Genocide Watch

Syria Meets Deadline for Submitting Destruction Plan for Chemical Weapons

New York Times

October 27, 2013

By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE and MICHAEL R. GORDON

GENEVA — Syria submitted a formal declaration of its chemical weapons program and its plans for destroying its arsenal three days ahead of the deadline, the international chemical weapons watchdog said Sunday.

The watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which has been charged with monitoring and destroying Syria’s chemical weapons program, said that it had received the Syrian submission on Thursday and that the agency’s Executive Council would review the declaration’s “general plan of destruction” by Nov. 15.

It was not immediately clear, however, whether the declaration’s listing of chemical weapons sites was exhaustive, an important test of President Bashar al-Assad’s willingness to cooperate with the program to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons infrastructure and arsenal.

Saying that such declarations are confidential, the chemical weapons agency declined to disclose or discuss the contents of the Syrian document. (read more)

Syria clash kills 28 as Assad says open to 2014 run

New York Times  

Damascus — At least 28 people were reported killed in a Syrian firefight Saturday, the day after President Bashar al-Assad said he would seek re-election next year if "the Syrian people want."

The fierce fighting in the coastal region of Tartus underscored the dangers faced by international inspectors who were pressing ahead with the daunting task of identifying and eradicating Syria's vast chemical arsenal.

Poland's foreign minister meanwhile confirmed that a Polish photojournalist kidnapped in Syria in July was alive.

A team of 19 inspectors from the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons arrived in Damascus on Tuesday to begin verifying and dismantling Syria's chemical arsenal under the terms of a UN resolution. (read more)

Activists: Shelling in northern Syria kills 20

Diaa Hadid, Associated Press

18 October  2013

 
 

BEIRUT — Regime forces and Syrian rebels fighting for control of a small but strategic town in the country's embattled northern province of Aleppo have killed at least 20 people, most of them civilians, activists said Friday.

 Meanwhile, rebels killed at least 30 Syrian soldiers, including ten who were executed after they were captured, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

 The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, said the civilians in the town of Tel Aran in the northern Alepppo province were killed in a series of attacks. (read more)

Fear of sectarian fallout from Syria war as Hezbollah chief blames Sunnis for Beirut bomb

By Associated Press

15 August 2013, Updated 16 August

BEIRUT — Hezbollah’s leader blamed Sunni extremists Friday for a car bombing that killed 22 people in a Shiite neighborhood south of Beirut, heightening fears that Lebanon will be dragged further into sectarian fallout from the war in neighboring Syria. (read more)

Syrian rebels 'killed in army ambush near Damascus'

By BBC News

7 August 2013

The rebels were killed in a dawn ambush near the town of Adra, east of Damascus, the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"At least 62 rebels fell as martyrs, most of them youths," the group said.

The state news agency Sana confirmed that "dozens" of rebels had been killed, and said they were from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front.

U.N. chemical arms investigator arrives in Syria to seek access

By Reuters

24 July 2013

(Reuters) - The head of a U.N. chemical weapons investigation team arrived in Syria on Wednesday to discuss his inquiry into allegations that chemical arms have been used in Syria's civil war.

Ake Sellstrom's full team has not been allowed into Syria due to diplomatic wrangling over access. His mission this week aims to reach an agreement for it to start work in Syria.

Sellstrom, a Swede, is accompanied by the head of the U.N. Office of Disarmament Affairs, Angela Kane, who said on her arrival in Damascus that their mission was to prepare the ground for an investigation into chemical weapons use.

The team's visit is taking place at the invitation of the Syrian government and its members will meet Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem as well as technical experts.

Damascus has so far refused to let U.N. investigators go anywhere except Khan al-Assal in Aleppo province, where Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and its Russian ally say rebels used chemical weapons in March.

Both sides deny using chemical weapons.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has insisted that his team be permitted to visit at least one other location, the city of Homs, site of an alleged chemical attack by government forces in December 2012.

(Reporting by Marwan Makdesi; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

© Reuters, 2013

HOMS COUNTRYSIDE, Syria
(Reuters) - For months, the western rural region of Homs was an unusual model of coexistence in Syria's brutal two-year-old civil war. Now, it risks becoming a dark episode in the country's deepening sectarian conflict.
Syria's uprising-turned-war has forced most Syrians to take sides in a struggle that has killed more than 100,000. (read more)

Obama should remember Rwanda as he weighs action in Syria
By Anne-Marie Slaughter, New York Times
26 April 2013

Anne-Marie Slaughter is a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University. She was director of policy planning at the State Department from 2009 to 2011.

The Rwanda genocide began in April 1994; within a few weeks, nongovernmental organizations there were estimating that 100,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus had been massacred. Yet two months later, Reuters correspondent Alan Elsner and State Department spokeswoman Christine Shelly had an infamous exchange:

Elsner: “How would you describe the events taking place in Rwanda?”

Shelly: “Based on the evidence we have seen from observations on the ground, we have every reason to believe that acts of genocide have occurred in Rwanda.”

Elsner: “What’s the difference between ‘acts of genocide’ and ‘genocide’?”

Shelly: “Well, I think the — as you know, there’s a legal definition of this. .  . . Clearly not all of the killings that have taken place in Rwanda are killings to which you might apply that label. .  .  . But as to the distinctions between the words, we’re trying to call what we have so far as best as we can; and based, again, on the evidence, we have every reason to believe that acts of genocide have occurred.”

Elsner: “How many acts of genocide does it take to make genocide?”

Shelly: “Alan, that’s just not a question that I’m in a position to answer.” (read more)

Genocide and Mass Atrocities Alert: Syria
Updated: 26 April 2013

Since the beginning of March 2011, the stability of the Syrian Arab Republic has degenerated at an alarming rate. Genocide Watch warns that massacres and mass atrocities against pro-democracy protesters and the civilian population are being committed by Syrian security forces under the command of the al-Assad government. Protests turned violent as former Syrian troops defected and formed the “Free Syrian Army,” which the Syrian government continues to call a “terrorist” organization to justify its all out war against the rebels and Sunni Muslim civilians. What began as the violent repression of civilian protests has escalated to a civil war. Whole cities have been shelled by Syrian tanks and mortars, and investigations have led several countries to accuse government forces of using chemical weapons against civilians. Reports of human rights abuses by rebel forces have increased. One group of jihadist rebels has declared itself an al-Qaeda affiliate. With over one million people displaced and the death toll over 70,000, the war rages on, threatening the stability of the region.

Violent attacks on civilians by the al-Assad regime have continued to escalate in brutality as the government and opposition forces vie for control of strategic locations. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in February 2013, the death toll in Syria was approaching 70,000 – an overwhelming increase since July 2011, when Genocide Watch issued its first Genocide Alert for Syria. As of April 2012, the U.N. Refugee Agency recorded over 1,300,000 refugees having fled to neighboring countries, mainly Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey.

As the intense struggle for power continues between the al-Assad regime and opposition fighters, the government has tried to close off borders and shut down the Internet. However, information on the mass atrocities has been obtained from victims and witnesses by the U.N. Human Rights Council, the BBC, Human Rights Watch, and the Arab League’s Commission of Inquiry. Video footage of the violence and witness testimonies continue to surface on the Internet and are broadcast on world mass media. Although the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria has cited abuses on both sides, their report in February 2013 held that government atrocities far outweighed those committed by rebels.

The evidence is conclusive that the al-Assad regime is committing intentional crimes against humanity. Among the crimes the al-Assad regime is committing are: indiscriminant, widespread attacks on civilians, arbitrary detention of thousands in the political opposition, genocidal massacres of whole villages of Sunni Muslims, rape of detainees, widespread torture- including torture and murder of children- and denial of food, medicines and other essential resources to civilians.

The Alawite government of al-Assad believes it is about to lose all power in a zero-sum, winner take all revolution. Its massacres have become genocidal. Early warning signs and stages of genocide in Syria are:

• Prior unpunished genocidal massacres, such as those perpetrated by Assad’s father in Hama in the 1980’s;
• Rule by a minority sect – the Alawite sect that supports Assad – with an exclusionary ideology
• Systematic human rights atrocities; 
• Fear by the ruling elite that any compromise will mean total loss of their power;
• Deliberate targeting of particular groups -- Sunni Muslims and army defectors;
• Denial by the Syrian government that it is committing crimes against humanity, blaming “foreign - inspired terrorist gangs” for the armed conflict.

Previous efforts by the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution proposed by the Arab League, calling for the resignation of President Assad and supporting an Arab League peace plan, were impeded by Russia and China’s veto. A nearly identical U.N. General Assembly Resolution was passed in 2012 by a vote of 137 to 12, and the past U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Annan, denounced the al-Assad regime’s crimes against humanity. Shortly thereafter, Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a recommendation that the U.N. Security Council refer evidence of atrocities committed by government forces in Syria to the International Criminal Court. In April 2012, a peace proposal called for a UN-supervised ceasefire, but the deadline passed with no lessening of violence. Plans such as the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria have continued to fallthrough due to the intense, ongoing violence.

Lakhdar Brahimi was appointed U.N. and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria in August 2012. He has proposed an arms embargo on both sides. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also supports ending the supply of weapons on both sides. However the Arab League opposes this action because al- Assad continues to receive military supplies from Iran and Russia. In April 2013, the U.N. Security Council issued a non-binding statement that “The escalating violence is completely unacceptable and must end immediately," and that the Council "urged all parties to ensure safe and unimpeded access for aid organizations to those in need in all areas of Syria." But the U.N. has taken no action.

Despite the Syrian National Coalition being granted Syria’s seat at the Arab League in March 2013, factions remain within the opposition forces, and there is growing concern of spillover from the conflict to other countries in the region. There is still hesitation among Western countries to provide further aid and arms to the rebels. Russia rejects any actions that could lead to regime change. The pressure on the United States to urge regional allies to intervene has increased with recent reports citing the use of chemical weapons by the al-Assad regime.

Genocide Watch offers the following recommendations:

• The Arab League, Turkey, the Islamic Conference, and other nations should demand an immediate cease-fire in Syria, with full rights for non-violent protest.
• The Arab League and Turkey should quickly create an Islamic Court to try al-Assad and other Syrian officials for crimes against humanity under Islamic law;
• The Arab League, Turkey, European Union, US and other nations should impose targeted national and regional sanctions against financial accounts, visas, and businesses owned by top officials of the Syrian regime and its army;
• Arab and NATO nations should offer to cooperate with Russia to airlift and ship in humanitarian and medical relief supplies to all parts of Syria;
• The UN General Assembly should pass another resolution demanding fully protected access for UN and international aid workers and journalists to all areas of Syria.

(Click here for the pdf version)

Syrian air strikes, shelling batter rebels in Damascus suburbs
Reporting by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Alistair Lyon, Reuters
26 April 2013

The Syrian army attacked two rebel-held suburbs of Damascus with fierce air strikes and shelling on Friday, pursuing an offensive against President Bashar al-Assad's foes, residents and a monitoring group said.

Assad's forces, which have been trying to dislodge rebels from several outlying districts south and east of the capital, focused their assault on Jobar, just inside central Damascus.

The army seized the town of Otaiba on Wednesday, cutting a weapons supply route from the Jordanian border into the eastern fringes of Damascus that rebels had used for eight months.

One resident reported intense bombardment of several rebel-held districts that began at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) on Friday. (read more)

Syria's uneasy Christians feel both sides closing in
By Ian Black, the Guardian
25 April 2013

Syrian Christians like to say that they belong to an ancient community that long pre-dates the arrival of Islam – and that whatever the outcome of the uprising against President Bashar al- Assad, they will still be there when it is over. But these are deeply unsettling times – highlighted by the case of the two bishops kidnapped on Monday in another alarming example of the human toll of a war without end.

Bishop Yuhanna Ibrahim, head of the Syriac Orthodox church in Aleppo, and Bishop Boulos Yaziji, of the Greek Orthodox church in the city, were abducted by gunmen Syrian state media called "terrorists". Later the kidnappers were described as "Chechen mercenaries" fighting with Jabhat al-Nusra, an extreme Islamist group that has links with al-Qaida. The anti-Assad opposition countered at once that it believed the regime was implicated. (read more)

Syrian family feels heat of sectarian strife
By Basma Atassi, Al Jazeera
24 April 2013

Reyhanli, Turkey - When Mazen Fawwaz was killed last year in a battle against Syrian government forces in Idlib province, he left behind a 28-year-old wife and two young daughters.

Months later, his girls still sometimes cry "baba" into the sky from the window of their rented apartment in Reyhanli, the Turkish border town where the family fled in the aftermath of Fawwaz' defection to the rebel cause.

Yet, the plight of the Fawwaz family, Shia Muslims from northern Syria, is more than the loss of a beloved husband and father. Their story underscores the deep sectarian scars left by the Syrian conflict, and the heavy price some families are forced to pay. (read more)

 

Israel says Syria used chemical weapons 
By William Booth and Craig Whitlock, the Washington Post 
23 April 2013

TEL AVIV — Senior Israeli military officials on Tuesday stated that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al- Assad have used chemical weapons against the country’s civilians, saying their evidence — including photographs of victims foaming at the mouth — made them “nearly 100 percent” certain.

It was the most direct and public assertion by Israel to date that Syria has resorted to chemical weapons, which would be a troubling escalation of a brutal civil war that has stretched on for more than two years. Coming less than a week after France and Britain made similar allegations about Syria to the United Nations, the remarks could add to the mounting international pressure on the United States — which has repeatedly said it will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons – to intervene in the Syrian conflict.” (read more)

Syria: Record number of 566 bodies found on same day
By Jill Langlois, GlobalPost
22 April 2013

A record 566 dead bodies were found in Syria on Sunday after six days of fighting.

The total is the highest number of victims found in one day since the war began in March 2011, according to opposition group Local Coordination Committees in Syria (LCC) spokeswoman Rafif Jouejati.

At least 450 of the bodies were found in Damascus suburb Jadidat al-Fadel.

The past six days saw some 3,000 members of security forces attack the area, with at least 300 of the dead known to be civilians and 150 members of the rebel Free Syrian Army, reports said. (read more)

Lebanon/Syria: End Indiscriminate Cross-Border Attacks 
Human Rights Watch 
22 April 2013

(Beirut) – All parties to the conflict in Syria should stop indiscriminate cross-border attacks on inhabited areas in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said today.

On April 14, 2013, a Syrian opposition armed group, identifying itself as Omar al- Farouq Brigade, shelled the Shia villages of al-Qasr and Hawsh al- Sayyed in northern Bekaa killing two civilians and wounding three. The nature of the rockets and launchers that appear to have been used, together with the lack of any evidence of military targets in the villages, strongly suggests these attacks were indiscriminate and therefore violate the laws of war. (read more)

Syrian clashes kill 80 near Damascus, activists say 
By Associated Press, CBC News
21 April 2013

The Syrian opposition called on Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters from the country, as activists said regime troops supported by gunmen linked to the Lebanese Shiite militant group battled rebels Sunday for control of a string of villages near the Lebanon-Syria border.

Outside the capital, Damascus, activists said they had documented the names of 80 people killed in a government assault on the area over the past five days.

The Syrian National Coalition — the main Western-backed opposition group — warned that Hezbollah involvement in Syria's civil war could lead to greater risks in the area, and urged the Lebanese government to "adopt the necessary measures to stop the aggression of Hezbollah" and to control the border to "protect civilians in the area." (read more)

Britain, France claim Syria used chemical weapons
By Colum Lynch and Karen DeYoung, the Washington Post
18 April 2013

UNITED NATIONS — Britain and France have informed the United Nations that there is credible evidence that Syria has used chemical weapons on more than one occasion since December, according to senior diplomats and officials briefed on the accounts.

In letters to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the two European powers said soil samples, witness interviews and opposition sources support charges that nerve agents were used in and around the cities of Aleppo, Homs and possibly Damascus, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. (read more)

Assad's forces break rebel blockade in north Syria
By Erika Solomon, Reuters
15 April 2013

Syrian government troops have broken through a six-month rebel blockade in northern Syria and are now fighting to recapture a vital highway, opposition and state media said on Monday.

Rebels had kept the army bottled up in the Wadi al-Deif and Hamidiya military bases in Idlib province. But on Sunday, President Bashar al-Assad's forces outflanked the rebels and broke through, the pro-government al- Baath newspaper said.

The insurgents counter-attacked on Monday but their front has been weakened in recent weeks due to infighting and the deployment of forces to other battles, activists said. (read more)

Tensions Emerge in al-Qaida Alliance in Syria
By Ryan Lucas, Associated Press
10 April 2013

BEIRUT (AP) — Tensions emerged Wednesday in a newly announced alliance between al-Qaida's franchise in Iraq and the most powerful Syrian rebel faction, which said it was not consulted before the Iraqi group announced their merger and only heard about it through the media.

Al-Qaida in Iraq said Tuesday that it had joined forces with Jabhat al- Nusra or the Nusra Front — the most effective force among the mosaic of rebel brigades fighting to topple President Bashar Assad in Syria's civil war. It said they had formed a new alliance called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. 

The Syrian government seized upon the purported merger to back its assertion that it is not facing a true popular movement for change but rather a foreign-backed terrorist plot. The state news agency said Wednesday that the union "proves that this opposition was never anything other than a tool used by the West and by terrorists to destroy the Syrian people." (read more)

Syria: Aerial Attacks Strike Civilians
Human Rights Watch
10 April 2013

(Aleppo) – The Syrian Air Force has repeatedly carried out indiscriminate, and in some cases deliberate, air strikes against civilians. These attacks are serious violations of international humanitarian law (the laws of war), and people who commit such violations with criminal intent are responsible for war crimes.

The 80-page report, “Death from the Skies: Deliberate and Indiscriminate Air Strikes on Civilians,” is based on visits to 50 sites of government air strikes in opposition-controlled areas in Aleppo, Idlib, and Latakia governorates, and more than 140 interviews with witnesses and victims. The air strikes Human Rights Watch documented killed at least 152 civilians. According to a network of local Syrian activists, air strikes have killed more than 4,300 civilians across Syria since July 2012. (read more)

Syrian Alawites in their own words
By David Kenner, Foreign Affairs
9 April 2013

Most Western coverage of Syria understandably focuses on places and people journalists can access. There have been many articles from opposition-held areas, interviews with rebel fighters and anti-regime activists, and reports on the humanitarian crisis across the country. But getting Syria's Alawite community, to which President Bashar al-Assad and his inner circle belong, to speak candidly about their perception of the two year-old revolt has been another matter entirely.

That's why Syrian researcher Aziz Nakkash's recent report, "The Alawite Dilemma in Homs," is so valuable. Nakkash spent the summer of 2012 speaking with members of the Alawite minority in the city of Homs, getting their perspective on their communities' relationship with the regime and their opinion of the uprising. He found that the Alawite community was far from monolithic: The Alawites from the Sunni-majority regions of Homs and Hama felt excluded from the centers of power, which were in the hands of well-connected officials from the Alawite-majority coastal region. At the same time, Nakkash found that the Assad regime had been successful in militarizing the Alawite community -- Alawites, he wrote, don't see themselves as fighting for the survival of the regime, but as supporting close family members and friends in the security services. (read more)

Syrian conflict exacts heavy toll on women
By Tracey Shelton, GlobalPost
4 April 2013

IDLIB PROVINCE, Northwest Syria — A group of young women sits huddled around a diesel heater sipping tea in a stone cottage in the village of Seyjar. Outside, their children use stick guns to play their favorite game of rebel fighters.

Just like mothers anywhere, they chat about their families and cooking — until a series of distant thuds stops the conversation: the sound of explosions. The mood suddenly tense, some whisper under their breath. “God is greatest” and “God protect us.” Others resume their discussion without a flinch.

An older woman sits in the corner, tears slowly rolling down her cheeks. Although everyone here has reasons to cry, only she succumbs today. (read more)

Damascus violence forces even most resolute Syrians to flee
Reuters
3 April 2013

A new exodus is flowing from Syria as fighting edges closer to the heart of Damascus - those who swore they would never flee are selling their belongings to escape a battle now raging on their doorsteps.

Many Syrians in the capital had long asserted that the uprising-turned-civil war would not breach the city center. Others insisted they would stay, no matter the consequences.

But fear has begun to grip even the most resolute residents. (read more)

Syria crisis: March was 'conflict's deadliest month'
BBC
1 April 2013

More than 6,000 people died in Syria in March, the deadliest month since protests against the government began two years ago, activists say.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based activist group, said it recorded 6,005 deaths last month. (read more)

Pro-Assad Cleric Killed in Blast in Damascus
By Hania Mourtada and Rick Gladstone, New York Times
21 March 2013

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A large explosion killed at least 42 people inside a central Damascus mosque on Thursday, including the top Sunni cleric in Syria, one of the major remaining Sunni supporters of President Bashar al-Assad’s embattled government in the civil war.

Syria state news media called the explosion at the Eman mosque a suicide bombing carried out by “mercenary terrorists against the Syrians,” and it appeared to be one of the worst attacks on worshipers since the war began two years ago. The main armed insurgent group, the Free Syrian Army, denied responsibility, saying it would have never targeted a mosque.

News of the mosque explosion overshadowed, for the moment, an escalating propaganda battle over whether chemical weapons had been used in the Syrian conflict this week. Mr. Assad’s government and the opposition have accused each other of firing a missile laden with chemicals in Khan al-Assal in Aleppo Province. On Thursday, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki- moon, announced he had authorized a formal investigation. (read more)

The case for restraint: Syria and the International Criminal Court
By Betcy Jose, Al Jazeera
21 March 2013

March 2013 will be notable in the history of the Syrian conflict for several reasons, two of which include the second anniversary of that conflict and the number of refugees surpassing the one million mark. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, places the number of dead at approaching 70,000. That count very likely underestimates the toll this conflict has taken on the civilian population. These figures are difficult to absorb, and they tell us little about the individual experiences of those who make up these numbers caught up in this human tragedy.

Yet, the violence and bloodshed from all sides continues, and the international community remains stalemated as to its response to the ongoing crisis. It has explored a number of options, from diplomacy to more coercive action like economic sanctions and military force. Recently, there have been calls for judicial intervention by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Is this a viable option? This piece examines the effectiveness of an ICC investigation as a means of halting the Syrian conflict. It first discusses non-judicial options currently on the table. By illustrating how difficult these options are, a case can be made for why pursuing the judicial option right now may not be effective in helping Syrian civilians or sustaining international law. (read more)

Damascus, rebels trade charges on "chemical attack"
By Dominic Evans, Reuters
19 March 2013

Syria's government and rebels accused each other of launching a deadly chemical attack near the northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday in what would, if confirmed, be the first use of such weapons in the two-year-old conflict.

Syria's information minister said rebels had fired a rocket carrying chemical agents that killed 16 people and wounded 86. State television said later the death toll had risen to 25.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict using a network of contacts in Syria, put the number of dead at 26, including 16 soldiers. (read more)

Syria's Playground Of The Dead
By Jose Rodriguez, Agence France Presse
17 March 2013

Mohammed Assad holds the Muslim holy book the Koran as he stands over the grave of his eldest son, buried beside a see-saw in a public park in Syria's eastern city of Deir Ezzor.

"God will punish Bashar (al-Assad, the president) and his people for turning our public parks into cemeteries," he says.

Men, women and children, and sometimes fighters barely out of adolescence -- every day Al- Mashtal park in the city becomes the final resting place for new victims of the conflict that has torn Syria apart for over two years. (read more)

Two Years Later: What the Syrian War Looks Like
By Rania Abouzeid, The New Yorker
14 March 2013

Two years ago, Syria was a very different place. In early March, 2011, a group of boys in the southern city of Daraa brazenly scribbled graffiti criticizing Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria. The words included the mantra of revolution that had ricocheted from Tunisia to Egypt, from Yemen to Bahrain: “The people want the fall of the regime.” The authorities’ response was as swift as it was predictable: the boys were detained and tortured.

On March 15, 2011, some people in Daraa took to the streets to demand the boys’ release. There were also small demonstrations in other parts of Syria, including in the capital city, Damascus, where rumblings of discontent had slowly become more pronounced over the preceding weeks. Those demonstrations were the beginning.

Two years later, Syria is at war. What does the Syrian war look like? It looks like shells that crash and thud and thump into residential streets, sometimes with little warning. It looks like messy footprints in a pool of blood on a hospital floor as armed local men, many in mismatched military attire and civilian clothing, rush in their wounded colleagues, or their neighbors. (read more)

Syria's children shot at, tortured, raped: charity report
By Oliver Holmes, Reuters
13 March 2013

A boy of 12 sees his best friend shot through the heart. Another of 15 is held in a cell with 150 other people, and taken out every day to be put in a giant wheel and burnt with cigarettes.

Syria's children are perhaps the greatest victims of their country's conflict, suffering "layers and layers of emotional trauma", Save the Children's chief executive told Reuters.

Syrian children have been shot at, tortured and raped during two years of unrest and civil war, the London-based international charity said in a report released on Wednesday. (read more)

Syria crisis: Clashes as rebels target Baba Amr in Homs
BBC 
12 March 2013

Syrian rebels are locked in a fierce battle with government troops for parts of the central city of Homs.

For a third day, rebel forces tried to regain control of the Baba Amr neighbourhood; pro-regime troops responded with artillery attacks.

There have also been clashes on the key road between Damascus and the airport, as well as in the city of Aleppo. (read more)

UN panel investigating 20 massacres in Syria
By John Heilprin, The Huffington Post
11 March 2013

GENEVA — A U.N.-appointed commission is collecting evidence on 20 massacres in Syria, a reflection of the civil war's growing brutality, the panel's chairman said Monday.

The massacres include three in the central city of Homs since December, commission chair Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said. It's indicative of the destructive standoff between President Bashar Assad's regime and anti-government rebels that is fueling a spike in the intentional mass killings of civilians in violation of international humanitarian law along with an increase in the recruitment of child soldiers by both sides.

"There are no more enclaves of stability in Syria today, and the civilian space is almost completely eroded," Pinheiro told reporters after giving an update on Syria to the U.N.'s top human rights body. (read more)

Thousands Flee Northern Syria After Latest Airstrikes
By Deborah Amos, NPR
7 March 2013

A new flood of Syrian refugees is streaming into southern Turkey after the Syrian air force bombed the city of Raqqah, a provincial capital that the government lost control of earlier this week.

The Syrian rebels overran Raqqah, capturing several high-ranking prisoners, including the provincial governor. Many residents supported the rebels, but when the airstrikes began, they packed in a hurry and fled, believing it was safer to make a dash for the border than stay at home.

The shells started crashing into residential neighborhoods Tuesday, says Rima, the only name she gave. She was standing at the border gate with Turkey waiting for her father to get across from the Syrian side. (read more)

U.N. Starts Talks to Free Peacekeepers Held by Syria Rebels 
By Alan Cowell and Rick Gladstone, New York Times 
7 March 2013

United Nations and Arab League officials were reported to be negotiating on Thursday with Syrian rebels who seized a group of United Nations troops on patrol in the disputed Golan Heights region between Syria and Israel, seeking to defuse an abrupt escalation of the Syrian conflict that enmeshed international peacekeepers for the first time.

Significantly, Israel signaled on Thursday that it had no intention of becoming embroiled in the crisis.

There was no immediate indication when the 21 captives, all from the Philippines, who were seized on Wednesday, might be freed but the authorities in Manila said the peacekeepers were being treated as “visitors and guests” and had not been harmed. (read more)

Syria conflict: Refugees number a million, says UN
By Nik Gowing, BBC
6 March 2013

The BBC's Nik Gowing reports as Bushra, 19, registers as the millionth refugee of the Syrian conflict.

The number of Syrian refugees who have fled the conflict has reached a million, the UN has said.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the number of people seeking haven in neighbouring countries had jumped since the beginning of the year. (read more)

Massacre of Syrian Soldiers in Iraq Raises Risk of Widening Conflict
By Duraid Adnan and Rick Gladstone, New York Times
4 March 2013

BAGHDAD — More than 40 Syrian soldiers who had sought temporary safety in Iraq from rebel fighters along the border were killed on Monday in an attack by unidentified gunmen as the Iraqi military was transporting the soldiers back to Syria in a bus convoy, the Iraqi government said.

At least seven Iraqis were also reported killed in the attack, which appeared to be the most serious spillover of violence into Iraq since the Syrian conflict began two years ago.

Ali al-Musawi, a spokesman for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, accused “armed groups from the Iraqi and Syrian side” of coordinating the attack, which he described as an ambush. He said Iraq would deploy more security forces on the border. Middle East experts said such a move raised the risk that the Iraqis could become more directly enmeshed in the Syrian conflict, underscoring how it threatens to destabilize a wider swath of the region. (read more)

U.N. Warns of Dire Rise in Refugees From Syria
By Rick Gladstone and Anne Barnard, New York Times
27 February 2013

The top United Nations refugee official told the Security Council on Wednesday that the number of registered Syrians who had fled their homeland for safety elsewhere in the region could surpass one million by next month — much sooner than expected — and that the Syrian conflict threatens to overwhelm the international response.

“We are facing a moment of truth in Syria,” the official, António Guterres, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, told the Council at a closed session in remarks that were later published on his agency’s Web site. “The humanitarian situation is dramatic beyond description. The refugee crisis is accelerating at a staggering pace.”

Mr. Guterres was one of three senior United Nations officials who briefed the Security Council, painting what some diplomats later described as a chilling description of the fates of civilian victims of the nearly two-year-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. More than 70,000 people have been killed, more than two million have been displaced and more than four million need assistance. (read more)

How Syria Is Becoming Bosnia
By David Rohde, New York Times
25 February 2013

Typhoid and hepatitis outbreaks are spreading. An estimated 70,000 people are dead, and another 850,000 are refugees. After covering the battle for Damascus for a month, photographer Goran Tomasevic of Reuters declared the situation a “bloody stalemate.”

“I watched both sides mount assaults, some trying to gain just a house or two, others for bigger prizes, only to be forced back by sharpshooters, mortars or sprays of machine-gun fire,” Mr. Tomasevic, a gifted and brave photographer, wrote in a chilling first-hand account. “As in the ruins of Beirut, Sarajevo or Stalingrad, it is a sniper’s war.”

Many analysts believe the Obama administration’s policy toward Syria is a failure. (read more)

Lebanon and Turkey slam Syria violence, Erdogan vowing not to remain ‘silent’
By Al Arabiya
24 February 2013

Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday vowed his country will not remain silent over Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's “crimes”.

“Every day a large number of innocent children and women fall dead in Syria,” Erdogan, a key backer of Syria's opposition, said in a speech in the United Arab Emirates.

“We will not remain silent on those committing crimes against their people... We will not remain silent on the brutal dictator in Syria,” Erdogan added. (read more)

Syria: Why the West Lets Assad Massacre His Own People
By Henryk M. Broder, Crunched by Gail Mangold-Vine, Die Welt/Worldcrunch
21 February 2013

BERLIN - In late 2011, a former German television correspondent in Tel Aviv, Sebastian Engelbrecht, reported some sensational news:

Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal had “renounced armed combat against Israel,” conflicts among Palestinians were in the process of being resolved and "by early May in Gaza and the West Bank a new president and parliament will be elected."

According to Engelbrecht, the whole Arab world was moving, except for one player: Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had made no gesture towards Arab Spring countries, no reaching out, no attempt at bridge-building. Instead he was busy building high-security facilities along the Egyptian border to keep out refugees from Africa, anchored in the mindset – according to Engelbrecht's report -- that “it was always bad with the Arabs and it can only get worse.” (read more)

Christians, threatened by Syrian war, flee to Lebanon
By Clarissa Ward, CBS News
21 February, 2013

BEIRUT - A few of the many Syrian rebel groups are connected to Islamic radicals. Christians, who've lived in Syria for 2,000 years, are fleeing right next door. A convent in the mountains of Lebanon is a refuge for Syrian Christians who have been forced from their homes and their country. 

There have been Christians in Syria as long as there have been Christians. Now they are caught up in a civil war increasingly dominated by Islamic militants.

"We came to Lebanon because there is no more living in Syria," Sanharib Aphram told CBS News. "It's dead there." (read more)

 

Car Bomb in Damascus Kills Dozens, Opposition Says
By Christine Hauser, The New York Times
21 February 2013

In renewed violence reaching the center of the Syrian capital, a car bomb exploded in Damascus on Thursday near the headquarters of President Bashar al-Assad’s ruling party, killing more than two dozen people, mainly civilians but also some security forces, according to opposition sources. 

The violence coincided with renewed talks among Mr. Assad’s adversaries who met in Cairo on Thursday to discuss the terms on which the opposition Syrian National Coalition is prepared to talk about a negotiated settlement to the conflict.

Reuters quoted a draft communiqué under discussion by the group as saying it was prepared to negotiate, but Mr. Assad and his security force commanders were “not part of any political solution in Syria.” (read more)

Army Rocket in Syria Kills at Least 19, Rebels Say
By Anne Barnard and Rick Gladstone, The New York Times
19 February 2013

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian antigovernment activists said on Tuesday that an army rocket had leveled several buildings in a rebel-held neighborhood of Aleppo, killing at least 19 people and possibly leaving dozens more buried under rubble. The attack appeared to have caused one of the worst civilian tolls in the embattled city since its university was struck in a multiple bombing a month ago.

Activists also reported that up to seven mortar rounds had been fired by fighters of the Free Syrian Army toward President Bashar al-Assad’s Tishreen Palace in Damascus. There were no immediate reports of casualties, and it was not known whether Mr. Assad was there at the time. The palace, surrounded by a park, is in a wealthy area that has largely been insulated from the insurgency. It is less than a mile from the main presidential palace, which is on a plateau overlooking the city.

Suzan Ahmad, an activist in Damascus, said at least one of the mortar rounds had made a direct hit. (read more)

U.N. Rights Officials Urge Syria War Crimes Charges
By Nick Cumming-Bruce, New York Times
18 February 2013

GENEVA — The United Nations Security Council should refer Syria to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to prosecute those responsible for war crimes and other abuses committed in nearly two years of conflict, Carla del Ponte, a United Nations human rights investigator, said Monday.

“Now, really, it’s time — it’s time,” Ms. del Ponte said. “We are pressuring the international community to act because it’s time to act.”

Ms. del Ponte was speaking as the United Nations Human Rights Council commission investigating Syria, of which she is a member, reported that violence in Syria was worsening, “aggravated by increasing sectarianism” and radicalized by the increasing presence of foreign fighters. It said the conflict was also “becoming more militarized, because of the proliferation of weapons and types of weapons used.” (read more)

Syria capital Damascus sees heavy Jobar fighting
BBC
6 February 2013

Fierce fighting broke out in the Syrian capital, Damascus, as rebels attacked forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, witnesses and rebels said.

Much of the violence was centred around the Jobar district and a key junction on the Damascus ring road.

But it was not clear whether the rebels managed to retain any territory they claimed in battle, and the Syrian army said it too launched an offensive. (read more)

NATO warns Syria against chemical weapons use
04 December 2012
 Al Jazeera

Secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen says any use of such arms will draw 'immediate reaction' from world community.

Any use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the ongoing uprising to overthrow his government will draw "an immediate reaction" from the world community, NATO's chief has said.

Secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen's warning on Tuesday came as Syrian forces continued to hit rebel districts near Damascus, while state media reported that rebel forces had hit a school, killing dozens of children. (read more)

The World’s Next Genocide
SIMON ADAMS
New York Times

AT a recent meeting hosted by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, Peter W. Galbraith, a former American ambassador who witnessed ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, made a chilling prediction. “The next genocide in the world,” he said, “will likely be against the Alawites in Syria.”

A few months ago, talk of possible massacres of Alawites, who dominate Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria, seemed like pro-regime propaganda. Now, it is a real possibility.

For more than a year, Mr. Assad’s government has been committing crimes against humanity in Syria. As it fights for survival on the streets of Aleppo and Damascus, the risk of unrestrained reprisals against Mr. Assad’s Alawite sect and Syria’s other religious minorities is growing every day. (read more)

Over 37,000 have died in Syria's civil war, opposition group says
By Saad Abedine and Ben Brumfield
CNN
15 November 2012

(CNN) -- As the total death toll in Syria marches towards 40,000, the Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday lambasted the recent U.S. backing of Syria's opposition in its quest to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

Homs and Damascus are the deadliest places in Syria, according to an opposition group that keeps a running total of those whose lives came to a bloody end in 20-month armed conflict.

Of the 37,387 who have perished since fighting began, 6,992 were killed in Homs and 6,750 in the suburbs of Damascus, said the Violations Documentation Center.

The total number includes 3,061 government soldiers, which the group only recently started to include in its count. (read more)

Syria civil war 'kills 36,000
The Telegraph
31 October 2012

More than 36,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of Syria's anti-regime revolt in March 2011, with an average of 165 people killed a day since August 1, a watchdog said on Wednesday.

More than 36,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of Syria's anti-regime revolt in March 2011, with an average of 165 people killed a day since August 1, a watchdog said on Wednesday.

A man carries the body of his five-year-old son outside a hospital following shelling by Syrian government forces in Aleppo Photo: TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP/GettyImages (read more)

As U.N. falters, Syria's conflict threatens regional stability Barak M. Seener
CNN.com
11 October 2012

Editor's note: An Associate Middle East Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, Barak M. Seener has written extensively about Middle East issues, including the Arab Spring, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Israel's defense and security policies, and the Palestinianization of Israeli Arabs.

London (CNN) -- It would be a mistake to write off threats of war against Syria from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as mere bluster, assuming that Turkey will maintain the status quo in valuing its relationship with the United States on one hand, while resisting Iran's hegemonic ambitions on the other.

The recent cross-border confrontation could ignite regional convulsions as Turkey is sucked into Syria, leading to belated actions on the part of the international community. (read more)

U.S. Military Is Sent to Jordan to Help With Crisis in Syria
MICHAEL R. GORDON and ELISABETH BUMILLER
New York Times
10 October 2012

WASHINGTON — The United States military has secretly sent a task force of more than 150 planners and other specialists to Jordan to help the armed forces there handle a flood of Syrian refugees, prepare for the possibility that Syria will lose control of its chemical weapons and be positioned should the turmoil in Syria expand into a wider conflict.

The task force, which has been led by a senior American officer, is based at a Jordanian military training center built into an old rock quarry north of Amman. It is now largely focused on helping Jordanians handle the estimated 180,000 Syrian refugees who have crossed the border and are severely straining the country’s resources.

American officials familiar with the operation said the mission also includes drawing up plans to try to insulate Jordan, an important American ally in the region, from the upheaval in Syria and to avoid the kind of clashes now occurring along the border of Syria and Turkey. (read more)

Syria Crisis: Damascus Massacre Leaves Dozens Dead Outside Syrian Capital, Say Activists
Reuters
27 September 2012

BEIRUT, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Opposition activists said security forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed more than 40 people in a small town outside Damascus on Wednesday, calling it a massacre.

The 18-month-old uprising against Assad's rule has descended into civil war of late and grown increasingly bloody.

Video published by activists showed rows of bloodied corpses wrapped in blankets. The victims shown on camera appeared to be male, from 20-year-olds to elderly men.

"A massacre in the Dhiyabia area," says the voice of an activist in one video. "God damn you, Bashar. The bodies are in the dozens. Look, Muslims, look what this dictator is doing." (read more)

Evidence mounts of new massacre in Syria
Hamza Hendawi, Huffington Post
26 August 2012

BEIRUT — Row upon row of bloodied bodies wrapped in colorful blankets laid out on a mosque
floor in a Damascus suburb. Long narrow graves tightly packed with dozens of victims. Nestled
among them, two babies were wrapped in a single blood-soaked blanket, a yellow pacifier
dangling beside them from a palm frond.

Evidence mounted on Sunday of a new massacre in Syria's deepening civil war, with activists
reporting a killing spree by government forces after they seized the suburb of Daraya from rebel
control three days ago. Reports of the death toll ranged from more than 300 to as many as 600.

Video footage posted by activists showed lineups of corpses, many of them men with gunshot
wounds to their heads. During mass burials on Sunday, bodies were sprayed with water from
hoses – a substitute for the ritual washing prescribed by Islam in the face of so many dead. (read more)

Genocide and Mass Atrocities Emergency – Syria

(June 8, 2012) – Since 1970, Syria has been under the repressive rule of the al-Assad family regime and the socialist Ba’ath Party. Political tensions have been caused by opposing ideologies of the ruling Alawite minority – Baathist socialism – and the Sunni Muslim majority (three quarters of the population) which favors adherence to moderate Islamic law. Since the 1980’s, the Assad government has become increasingly authoritarian and repressive. Torture and killing of opposition leaders became policy.

During the Arab Spring of 2011, which swept authoritarian regimes out of power across North Africa, pro-democracy protests began in Syria in early March. The eruption of mass anti-government protests quickly spread throughout the country. Violent attacks on civilians by the al-Assad regime have escalated in brutality throughout the past year. When Genocide Watch issued its Genocide Warning for Syria in February 2012, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights reported the death toll exceeding 5,400. Today, reports by the Syrian Network for Human Rights and the Damascus Centre for Human Rights Studies place the death toll around 14,000. Thousands more have fled as refugees to neighboring countries like Jordan and Lebanon. Despite government attempts to cut off the internet, exclude reporters, and even to forbid the UN to investigate the Houla massacre, information on the mass atrocities has been obtained from victims and witnesses by the U.N. Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch and the international press.

The U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) deployed 300 unarmed monitors to oversee a “cease-fire” that never took effect. UNSMIS has stood by and watched as civilians were slaughtered. The Houla massacre on May 25 and the al-Qubayr massacre on June 7 killed over 200 civilians, many of them women and children executed by gunshots to the back of the head. Eyewitnesses have testified that the massacres were perpetrated by the Syrian Army and Alawite militias. President Bashar al-Assad denies involvement in the mass killings, claiming terrorists are behind the country’s uprising. But the U.N. Human Rights Council has condemned the Syrian government for committing the massacres.

The evidence is now conclusive that the al-Assad regime is committing intentional crimes against humanity. Among the crimes the al-Assad regime is committing are: indiscriminant, widespread attacks on civilians, arbitrary detention of thousands in the political opposition, rape of detainees, widespread torture- including torture and murder of children- and denial of food, medicines and other essential resources to civilians. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan warns that Syria stands on the brink of a “full-blown civil war”. The early warning signs and stages of genocide in Syria are:

• Prior unpunished genocidal massacres perpetrated by Assad’s father in Hama in the 1980’s;  
• Rule by a minority sect – the Alawite sect that supports Assad – with an exclusionary ideology;
• Systematic human rights violations;
• Fear by the ruling elite that any compromise will mean total loss of their power;
• Deliberate targeting of particular groups -- Sunni Muslims and army defectors;
• Denial by the Syrian government of committing crimes against humanity, blaming “foreign-inspired terrorist gangs” for the armed conflict.

Genocide Watch is issuing a Genocide Emergency Alert. Genocide Watch recommends that: .

• The Arab League and Turkey should quickly create an Islamic Court to try Assad and other Syrian officials for crimes against humanity under Islamic law;
• The Arab League, Turkey, European Union, US and other nations should impose targeted sanctions against financial accounts, visas, and businesses owned by top Syrian officials;
• Arab and NATO nations should offer to cooperate with Russia to air lift and ship in humanitarian and medical relief supplies to all parts of Syria;
• The UN General Assembly should pass another resolution demanding full protected access for UN and international aid workers and journalists to all areas of Syria.
• Arab League and Turkish armed forces should support Syrian Army leaders who are planning to overthrow the al-Assad regime from within with as little bloodshed as possible.

The escalating grave human rights violations and deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Syrian Arab Republic - U.N. Human Rights Council resolution, 29 February 2012

"By All Means Necessary!" Individual and Command Responsibility for Crimes against Humanity in Syria - Human Rights Watch report, December 2011

Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic - U.N. Human Rights Council report, 23 November 2011