Onrust in Syrië #5 - Waar vrijheid als muziek in de oren klinkt.

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Op zaterdag 14 mei 2011 18:55 schreef Frikandelbroodje het volgende:
Weet iemand hoeveel mensen er nu precies protesteren in Syrië? Ik heb wat cijfers van een paar steden maar hoeveel protesteren er nu in het hele land? 20 000? 50 000 of 300 000? Ik zou het niet weten, alvast bedankt

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Op zaterdag 14 mei 2011 19:13 schreef Frikandelbroodje het volgende:

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Iemand?

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Op zaterdag 14 mei 2011 19:31 schreef Triggershot het volgende:
Mouaz al-Khatib die gast was mijn docent.

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Op zaterdag 14 mei 2011 19:33 schreef Triggershot het volgende:

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Omdat hij mij heeft opgeleid?

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Op zaterdag 14 mei 2011 19:31 schreef Triggershot het volgende:
Mouaz al-Khatib die gast was mijn docent.

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Syrië beschiet vluchtelingen in Libanon


De Syrische strijdkrachten hebben vandaag schoten afgevuurd op mensen die naar het buurland Libanon waren gevlucht. Zeker een persoon kwam om het leven, vijf anderen raakten gewond. Dat maakten bronnen binnen het Libanese veiligheidsapparaat bekend.

De vluchtelingen zijn afkomstig uit de plaats Tall Kalakh, die circa 160 kilometer ten noorden van de Syrische hoofdstad Damascus ligt. Sinds eind april zijn al circa vijfduizend mensen uit Tall Kalakh gevlucht, waar het veiligheidsapparaat van de autoritaire president Bashar al-Assad keihard optreedt tegen betogers die het vertrek eisen van het staatshoofd.

De protesten tegen Assad braken ongeveer twee maanden geleden uit. Het regime probeert de onrust met harde hand de kop in te drukken. De Verenigde Naties schatten het dodental op zeker zevenhonderd en mogelijk 850.

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Op zondag 15 mei 2011 12:58 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

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Op zondag 15 mei 2011 13:12 schreef remlof het volgende:

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Ik las het ja. Moeten ze eens aan de Turkse grens doen. Dan kon meteen NAVO Artikel 5 in werking worden gesteld.

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Op zondag 15 mei 2011 13:24 schreef Monidique het volgende:

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Nou ja, aangezien Libanon niet is aangevallen, zou Turkije ook niet zijn aangevallen. Verder kán dat worden gedaan, maar dat hoeft niet en niemand, zeker Turkije niet, zit te wachten op nóg een onzinnige oorlog, eentje met Syrië.

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Syria bloodshed spills over into Lebanon
(AFP) – 3 hours ago

DAMASCUS — The deadly unrest in Syria spilled over into Lebanon where a woman was killed at a border crossing as protests against President Bashar al-Assad's regime entered a third month on Sunday.

Gunfire from Syria raked a crowd at Al-Boqayah crossing near the town of Wadi Khaled, killing the Syrian woman and wounding five people including a Lebanese soldier, a Lebanese security official and an AFP correspondent said.

The shooting came as hundreds of Syrians fled violence in their homeland on foot into Lebanon.
At one point, an armed man in plainclothes waded towards Al-Boqayah across the river which marks the border but was turned back by Lebanese civilians and fled firing shots into the air.

The area around Al-Boqayah was later deserted apart from Lebanese soldiers, a Red Cross team and several reporters, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

The latest incidents came as Pope Benedict XVI called for an end to the bloodshed in Syria and urged authorities and citizens to strive for a "future of peace and stability."

"I ask God that there be no further bloodshed in (Syria), this country of great religions and civilisations," the pope said after his weekly Angelus prayer in Rome's St Peter's Square.
Since Saturday, residents of the western Syrian town of Tall Kalakh, which is encircled by the Syrian army, have fled in their hundreds into nearby northern Lebanon.

According to a witness and a hospital worker in Tall Kalakh, security forces shot dead at least four people and wounded several others Saturday as thousands held a second day of anti-regime protests.

A witness in Tall Kalakh told AFP that residents had been treating the wounded in a small clinic rather than the town hospital to prevent the casualties from being arrested or "finished off."
Security forces on Saturday fired at a funeral convoy at an entrance to the town, killing the mother and wounding three family members of a victim of the clashes, according to the Tall Kalakh resident.

Al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the regime, said on Sunday that armed men had fled the cities of Banias and Homs and sought refuge in Tall Kalakh, while "fighters" from Lebanon had entered Syria.

Tall Kalakh was the scene of "heavy fighting" on Saturday night between the Syrian army and armed groups, the daily said.

The mayor of the Lebanese town of Moqaibleh, Rami Khazaal, estimated that almost 1,000 refugees had fled across the border into northern Lebanon on Saturday.
At least five were hospitalised with gunshot wounds, one of whom died, said a source at Qobbayyateh hospital said.

The latest bloodshed cast a pall over the government's pledges to forge ahead with reforms in Syria, where the first pro-reform protests broke out on March 15, and have triggered fresh condemnation from Western governments.

At least five people were killed in protests on Friday in the central city of Homs and a Damascus suburb, activists said, despite an order from Assad for security forces not to open fire.
Information Minister Adnan Mahmud announced later the same day that a "national dialogue" would be launched as soldiers withdrew from flashpoint cities and towns such as Banias on the Mediterranean coast and Daraa in southern Syria.

An activist in Banias, meanwhile, said tanks had been withdrawn from the town centre but security forces were still deployed on Sunday.

Up to 850 people have been killed and at least 8,000 arrested since the protests started in mid-March, human rights groups say. The regime has blamed the deadly violence on "armed terrorist gangs" and kept out the foreign media.

An editorial headlined "Game Over" in the government newspaper Tishrin commented on Sunday that it was clear the revolt was losing steam.

"The game is over and those betting on destroying Syria from within have failed without finding a way to sow discord," it said, dismissing the protesters as "suicidal" and "unconscious".

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Op zondag 15 mei 2011 13:40 schreef BeSimple het volgende:

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Ik denk dat dit vergelijkbaar is met Tunesie. Alleen het Tunesische leger schoot waarschijnlijk terug.

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Op zondag 15 mei 2011 13:56 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Als je niet uitkijkt krijgen we Libië v 2.0.

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Op zondag 15 mei 2011 14:01 schreef BeSimple het volgende:

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No shit sherlock!

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Syrië veroordeelt Israëlische beschietingen

De Syrische autoriteiten veroordelen de Israëlische beschietingen van betogers bij de grens bij de Golanhoogvlakte, de Palestijnse gebieden en bij de grens met Libanon.

In een verklaring van het Syrische ministerie worden de beschietingen bestempeld als “criminele activiteiten”, meldt persbureau Reuters. Volgens het Syrisch staatspersbureau SANA houdt het ministerie de internationale gemeenschap verantwoordelijk voor de incidenten en noemt dit de bloedigste confrontatie in jaren.

Het Israëlische leger voerde onder andere een aanval uit op een groep Syriërs die de grens bij de Golanhoogvlakte wilde oversteken. Volgens een televisiezender werden hierbij zeker vier mensen gedood en raakten zeker zestig mensen aan beide kanten van de grens gewond. Het Israëlische leger zei eerder dat er alleen waarschuwingsschoten zijn gelost.

Israël ziet Iraanse invloed bij incidenten

Het Israëlische leger verdenkt Iran ervan de gevechten langs de noordelijke grens gearrangeerd te hebben, meldt de Israëlische krant Haaretz.

Brigadier-generaal Yoav Mordechai bevestigt dat het Israëlische leger het vuur opende op Palestijnse vluchtelingen die de grensstad Majdal Shams by Syrië binnendrongen. Een anonieme bron binnen de Israëlische overheid ziet het incident ook als een “cynische en doorzichtige poging van Syrië om met opzet een crisis uit te lokken en de aandacht van de problemen thuis af te leiden.”

In eigen land heeft de Syrische president Bashar al-Assad al wekenlang te maken met demonstraties tegen hem en zijn regime. Assad wordt door de internationale gemeenschap bekritiseerd vanwege het inzetten van tanks tegen zijn eigen burgers. Volgens mensenrechtenorganisaties zijn bijna achthonderd mensen gedood door Syrische veiligheidsdiensten.

‘Dag van de Grote Ramp’

Vandaag vieren Israëliërs de verjaardag van de stichting van de staat Israël, een dag die door Palestijnen de “Dag van de Grote Ramp” genoemd wordt. Bij onlusten aan de Israëlische grens zijn al ruim tien mensen omgekomen, tientallen Palestijnen proberen de grens met Israël over te steken.

Op meerdere plaatsen op de Westelijke Jordaanoever en in de Gazastrook worden vandaag marsen gehouden ter herdenking van de Nakba, de vlucht en verdrijving van de Palestijnen in 1948 toen Israël werd gesticht. Israël heeft de Westelijke Jordaanoever voor een dag afgesloten en de troepen van het leger staan op scherp.

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Op zondag 15 mei 2011 13:26 schreef remlof het volgende:

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Ik bedoelde meer dat Libanon echt zo'n staatje is dat door niemand serieus wordt genomen en continue wordt misbruikt door zowel Syrië als Israël. Op Turkije zouden ze niet zo snel schieten

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Op zondag 15 mei 2011 18:11 schreef Baghdaddy het volgende:

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Libanon heeft best wat invloed hoor voor zo'n kleine staat. Vooral in Israel en Palestina.

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Assad's regime of torture
President Assad reaffirms his father's legacy by quelling dissent with brute force.
Hugh Macleod and a special correspondent Last Modified: 15 May 2011 14:30

"Bashar is God! Bashar is God!"

As the fists and boots and sticks pummelled his body and bloodied his face, the college student screamed out what he thought his interrogators wanted to hear: The name of Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad.

It worked. The secret policemen tired of beating him for the day and threw him back into the makeshift cell, a room inside the power station in Banias, where local prisons are full to bursting from a wave of arrests ahead of the military assault on the port city, which began earlier this month.

The respite was short-lived. Handcuffed by his wrists and ankles and blindfolded, the student, who gave testimony to a trusted local activist on condition of anonymity, was led to a car and driven to another torture cell.

"I was being beaten all over my body. I was bleeding and was saying the shahada to myself, ‘There is no God, but God,' because I thought I was going to die at that moment," he said.

'Rampant torture'

Arrested simply for trying to travel from Banias back home to his village on the outskirts of the city, the student had nothing valuable to tell his torturers about the organised political opposition to President Assad and his family's forty-year dictatorship.

But that, it appears, was not the point.

Where the torture cells of Tadmor, Syria's desert prison, once extracted confessions from individuals accused of standing against the Assads - Communists like Akram Bunni, left partially paralysed after his spine was stretched in a torture known as the German Chair; Muslim Brotherhood members whipped with cable and stunned with electric shock devices - today's torturers appear to be pursuing a policy of deterrence and collective punishment.

The student was released after only a few days, but the message to the wider community of Banias was clear: A naked body, covered in blood, left to limp along the long road back to his village, clutching his broken hand, for all to see.

Three other young men, beaten, thrown down stairs and forced to drink water from a toilet after being starved, were also dumped naked and bloodied on a road outside Banias.

A YouTube video, claiming to have been shot in Banias but which cannot be independently verified, shows men with signs of severe beating on their backs and faces.

"Syrian security is now releasing detainees with unhealed wounds caused by torture in order to spread panic and fear among people hoping it will reduce the numbers participating in demonstrations," said Wissam Tarif, Director of Insan, a leading Syrian human rights organisation, which has documented cases of torture.

Hundreds of disappearances

Across Syria a campaign of mass arrests since the uprising began in mid-March has seen more than 7,000 Syrians arbitrarily detained and thrown into prisons, according to a count by activists, contacting detainees' family and friends.

The detained include a wide cross section of society, mainly young men aged between 20 and 50, but including children and elderly, especially activists and those involved in protests or seen filming them, but also community leaders, imams and students.

In Deraa alone, state news reported some 500 people were arrested in one day, with security forces going door to door and seizing any male aged between 15 and 40. A recently leaked document, purportedly from Political Security, appears to confirm the mass arrests of males, including children, from Deraa.

The total arrests since mid-March are around twice the number of political prisoners the Syrian Human Rights Committee estimated were being held in Syria in 2006.

Human rights groups have documented hundreds more cases of people who disappeared in and around protest marches, with families left not knowing if their loved ones are dead or alive.

Enforced disappearance, when the state refuses to acknowledge the whereabouts of an arrested person, is a crime under international law.

Inside prison, detainees face what Human Rights Watch has described as "rampant torture".

In interviews with 19 Syrian detainees last month, including two women and three teenagers, Human Rights Watch found that all but two had been tortured, including being whipped with cable and stunned with electric-shock devices while drenched in cold water.

Amnesty International reported cases of detainees forced to lick blood off the floor of a prison and others who also drank toilet water after being starved for three days.

Insan said it has received numerous reports of torture where detainees have been left naked in groups for hours, doused in cold water before collectively being beaten.

"The use of unwarranted lethal force, arbitrary detention and torture appear to be the desperate actions of a government that is intolerant of dissent and must be halted immediately," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

President Assad signed Syria's ratification of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 2004.

Yet with every black eye, broken bone and scream of pain, one of the world's most repressive regimes shows to what lengths it is prepared to go to keep the Assad family in power.

While activists have documented torture used as collective punishment and deterrence, there are still many cases where the security forces use it to extract information from an individual believed to pose a risk to regime stability.

Interrogations

Ali, an Allawite, the sect from which the Assad family and much of the ruling elite hail, was captured by secret police during a small protest in Mezze, a suburb of Damascus.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Ali said the beating began as soon as he was on the bus to prison. "You are Alawite and you don't like Bashar?" the police officer screamed at him. "Are you with the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood?"

The fist landed square in his face as Ali tried to explain that the protesters were not fundamentalist Salafi Muslims. Ali was taken to the notorious Air Force security branch in Bab Touma, a stone throw away from the Old City where tourists were enjoying the sights.

The interrogator had footage from the protest filmed on a phone, showing Ali chanting for freedom. "He got up and walked behind me, grabbed my hair and slammed my face into the table. He was really angry."

Ali's hands were tied behind his back while he was punched in the face repeatedly. "He told me to confess I was there, and who had organized it, and was it someone from outside Syria?"

Blindfolded, Ali was driven to another prison, where, still unable to see, he was beaten, pushed down stairs and had cigarettes stubbed out on his back. Again the interrogator wanted to know if he was allied with Islamist groups, this time Hezb ut-Tahrir.

By contrast, Abu Mohammed's interrogators appeared less certain who to blame for the uprising they were struggling to contain.

Arrested from his Damascus home in late March, the journalist was taken, along with his laptop and mobile phone, to a branch of Internal Security on Baghdad Street.

The cell was already filled with protesters rounded up that day.

"We were hundreds so it was hard for interrogators to deal with us. They are used to tens being arrested at a time, not hundreds," he said.

For the next sixteen days Abu Mohammed followed the same routine: Dragged into an interrogation room and punched in the face.

"The interrogators were simple and uneducated men, they just shouted at me and hit me if I disagreed. They didn't know what they wanted."

The journalist was asked for his email address. "He asked me what ‘Hotmail' means. I answered in a simple and direct way. The main thing I realised was to answer what they wanted to hear, not what I thought."

His father's footsteps

The uprising in Syria began with the torture of children: 15 boys, aged between 10 and 15, from Deraa, who were beaten and had their finger nails pulled out by men working for General Atef Najeeb, a cousin of President Assad.

Two months into the most serious threat to the decades-old dictatorship, the jails in some cities are already full. As well as holding prisoners in the power station in Banias, security forces have also begun using a local sports stadium to hold hundreds of detainees, according to eyewitness accounts gathered by activists.

The release of all political prisoners has become a unifying cry among protesters across the country, who began by calling merely for reform and an end to corruption and who now demand the toppling of the president and his regime.

Like the father from whom he inherited power, President Assad has sought to crush the uprising against him with force and mass arrests.

During a campaign of repression against the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s under late President Hafez al-Assad, some 17,000 Syrians disappeared, according to testimony to the United Nations Human Rights Council by Radwan Ziadeh, head of the Damascus Centre for Human Rights Studies.

And in a chilling parallel to the actions of his father, who responded to the Muslim Brotherhood uprising by sending tanks and ultra-loyal troops commanded by his brother to raze Hama, killing between 10,000 and 30,000 civilians, President Assad has laid siege to Deraa, Homs and Banias with tanks and troops commanded by his brother, Maher al-Assad.

Today, in two months of protests, Syrian security forces have killed an estimated 850 people.

On Wednesday, Syria dropped its bid to join the UN Human Rights Council, which has ordered a fact-finding mission to Syria to investigate human rights abuses.

After eight days in a windowless two by two meter dungeon deep underground, Ali was freed without charges. His wallet, with half the money stolen, was returned, but he was too weak to drive home so took a taxi to a friend's place, too ashamed to let his parents see.

"The worst is you don't know what will happen. You and your family have no idea what is going on," said Ali who, despite his experience, remains unbowed.

"I have seen personally the real ugly face of security, and it is much uglier than I thought. I will protest again because now I really realize what freedom means. If we give up now we will all be arrested again anyway."

*All names of prisoners have been changed for their own safety.
Bron: Aljazeera

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Activists: Massgrave found in Syria

Syria’s brutal crackdown against pro-democracy protests took a chilling turn on Monday with the discovery of a mass grave in Deraa, the town at the heart of protests roiling the country for two months, an activist said.

“The army today allowed residents to venture outside their homes for two hours daily,” said Ammar Qurabi of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria.

“They discovered a mass grave in the old part of town but authorities immediately cordoned off the area to prevent residents from recovering the bodies, some of which they promised would be handed over later,” he said on the phone from Cairo.

Mr. Qurabi said the Syrian regime must bear full responsibility for the crimes committed against “unarmed” citizens and urged the international community and civil society to pressure it to stop the “brutal repression” of its people.

He was unable say how many people were buried in the alleged mass grave.

His account could not be independently verified as Syrian authorities have all but sealed off the country to foreign journalists amid a brutal crackdown against unprecedented protests threatening the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Mr. Qurabi said that 34 people had also been killed in the past five days in the towns of Jassem and Inkhil, near Deraa.

“I fear that dozens more casualties may be lying in nearby wheat fields and orchards because families have not been able to access the region which is encircled by security troops and snipers,” he said.

The unrest in Syria first erupted in Damascus on March 15 but was promptly put down and soon spread to Deraa and across the country with protesters emboldened by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.

More than 850 people, including women and children, have been killed and at least 8,000 arrested as security forces crack down on the protest movements, according to rights groups.

The bloodshed spilled into neighboring Lebanon at the weekend when a Syrian woman, among dozens fleeing the northwestern town of Tall Kalakh, was killed and six other people wounded, a Lebanese security official said.

Witnesses contacted by telephone also reported 10 people were killed on Sunday in Tall Kalakh, located near the Lebanese border, as security forces deployed inside the town.

Shelling and shooting was also reported in the nearby town of Arida, an activist told AFP.

Meanwhile hundreds of protesters and rights advocates detained in recent days were released on Sunday after signing pledges not to take part in further protests, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“Several of them said they had been tortured,” he said, adding that thousands of people remained jailed and more arrests were taking place.

The regime has blamed the deadly violence on “armed terrorist gangs” backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.

Dozens of Syrians who fled the violence in their hometowns gathered in north Lebanon on Monday to demand the fall of Mr. Assad’s regime, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

“The people want the fall of the regime,” chanted the group gathered in the village of Al-Boqayah, located along the border.

Most of the protesters hailed from the Syrian towns of Tall Kalakh and Arida.

“We don’t love you, Bashar,” and “Tall Kalakh, have no fear, we are with you,” they shouted.

The United Sates and European Union have responded to the unrest in Syria by imposing sanctions on members of President Assad’s inner circle but stopped short of targeting him personally.

Rights groups have called for harsher sanctions but there are fears that should Mr. Assad’s regime fall that would have serious ramifications for the region and could lead to civil war.

Human Rights Watch at the weekend accused the regime of pushing forth with its campaign to crush the pro-democracy protests by rounding up activists and holding many of them incommunicado while going after their families.

“Syria’s leaders talk about a war against terrorists, but what we see on the ground is a war against ordinary Syrians—lawyers, human rights activists, and university students—who are calling for democratic changes in their country,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director of the New York-based organization in a statement released Sunday.

“Syria’s emergency law may have been lifted on paper, but repression is still the rule on Syria’s streets.

“Behind the empty rhetoric of promises and national dialogue, there is a systematic campaign to rebuild Syria’s wall of fear with only one purpose: allowing (President Bashar) al-Assad and his cronies to maintain their absolute grip on power,” she added.

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Syrian forces beat dozens of university students

Associated Press= BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Syrian government agents chased students who were protesting against President Bashar Assad's regime at a northern campus Tuesday, beating them with batons and injuring dozens, a human rights activist said.

Mustafa Osso said the agents tried to break up a protest of about 2,000 students at the campus in Aleppo, Syria's largest city. He said many of the students were chased into their dormitories and badly beaten.

The university has seen several anti-regime demonstrations in the past weeks.

Also Tuesday, Syrian activists used Facebook to call for a general strike throughout Syria on Wednesday to protest the crackdown. One of the protesters' main Facebook pages, The Syrian Revolution 2011, had a picture of a child saying "father, your participation in the strike is a guarantee for my future."

Osso said security forces with clubs also dispersed a rally Monday of about 3,000 in the central city of Homs.

Syria's top rights organization has said that Assad's crackdown has killed more than 850 people nationwide since the turmoil engulfed the country in mid-March.

Assad's regime has used brutal military force to crush the unprecedented revolt, the most serious threat to his family's 40-year dynasty.

"There were no reports of shooting or tear gas being used," Osso said, apparently an attempt by authorities to avoid deaths among civilians.

Osso, head of the Kurdish Organization for the Defense of Human Rights and Public Freedoms in Syria, said there was little news from the western town of Talkalakh, which has been under siege by security forces since Thursday. He said residents of nearby areas were still hearing cracks of gunfire but it is not clear whether there were injuries.

At least 16 people — eight of them members of the same family — have been killed in recent days in Talkalakh, a town of about 70,000 residents, witnesses and activists say.

Talkalakh residents who fled the city to neighboring Lebanon over the past few days told The Associated Press about horrific scenes back home that include sectarian killings, gunmen carrying out execution-style slayings and the stench of decomposing bodies in the streets.

On Tuesday, scores of Syrians crossed into Lebanon and security officials said at least 170 people entered the country in the early hours of the day. They added that a 2-year-old girl who suffered a shrapnel wound in her chest was undergoing treatment in a Lebanese hospital.

On Monday, the National Organization for Human Rights said in a statement that at least 34 people were killed in the past five days in the villages of Inkhil and Jassem near the southern city of Daraa. Ammar Qurabi, the head of the human rights organization, said five bodies were discovered in Daraa on Monday, raising the overall death toll to 850.

There were also unconfirmed reports that up to 20 bodies were found in a grave there. Calls to Daraa on Monday seeking to verify the reports did not go through.

A Syrian Interior Ministry official dismissed reports about a mass grave in Daraa as "completely baseless." The unnamed official, quoted by state-run news agency SANA, said Tuesday that the "allegations came in the context of the campaign of provocation, slander and fabrication" against Syria.

The official said an "armed terrorist group" opened fire on a police vehicle in al-Bayadhah region in the central province of Homs, killing two policemen and wounding four others, including an army officer.

Assad has blamed the unrest on armed thugs and foreign agitators. He also has played on fears of sectarian strife to persuade people not to demonstrate, saying chaos will result.

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Journaliste Dorothy Parvaz is vrijgelaten door de Iraanse autoriteiten. De voor Al Jazeera werkzame verslaggeefster werd maandag op vrije voeten gesteld na negentien dagen geleden te zijn opgepakt in Syrië. Parvaz is daarop teruggekeerd naar Qatar, waar het hoofdkantoor van Al Jazeera gevestigd is.

Ze is gedurende haar gevangenschap goed behandeld, maar mocht geen contact met de buitenwereld hebben. Syrië bracht Parvaz later over naar Iran. Haar verloofde Todd Barker maakte de vrijlating, afgelopen maandag, vandaag bekend.

NRC-correspondent in Iran Thomas Erdbrink over de zaak rond de geboren Iraanse:

Parvaz (39), die ook over Amerikaanse en Canadese paspoorten beschikt, reisde op 29 april af naar Syrië, vanuit Qatar, waar Al Jazeera is gevestigd. Op 4 mei bevestigden bronnen binnen de Syrische autoriteiten dat ze was aangehouden, maar later werd gezegd dat ze al sinds 1 mei niet in Syrië was geweest. Sinds het begin van de opstanden in Syrië worden ten minste vijf journalisten vermist en zijn 750 mensen omgekomen.

Parvaz zei dat ze erg goed is behandeld tijdens haar gevangenschap en dat het goed met haar gaat, aldus Barker. Iran heeft niet bekendgemaakt waarom Parvaz werd vastgehouden. De journaliste is woonzaam in Vancouver alwaar ze zal herstellen van de gebeurtenissen.

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Ondanks hard optreden weer demonstraties in Syrië

Veiligheidstroepen hebben de afgelopen weken hard opgetreden in Syrië. Maar het mag niet baten, want in verschillende steden wordt vandaag opnieuw massaal gedemonstreerd tegen het bewind van president Bashar al-Assad. Tot nu toe is één dode gemeld.

In de kuststad Banias marcheren duizenden mensen door de stad ondanks de aanwezigheid van een groot aantal agenten en militairen, meldt het Syrische Observatorium voor Mensenrechten. In Banias is de grootste demonstratie bezig sinds de opstand negen weken geleden in Syrië begon.

Volgens getuigen zijn in de oostelijke stad Qamishli duizenden Koerden de straat opgegaan om democratie te eisen. En ook in de zuidelijke buitenwijk Hajar al-Aswad van Damascus zijn volgens getuigen veel mensen aan het betogen en wordt om het 'omverwerpen van het regime' geroepen.

In Homs schieten de troepen met scherp op de protesterende menigte, verklaarde een mensenrechtenactivist.

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Zeker 34 doden bij anti-Assad betogingen in Syrië

Ondanks grootschalige intimidatie zijn vandaag weer duizenden Syriërs de straat opgegaan om tegen het regime van president Bashar al-Assad te betogen. De oproerpolitie schoot met scherp en gebruikte traangas om de mensenmassa's uiteen te jagen. Minstens 34 mensen werden gedood, aldus de oppositie.

In de stad Homs in het westen opende de oproerpolitie het vuur op de mensen toen ze na het middaggebed uit de moskee de straat opstroomden. Alleen al bij dit bloedbad kwam elf demonstranten om, aldus militanten uit de stad.

Tanks
In vele steden heeft het regime tanks laten aanrukken om de protesten de kiem in te smoren. Die laaien meestal op vrijdag, de wekelijkse rustdag van de moslims, op.

Grote massa's mensen demonstreerden ook in de stad Banias aan de Middellandse Zee en in Kamishli in het noordoostelijke Koerdisch gebied. De betogers scandeerden: "Bashar, stap op en laat ons leven!". Aan de rand van Damascus werden vele veiligheidstroepen ontplooid om demonstraties met geweld te verhinderen, aldus activisten.

Geheime politie
Ondertussen trok het leger zich na een week terug uit Tel Kalach. Duizenden mensen zijn uit schrik voor represailles van de geheime politie over de grens naar Libanon gevlucht. Volgens de ooggetuigen doodden de veiligheidstroepen er in een week tijd dertig mensen en pakten driehonderd anderen op. Troepen vielen daarentegen een andere grensplaats, Al-Arida, binnen.

De Syrische leiding veroordeelde inmiddels de toespraak van de Amerikaanse president Barack Obama, die gisteren Assad voor de keuze had gesteld "de hervorming (naar democratie) te beginnen of anders af te treden". Dit toont duidelijk hoezeer "de VS zich inmengt met Syrische binnenlandse aangelegenheden", stelde het staatspersagentschap Sana vandaag in een mededeling vast.

NAVO-tussenkomst
De NAVO sluit een militaire tussenkomst in Syrië met het oog op de dodelijke aanvallen door het leger, politie en geheime dienst op vreedzame demonstranten uit. De Noord-Atlantische Verdragsorganisatie heeft geen optreden gepland "ook als we de brutaliteit van de Syrische veiligheidstroepen en de ijzeren vuist tegen de burgerbevolking scherp veroordelen", zei NAVO-secretaris-generaal Anders Fogh Rasmussen in een interview met het Italiaanse persagentschap Ansa. De enige mogelijke uitweg voor het land is evenwel "toe te geven aan de legitieme eisen van het volk en een vreedzame overgang naar een democratie toe te laten".

Sinds het begin van de protesten in Syrië midden maart werden volgens schattingen van mensenrechtenorganisaties 761 burgers en 126 leden van de veiligheidstroepen gedood.

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Op zaterdag 21 mei 2011 10:36 schreef Monidique het volgende:
Heel dapper van die Syriers. Ondanks weken van dodelijke repressie, blijven ze toch de straat op gaan. Is hier ondertussen niet hetzelfde als in Noord-Afrika aan de gaan, of eerder, kan men niet dezelfde vraag stellen: hoe stop je zoiets, als mensen nog steeds de straat op durven?

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Op zaterdag 21 mei 2011 10:55 schreef rakotto het volgende:

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Daar is men hier niet in geïnteresseerd. Ze kunnen niets uit Syrie halen.

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Op zaterdag 21 mei 2011 11:18 schreef Chooselife het volgende:

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Dat is volstrekt verkeerd ingeschat. Rusland heeft daar een elementaire marinebasis. De enige die ze toegang verleent tot de Middelandse-Zee. Strategisch enórm belangrijk.

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Op zaterdag 21 mei 2011 10:55 schreef rakotto het volgende:

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Daar is men hier niet in geïnteresseerd. Ze kunnen niets uit Syrie halen.

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Op zaterdag 21 mei 2011 12:02 schreef zuiderbuur het volgende:
Eén ding is me niet duidelijk: als Obama om de grenzen van 1967 te hanteren voor Israël, wat houdt dit dan in voor de Golan-hoogten? Dit is veroverd op Syrië in 1967 door Israël, en nadien geannexeerd. Als ik me niet vergis hebben ze ook paspoorten aangeboden aan de inwoners (wat niet het geval is voor de Gazastrook en de Westbank).

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Op zaterdag 21 mei 2011 12:08 schreef rakotto het volgende:

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Het blijft Syrisch grondbezit.

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Op zaterdag 21 mei 2011 13:21 schreef rakotto het volgende:
Syrie wordt normaal tegenover Israel als de Golan terug is, simple as that. Dat lijkt me ook een verstandige keuze om toekomstige confrontaties te vermijden met de toekomstige regering.

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Op zaterdag 21 mei 2011 13:21 schreef rakotto het volgende:
Syrie wordt normaal tegenover Israel als de Golan terug is, simple as that. Dat lijkt me ook een verstandige keuze om toekomstige confrontaties te vermijden met de toekomstige regering.

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Op zaterdag 21 mei 2011 14:24 schreef johnnylove het volgende:
Toch denk ik dat Israel hier een kans heeft laat liggen op een liberale democratie in Syrie. In plaats om met angst te reageren, hebben ze een keer een kans om met moed te reageren. .

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Government security forces and others in plain clothes have opened fire on a huge crowd of mourners in Homs killing at least two people and injuring more than twenty as they returned from funerals, an eyewitness told Al Jazeera.

More than 40,000 people gathered for the funerals of protesters killed yesterday and were walking back from the cemetery in Tal al Nasser on the outskirts of the city when security forces opened fire without warning.

The sound of gunfire and cries to help the wounded were audible over the phone as Al Jazeera spoke to the eyewitness.

The wounded have been taken to private clinics and homes as people fear the secret police will raid and arrests the injured from the main state hospital, he said, as they have done in previous such attacks.

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Op zaterdag 21 mei 2011 16:12 schreef Monidique het volgende:
Schieten op begrafenisstoeten, het maakt niet uit, dood is dood, maar op de een of andere manier vind ik het zieker dan bij "gewone" demonstraties.

[..]

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/syria

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Honoring the dead
43. Political mourning
44. Mock funerals
45. Demonstrative funerals
46. Homage at burial places

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Op zaterdag 21 mei 2011 17:29 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Die begrafenissen zijn niet echt

Gene Sharp: Author of the nonviolent revolution rulebook
Blz 80:

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Op zaterdag 21 mei 2011 17:37 schreef spoor4 het volgende:

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Het ene sluit het andere niet uit. Een begrafenis/rouwen kan gelijktijdig een politiek protest zijn. Net zoals het vrijdagsgebed aangegrepen wordt om te protesteren. Mock funerals zijn ook niet nodig, er zijn daar genoeg daadwerkelijke doden te betreuren.