The UN channels all its aid through Damascus and the main distributor of this aid is the Syrian Arab Red Crescent which operates predominately in government-controlled areas. (…) Aid workers inside Damascus tell us that even aid earmarked for disputed areas outside of the city is often commandeered by government soldiers never to be seen again. The SARC’s own website lists the areas it has distributed aid to in Aleppo. All are held by the regime.
In der syrischen Metropole Aleppo sind laut Aktivisten Dutzende Menschen durch Kopfschüsse hingerichtet worden. In einem Fluss im Viertel Bustan al-Kasr wurden Leichen vorwiegend junger Menschen gefunden, deren Hände auf dem Rücken gefesselt gewesen sind.
Ein Rebellenkommandeur vor Ort sagte der Nachrichtenagentur AFP, bisher seien 68 Leichen entdeckt worden. Viele weitere würden noch aus dem Wasser gezogen. Vermutlich seien mindestens hundert Tote im Fluss versenkt worden. Unter den Opfern seien auch viele Kinder.
Jetzt ist es selbst bei CNN angekommen: Die “arabische Straße”, was immer sie auch sein mag, hat gute Gründe die Obama Administration zu kritisieren, nicht weil sie in irgend einer Weise im Nahen Osten imperialistisch interveniert oder gar “Freedom and Democracy” gewaltsam verbreiten wollte, nein ganz im Gegenteil, weil sie im Kulturkampf, der überall in Nordafrika und dem Nahen Osten ausgebrochen ist, sich ganz deutlich positioniert und zwar auf Seiten von Muslimbrüdern autokratischen Scheichs am Golf:
Egypt and its families may be divided, but on one subject, all are united – in the belief that the United States is supporting the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government.
Visible in the throngs at the December demonstrations were signs opposing Qatar and the United States – yes, the U.S. and Qatar were lumped together as supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood regime.
“This is such a historic opportunity to restore the image of the U.S., but instead it is putting itself in the same position as Qatar. … And this from President Obama – so disappointing,” Riham Bahi, a professor at American University in Cairo, said, reflecting views heard repeatedly last December in Egypt.
Nach der Freilassung der 48 iranischen Soldaten und Pasdaran erklärte ein iranischer Abgeordneter im Parlament: „Syrien ist unsere vorderste Frontlinie. Irak ist die zweite. Wenn die beiden Linien fallen, sind wir an der Reihe.“
Die Freilassungen vom 9. Januar zeigen deshalb deutlich, was für eine zentrale Rolle die iranischen Pasdaran im syrischen Krieg spielen – für den syrischen Präsidenten ebenso wie für das iranische Regime.
Das Magazin Unique interviewte kürzlich den aus Syrien geflohenen Studenten Alan Hassaf. Was er zu sagen und zu beklagen hat kann man als durchaus repräsentativ für eine große Gruppe von Oppositionellen gegen das Ba’th Regime lesen. Hassaf beklagt die mangeldne Unterstützung aus Europa und den USA und fordert ein militärische Intervention. Zugleich warnt er vor der zunehmenden Islamisierung der syrischen Rebellion, weil einzig die Golfstaaten Geld zur Vefügung stellten und außerdem immer mehr internationale Jihadisten, vor allem aus dem Irak, ins Land strömten, Jihadisten, die einst, mit tätiger Unterstützung des Assad Regimes, in den Irak geschickt wurden, um da gegen die US-Truppen zu kämpfen:
Ehrlich, das ist unser Problem mit den westlichen Regierungen und NGOs. Wir von den LCCs )Lokalen Koordinierungskomittees Anm. d. Verf.) sind arm und schwach. Auf der anderen Seite verfügen die politisch-islamischen Gruppen über Rückhalt. Saudi-Arabien zahlt ihnen Millionen wie nichts. Und wir können nicht mal 70 Dollar für eine Internetrechnung ausgeben. Die Revolution geht nun schon seit zwei Jahren. Zu Beginn gab es keine bewaffneten Gruppen. Alles war säkular und friedlich – es war großartig. Aber die westlichen Regierungen konnten keine klaren Entscheidungen treffen. Die radikalen islamischen Ansichten hatten den Raum, sich in Syrien frei zu entfalten. (…)
More than 650,000 people have fled the conflict in Syria, a top United Nations official said on Wednesday, as Turkey’s foreign minister pledged Ankara would continue to accept refugees.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, UN aid chief Valerie Amos said the humanitarian situation in Syria was “already catastrophic and clearly getting worse”.
”The harsh winter is exacerbating the already appalling conditions. More than 650,000 people have left the country,” she added.
A Syrian woman was raped to death with a rat. A rat was forcefully thrust in between her legs, while in captivity, and then she died. Stop for a moment and try to fully fathom that. This happened in Syria. Not a sick Hollywood movie. This happened to my sister, your sister, my mother, your mother, my aunt, your aunt, my grandmother, your grandmother; this happened to us, all of us. Charlotte Proudman of The Independent reports:
”One woman described an assault on another prisoner, which she witnessed. “He pushed a rat in her vagina. She was screaming. Afterwards we saw blood on the floor. He told her: ‘Is this good enough for you?’ They were mocking her. It was obvious she was in agony. We could see her. After that she no longer moved.”
Another woman, who was taken for 48 hours, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR hereafter) reports, returned a corpse with “marks of torture and barbarianism” to her family. Survived witnesses also report to the SNHR that security personnel would urinate in the mouths of female detainees to break their will. Moreover, a detainee said that she was prevented from using pads during her period, which led her to sanitize herself using trash; hence, developing a “reproductive disease.” Male detainees similarly reported female prisoners being questioned while naked in separate cells. (…)
I don’t know who you are, reading this right now. I dare not ask you to put yourself in a what if situation where this happens to someone you know. It is far too awful even for imagination to grasp. I ask of you, if you, just as I, do not have the power to stop this, raise awareness; condemn the violence; stand firm against it; and do not, please, I beg of you, do not be silenced by fear, nonchalance, or whatever your reasons may be. If not by a protest, then tell your friends. If not by a petition to your government asking them for support, then tweet about it, Facebook it, blog about it; do something, anything. You alone have a voice, and along with other voices, you make an echo loud enough to generate a difference. Be that difference. It does not end with just your voice, but it starts with it.
The Syrian American Council has started a petition, asking the US First Lady to condemn Assad for his crimes against females, sign here.
If you are considering starting an organization to aid raped / abused Syrian females; please email me. Let us start working towards a better tomorrow for Syria today.
“If the Syrian President Bashar Assad is toppled, the line of resistance in the face of Israel will be broken,” Ali Akbar Velayati, who is seen as a potential contender in Iran’s June presidential election, said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
Fierce clashes raged on Friday in the majority Kurdish northern Syrian city of Ras al-Ain (Serêkaniye) in Syrian Kurdistan on the Turkish border, a day after a sniper killed a French journalist in embattled Aleppo. (…)
A Kurdish resident of Ras al-Ain, who said he opposed Assad’s regime, said the jihadists crossed the Turkish border with three tanks into the city on Thursday.
On Friday, “the Kurdish fighters seized one of the tanks,” the activist, who identified himself as Havidar, told AFP via the Internet.
While Turkey supports the revolt against Assad, it is also home to a sizeable Kurdish minority that has suffered much persecution and suppression.
Activists say they fear Turkey may be using jihadists in Syria to fight its own battle against the Kurds.
Schnee, Regen und Fluten – der Nahe Osten erlebte diese Woche die schlimmsten Unwetter seit mehr als einem Jahrzehnt. Betroffen sind nicht nur Syrien, sondern auch sämtliche Nachbarländer Libanon, Jordanien, Irak und Türkei, wohin sich mittlerweile mehr als eine Million Menschen in Sicherheit gebracht haben. „Die Lage ist absolut unerträglich geworden, nicht einmal Tiere müssen so leben“, klagen die Betroffenen gegenüber lokalen Journalisten. Allein im Libanon sind seit Anfang des Jahres 13.000 neue Flüchtlinge hinzugekommen, in Jordanien waren es 10.000 – eine weitere Eskalation in diesem bisher größten Flüchtlingsdrama in der Geschichte des Nahen und Mittleren Ostens. Zusätzlich irren 2,5 Millionen Syrer in ihrer zerstörten Heimat herum und versuchen in Höhlen und Kellern dem Morden zu entkommen. Hunderttausende hungern.
Jörn Schulz über die Linke und Syrien:
»Er ist ein Schweinehund, aber er ist unser Schweinehund«, soll US-Präsident Dwight D. Eisenhower über Rafael Trujillo, den Diktator der Dominikanischen Republik, gesagt haben. Als Zitat nachweisbar ist diese Bemerkung nicht, es handelt sich offenbar um eine jener erfundenen Aussagen, die bereitwillig weitergegeben werden, weil sie die historischen Fakten so treffend zusammenfassen. Im Kampf gegen tatsächliche und vermeintliche Kommunisten unterstützten westliche Regierungen während des Kalten Krieges diverse rechtsextreme Diktaturen, und es war die Linke, die Sanktionen forderte und häufig auch den bewaffneten Kampf gegen die Regime unterstützte. Wer in den achtziger Jahren die nicaraguanischen Sandinisten aufgefordert hätte, endlich die Waffen niederzulegen und mit dem Diktator Anastasio Somoza zu verhandeln, wäre mit der geballten Empörung der Linken konfrontiert gewesen. Zu behaupten, Sanktionen gegen Diktatoren schadeten in erster Linie den Armen, blieb rechtkonservativen Politikern wie Franz Josef Strauß überlassen.
Nun aber haben antiimperialistische Linke und die Friedensbewegung den Westerwelle in sich entdeckt. Befreiung war gestern, was Syrien nun brauche, sei »ein Übergangsregime, selbstverständlich unter Mitwirkung des gegenwärtig herrschenden Regimes«, meint etwa Professor Mohssen Massarat. »Sanktionen schaden dem syrischen Volk«, urteilt die United National Antiwar Coalition (Unac), ein Zusammenschluss von Friedensgruppen in den USA. Die Argumentation greift weit über die Ablehnung einer ausländischen Militärintervention hinaus, wenn vom Westen auch die Rücknahme ökonomischer Maßnahmen und, verborgen hinter Begriffen wie »Kompromiss« und »politische Lösung«, von der Opposition ein Verzicht auf Demokratie und Menschenrechte gefordert wird.
Und eine Message aus den USA an alle anderen Diktatoren: Die Produktion von Chemiewaffen lohnt auf jeden Fall. Wer noch keine hat, sollte jetzt damit beginnen, sie zu produzieren:
Freibrief zum Weitermorden aus den USA und die Message an alle anderen Diktatoren dieser Welt: es lohnt sich Chemiewaffen zu produzieren.
According to a report in the Syrian Damas Post, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov agreed last month in Dublin that the U.S. would not support foreign military intervention in Syria in exchange for Russian assurances that the Assad regime would not unleash its chemical weapons.
Opposition groups that monitor the death toll said as many as 400 people — more than double the typical daily death toll — were killed Saturday. About half of them were civilians slain in an alleged mass killing carried out by government troops at a petrochemical university in central Syria, opposition groups reported.
According to various media reports the Syrian army yesterday used poison gas in Homs . Osen Hunter with more background information about the reported gas attacks:
No proper analysis can be made without toxicology reports, and makeshift battlefield hospitals in Syria lack the most rudimentary of emergency medical supplies, much less sophisticated labs. Moreover, characteristics (e.g., odor) and lethality of agents varies widely as a function of toxin concentration. With these caveats clearly in mind, we can make some estimates based on what we’ve seen and heard in Syria. (…)
The 7 confirmed dead suffered fairly rapid deaths – an estimated 12 to 24 hours after exposure. That is consistent with certain concentrations of Chlorine Gas and Cyanogen Chloride (CK) as an aerosol, perhaps less so with Phosgene Gas (CG), all
known to be agents in the Syrian arsenal. Assad also possesses Sarin and VX, but they usually kill within minutes, and reportedly the physician who treated the first victims apparently lost no one in the first few hours. (…)
While by no means certain and harkening back to caveats mentioned earlier, information on hand suggests that the chemical agent used to kill 7 in Homs, Syria, was likely Chlorine Gas, Cyanogen Chloride (CK) or Phosgene Gas (CG). This is a preliminary estimate that will likely change as more evidence comes in.
A Syrian government air strike on a town near the central city of Hama on Sunday killed dozens of civilians queueing for bread, according to human rights activists.
Amateur footage from Halfaya showed mangled human remains strewn along a street where people had been blown off scooters and out of cars. One video showed a boy with his feet blown off. Piles of corpses could be seen beneath rubble outside a two-storey building the cameraman described as a bakery. It was unclear how many bodies were in the smoking ruins.
Human Rights Watch has previously accused the regime of targeting bakeries. The group warned the Assad regime that such targeted bombing of civilians represented war crimes.
Endlich, wurde aber auch Zeit. Das Handelsblatt titelt:
Deutschland will offene Grenzen für syrische Flüchtlinge
Ach so. Ein Mißverständnis. Es geht gar nicht um Deutschlands Grenzen, die für syrische Flüchtlinge geöffnet werden sollen, die bleiben nämlich zu.
Dirk Niebel (FDP) sagte: “Der Druck auf die Menschen in Syrien ist enorm groß, aus den Gefechtshandlungen herauszukommen. Deswegen haben wir uns als Bundesregierung in Jordanien und jetzt auch im Libanon bereiterklärt, dazu beizutragen, dass die Grenzen auch in Zukunft offen bleiben.” Niebel ist am Samstagmorgen in den Libanon gereist, um sich selbst ein Bild zu machen.
Wenn’s aber darum geht, dass andere Länder ihre Grenzen für Flüchtlinge offen halten, dann ist Deutschland ganz vorne mit dabei. Sage niemand wir hätten nichts für die Menschen dort getan.
Reports from inside two Syrian chemical weapons facilities offer chilling new evidence that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime developed special vehicles last year for moving and mixing the weapons — and an unconfirmed allegation that Lebanese allies of the regime, presumably in Hezbollah, may have been trained 11 months ago in the weapons’ use.
A Syrian source provided a detailed account in a telephone conversation over the weekend, drawing on intelligence provided to him by a Syrian defector who worked inside the chemical weapons network. The source was speaking from an Arab country outside Syria where he has taken refuge. The conversation was arranged by the Syrian Support Group, an organization in Washington that speaks for moderate elements of the opposition Free Syrian Army. (…)
According to the defector’s account, two senior Syrian officers moved about 100 kilograms of chemical weapons materials from a secret military base in January. The base was in a village called Nasiriyah, about 50 to 60 kilometers northeast of Damascus.)
Syrian fighter jets rocketed the Palestinian Yarmouk camp in Damascus on Sunday, killing at least 25 people sheltering in a mosque in an area where Syrian rebels have been trying to advance on the capital, opposition activists said.
They said the deaths resulted from a rocket hitting a mosque in the camp, to which refugees have fled from other fighting in nearby suburbs of Damascus. It was the first reported aerial attack on the camp since the revolt against Syrian President Bashar Assad erupted last year.
Über die US-Strategie in Syrien schreibt Jonathan Spyer:
The United States this week became the latest country to recognize the Syrian National Coalition, formed in Qatar a month ago, as the legitimate leadership of the Syrian opposition. The formation of a joint military council aligned with the coalition was also announced in Antalya, Turkey. At the same time, Washington designated Jabhat al-Nusra, the powerful Salafi armed group in Syria, as a terrorist organization.
All of these moves indicate that a coherent US and western policy toward the rebel side in the Syrian civil war is now emerging. This policy is in line with the Obama Administration’s broader regional orientation, and meets with the approval of key EU governments. It is also the preferred direction of Turkey and Qatar, the two countries who led the international response to the Syrian rebellion during the long period that the west preferred not to get directly involved.
The intention is to align with and strengthen Muslim Brotherhood-associated elements, while painting Salafi forces as the sole real Islamist danger. At the same time, secular forces are ignored or brushed aside.
Syrian rebels are gaining ground and might win, Russia’s Middle East envoy said on Thursday, in the starkest such admission from a major ally of President Bashar al-Assad in 20 months of conflict.
“One must look the facts in the face,” Russia’s state-run RIA quoted Mikhail Bogdanov as saying. “Unfortunately, the victory of the Syrian opposition cannot be ruled out.” Quelle
The question Assad likely asks himself is: Would the US really intervene over a deniable incident, the facts of which may not be clear, and that might claim the lives of a couple hundred Syrians when it has sat idly by as 40,000 were killed?
Assad is banking that the basic parameters of US policy will remain the same. The administration’s performance this past week, going back to July, probably reinforced his conviction that not only are his CW a useful bargaining asset, but also that the odds are decent he could get away with it if he used them shrewdly.