Children of Syria at Christmas

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Bells 2013 - ????? 2013 on Vimeo

Bells, christmas in syria

 

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Assad employin' scorched earth policy - on his own people...

REPORT: SYRIA GOVERNMENT HAS RAZED NEIGHBORHOODS
Jan 30,`14 -- The Syrian government used controlled explosives and bulldozers to raze thousands of residential buildings, in some cases entire neighborhoods, in a campaign that appeared designed to punish civilians sympathetic to the opposition or to cause disproportionate harm to them, an international human rights group said Thursday.

The demolitions took place between July 2012 and July 2013 in seven pro-opposition districts in and around the capital, Damascus, and the central city of Hama, according to a 38-page report by Human Rights Watch. The New York-based group said the deliberate destruction violated international law, and called for an immediate end to the practice. "Wiping entire neighborhoods off the map is not a legitimate tactic of war," said Ole Solvang, emergencies researcher for HRW. "These unlawful demolitions are the latest additions to a long list of crimes committed by the Syrian government."

Human Rights Watch said many of the demolished buildings were apartment blocks, and that thousands of families have lost their homes because of the destruction. It said government officials and media have described the demolitions as part of urban planning or an effort to remove illegally constructed buildings. But Human Rights Watch said its investigation determined that military forces supervised the demolitions, which in each instance targeted areas that had recently been hit by fighting and were widely understood to be pro-opposition.

There also is no indication, HRW said, that pro-government districts have been targeted for similar controlled destruction. The neighborhoods targeted were Masha al-Arbayeen and Wadi al-Jouz in Hama, and Qaboun, Tadamoun, Barzeh and the Mezzeh military airport in Damascus as well as Harran al-Awamid outside the capital.

The report includes satellite images of the neighborhoods before and after the demolitions, providing a window on the scale of the destruction. Buildings in the Hama neighborhood of Masha al-Arbaeen, a wedge-shaped district bordered by highways on three sides, are clearly visible in a photo dated Sept. 28, 2012. In a second photo from Oct. 13, the buildings have been pulverized into a white smudge, while the adjacent neighborhoods remain untouched.

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ASSAD ADVISER REJECTS CALL FOR TRANSITIONAL GOVT
Jan 29,`14 -- Syrian President Bashar Assad's adviser on Wednesday rejected the opposition's call for a transitional governing body and suggested for the first time that a presidential election scheduled to be held later this year may not take place amid the raging violence.

The comments by Bouthaina Shaaban in an interview with The Associated Press came as U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi announced that the first phase of the Syria peace talks in Geneva will end on Friday, as scheduled, and that the gap between the government and the opposition remains "quite large." "To be blunt, I do not expect that we're going achieve anything substantial" by Friday, he told reporters Wednesday. "I'm very happy that we are still talking and that the ice is breaking slowly."

Brahimi said both sides will decide when the second phase of the talks will take place - most likely after a one-week break. Earlier Wednesday, both sides managed to discuss the thorniest issue: the opposition's demand for a transitional government in Syria. But Shaaban said it would be difficult to hold a presidential election in Syria, given the fighting, and she rejected a transitional governing body. "There's nothing in the world called transitional government. We don't mind a large government, a national unity government, but I think they invent the wrong term for our people and then they circulate it in the media," she told AP. The idea of a national unity government has been rejected by the opposition, which insists Assad must step down in favor of a transitional government with full executive powers.

Louay Safi, a spokesman for the opposition's negotiating team, said the issue of a transitional government was put on the table at the talks for the first time. But he added the government delegation stuck to its demand that putting an end to terrorists was still its No. 1 priority. "Today we had a positive step forward because for the first time now we are talking about the transitional governing body, the body whose responsibility is to end dictatorship and move toward democracy and end the fighting and misery in Syria," he said.

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