Syria Watch

Syria Revolution Digest – Tuesday 30 October 2012

Too Little Too Late!

It is said that the U.S. is behind a new initiative to form a transitional government for Syria. American officials, we are told, are doing all they can to ensure inclusivity and adequate representation of all major communities and political groups, including an attempt to bring in as many representatives of the internal opposition as possible. But by now, the fragmentation of Syria is a done deal, warlordism is all the rage, and any national government will have to act as a government-in-exile for years to come. The old political class in Syria has become largely irrelevant to the processes unfolding in the country.

Tuesday October 30, 2012

Today’s Death toll: 163. The Breakdown: Toll includes 13 children and 7 women: 72 in Damascus and Suburbs, 50 in Idlib (most in the shelling of Maaret Al-Nouman and dozens in Saraqeb and Kafar Batekh), 13 in Aleppo, 12 in Homs, 7 in Daraa, 5 in Hama, 2 in Deir Ezzor and 2 in Lattakia (LCC).

News

Special Reports

The rebel hold on Maaret al-Numan has disrupted the regime’s ability to send supplies and reinforcements to Aleppo, where government forces have been bogged down since July in a bloody fight for control of Syria’s largest city. Rebel advances over the past week in Aleppo have added urgency to opening the route.

… over the last several months, according to U.S. officials and Syrian opposition figures, the State Department has worked to broaden its contacts inside the country, meeting with military commanders and representatives of local governance councils in a bid to bypass the fractious SNC… The new council is an attempt to change that dynamic. Dozens of Syrian leaders will meet in the Qatari capital, Doha, on Nov. 3 and hope to announce the new council as the legitimate representative of all the major Syrian opposition factions on Nov. 7, one day after the U.S. presidential election. The Obama administration sees the new council as a potential interim government that could negotiate with both the international community and the Syrian regime. The SNC will have a minority stake in the new body, but some opposition leaders are still skeptical that the effort will succeed.

Op-Eds

Jacques Bérès, combat zone field surgeon; Mario Bettati, professor emeritus of international law; André Glucksmann, philosopher; Bernard Kouchner, former minister; Bernard-Henri Lévy, philosopher, director of the review “La Règle du jeu”, member of the supervisory board of “Le Monde”: Enough Evasion, We Must Intervene in Syria!

It is precisely when one judges, as we do, that the dictatorship of the Assads is deservedly doomed and Islamist fundamentalism constitutes a major danger for the country’s future that the duty to protect is imperative. And related to and as imperative as this duty to protect is the duty to ensure the security of all elements, all the constituant minorities of the Syrian people. What is at stake goes beyond the fate of Syria.

Ammar Abdulhamid & Khawla Yusuf: The Shredded Tapestry: The State of Syria Today

Video Highlights

The pounding of Damascene suburbs continue: Hamouriyeh MiGs take part in the pounding http://youtu.be/uDaKbRKpMlg , http://youtu.be/LF17tIqp3M8Treating the wounded http://youtu.be/X8KS1M-5SYU ,http://youtu.be/D7fXJRnyfUg Kafar Batna http://youtu.be/GfVA2vdefI0 ,http://youtu.be/eKOY3xu-P5Y Ain Terma http://youtu.be/UipesebmnoU Harastapulling the dead rom under the rubble http://youtu.be/FeCpe8YW3po ,http://youtu.be/Ftz1MLQdgMA , http://youtu.be/Tu8AGsc62Jg  Buildings catch fire http://youtu.be/sP4B9jwQfOc Rescuing the woundedhttp://youtu.be/5cFGHtSnHqU Arbeen tanks take part in the poundinghttp://youtu.be/fXsY1kdG2S0  And MiGs http://youtu.be/_60cDg1l9iI Doumaimpact of pounding http://youtu.be/mBsYtRCT9i4 MiGs take part in the poundinghttp://youtu.be/83_00lXCRp8

Maraat Al-Nouman, Idlib Province, is pounded by TNT barrelshttp://youtu.be/0ZMIoQx0bJA , http://youtu.be/v_NHUYAu8oU

In an attempt to halt rebel advances in northern Lattakia, helicopter gunships are now taking part in the pounding of restive communities, including the town ofSalma http://youtu.be/y7ktFpgJF0c , http://youtu.be/CrsbLZTgHYs

Rights Groups Charge Syrian Forces of Using Cluster Bombs

By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria — On Sunday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) announced that new evidence emerged proving that the Syrian air force used cluster bombs near a main highway that runs through the town of Maaret Al Numan, where a major confrontation between Syrian and rebel forces recently took place.  Rescuers said that the attack killed at least 49 people, 23 of them were children.

Human Rights Watch recently said that Syrian forces shelled the town of Maaret Al-Numan with cluster bombs. (Photo Courtesy of Al Arabiya)

Medics and rescuers said that two housing complexes and a mosque, where many woman and children had taken refuge, were among the wreckage.  Among those killed is a 9 month old baby.

Non-governmental groups say that up to 40 percent of the bomblets failed to explode and that 98 percent of the victims are civilians, including children who mistake them for toys.

Rebels responded to airstrikes by opening fire from heavy machine guns mounted on pickup trucks.  One rebel said “[i]t doesn’t matter if we die.  We must shoot down these planes.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the air force’s targets included a rebel camp near the town of Wadi Deif, where there is a major storage facility for heavy armor and fuel.

The Observatory accused the military of also dropping cluster bombs on the town of Saraqeb, north of Maaret Al-Numan. The military has denied using cluster bombs, insisting that it does not possess them.

Syrian activists have posted videos online showing cluster munition remnants in and around towns located in the Northern governorate of Idlib, Homs governorate, and Lattakia governorate.  The bomb canisters show damage and wear markings produced by being mounted and dropped from aircrafts.  Residents from the towns of Taftanaz and Tamanea also confirmed to HRW that helicopters dropped cluster bombs on or near their towns on October 9.

One resident from the Taftanaz told HRW that Syrian forces had shelled the town for the past six weeks, and that on October 9, a helicopter “dropped a [bomb] and as it fell it broke into half and released smaller [bomblets]…”  The strike hit a field of olive trees near the local airport, no casualties were reported.  The resident also reported seeing around 30 unexploded bomblets after inspecting the site.

In Tamanea, one resident reported that around noon on October 9, a low flying helicopter “released a [bomb]… that split open between two schools, Intermediary and Elementary, very close to each other…”  The resident also said that “The [bomblets] that exploded were the ones that hit the ground on the tip; we collected the ones that didn’t explode, their tip didn’t touch the ground.”

Meanwhile, the Observatory reported that at least 130 people were killed nationwide on October 15, including three children, when the army shelled the town of Abu Kamal on the Iraqi border.

For further information, please see:

Gulf News — Cluster Bombs hit Town as Syria Envoy due — 19 October 2012

Al Arabiya — Damascus Denies Using Cluster Bombs as U.S. Urges Syria Neighbors to Survey Airspace — 16 October 2012

Human Rights Watch — Syria: New Evidence Military Dropped Cluster Bombs — 14 October 2012

Kuwait Times — Cluster Bombs hit Syrian Town – 49 die as Jets Hammer Rebel-Held Town

Syrian Revolution Digest – Saturday 20 October 2012

A Policy or A Eulogy?

 

Anymore delays and the world will have to come up with a eulogy for Syria rather than a policy. But even then, one’s still has to wade in blood to attend the burial ceremonies. The fact that the world has chosen to turn its back on us does not mean that it will not be sucked, back first, into the developing black-hole.

 

Saturday October 20, 2012

 

Today’s Death toll: 123. The Breakdown: Toll includes 6 women and 5 children: 67 in Damascus its Suburbs (including 14 in Saqba and 10 in Arbeen), 19 in Aleppo, 14 in Deir Ezzor, 9 in Homs, 7 in Idlib, 4 in Daraa, and 3 in Hama.(LCC)

 

Other Developments: LCC counted 70 points of indiscriminate shelling of civilian targets including 8 shelled by fighter jets, and 5 with TNT barrels. Meanwhile, the FSA reported clashing with loyalist forces in 14 locations, carrying out 7 operations against regime loyalist positions.

 

News

 

 

 

 

Special Reports

 

 

Locals in eastern Turkey, bearing the brunt of the fallout from Turkey’s involvement in Syria, believe Ankara is merely a pawn in US plans to foment conflict in the region.

 

Leading from the front against Assad, Hezbollah, and Iran, Wissam al-Hassan was an American ally.

 

 

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria has a long and tumultuous history of meddling into Lebanese affairs. For much of the past 30 years, the seven-times-smaller Lebanon has lived under Syrian military and political domination.

 

 

The blend of poverty, religious piety and anger could define the future of Aleppo, and perhaps the rest of Syria, if the rebels take over the country’s largest city, which is also its economic engine. They may be tempted to push their own version of Islam, which is more fundamentalist than what is found in the city. Their bitterness at the business class may prompt them to seek ways of redistributing the wealth.

 

 

THE government of Syria, trying to contain a rapidly expanding insurgency, has resorted to one of the dirty tricks of the modern battlefield: salting the ammunition of anti-government fighters with ordnance that explodes inside rebels’ weapons, often wounding and sometimes killing the fighters while destroying their hard-found arsenals.

 

 

Reporting from inside Syria is becoming increasingly difficult for foreign journalists. But all forms of media – particularly Syrian state TV – are strictly controlled to serve the interests of the regime, and Syria currently ranks 176th out of 179 countries in the International Press Freedom Index. BBC Monitoring’s Mike Linstead explains how social media sites are becoming the new battleground for control of news and information as pro-government and anti-government activists use the internet to get their side of the conflict across.

 

 

Syria as a nation-state is crumbling…. The United States and Europe, in partnership with key regional states, must play a larger part in stemming the increasingly dangerous dimensions of the Syrian conflict. The reluctance of the United States to pursue difficult – but likely more effective – policy options, as well as the obvious divisions within the international community, are making a bad situation worse. This paper puts forward five policy principles to help revitalize the partnership between Syrians fighting for change and their supporters in the international community.

 

Op-Ed

 

 

Assad’s aggression is an expression of his contempt not just for Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan but, in addition, the United States. He sees, on the one hand, Iran rallying all the members of its alliance network in the region (Hezbollah, Iraqi Shiite militants, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki) to prop him up and to isolate their common adversary, Turkey. On the other hand, Assad sees the US leaving its Turkish ally and the Syrian opposition alone in the cold.

 

Ammar Abdulhamid & Khawla Yusuf: The Shredded Tapestry: The State of Syria Today

 

Video Highlights

 

Leaked video shows pro-Assad militias celebrating around the burnt out remains of an activist from Douma Suburb, Damascus http://youtu.be/cpLoOqJOO20

 

Another leaked video, this one from Deir Ezzor City, shows how pro-Assad militias carry out their sweep operations, including intimidation of local civilians and random arrests http://youtu.be/bxXSeExN6Sk

 

A third leaked video shows a raid against a local field hospital. Pro-Assad militias interrogate and abuse the wounded asking to be shown where the guns are hidden. “Tell us where the guns are if you want to get out of here alive, otherwise you are all dead.” They focus their abuse especially on the man with a beard and a shaved moustache who is obviously a Salafi  http://youtu.be/t5T6usMTN8c

 

Sbeineh, Damascus: children among the dead http://youtu.be/RXOt5zbZiH0

 

Aleppo City: street battled continue in several locations: Salaheddinehttp://youtu.be/enPjkAKEa84

 

In Maraat Al-Nouman, Idlib Province: the pounding of the liberated city with fighter jets and TNT barrels continues http://youtu.be/Hgm9YSIPI0E

 

In Tal Abyad, Raqqah Province, a new Islamist fighting brigade is formed: The Grandchildren of the Prophet http://youtu.be/_Vh4MxVV2IA

 

Envoy to Syria Calls for Temporary Ceasefire; Fears of Crisis Spillover Loom

By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria — On Wednesday, Joint UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi called on pro-Assad forces and rebel fighters to arrange for a ceasefire next week, in recognition of the Islamic holiday of Eid Al-Adha, the day that marks the climax of the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.  Brahimi believes that doing so would constitute a “microscopic step that would alleviate Syrian sorrow temporarily and provide the basis for a longer truce.”

While in Beirut on Wednesday, UN-Arab League Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said that the crisis in Syria might spill over into the rest of the region. (Photo Courtesy of Reuters)

After admitting that solving the Syrian crisis is “a very, very difficult” process, Brahimi stated his belief that a ceasefire would have a small possibility of leading to permanent peace.  Rebel representatives assured him that they will recognize one if the government takes the first step.

“The Syrian people, on both sides, are burying some 100 people a day,”  he told assembled press after he finished speaking with Lebanese officials in Beirut.  “Can we not ask that this toll falls for this holiday? This will not be a happy holiday for the Syrians, but we should at least strive to make it less sad.”

Recent history shows that complications usually arise between the Syrian army and rebels in negotiating a short-term ceasefire.  Both sides have blatantly disregarded past truces to which they had verbally committed.  Syria has dismissed the current plan, saying that rebel forces lack the unified leadership necessary to sign the armistice.

Brahimi also mentioned that the Syrian conflict has the potential of spilling into the rest of Middle East, potentially setting off a massive powder keg of chaos.

“This crisis cannot remain confined within Syrian territory,” he said on Wednesday.  “Either it is solved, or it gets worse…and sets [the region] ablaze.”

Fears of a broader conflict stem from the fact that the Syrian conflict is a sectarian one, pitting Sunnis against Shi’ites.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who was in Istanbul on Sunday for talks with Turkish leaders, warned that “the danger of a massive spillover is on the rise.  And that it is in nobody’s interest, including Russia’s.”

On Tuesday, Nabil El-Arabi, chief of the Arab League, gave his support to Brahimi’s truce proposal and asked for international support.  Turkey and Iran also voiced their support for the proposal.  Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutolgu said that while Turkey supports a ceasefire, his country is skeptical about whether it would last without an international force in place to maintain it.

In a comment to a Turkish news agency, Davutolgu said “A ceasefire can be declared, but the international community would need to take certain measures for its sustainability.”

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera — UN Envoy Warns of Syria Crisis Spillover — 17 October 2012

CBS News — UN Syria Envoy Calls on Assad to Start Truce — 17 October 2012

Reuters — Syria Envoy says Bloodshed Could Engulf Middle East — 17 October 2012

Khaleej Times — UN Envoy Urges Syria Truce as Conflict Enters 20th Month — 15 October 2012

Fate of 11 Prisoners Sentenced to Death on Drug-Related Charges Unknown; International Community Should Not Relent Pressure Calling on the Islamic Republic of Iran to Halt Executions

16 October 2012 – Justice for Iran, Iran Human Rights and Iran Human Rights Documentation Center join to express their continuing concern about the fate of Saeed Sedighi and ten other individuals who have been sentenced to death by the Islamic Republic of Iran on drug-related charges and whose executions were scheduled to be carried out last week.

While international pressure, including a statement from UN Special Rapporteurs calling for a halt to the executions, seems to have at least temporarily prevented the implementation of the death sentences, the current whereabouts of these prisoners are unknown.

On Wednesday, October 10, the World Day against the Death Penalty, reports surfaced that Saeed Sedighi, Abbas Namaki, Mohammad Ali Rabiei, Hamid Rabiei, Ali Darvish, and six other individuals would be executed at Evin prison the following day.  The announcement followed joint action by several NGOs on World Day against the Death Penalty calling on the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and donor countries to cease funding the Islamic Republic of Iran’s anti-drug trafficking programs, which results inhundreds of executions of prisoners convicted on drug-related charges each year.

The executions were then postponed from Thursday, October 11 to Saturday, October 13 but due to efforts by NGOs to publicize the news of these executions, widespread media coverage of the executions including interviews with Sedighi’s mother and brother and timely international action from UN Special Rapporteurs, subsequent reports indicated that the executions were not carried out.

The efforts of NGOs, family members of the prisoners and the international community to bring attention to this issue should be commended.  While the imprisonment of political prisoners and other prisoners of conscience in Iran has previously been the focus of sustained international campaigns calling for their release, the campaign to halt the execution of the eleven prisoners marks the first time executions for drug-related offenses have been personalized, and that the profiles of the individuals involved has been elevated to a matter of significant international concern.

However the effort to halt the execution of these eleven prisoners is not over.  While it appears that the executions have at least temporarily been stayed, Majid Sedighi—the brother of Saeed Sedighi—who was just released after being detained last Thursday, October 11 for his interviews with Farsi media outlets that broadcast outside of Iran, indicates that the eleven prisoners, although not executed, are currently being held in Ward 7 of Evin prison.  No one has been in direct contact with the prisoners—family members have not been able to speak to their loved ones and lawyers have not had access.  With no official indication of the location and status of the eleven prisoners, they can be executed at any time.

In light of the above, Justice for Iran, Iran Human Rights and the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center call on relevant UN bodies, including the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the international community to intervene to save the lives of these eleven prisoners. Although the temporary stay of the executions is encouraging, the fate of these prisoners is far from definite—and the international community should not waver in its focus in calling for the immediate halt of these executions and a moratorium on the death penalty in Iran.

For further information please contact:

Shadi Sadr
Executive Director of Justice for Iran
Email: shadi.sadr@justiceforiran.org

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam
Spokesperson of Iran Human Rights
Email: mail@iranhr.net
Phone: +47 91742177

Gissou Nia
Executive Director
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
Email: gnia@iranhrdc.org
Phone: +1 203 654 9342