: 33 in Damascus and Suburbs, 27 in Homs most of them in Abel village, 14 in Aleppo, 11 in Idlib, 9 in Hama, 5 in Daraa, 1 in Lattakia, 1 in Raqqa and 1 in Deir Ezzor (LCCs).

Points of Random Shelling: 282 points. Aerial bombardment counted in 15 points. Scud bombing counted in 1 point. Shelling using Surface-to-Surface missiles counted in 1 point. Shelling using cluster bombs recorded in Sarmeen in Idlib. Thermobaric bombs recorded in Tabaqah in Raqah and Kafarzeta in Hama. Artillery shelling counted in 112 points. Mortar shelling counted in 88 points. Rocket shelling counted for 62 points on various parts of Syria (LCCs).

Clashes: 103. Successful rebel operations include the liberations of the last of the checkpoints at Yadouda town, Daraa, laying siege to the Military Battalion in west Alma town in Aleppo, liberating a number of loyalist positions in Seif Al-Dawleh neighborhood in Aleppo City, targeting a loyalist convoy near the town of Kafranboudeh, Hama, and pounding a snipers headquarters on the outskirts of Damascus City (LCCs).

 

News

Hard times for Syria’s rebels: top commander injured, PM rejected
The rebel Free Syrian Army’s Col. Riad al-Asaad was reportedly injured in a blast, while the Free Syrian Army rejected the political council’s appointment of Ghassan Hitto as provisional prime minister.

Syrian Rebels Hit Central Damascus Square With Mortar Shells Shelling in such central areas has panicked residents, who fear that Damascus, which has largely been spared the urban warfare that has devastated Syria’s other major cities, could be next. But so far, the government has managed to keep rebels from pushing deep into the capital. After mortar shells fell Sunday and Monday near the Sheraton, the downtown Damascus hotel that the United Nations uses as its Syria headquarters, the world body told its 800 Syrian employees to work from home for the time being, and evacuated half of its 100 non-Syrian employees to Beirut or Cairo, according to Martin Nesirky, the spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Mr. Nesirky said the steps were temporary and should not affect the distribution of humanitarian aid coordinated by the United Nations in Syria.

 

Special Reports

Just How Blind Are We In Syria? If Syria and the rest of the Middle East continue to deteriorate as they are, it’s time for a change up in American intelligence. Rather than parking thousands of intelligence officers in front of flat panel screens watching drone feeds, it’s time we to go back to old fashion intelligence collection: Go recruit a source to bring us a dozen car air filters from Aleppo. It could mean the difference between war and peace.

As Syria Bleeds, Lebanon Reels As the civil war in Syria has carried on, it has dragged more and more of Lebanon along with it. Terrified that it will lose its supply lines, Hezbollah has not been content to sit on the sidelines and watch Assad fall; its leaders have been sending fighters into Syria to fight for the Assad regime, actions that are supposed to be secret but that are widely known in Lebanon. That, in turn, has severely strained Hezbollah’s relations with other Lebanese, especially its Sunnis, who accuse Hezbollah of killing their brethren across the border. At least four hundred thousand Syrian refugees, most of them Sunnis, have gathered in Lebanon. The peace has held in Lebanon, but the Sunni anger is swelling.

Syria’s descent: the agony of Aleppo’s children For Aleppo’s children “blood has become like water”. Filmmaker Marcel Mettelsiefen has spent several weeks meeting children facing unimaginable horror as they work in a city hospital.

Syria’s ruined rebel city: Children play in smoking rubble of first liberated township as Assad vows to ‘cleanse’ country in civil war Raqqa is shaping up to be the best test case yet for how opposition fighters will administer territory amid western concerns over who will fill the vacuum if President Assad is ousted. But while the city’s new rulers try to govern, they are struggling with the same divisions that have hampered the rebel movement’s effectiveness throughout the fighting.

Karl Sharro: A Human Flood from the Baath State Despite the large numbers of refugees that have sought shelter in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey, the “human flood” tag isn’t innocent: the arrival of the refugees has been cynically exploited by local politicians keen to benefit from the resentment towards displaced Syrians. But there’s more behind this attitude than nationalism and xenophobia. There’s a traditional aversion in Levantine cities towards the rural hinterland and its inhabitants that is now feeding this misanthropic view of Syrian refugees. The Arab Times recently described fleeing Syrians as “rural mercenaries [who have been] recruited to fight against their country.”

If We Won’t Save Syria, Save the Syrians The most immediate problem is money—lots more to care for the increasing flow of internally displaced and refugees. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees told me he needs another $300 million to take care of the expected problem through June. But other UN humanitarian agencies dealing with the Syrian problem also need significant amounts of money to continue their activities.

Syria’s Shiites offer different picture of war The predominant narrative of the Syrian war is that of a tyrannical government largely run by members of a Shiite sect, the Alawites, brutalizing a people yearning for freedom. However, in the largely Shiite towns and villages of Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, people who have fled Syria tell a different story. They speak of an “ethnic cleansing” campaign carried out by rebels intent on creating an Islamic state run by Syria’s Sunni majority. In the face of rebel attacks, Shiites in dozens of villages just inside Syria have fled here to a part of Lebanon dominated by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, the villagers and Hezbollah representatives say. Those who have been displaced credit Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., with providing shelter and security.

My new paper, prepared for a briefing in Washington, D.C. that took place on January 15, 2013, is now out and is titled “Syria 2013: Rise of the Warlords.” It should be read in conjunction with my previous briefing “The Shredded Tapestry,” and my recent essay “The Creation of an Unbridgeable Divide.”

“Alawite Jihadism”
In the paragraphs below, Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi takes issue with my reference to “Alawite Jihadism,”:

Before proceeding further, one should dispense of Ammar Abdulhamid’s misleading term “Alawite Jihadism.” While Abdulhamid does explain that “Alawite Jihadism” did not develop as a “strictly religious phenomenon,” it implies that there is some kind of specific religious struggle behind the efforts of Alawites fighting for the Assad regime.

On the contrary, to the extent that pro-Assad Alawite fighters express any sentiment about religion, it is normally in the form of a non-religious bloodline identity, which often includes opposition to Islam, and not merely the Sunni form of it as Abdulhamid implies, though the anti-Sunni rhetoric is undeniable

In the most extreme manifestation, this can give rise to statements like ‘F— you and your prophet [Mohammed].’ A more subtle variation on the anti-Islamic hostility is to ask rhetorically, ‘Who is your God? Isn’t Bashar your God?’ The latter, as I have argued before, does not so much reflect actual worship of Assad (as Abdulhamid seems to think) as simple mockery of the fact that the deity the detainees worship is not saving them from torture and death.

Actually, the evidence for religious motivations on part of some Alawites is pretty evident. All one has to do is examine the words of the late Col. Ali Khuzzam, an Alawite officer who led the charge against protesters in Daraa in the early days of the revolution and took part in the attack on the neighborhood of Baba Amr less than a year later, to realize that for some Alawite, the religious dimension of this conflict is all too real. In accordance with the Colonel, the current conflict is but another episode of a religious war that has been going on for 1400 years.

But the Alawites for whom this conflict is religious are not the ones who fill pages the of Facebook with their views and complaints, they are the ones who are often dismissed and disdained by their fellow educated, urbanized and secular Alawites who loathe everything about the old ways, except for an occasional song by the likes of Ali Deek, and an occasional visit to relatives in some village desolate enough to appear “charming” and “idyllic” for the few days that they are willing to spend there.

Curses against “Allah” per se are not necessarily too sacrilegious for this multiply exploited segment of the Alawite community providing fodder to Assad’s war, nor it is an indication of a lack of piety, but an utterance against “Amir Al-Moumineen Ali,” now that’s where blasphemy lies. After all, “Allah” is the façade, “Ali” is the “essence.” To many of them, the cult of Assad is only a tad removed from being an official formal religion. The only reason it is not comes as a reflection of the Assads’ own disdain of traditional Alawite piety. Hafiz Al-Assad wanted to Sunnify the Alawites, his old brother Jamil sought a further integration with Twelver Shiism. Eventually, and after the showdown with opposition groups in the 1970s and 1980s, the benefits of traditional Alawite piety dawned upon them. Indeed, the 1990s witnessed a revival of traditional Alawite piety in rural areas and among these very susceptible segments, where the bulk of Alawite recruits for army and security services are derived. Few decades earlier, Salman Al-Murshid had a different attitude regarding traditional Alawite piety, and the result was a cult that survives to this very day: the breakaway Murshidi sect whose members play an active part in the current crackdown. After all, to them, the Sunnis literally killed their god on accusation of treason and blasphemy in 1946.

Of course, as I noted in my analysis, the struggle is not all about religion, it’s mostly about identity. A young Alawite militiaman needs not be religious in any sense to look at this conflict as a way of asserting his identity, defending it, and defending his existence, disdaining Sunnis, believe in the superiority of current Alawite worldview based at it is on resistance ideology, secularism, and with the arrival of Bashar Al-Assad, an alleged embrace of modernity. Hence, and while I do assert the religious dimension of the struggle for a growing number of Alawites, and I do assert the existence of an Assad cult as a phenomenon that has religious dimension to some Alawites, I described the prevalent general ethos among Alawite as an Alawite pride movement that combines secular and religious dimensions. I do not believe that this will be an ephemeral phenomenon. It is in fact just beginning.

As for Assad, should he indeed meet a violent death, I would not discount the possibility of witnessing actual formal sect emerging where he and his father play central roles. But even without such developments, the Assads will continue to play important roles in the Alawite pride phenomenon for decades to come. Assad’s “martyrdom,” even if viewed in secular terms, will add much depth and oomph to this phenomenon.

On a related note, should the current rumors regarding the assassination or attempted assassination of Assad prove true, then, the “prophecy” I made back in January would have been validated:

He [Bashar Al-Assad] seemed more like a placeholder of sorts, a person whose presence was necessary only until a new leadership structure has been quietly built in the background, most definitely under Iranian supervision, involving rising stars from within the Alawite community, be they members of military and security apparatuses, or leaders of various pro-Assad militias. The end result will be a new organization, building on elements from the Alawite Pride phenomenon – Shia beliefs, resistance ideology and the Assad cult of personality – and directly linked to and funded by Iran. Once this is accomplished, it would not matter how long it would take to drive the regime out of Damascus and into coastal holdouts. For one way or another, Iran will remain relevant and will have a sway over unfolding events. Once the new structure is consolidated, or is close to consolidation, Assad himself and perhaps some of his close advisers, might be seen as liabilities, and Assad as a martyr might just prove more relevant and useful to the cause of Alawite Pride than his continued survival. With his martyrdom, there will be no risk of him doing or saying anything that can jeopardize the movement and the new power structure.

So, the question is: are we there yet?

 

Video Highlights

Col. Riad Al-Ass’aad hours after his surgery and the removal of his right leg following the failed assassination attempt. Still under sedation, he keeps saying: “I want to die, I want to die.” The video and the pictures caused much dismay in opposition circles and generated much sympathy for the man who is no longer playing any pivoting role in the conduct of operation. This is not a blow to the rebel movement, by means, and it is not yet clear who was behind the attempt http://youtu.be/FWZkgvelC80 , http://youtu.be/MYwwSAaIj1E the attempt took place in the town of Mayadin, in Deir Ezzor Province, a town currently under the control of Jabhat Al-Nusra and her affiliates, as is much of Deir Ezzor and Raqqa provinces. But just recently the Colonel voiced his adamant support of Al-Nusra, it is not likely that its members will target him.

Meanwhile, the Military Revolutionary Council of Deir Ezzor conducted elections as part of its restructuring efforts: the new council is made up of defectors with Colonel rank as well as a number of civilian Jihadi leaders. The leader is Colonel Samer Sultan http://youtu.be/tn4HnpHEMXg

Rebels in northern parts of Damascus city target a building along the main highway connecting Damascus and Homs cities that they claim is used by pro-regime snipers http://youtu.be/gIBaE0v-7M8 , http://youtu.be/yEeIGaCz97M

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Syrian woman endure a significant burden of violations , on one hand and as all the Syrian people she shared men and Syrian all kind of violations made by Alassad troops , and in the other hand she also borne the pain of losing the man stand by her; when her husband and the father of her children get killed , arrested , or disappeared , She also endured the pain of losing her own kids , Not to mention that all the Syrian women without discrimination suffered from the crimes of torture , rape , abduction by Alassad troops

This reports lists five key facts :

1- Victim Mothers

2- Arrested , kidnapped and Raped Mothers

4- Widow mothers

5- Refugees mothers

7- Recommendations

 

First : victim Mothers

Alassad troops represented by Army , Shabiha , intelligence , since the Syrian uprising killed 7133 women documented by name , date , place , photos, and the way in which they murder ( shelling – breaking in – field executions, Among the victim women 2417 mothers including

– 138 more than 50 years old

– 8 teachers

– 6 in the medical field ( Physician and Pharmacist )

– Shockingly 7 mothers had been arrested and tortured to death in security branches cellars

please see all the details :

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Bj18tlYYKBZFI5MlBUUUcyNW8/edit?pli=1

 

Some of Alassad troops mothers victims :

1- Engineer Nada Al-Masry

She appears in the photo next to her son Abdullah Tarsha, they were killed by Syrian government forces on 27/1/2012 when an armored of Alassad military forces shot their vehicle.

http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/nada.jpg

http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/nada1.jpg

http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/nada3.jpg

2- Ms. Fatima Khosrf

She was killed with her newborn baby Abdul Majid Khalid AlKassim, when Syrian government forces shelled Al Bayada eastern village of Homs in 04/09/2012

http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/fatma.jpg

3- Two sisters, Alaa and Israa Tohma

Engineer Esra Tohma and her sister Alaa were killed in Bosra Asham, Dara by a sniper bullet of Alassad troops while they were passing the street on 11/18/2012.

http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/alaa.jpg

4- Razan Al-Qises

She died cause of the random shelling of Alassad troops on Bloudan, Damascus countryside . She was married and has two children that were wounded by shelling on 13/08/2012; one of them lost his foot ..

http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/razan.jpg

5- Grandmother Haja Rashida Al-Yaseen

She is the wife of the victim Mahmoud Alboiadana, mother of the victim Abdelwakel, grandmother of the victim Khaled, aunt of the victim Abu Hisham and mother of activist Abdul Hamid, she is from Baba Amr/ Homs and killed in 12/1/2011

http://syrianhr.org/Upload/savefiles/rshde.jpg

 

Second : The Arrested Mothers

Among 19400 detained person in Syrain , Alassad troops arrested or abducted at least 6405 women, including 430 mothers 200 of them enforced disappearance

According to the standard of enforced disappearances ” Enforced disappearance takes place when a person is arrested, detained, abducted or otherwise deprived of their liberty by government officials or by organized groups or private individuals whose actions are condoned by the government in some way.

This is applied to nearly 200 mothers most of them were abducted by gangs working for Alassad troops known as “Shabiha”. Most of the abducted women are from Homs, Lattakia and Damascus countryside.

Arrested women treated with no regard of human nature or humanity. They are systematically and violently tortured , many of them also have been raped by Alassad troops in prisons although officials gave rape orders in particular for beautiful girls ( according to a testimony of dissident solider )

Syrian Lady called Salma 28 years old – mother of four children ( three girls and one boy ) admitted with tragedy of being raped by Alassad troops in Sahl Alroj and Korine towns

Salma said that 36 ladies was raped when Alassad troops broke down those towns , she was crying bitterly .

As a prove of that SNHR documented 20 cases of women ( including 7 mothers ) killed under severe and systematic torture suffered in conditions that violate human rights and all the international laws in this regard

In this regard Following link : lists of all documented women tortured to death with their details as displayed in link :

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Bj18tlYYKBeGVaU0VNTnprYnc/edit?usp=sharing

Ladies in security branches had the worst times of detention , they exposed to tough treatments especially in the first days through investigations , it may takes week or even two months , if they are lucky they will be transferred to a prison where jailers continued intended policies to humiliate and violate their human dignity , prevented them from medical treatment , right of visiting , getting clothes , books , letters , newspapers and other basics rights

We should mention that there are only males in security branches ( detectives – guardians – nurses and prisoners ) they are all males

– In the ninth of February 2013, Mother Wafaa Alakla – 35 years old – arrested at Alassad army checkpoint with her three children (the older one is 14 years old ) and even the taxi driver who was carrying them , her husband was also arrested for a month and half and was released after investigating that he has no activity . He disappeared for a while and no one knows about him or Ms. Wafaa and her three kids anything at all making her family don’t know what to do .

– Alassad troops also arrested many ladies of society , Teachers , Old women and young girls , Now high class ladies and rural girls sharing the same penalties cause they decided to take a side against the Syrian government .

– – Mother Hanadi Faisal Alrifai – Daraa –arrested in 16-3-2012 ,for more that 7 months suffered within the cruelest ways of tortures physically and psychologically , in one charge only is to help one solider to get his mother , She tells stories about the suffering of girls who met them in prisons

– -Mother and Colleague student Adawia Hamad also arrested with six of colleague and held several months in one of the security branches in charge of formatting coordination in Raqa university , although her father is causes of Jasim Hamad –head of political security branch in Dier Alzoor , No one is able to know her destiny and her colleague even time

– Mother and Physician May Jandali – 50 Years old –arrested in Adraa prison since 7-11-2012 , she participated with first demonstration in 25-3-2011 from Umayyad mosque in Damascus , and participated also with women sit with many intellectuals and other women in Midan neighborhood in Damascus , she was arrested at checkpoint when she was coming back to home .

This was negatively reflected by the asylum and escape out of the country as the network statistics indicate that more than 70% of the refugees are women and children

 

Third : Widows

At least 54.000 women lost her husband since Syrian uprising two years ago , 40,000 of them are mothers

1. SNHR documented more than 35.000 married has been killed , leaving their wives widows

1. Enforced disappearance : almost 19.000 thousand married men among more than 60 thousand individuals are enforced disappearance , that led to 19000 women don’t know whether they are married or widows , is her husband a life or Alassad troops executed him , which make us back into time to 1982 in Hama , where at least 12000 married men disappeared and the city suffered for decades of this situation

 

Fourth : Refugee , half million women refugees in neighboring countries including 350.000 mother

SNHR estimates that’s more than 70% of the refugee are women and children , the main reason for leaving Syria is fear of rape and violation

SNHR statistics about refugee in neighborhood countries more than exceeded 1,4 million refugee in January 2013 , that’s mean we have almost one million women and children refugee in the neighboring countries

 

Fifth : Results and Recommendations

SNHR conclude that Alassad troops committed all types of abuse against of Syrian Women

1- Crimes against humanity , according to article 7 of ROME STATUE OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT :

( all terms of this article are grossly applied ) :

(f) Torture;

(g) Rape

(i) Enforced disappearance of persons;

(h) Persecution

 

2- Crimes against humanity , according to article 8 War Crimes of ROME STATUE OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT :

( all terms of this article are grossly applied ) :

(i) Willful killing;

(ii) Torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;

(iii) Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health

(iv) Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;

(vi) Willfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial;

(vii) Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement;

b) xxii) Committing rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, as defined in article 7, paragraph 2 (f), enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence also constituting a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions;

 

Recommendations

Immediate and urgent intervention to ensure the maintenance of security and civil peace and to stop the instantaneous violations against Syrian mothers

The United Nations and the Security Council to take their responsibilities towards the Syrian Mothers and pressure on the Syrian government to release thousands of detainees at full speed and bring the perpetrators of crimes to International Court Ganaúat

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الشبكة السورية لحقوق الإنسانSyrian Network for Human Rights 

https://www.facebook.com/syrianhr