What Syrian Oppression Looks Like

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JBeukema

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Apr 23, 2009
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everywhere and nowhere
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[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbur0OaN90A]YouTube - ‪Hamza Ali Al-Khateeb - A Message To Children's Rights Committee And To The World 25.05.2011‬‏[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3FqecvK_tA]YouTube - ‪Massacre in Al-Mastoma town committed by Al-Assad death squads in Idleb city in Syria 28.05.2011‬‏[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9yaoIK3jTc]YouTube - ‪killing machines and thugs of Bashar Al-Assad regime to suppress freedom seekers in Syria (2)‬‏[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2GFPo_VSjY]YouTube - ‪The terrorist Bashar Al-Assad committed a dreadful massacre in Izraa city in Syria 22.04.2011‬‏[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVvqRPxYHw8]YouTube - ‪Mass graves to hide the crimes of Bashar Al-Assad discovered in Daraa city in Syria (1) 16.05.2011‬‏[/ame]

 
Brutal Syrian crackdown...
:eek:
Fleeing violence, Syrian refugees warn of potential massacre
June 9, 2011 - As thousands of Syrians crossed into Turkey with tales of violence, many described troops amassing outside Jisr al-Shughur to take revenge for the deaths of 120 security and police forces.
Syrian refugees continued to stream into Turkey Thursday, fleeing an expected revenge attack from the regime against their town of Jisr al-Shughur. Even as Syrian forces began encircling the northwest town, Turkey said its border is open to those trying to escape the violence. By dusk Thursday, 2,400 Syrians had crossed into Turkey at this and another illegal crossing nearby. "They are killing people, I saw that with my own eyes," says one refugee who gave his name as Abu Ali, a young man in sandals and a T-shirt from Jisr al-Shughur who crossed several times in recent weeks.

Of all the revolutions sweeping through the Middle East, none create a starker dilemma for Turkey than the one tearing apart its ally Syria. So while it is responding to the humanitarian needs of Syrian refugees, it is also going to great lengths to shield Syria from further international criticism. Turkish police and local authorities have been ordered to prevent the refugees from telling of their experiences in a city where fighting in the past week caused the death of 120 Syrian security and policemen, according to Syrian authorities.

A closed-circuit camera has been set up along one side of a long fence around the main refugee camp in the town of Yayladagi. Police whistle and wave off journalists who approach the fence; forbidden also are hospitals, where some 35 Syrians are recovering from bullet and shrapnel wounds. The Turkish regional governor made a visit, passing along the rolling hills, wheat fields, and olive groves of the border line – and its unofficial crossing points – in a convoy of more than 10 vehicles. He eventually stopped at the refugee camp, some miles away, but then roared past waiting journalists – blue and red lights flashing – without making a comment.

The situation could not be more different than the openness displayed by Turkey regarding Iranian refugees in 2009, and even wounded Libyan refugees brought to Turkey for urgent medical treatment, when some journalists were escorted into their presence in government limousines.

Why Syria is different

See also:

UK, France build case for UN resolution against Syria
June 9, 2011 - Europe is again taking the lead for international response in another chapter of the Arab Spring, arguing for a UN resolution against Syria. Unlike in Libya, it's not calling for military action.
With thousands of Syrians fleeing to Turkey in fear of more attacks by government forces, Europe is intensifying diplomatic pressure on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad to stop using violence against civilians. Supported by Germany and Portugal, the UK and France have drafted a UN Security Council resolution condemning Syria’s suppression of pro-democracy protests but not calling for military action or additional sanctions.

While Europe is again taking the lead on rallying international response to a Middle East uprising, many analysts say the West is cautious about moving too strongly against Syria because of its strategic importance in the region. What's more, many say, Assad will continue to act with impunity as long as he feels that the West considers him as part of an eventual solution to ending the violence there.

“Libya has oil, but it has little strategic importance. Syria is a pivotal state, it has immense strategic importance in the region,” says Jean-Francois Daguzan, a Middle East expert at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris. "Regime change in Libya will not change the political landscape of the whole of North Africa. Regime change in Syria will affect the situation of Israel, of Lebanon, of Iran, of Turkey even.”

Mr. Daguzan said Western governments are also worried about what could follow Assad. "What kind of policy would a government of the Sunni majority in Syria stand for? No one knows. Europe’s options in Syria are very limited and a military intervention is out of the question.”

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Assad better straighten up or Obama liable to send in Seal Team 6...
:eusa_hand:
U.S. Condemns Syrian Crackdown
June 10, 2011 - The White House strongly condemned the crackdown on anti-government protesters that left 28 people dead Friday, and says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is leading his nation down a "dangerous path."
Witnesses and activists say at least 10 deaths occurred in the northwestern province of Idlib. The military shelled targets in the provincial city of Maaret al-Numan. State-run news reports said an armed group had attacked security forces in the city and set several government buildings on fire. Meanwhile, Assad has been avoiding calls from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Ban tried to call the Syrian leader several times, but a U.N. spokesman said Assad would not come to the phone.

Meanwhile, witnesses and activists say security forces used live ammunition to disperse anti-government protesters in several other cities. They say protesters were killed in Damascus and in the southern Daraa region. A separate military siege is unfolding in Jisr al-Shughour, a town in the northern region near the Turkish border. Military forces moved into the town after the government said "armed gangs" in the region had killed 120 security personnel.

Residents of the town have been fleeing, many of them into neighboring Turkey. Turkish news reports said Friday the number of Syrians who had crossed the border had swelled to about 3,000. Diplomatic efforts to quiet Syria's unrest are unfolding on several fronts. United Nations diplomats held new talks on Friday on a draft resolution that calls on the Security Council to condemn the Syrian government's crackdown. Many Western nations back the measure but Russia and China have voiced opposition.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the Syrian government for its crackdown on protests. The semi-official Anatolia news agency quotes him as calling the crackdown an "atrocity" and saying the Syrian government has not behaved "humanely." He added that Turkey is making plans for a refugee buffer zone on the border. Russian special envoy Mikhail Margelov said Friday that he planned to meet soon with representatives of Syria's opposition. Rights groups say at least 1,100 people have been killed in the Syrian crackdown that began in March and more than 10,000 people arrested.

Source
 
Hillary gettin' stern with Assad...
:cool:
Clinton warns Syria's Assad that time is running out
July 1, 2011 : Speaking at a democracy conference in Lithuania, Clinton said that the US – which has long sought to engage Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – is looking for 'actions, not words.'
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned the Syrian government Friday that it was running out of time to implement reforms and that without action, it would only face further resistance. "It is absolutely clear that the Syrian government is running out of time. They are either going to allow a serious political process that will include peaceful protests to take place throughout Syria and engage in a productive dialogue with members of the opposition and civil society, or they're going to continue to see increasingly organized resistance," Secretary Clinton said at a news conference in Lithuania, Reuters reports.

Clinton is there for a conference with international democracy organization Communities for Democracy. "We regret the loss of life and we regret the violence, but this choice is up to the Syrian government. And, right now, we're looking for action not words and we haven't seen enough of that," she said. Allowing the opposition to meet once – they held a conference in Damascus earlier this week – is an inadequate response to protesters' demands, she said, particularly since it happened as government troops continued their crackdown in northern Syria. "It doesn't appear that there's a coherent and consistent message coming from Syria," she said.

Human rights groups say that the death toll since protests first erupted in March numbers about 1,500, according to Reuters. Opposition groups have rejected a government offer to meet in Damascus later this month, saying that the proposed talks lack credibility when violence continues elsewhere in the country, The Telegraph reports. A two-day siege in northern Syria that ended Thursday left 19 people dead while troops spread throughout the border region, the Associated Press reports. The troops are in the area to prevent more Syrians from fleeing to Turkey. More than 10,000 have fled so far, but only five made it across on Thursday – the lowest number in many days, according to Turkish officials. Meanwhile, protests have started in the northwestern city of Aleppo, with several hundred demonstrators and at least two separate protests, AP reports.

The demonstration appeared far smaller than those that take place in other Syrian cities, but its importance lies in Aleppo's status as the country's second largest city, where much of Syria's small middle class lives. Activists said the regime feared that if Aleppo's residents threw their weight behind the anti-government protests, they could badly shake Assad's regime. The Guardian reported Thursday that the US is discreetly pushing a "roadmap" for reforms that leaves President Bashar al-Assad in power. The draft document was reportedly circulated at the opposition conference this week. The US denies backing the document. A State Department spokesman said: "We are encouraging genuine dialogue between the opposition and the regime but we are not promoting anything. We want to see a democratic Syria but this is in the hands of the Syrian people."

The roadmap demands accountability for violently disbursing protests, compensation for families of those killed, legalization of protests, media freedom, and the establishment of a national assembly, among other changes. Because the document keeps President Assad in power, it is being rejected by many members of the opposition. Quiet US interest in the roadmap dovetails with public demands from Washington that Assad reform or step down. Robert Ford, the US ambassador, has been urging opposition figures to talk to the regime, said Radwan Ziadeh, a leading exile, who insisted the strategy would not work. "They are asking Bashar to lead the transition and this is not acceptable to the protesters," he said. "It is too late."

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Granny says dat Assad is another Saddam...
:eek:
Sectarian Violence in Syria Kills at Least 30
July 18, 2011 - Syrian rights activists say an outbreak of sectarian fighting between supporters and opponents of President Bashar al-Assad has killed about 30 people in the central city of Homs.
The activists say the fighting began late Saturday when the dismembered bodies of three government supporters were returned to relatives in Homs. The three Assad loyalists belonged to the president's minority Alawite sect and had been kidnapped several days earlier. Rights activists and residents say government loyalists responded to the killings by going on a rampage in predominantly Sunni areas of Homs, torching and breaking into Sunni-owned shops. They say shooting also erupted in the city, although the source of the fire was not clear. Residents complained that Syrian security forces did not intervene.

The reports cannot be independently verified as Syria does not allow foreign media to report and travel freely. The fighting comes amid a more than four-month-long anti-government uprising against Assad. Six more bodies were found Sunday in Homs, where Syria's majority Sunnis live alongside Alawites and other religious minorities. Witnesses say the city was calm on Monday but the mood was tense. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdul-Rahman says the fighting in Homs is a "dangerous" development that undermines the uprising against Assad's 11-year autocratic rule.

Assad has sent Syrian security forces into towns and cities across the country to crush the uprising. Western powers have condemned the violent crackdown and imposed sanctions on Syrian leaders. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Monday the 27-nation EU could impose further sanctions on Mr. Assad's government. The EU and the United States already have imposed asset freezes and travel bans on the Syrian president and his aides. Also on Monday, Qatar announced it was closing its embassy in Syria and pulling out its ambassador in protest of the Syrian crackdown.

Source
 
Obama gonna bring change - to Syria...
:eusa_eh:
Obama calls for Syrian leader to step down
August 18, 2011, Reporting from Washington and Beirut — The demand for President Bashar Assad's ouster is echoed by the governments of Canada and the European Union. The U.S. also expands its sanctions. The pressure may have a limited effect, however.
After months of criticism that he was too soft on Syria's government, President Obama led a choreographed call by Western governments for President Bashar Assad to give up power, a move that leaves the autocratic regime more isolated, though not necessarily less dangerous. The demand for Assad's ouster, echoed by the governments of France, Britain, Germany, Canada and the European Union, followed weeks of diplomatic talks aimed at presenting a common front against Assad's government. The Obama administration had hoped that Turkey and Saudi Arabia, two regional powers that hold greater influence over Syria, would join the coordinated diplomatic press.

Those countries neither supported nor condemned Obama's call for Assad to go, a silence widely interpreted as an expression of frustration over the Syrian leader's unfulfilled promises to end the violence. On Thursday, Assad's government showed no sign of ceasing its attacks on protesters, who have steadily built a widespread movement in the teeth of the violence.

Until now, the administration had suggested that Assad still held enough legitimacy to preside over reforms that would loosen his autocratic grip. But with the killing and mass arrests showing no signs of abating, Obama said Thursday for the first time that Assad was unfit to lead the country. Assad's pledges of reform have "rung hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing, and slaughtering his own people," Obama said in a statement.

"For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside." European governments made the call a chorus and said they were open to further EU sanctions on Syria. But the Europeans, who buy 90% of Syria's oil exports, did not announce any decision to halt those imports.

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Hey, yer on yer own...
:confused:
U.S. to Syrians: 'Don't Expect Another Libya'
Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011 - Ambassador Robert Ford tells TIME that while the Assad regime is creating a violent showdown, it's vital that the opposition refrain from turning to arms
Syria's protest movement is largely peaceful, says U.S Ambassador Robert Ford. But the longer President Bashar Assad prolongs his ferocious campaign to suppress the challenge, the greater is the likelihood that Assad's claims to be facing an armed sectarian rebellion will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Ford, a career diplomat and Arabist who served three tours in post-Saddam Iraq, tells TIME in a phone call from Damascus, the Syrian capital, that although the pro-democracy movement has not yet turned to violence, some protesters have armed themselves to defend their families and neighborhoods. "There is shooting [by protesters] at Syrian security forces, that is absolutely true," he says. "The government says it, but what the government is not saying, is that their repressive actions are triggering a lot of the violence." Ford adds that unless Assad changes tactics, "the [protester] violence problem will grow worse, as will the problem of sectarian conflict. The Syrian government's policies are driving this and they need to stop it."

There are few indications that Assad intends to heed Ford's advice. Six months of a ruthless crackdown have left at least 2,700 people dead and more than 20,000 in detention (some of whom are feared dead). Some Syrians are now calling for protection from the international community, but like many things related to the fragmented Syrian opposition, there is disagreement as to what that might mean. The spectrum of opinion covers everything from full-throttled NATO intervention on the lines of Libya to creating and protecting and a Benghazi-like haven near the Syrian-Turkey border, deploying international monitors or simply providing greater political support.

"One of the things we've told the opposition is that they should not think we are going to treat Syria the same way we treated Libya," Ford says. "The main thing for the opposition to do is figure out how to win away support from the regime, and not look to outsiders to try and solve the problem. This is a Syrian problem and it needs Syrian solutions."

Read more: Syrian protests might not mirror those in Libya - TIME
 
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