Opinion Editorials, June 2011

Brutalized people asked for freedom and dignity,

Butcher of Syria responded with barbarity and genocide

Bashar al Assad, hailing from a family of butchers who massacre their own people, has turned Syria into a slaughter house. This is happening under the watchful eyes of champions of freedom, democracy and human rights in Washington, London, Paris and the United Nations. They all failed to stop the carnage.

It is sheer barbarism. This is how one could describe the  savage atrocities unleashed by  Assad  and his brother Maher whose  armed forces  thugs  killed ,up to mid June, more than 1500 unarmed innocent civilians and detained more than 10,000 who are subjected to medieval style torture and brutalities. Thousands started fleeing to refugee camps in bordering Turkey to escape Assad’s chilling atrocities.  

People ,predominantly Sunni Muslims, only asked   peaceful  political reforms ensuring freedom , dignity and  end   to arbitrarily arrests,  indefinite detention, torture and even killing with impunity.

However Assad’s response was unparallel barbarity to crush peaceful demonstrations. At the early stage people wanted political reforms, but the regime’s fascist  attitude made them boldly demand the removal of the  fossilized regime

In Syria Sunni Muslims, around 75 percent of the population lives as virtual salves while little more than seven percent Alawites, offshoot of Shia sect, rule the country with brute force. Assad, an Alawite, uses repression to remain in power.    

The merciless torture and killing of 13 year old Hamza al-Khateeb by the government forces shocked peace loving people worldwide. Hamza was arrested during a peaceful demonstration on April 29. A month passed by his family was not aware of his where about. On Tuesday 24 May Hamza’s horribly tortured, mutilated and castrated corpse riddled with bullet holes and burn marks, was returned to his family. 

There were bruises and burns to his feet, elbows, face and knees, consistent with the use of electric shock devices and of being whipped with cable.His eyes  were swollen and black and with identical bullet wounds where he had apparently been shot through both arms, the bullets tearing a hole in his sides and lodging in his belly.On Hamza's chest was a deep dark burn mark. His neck was broken and his penis cut off.

The brutality was such that relatives showed only Hamza's face to his mother  ," said the cousin”  ."We tried to tell the father not to look at the body, but he fainted when he saw Hamza's body.    

It was Assad’s brother Maher who is spearheading this carnage to frighten and silence peaceful demonstrators in the footsteps of their equally brutal and savage     father Hafiz Al Assad and uncle Refat Al Assad. 

Killing Sunni Muslims has been popular sport for the atheist Assad family.

Under  a secret deal with Israel Hafiz Al Assad massacred around 30,000 Palestinian refugees at Tel Al Zatar   camp in Lebanon in 1976.Four years earlier Hafiz Al Assad   decimated the entire village of around 30,000 Sunni Muslims in Hama. So slaughtering Sunni Muslims is not something new to Assad butchers.

Hamza's father, Ali al-Khateeb, wanted to press charges against the security forces, but was    warned of serious consequences by secret police  said Hamza's mother, terrified as she spoke to the local activist. Hamza's father was briefly detained and the secret police forced him to tell state media that  his son was killed by armed Salafists. 

Australia's foreign minister, Kevin Rudd, has called for Assad to be tried at the International Criminal Court in Hague for his crimes. 

Days later the body of 15 year old Thamer al-Sahri, vanished six weeks ago along with his friend, Hamza al-Khatib, was released by the regime with evidence of torture and gruesome wounds: His body was riddled with bullet holes, an eye and several teeth missing. Neck and leg broken and a large hole in part of his lower face. 

It appears barbarity is inherent in the Assad’s forces too. Only a few days ago Al Jazeera television showed how a Syrian soldier mercilessly kicking and beating an arrested civilian lying on the ground hand tied behind his back.  

If this is the plight of innocent children and even women who participated in peaceful demonstrations one could imagine the horrific plight of more than 10,000 civilians arrested and detained in dungeons.

Assad and his gangs descended to such low level that their forces shot and killed soldiers who refused to kill peaceful demonstrators and buried them in mass graves.   

How long can the rest of the world stand by while Assad tortures and kills his own people -- including children? How long the so called civilized world shouting of human rights and freedom   put up with a regime of these savages in Syria.

Syrian people are   sacrificing their lives for freedom and dignity. However those champions of human rights and freedom   are refusing to take meaningful step to stop the slaughter leave alone helping them or removing this murderous regime.  

For example Russia and China oppose any action against Assad’s regime while United States, UK and Europe hoodwink the world by trying to pass toothless and worthless   United Nations resolution which doesn’t speak about sanctions or military action. The inaction on the part of US, Europe and other big powers had shown that they are not worried about freedom and dignity to Syrian people. Instead they are only interested in exploiting the situation to serve their own interests.

Thus the message from US, Europe, Russia, China and the United Nations to Syrian butcher is- “continue your slaughter”. So much so that Assad  even refused to answer UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon’s telephone call. He knows nothing would happen?

Despite all their tall talk of radicalism and Arab nationalism   Assad family has been a bastion of security for Israel.  Therefore Zionists would always prefer to protect this fascist regime. So the Jewish controlled US and Europe following the dictates of Jews    also prefer Assad’s regime, however brutal and tyrannical it may be, to a majority Sunni government. This is what is happening now?             

Under the headline Obama and Syria, Courting Disaster columnist John Hannah wrote on Thursday 12 May 2011 that “the US administration's fecklessness on Syria is rapidly turning into a national disgrace. It represents a moral and strategic failing of major proportions. 

Since Syria's uprising began entire towns have been subjected to full-blown siege by Assad's crack military units. Mass arrests and torture of innocents, including children, is in full swing. The savagery on display certainly exceeds anything witnessed in Egypt during the 18-day revolt that brought down Hosni Mubarak. Not even Muammar al-Qaddafi was able to inflict this level of human suffering before NATO warplanes felt compelled to stay his bloody hand.

But whereas Obama moved with relative dispatch to condemn Egypt's Pharaoh and Libya's Mad Hatter to history's dustbin (at least rhetorically), in the case of Assad   the president and his team have gone mostly silent, timid, and reactive  giving  a green light to continue their killing spree a bit longer. 

Meanwhile Arab dictators are trying to protect each other. The irony is   two arch enemies, Saudi Arabia and Iran, help Assad to crush the popular uprising. Saudi Arabia, high priest of tyranny and autocracy and the land of Islam turned into sanctuary for disgraced and discarded tyrants, is reported to be supporting Assad against Sunni Muslims.This is to ensu tyranny 

remains in power There were also reports of Iranian troops helping the

Assad’s genocide on his own people.

Under such circumstance to whom the traumatized Syrians can turn to .With no alternate thousands of Syrians started fleeing to border areas in Turkey for safety to live in  misery. Even those fleeing civilians were bombed and slaughtered and one of the escapee to Turkish city of Antakya said that he had seen a skull split into two before himself with bullet marks in his back and another person whose skull split in to two like a book.   

The irony is this is happening in 21^st century?

Who cares for  these tears?

Peaceful demonstrations

Syrian refugees who fled Syria for Turkey arrive at a refugee camp in Yayladagi village in Hatay, Turkey, 08

Syrian refugees in Turkey chanted slogans yesterday during a protest against Syria’s President Bashar Assad at a refugee camp in Hatay. Nearly 8,500 are in three camps near the border. (Mustafa Ozer/ AFP/ Getty Images

Syrian refugees flood to Turkey for safety

A Syrian refugee shouts during a spontaneous protest against President Bashar Assad at a camp in Yayladagi, in Turkey. Despite the continuing violence, the Syrian government has urged refugees to return. (Vadim Ghirda, Associated Press / June 16, 2011)

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah & ccun.org.

editor@aljazeerah.info & editor@ccun.org