Syrians Mark Six Months of their Peaceful Revolution Against the Assad Dynasty Dictatorial Regime, September 15, 2011

Syrians Mark Six Months of their Peaceful Revolution Against the Assad Dynasty Dictatorial Regime

September 15, 2011

Syrians mark six months of revolt

Khaleej Times, (AFP) 15 September 2011, 12:18 PM 1/1 DAMASCUS —

Protesters vowed to hit the streets of Syria en masse on Thursday to mark six months since the start of an ant-regime uprising, undaunted by a brutal crackdown in which more than 2,600 people have died.

“Six months. More than ever determined to (continue) the March 15 uprising,” activists wrote on Facebook page The Syrian Revolution 2011, one of the main engines of the revolt.

The planned protests follow another day of killings, with human rights activists saying security forces shot dead eight people, including a child, in a huge sweep on Wednesday against anti-regime protesters in northwestern Syria.

Armed with heavy machine guns, the forces cut off roads leading to the Jabal al-Zawiya villages of Baliun, Marayan, Ihsem, Al Rami and Ablin, setting up checkpoints and arresting several people, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Four people were killed and dozens more wounded in the operation, it said, adding that 100 people were arrested including the family of Riad Al Assad, a soldier who defected.

Elsewhere, a child was killed when security forces opened fire to disperse a demonstration in the village of Janudiya near the Turkish border, while another three people were shot dead in the flashpoint central provinces Hama and Homs, the Observatory said.

Ablin is the hometown of Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Harmush, the first military officer to publicly declare his desertion in early June in protest against the repression of the protest movement.

He managed to leave Syria and had been leading the “Brigade of Free Officers,” a group of dozens of officers who have deserted the regime.

But according to opposition sources in Damascus, he was recently captured in Turkey by Syrian intelligence agents and brought back to Syria.

State television meanwhile announced that it would broadcast the colonel’s “confession” at 1730 GMT on Thursday.

A week ago, three other military defectors were killed in Ablin when security forces raided the home of Mohammed Harmush, the colonel’s brother, the Observatory said.

Mohammed Harmush was abducted during the raid and “his body was returned to his family,” said the Observatory’s head, Rami Abdel Rahman.

The United Nations estimates the Syrian government crackdown on protests has killed 2,600, mostly civilians, since March, while rights groups say thousands of people have been arrested in the crackdown.

Outside the violence-wracked country, Syrian dissidents were on Thursday to gather in Istanbul to unveil the makeup of a National Council set up to coordinate the struggle against Assad’s regime.

The council issued a statement after it was formed in the Turkish city on August 23 in which it rejected foreign intervention or the rule of any one ethnic group and emphasised the national character of the “revolution.”

“(The) coming together of all groups is a must despite all dangers. This delegation will bring different groups together,” the statement said.

Assad’s forces meanwhile have been accused of a “merciless” attack on a Red Crescent ambulance in the city of Homs on September 7, in a statement issued Wednesday by the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

In other violence, state news agency SANA reported a bus driver was ambushed in the city of Hama by an “armed terrorist group,” while five soldiers and a guard shot dead by a similar group were buried in Aleppo and Homs.

Damascus has consistently maintained the protests are the work of “armed gangs,” rejecting reports by Western embassies and human rights groups that the great majority of those killed have been unarmed civilians.

As international pressure mounts on Assad’s regime, including a raft of economic sanctions, Russia warned Wednesday that “terrorist organisations” could rise to power in Syria should Assad’s regime fall.

Syrian forces storm towns near Turkey border

Reuters) 15 September 2011, 7:58 AM AMMAN -

Dozens of tanks and hundreds of soldiers stormed towns and villages near Syria’s northwest border with Turkey on Wednesday, stepping up President Bashar al-Assad’s efforts to crush popular unrest and pursue army defectors, local activists said.

At least four villagers were killed by security forces and armed men loyal to Assad who fired machineguns randomly as they swept into at least 10 villages and towns in Jabal al-Zawiya from a nearby highway, after blocking access to the region and cutting off communications, the activists said.

“This is an initial death toll. Communication with the region is very difficult,” one activist said.

A protest demanding the removal of Assad broke out nevertheless in al-Janoudiya, a village in Jabal al-Zawiya, and a boy among the marchers was killed by troops who fired at the crowd, the Syrian Revolution General Commission, a grassroots activists’ organisation, said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in Britain, said at least 100 people were arrested in the campaign, including eight members of the family of Colonel Riyad al-Asa’ad, a defector, in collective punishment that has been applied regularly against the families of high ranking deserters and their hometowns.

Assad faces Western outrage and tougher rhetoric from Turkey but no UN Security Council action over a ferocious military campaign to stop a six-month uprising demanding political freedoms and an end to his family’s autocratic rule.

Support from Russia and China, which have oil concessions in Syria and want to limit the spread of Western influence in the Middle East, have helped frustrate a Western-led UN resolution for sanctions on Assad and the ruling hierarchy.

International rights groups, Western and Arab diplomats and local activists cite many more mass arrests in the last two weeks, including of wounded protesters in hospitals, more assassinations of street protest leaders, as well as more activists being reported tortured to death in prison.

Syrian authorities rarely comment on specific killings, but they have denied reports of suspected torture in the past and said arrests are only made in accordance with the constitution.

Northwest Assault, Turkey

In the northwest, the assault in Jabal al-Zawiya followed a major sweep this week on al-Ghab Plain, farmland to its south that has seen regular protests and serves as a supply line for army deserters.

At least 26 villagers have been killed by troops in the last 72 hours in al-Ghab, local activists said.

Most of the deserters, who are estimated to number in the hundreds, are from the Sunni Muslim rank and file, which is dominated by an officer corps from Syria’s minority Alawite sect, to which Assad and the ruling hierarchy belong.

Lacking an organised command and access to weapons to match Assad’s core forces, many of the deserters have tried to flee to Turkey, residents and local activists say.

Turkey has kept the border open with Syria and has not stopped thousands of refugees who have crossed into its territory to escape the intensifying military assaults on numerous villages and towns in the northwest.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has urged Assad repeatedly to end his crackdown on dissent but stopped short of echoing the United States and European Union in calling for Assad’s resignation.

The EU has imposed an embargo on Syria’s oil sector, possibly cutting off a major source of cash for Assad.

Rights campaigners said military attacks have killed hundreds of civilians in the last few weeks.

An adviser to Assad, on a visit to Moscow this week, said reports of mass civilian killings have been exaggerated by the media and that the only casualties were 700 soldiers and policemen killed by “terrorist groups” and a similar number of what she described as mutineers.

Arab and international rights groups said on Wednesday the Arab League should suspend Syria’s membership.

A statement by 176 groups, including New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the Arab League should support UN Security Council travel bans and freezing of assets, as well as enforce its own arms embargo.

“Citizens of the Arab world share the desire to see an end to the bloodshed in Syria and to see the Arab League act as the leading regional organization to protect and uphold the common values of the Arab world at this critical and historical moment,” they said in a letter to Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby.

Arab League says Syria bloodshed must end

(AFP) 14 September 2011, 11:03 PM DAMASCUS —

The Arab League on Tuesday demanded an end to the bloodshed in Syria, as activists there staged anti-Russia protests and a Western-led drive for UN sanctions over the regime’s deadly crackdown ran into new opposition from Moscow and Beijing.

The US and French ambassadors travelled to the Damascus district of Daraya on Tuesday to attend a condolence ceremony for slain Syrian activist Ghiyath Matar, who reportedly died under torture, activists said.

The activists also posted a brief clip on YouTube, showing the US envoy Robert Ford and his French counterpart Eric Chevallier sitting on chairs at a large ceremony.

Matar, a key player in organising protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, died in detention after being tortured, according to the international watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Demonstrators burned Russian flags in the flashpoint protest hubs of Homs in the centre and Daraa in the south in protest at Moscow’s support for President Bashar al-Assad, activists said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Syria could plunge into “civil war,” as he began in Egypt a tour of Arab countries where uprisings have ousted autocratic leaders.

He expressed frustration with Assad’s regime, with which he had built up close ties, for failing to “listen to the voice of the people.”

Syrian Protesters have been demanding democracy in almost daily demonstrations for six months, with the United Nations saying 2,600 people have been killed in the regime’s crackdown.

In Cairo, the Arab League called for “immediate change” in Syria.

“There must be an immediate change that leads to an end to the bloodshed and protection of the Syrian people from more violence and killings,” said a statement read out by Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, the chair of the meeting.

“The Syrian leadership must take urgent steps to implement the measures it agreed upon during the visit of the secretary general,” it said in reference to bloc chief Nabil al-Arabi who travelled Saturday to Damascus with a peace bid.

“We cannot accept this killing machine. We cannot allow people to be killed this way,” Sheikh Hamad said at a press conference after the meeting.

“The army must withdraw from inside the cities so that we can start talking about a dialogue between the people and the government,” he said.

“Do not support the killers,” activists urged Russia in a message announcing Tuesday’s action posted on The Syrian Revolution 2011, a Facebook page that has been a driving force behind the protest movement.

“We express our anger towards Russia and the Russian government. The regime will disappear but the people will live,” the activists added.

Moscow has blocked Western-led efforts at the UN Security Council to impose sanctions against the Syrian regime and is promoting a rival draft resolution that simply calls on the government and the opposition to open direct talks.

President Dmitry Medvedev defended the Russian position in talks in Moscow on Monday with British Prime Minister David Cameron even as the Syrian security forces pressed their deadly crackdown on dissent.

On Tuesday, police and troops again deployed in force, carrying out search and arrest operations in a string of towns, activists said.

One person was killed during searches in Deir Ezzor province in the northeast while five more were wounded when troops went house to house in Houla in Homs province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP in Cyprus.

Also in Homs, two people were reported dead, one of whom was kidnapped four days ago and whose corpse was handed to the family and a second succumbing to injuries suffered during security operations Saturday, the Observatory said.

In addition, at least 34 people were arrested in the town of Zabadani, 50 kilometres west of Damascus, where the army was deployed at dawn, according to the observatory and Local Coordination Committees (LCC ).

The security forces arrested more than 160 people in Idlib province near the Turkish border, and dozens more in Daraa, in satellite towns around the capital, and in the Mediterranean coastal towns of Latakia and Banias, the Britain-based watchdog said.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that, as of Monday, a total of 2,600 people had been killed in the Syrian government’s crackdown.

But senior Assad aide Bouthaina Shaaban said on a visit to Moscow that 1,400 people had died since the demonstrations erupted in mid-March — half of them security force personnel and half of them “rebels”.

Damascus has consistently maintained that the protests are the work of armed groups, rejecting the reports of Western embassies and human rights groups that the great majority of those killed have been unarmed civilians.

On Monday, the French foreign ministry said the UN Security Council’s inability to approve a tough resolution against Syria was “a scandal.”

But after talks in Beijing on Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe expressed disappointment that he had made little headway in persuading his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi to abandon its opposition to a sanctions resolution.

Cameron expressed similar disappointment after his talks with Medvedev in Moscow on Monday.

Erdogan warned in comments published on Tuesday that he feared Turkey’s southern neighbour could plunge into a sectarian civil war between its Sunni Muslim majority and Assad’s minority Alawite sect, which he said dominated top positions in the regime and manned its crack militias.

“The people’s anger is directed at them (the Alawite elite), not only because they are a tool of the government, but also because of their confession, and the Syrian regime is playing up this dangerous card,” he said in an interview published by Egypt’s independent Al-Shourouk newspaper.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu “will soon travel to Tehran to pursue consultations on the situation in Syria and after that I will visit Tehran to meet officials,” he said.

Syrians protest over Russian support for Assad

(AFP) 13 September 2011, 7:04 PM Syrian activists held “day of anger” protests against Russia on Tuesday as the UN sanctions over the regime’s crackdown ran into new opposition from Moscow and Beijing.

Demonstrators burned Russian flags in the flashpoint protest hubs of Homs in the centre and Daraa in the south in protest at Moscow’s support for President Bashar al-Assad, activists said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Syria could plunge into “civil war,” as he began in Egypt a tour of Arab countries where uprisings have ousted autocratic leaders.

He expressed frustration with Assad’s regime, with which he had built up close ties, for failing to “listen to the voice of the people,” who have been demanding democracy in almost daily protests for six months.

“We express our anger towards Russia and the Russian government. The regime will disappear but the people will live,” the activists added.

On Tuesday, police and troops again deployed in force, carrying out search and arrest operations in a string of towns, activists said.

On Monday, the security forces shot dead 23 people, 17 of them in and around the flashpoint central city of Hama, activists said.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that, as of Monday, a total of 2,600 people had been killed in the Syrian government’s crackdown.

France has been among those to have accused Assad’s regime of crimes against humanity in its crackdown. On Monday, the foreign ministry in Paris said the UN Security Council’s inability to approve a tough resolution against Syria was “a scandal.”

But after talks in Beijing on Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe acknowledged that he had made little headway in persuading his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi to abandon its opposition to a sanctions resolution.

Asked if he had the impression that China’s position had changed, Juppe said: “Not really.”

Cameron expressed similar disappointment after his talks with Medvedev in Moscow on Monday.

“Clearly, Britain would like to go further. We do not see a future for Assad,” he said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu “will soon travel to Tehran to pursue consultations on the situation in Syria and after that I will visit Tehran to meet officials,” he said.

Arab states seek end to violence in Syria (Reuters) 13 September 2011, 4:54 PM Arab League states want Syria to use dialogue, not arms, to address a five-month-old rebellion that regime has been trying to crush with tanks and troops.

In an opening address to an Arab foreign ministers’ meeting, Arab League chairman Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, the Qatari prime minister, also urged the international community to back a Palestinian bid for statehood, which Arabs will support at the United Nations this month.

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said he had agreed a series of measures with Assad on Saturday after a brief visit to Damascus, and would present them to the foreign ministers’ meeting in Cairo, called to discuss Syria and other Arab issues.

“We think the solution must come through ending the use of arms, putting an end to bloodshed and resorting to wisdom and dialogue,” Sheikh Hamad said.

Sheikh Hamad, who is also Qatar’s foreign minister, praised those in the international community who supported the Palestinian bid for statehood.

“We look forward to support for the state of Palestine’s request to go to the United Nations to win permanent membership,” he said.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Arab states had agreed to push for Palestinian membership of the United Nations despite a U.S. threat to block such a move.

“There is an Arab consensus to go to the United Nations to seek Palestine’s membership on the 1967 borders and with Jerusalem as its capital,” he said after a meeting of Arab states at the League late on Monday.

Arab league team

Arab foreign ministers — who began efforts in July to organise backing for the Palestinian bid — decided to set up a team comprising the Arab League head and six League members to further pursue the controversial application, due to be submitted when the U.N. General Assembly opens on Sept. 19.

Elaraby said Arab states were in contact with various parties to ensure widest recognition of a Palestinian state.

The Palestinians decided to seek U.N. recognition of statehood after years of negotiations with Israel failed to deliver the independent state they want to establish in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem — areas occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War.

The Palestinians currently hold U.N. observer status. Full member status would require approval in the Security Council, where Israel’s ally the United States says it will veto any such resolution.

Diplomats in New York have said it is not clear what the Palestinians will do at the U.N. General Assembly. They could seek lower status as a “non-member state”, which would require a simple majority of the 193-nation Assembly.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who was in Cairo for talks with Arab ministers on the Palestinian bid, said the European Union had not decided on a united position yet.

“There is no resolution on the table yet, so there is no position,” she said on Monday.

“We want to see a just and fair settlement, we want to see the people of Palestine and the people of Israel living side by side in peace and security, and I will do everything I can to help achieve that.”

At least 2,600 killed in Syria protests: UN

Reuters 12 September 2011, 1:20 PM 1/1

At least 2,600 people have been killed in Syria since pro-democracy protests broke out in March and President Bashar Al Assad sent in troops to crush the unrest, the UN said.

The death toll, 400 higher than earlier UN estimates, was based on “reliable sources on the ground,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who released the data.

The figures were almost twice the size of the Syrian government’s estimate.

Bouthaina Shaaban, one of Assad’s advisors, earlier on Monday said about 1,400 people had died — half of them police officers and half opposition activists.

Syria blames armed groups and “terrorists” for the violence and argues the security forces are defending public order.

“With regard to Syria, let me note that, according to reliable sources on the ground, the number of those killed since the onset of the unrest in mid-March 2011 in that country, has now reached at least 2,600,” Pillay told the 47-member UN Human Rights Council.

She did not identify the sources. Syria’s government has barred Pillay’s investigation team, and foreign journalists from entering the country.

Syria had also repeatedly blocked UN efforts to get human rights monitors into the country, UN humanitarian affairs chief Valerie Amos told reporters in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. .

Video and mobile phone images emerging from the country during the six months of arrest have appeared to show tanks and soldiers firing on unarmed protesters.

The UN Security Council has so far failed to agree on a resolution that would impose sanctions on Syria over the violence, largely due to resistance from Russia and China.

There has been no hint in the West of any appetite for military action along the lines of the NATO bombing that helped topple Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.

Syria has three times Libya’s population and has complicated ties with neighbours on the faultlines of mid-East conflicts.

After talks in Damascus with Assad, Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said they had agreed on a series of measures to help end the violence that he would present to member states.

The European Union and the United States have already imposed their own sanctions on Syria and are considering toughening them.

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