Onrust in Syri� #7 - Waar Assad de duivel is die we kennen

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Op vrijdag 30 september 2011 14:49 schreef ChristianLebaneseFront het volgende:
Het wordt al weer heerlijk rustig in Syrie.

President Bashar al-Assad doet eindelijk wat moest gebeuren.

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Syrische oppositie verenigt zich in Nationale Raad van Eenheid

Alle belangrijke oppositiegroeperingen uit Syri� hebben zich verenigd in een Nationale Raad van Eenheid. Dat maakte een belangrijke oppositiefiguur vanmiddag bekend in Turkije.

De oppositiegroeperingen spraken vandaag in Turkije met elkaar over de oprichting van een overkoepelende organisatie die hun gezamenlijke verzet tegen het regime van president Bashar al-Assad extra kracht kan geven. De belangrijke oppositielider Burhan Ghilyon maakte na afloop van de besprekingen bekend dat alle groeperingen overeenstemming hebben bereikt, meldt de televisiezender Al-Arabiya.

In een gezamenlijke verklaring zegt de Nationale Raad van Eenheid geen buitenlandse interventie in Syri� te willen, maar wel roept de Raad de Verenigde Naties op resoluties op te stellen die burgers in het land kunnen beschermen. Verder zeggen de verenigde oppositiegroepen te streven naar een democratische staat die de burgerrechten respecteert en de wensen van alle Syrische revolutionairen in vervulling brengt.

Bronnen rond de Raad zeiden tegen Al Arabiya dat het orgaan oppositiegroeperingen van binnen en buiten Syri� vertegenwoordigt. Veel Syrische dissidenten zijn de afgelopen decennia naar het buitenland gevlucht vanwege de repressie in eigen land en hebben, vaak in westerse landen, hun eigen organisaties opgericht. De bronnen benadrukken dat ze niet voor het ontmantelen van het Syrische leger pleiten. Oppositieleider Ghilyon voegde toe dat hij gelooft dat alleen “vreedzame middelen” het conflict in Syri� kunnen oplossen.

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Syria accused of torturing relatives of overseas activists

Amnesty International report also details more than 30 cases of intimidation of activists around world

The Syrian government has been accused of torturing the relatives of Syrians protesting overseas in an attempt to silence international criticism of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The charges are made in a report from Amnesty International – The Long Reach of the Mukhabaraat (the name of the Syrian secret police) – which details more than 30 cases of direct and indirect intimidation of activists in Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, the UK and US.

One dissident, now living in Germany, told Amnesty that his brother had been arrested, held for a month and tortured by Syrian military intelligence because of his sibling's anti-regime stance. In Sweden, another pro-reform activist said her activities on the internet and the streets of Stockholm had attracted the attention of the Syrian authorities.

At the end of May, she received a letter in Arabic using her maiden name, which warned her: "Keep quiet or neither you, nor your family in Syria is safe." Not long after, her brother was arrested in Damascus, had both his hands broken and was forced to promise that the family would disown his sister.

Anti-regime activists in several countries have reported being harassed, intimidated and even assaulted.

Five weeks ago in Paris, a 35-year-old Syrian engineer and two fellow demonstrators were attacked by a group of men and women carrying pro-Assad flags. They say they were told by French police officers that no action could be taken against two of their assailants because they held diplomatic passports. Later that night, according to the engineer, more anti-regime protesters were attacked with baseball bats by the same group.

In the UK, the Foreign Office has raised concerns of intimidation on at least two occasions, while in the US, where concerns about Syrian diplomatic staff photographing and filming protesters have already led the state department to summon the country's ambassador to Washington, there have been similar reports of intimidation.

According to the Amnesty study, the elderly parents of a US-based Syrian were badly beaten and locked in their bathroom in the city of Homs after their son – a pianist and composer – was filmed performing at a pro-reform demonstration in front of the White House. In Illinois, an expatriate Syrian activist reported receiving a menacing email after one of her Facebook friends in Syria was arrested for protesting at his university and being forced to open his account on the social network.

It read: "These words are directed at you, you agent, you traitor. Your messages have come to us … We are waiting for you to come to the airport so we can show you what is good for you and for what you are doing. We will make an example out of you."

British-based demonstrators say they have also been filmed while protesting, phoned and visited at home by Syrian embassy staff, and threatened with death. One protester said Mukhabaraat officers raided his mother's home in Damascus, asking questions about him and eventually forcing her to flee the country.

Another British-based protester, Ghias Aljundi, told the Guardian he had been called on his mobile in June by someone claiming to be from the embassy. "He said: 'Don't think you are protected. We can get you anyway. It's better for you to stop what you are doing. You are a traitor'." Aljundi added: "I didn't feel comfortable at all. I know they're not going to do anything to me, but I immediately had to call my brothers to see what was happening [in Syria].

"The regime is completely morally bankrupt and so they can do anything."

Allegations of menacing behaviour by Syrian embassy staff in London have also prompted the Foreign Office to raise the issue of intimidation and harassment of protesters and their families on at least two occasions during meetings with the Syrian ambassador, who gave assurances that his staff were not involved in such activities. He said he would take action were evidence to emerge to the contrary.

The FO is also liaising with Scotland Yard and urging demonstrators to report any evidence of harassment or other crimes by embassy staff to the Metropolitan police.

Scotland Yard said it was aware of the allegations of intimidation and is investigating a claim of harassment made on 28 August.

Amnesty is calling on the Syrian government to immediately end its harassment of protesters and their families, and is asking the international community to make sure such intimidation does not go unchecked.

"We look to host governments to act on credible allegations of abuses without waiting for formal complaints," said Neil Sammonds, Amnesty's Syrian researcher.

"Many of the people we have spoken to are too scared of what could happen to them to make formal complaints with the police. We would expect that any official found responsible for such acts should be prosecuted, or – if diplomatic immunity prevents that – asked to leave the country."

No one at the Syrian embassy in London could be reached for comment on the allegations.

Despite the apparent intimidation, UK-based Syrians are planning to stage an "I am not afraid" demonstration outside the Syrian embassy on Tuesday morning.

During the protest, they will hold placards inscribed with their names and home towns.

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Syri� schrapt importverbod voor morrende elite

De Syrische overheid heeft besloten een importverbod van buitenlandse producten toch niet in te voeren. Dat meldt persbureau AP vandaag.

Volgens het offici�le staatspersbureau Sana besloot het regime de maatregel in te trekken nadat er onrust was ontstaan onder de rijke elite van het land. President Bashar al-Assad, die al maanden keihard optreedt tegen anti-overheidsdemonstraties, leunt zwaar op dit deel van de bevolking voor steun.

De overheid voerde de ban vorige maand in, in een poging de voorraden van buitenlandse deviezen niet verder te laten slinken, nu de economie van het land wordt meegtrokken in de politieke chaos die Syri� al zes maanden teistert.

Al maanden trekken dagelijks duizenden mensen de straat op om hun ongenoegen te uiten over het Assad-regime dat de macht al 41 jaar in handen heeft. Volgens de Verenigde Naties zijn er in de afgelopen maanden al zeker 2700 mensen om het leven gebracht door de overheid, dat onder meer het leger tegen de eigen burgers inzet.

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Syrische kolonel vlucht naar Turkije

De Syrische kolonel Riad al-Asaad is naar Turkije gevlucht. Hij riep zijn landgenoten vandaag vanuit Turkije op zich te verenigen in de strijd tegen het Syrische regime van president Bashar al-Assad.

De kolonel voerde al enige tijd vanuit Syri� verzet tegen het bewind. Hij is tot nu toe de hoogste Syrische militair die afstand heeft genomen van Assad. Volgens hem zijn al circa 10.000 Syrische militairen gedeserteerd.

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Veto Rusland en China tegen VN-sancties Syri�

(Novum/AP) - NEW YORK - Rusland en China hebben in de Veiligheidsraad van de Verenigde Naties hun veto uitgesproken tegen een resolutie die Syri� sancties oplegt als het niet onmiddellijk een einde maakt aan het militaire geweld tegen burgers.

Het zou de eerste juridisch bindende VN-resolutie tegen Syri� zijn geweest sinds het leger van president Bashar Assad half maart tanks en militairen begon in te zetten tegen antiregeringsdemonstranten. De verwerping van de resolutie toont de diepe kloven in de Veiligheidsraad over de manier waarop met het geweld in Syri� moet worden omgegaan. Volgens de VN kwamen meer dan 2700 mensen om sinds de opstand tegen het regime aanving.

De Europese indieners van de resolutie probeerden een veto eerder al te voorkomen door drie keer het taalgebruik in de resolutie af te zwakken, tot het punt dat het woord sanctie er niet meer in voorkwam, maar tevergeefs.

De stemming was negen tegen twee, met onthoudingen van India, Zuid-Afrika, Brazili� en Libanon.

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Op woensdag 5 oktober 2011 13:26 schreef HAKIM_1988 het volgende:
Rusland en China lijken wel de nieuwe imperialisten. Dom om tegen te stemmen, iedereen ziet dit en mocht er een revolutie plaats vinden dan worden de Chinezen en Russen buitenspel gezet door het Syrische volk. Zelfde als in Libi� .

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Dom om dat dom te noemen.

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Op woensdag 5 oktober 2011 14:30 schreef HAKIM_1988 het volgende:
@ Chooselife

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De Russen willen meer invloed in het MO. Zo bereiken ze het tegenovergestelde. Dus ja? Noem het hoe je wil.

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Op woensdag 5 oktober 2011 14:45 schreef waht het volgende:
Alsof het Kremlin zo'n integere, trouwe partner is geweest voor menig land.

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Op woensdag 5 oktober 2011 14:33 schreef waht het volgende:

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De Russen zijn de komende tien jaar nog van betekenis, dus ze spartelen nog wat in deze laatste jaren. Daarna zullen ze zich moeten onderschikken aan China, India en wie weet welke landen nog meer.

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Op woensdag 5 oktober 2011 15:08 schreef waht het volgende:

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De voormalige Sovjet-republieken wenden zich om een reden richting het westen. Het kremlin heeft hen decennialang als vuil behandeld, tegen marginale voordelen als lid van zo'n grote unie.

[..]

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In zo'n samenwerking zal China de machtigste partij zijn, ik denk niet dat de Russen dat kunnen verdragen. De Russen willen zelf de sterkste zijn, net als tijdens de USSR. Ze willen niet dansen naar de pijpen van de Chinezen die, toevallig, graag meer grondstoffen willen hebben.

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Oppositie: veto leidt tot meer geweld Syri�
PARIJS - De Chinees-Russische blokkade van een VN-resolutie tegen het bewind van de Syrische president Bashar al-Assad zal mogelijk tot meer geweld leiden. Dat zei woensdag de leider van de onlangs verenigde Syrische oppositie.

„Het steunen van Bashar al-Assad in zijn militaristische en fascistische project zal het Syrische volk niet aanmoedigen om vast te houden aan een vreedzame revolutie”, zei Bourhan Ghalioun, de leider van de Syrische Nationale Raad.

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Op woensdag 5 oktober 2011 15:49 schreef Chooselife het volgende:

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Ze denken er het grote geld te kunnen ophalen door een verkochte ziel aan het Westen/NAVO. Intrinsiek zijn ze Slavische zielsgenoten. Ze hebben een gezamenlijke historie en ontelbaar veel zaken gemeen met elkaar. De volkeren zijn onlosmakelijk met elkaar verbonden. Lees ook eens het belangrijke werk "clash of civilizations".
Het is dus een kwestie van een paar jaar wanneer men (lees: de machthebbers) zich daar beseft zich toch maar weer aan te sluiten bij de voorzieningen van moedertje Rusland.

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Op woensdag 5 oktober 2011 16:47 schreef zuiderbuur het volgende:

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Dat gaat eigenlijk enkel op voor Rusland, Wit-Rusland en Oekra�ne, die de "Oost-Slavische, orthodoxe" kern vormden. De banden met Wit-Rusland zijn goed, maar in Oekra�ne kijkt men naar west en oost tegelijk.

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Meer on-topic: misschien is af en toe kijken naar Russia Today niet zo slecht, niet dat alles daar zo waarheidsgetrouw is, maar je ziet het eens van de andere kant.
Waarom mogen China en Rusland hun veto niet gebruiken, als de VSA dat ook soms doet, en als NAVO-landen bombardementen uitvoeren in Libi� en daar contracten in de wacht slepen?

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Op woensdag 5 oktober 2011 16:57 schreef Chooselife het volgende:
In mijn ogen -en in de ogen van auteur Huntington- nog een incompleet geheel. Voeg daar gerust Servi�, Bulgarije, Griekenland, Roemeni�, Cyprus, Armeni� en "Georgi�" aan toe. Zij vormen inderdaad een orthodoxe band met elkaar.

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Die zender kijk ik niet. Hoewel het blikverruimend kan werken, vind ik de mate van propaganda te groot. Evenals CNN, FOX, Al Jazeera e.d. laten zien.
D� waarheid bestaat niet, maar de meest accurate informatie haal ik nog steeds uit boeken.

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Syrian insurrection set to gather momentum

UN failure to pass sanctions resolution against Assad's regime has convinced some that diplomacy cannot protect them

An armed insurrection inside Syria looks set to gather momentum after the failure to pass a UN resolution against president Bashar al-Assad's regime, according to dissidents in two key Syrian cities.

Activists from Homs and Hama, where mostly peaceful protests over the past six months have lately become more aggressive and armed, say the failure of the US effort to threaten sanctions against Syria has convinced some that diplomacy cannot protect them.

"There's no way out of this except to fight," said an activist from Homs. "For the people of Homs the international community are not with us and we know that for sure. Russia and China will continue to protect Assad and as long as that happens, he will hunt us down."

Britain, France and the US are expected to seek a fresh resolution on Syria before the UN Security Council after Russia and China on Tuesday night vetoed a draft that threatened sanctions, a security council source said.

The veto by Russia, supported by China, provoked the biggest verbal explosion from the US at the UN for years, with its ambassador Susan Rice expressing "outrage" over the Moscow and Beijing move.

Rice also walked out of the security council, the first such demonstration in recent years. While walk-outs are common at the UN general assembly, they are rare in the security council.

"It will not go away," the source said. "It will not be next week. We don't have a date. But there are a number of ways the security council can get back to this."

The vote was 9-2 in favour, with four abstentions: South Africa, India, Brazil and Lebanon.

Rice, who before joining the Obama administration established a reputation as an outspoken critic of the failure of the west to intervene in humanitarian crises round the world, said after the vote: "The United States is outraged that this council has utterly failed to address an urgent moral challenge and a growing threat to regional peace and security."

Without naming Russia and China but making it clear they were the target of her words, she said: "Let there be no doubt: this is not about military intervention. This is not about Libya. That is a cheap ruse by those who would rather sell arms to the Syrian regime than stand with the Syrian people."

She added: "This is about whether this council, during a time of sweeping change in the Middle East, will stand with peaceful protestors crying out for freedom – or with a regime of thugs with guns that tramples human dignity and human rights.

"We deeply regret that some members of the council have prevented us from taking a principled stand against the Syrian regime's brutal oppression of its people."

The resolution had been weakened considerably since the original text was circulated to the 15 security council members in early August seeking to impose sanctions.

The draft resolution on Tuesday only said the security council would "consider its options" in 30 days' time if Assad failed to stop the violence and seek a peaceful settlement of the crisis. It said the options would include sanctions. To further water down the resolution in an attempt to make it more acceptable to Russia and China, there was no hint of military intervention.

In Homs, where government forces are routinely clashing with armed members of the opposition – many of them former soldiers who defected with their weapons – outgunned protesters are now openly seeking weapons from outside the country.

"We know that we will not see Nato jets above the skies of Damascus," said one Homs resident. "It is us against them. No one else will help us."

In Beirut, where aid supplies to Homs and Hama are co-ordinated, aid workers said they had been receiving more requests for weapons than for food or medicine. "Of course we can't help with this. But it shows how much their priorities have changed."

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Op woensdag 5 oktober 2011 15:08 schreef waht het volgende:

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De voormalige Sovjet-republieken wenden zich om een reden richting het westen. Het kremlin heeft hen decennialang als vuil behandeld, tegen marginale voordelen als lid van zo'n grote unie.

[..]

In zo'n samenwerking zal China de machtigste partij zijn, ik denk niet dat de Russen dat kunnen verdragen. De Russen willen zelf de sterkste zijn, net als tijdens de USSR. Ze willen niet dansen naar de pijpen van de Chinezen die, toevallig, graag meer grondstoffen willen hebben.

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Top Kurd among 10 killed as Syrians protest

Ten Syrians, including a prominent Kurdish rights activist, were killed on Friday as thousands of people rallied against President Bashar al-Assad's regime and in support of a newly formed opposition front, activists said.

Kurdish activist and opposition spokesman Meshaal Tamo, 53, was killed when four masked gunmen stormed his house in Qamishli in the north and opened fire, also wounding his son and another fellow activist in the Kurdish Future Party, activists said.

Thousands of Kurds took to the streets in Qamishli after Tamo's death, and gathered outside the hospital where his body was taken.

The official SANA news agency reported Tamo's "assassination," but gave a different account of his death. It said he was killed "by gunmen in a black car who fired at his car."

Tamo, a member of the newly formed Syrian National Council (SNC) opposition grouping, had been released recently after three and a half years in prison.

AFP

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Activisten bestormen Syrische ambassade in Berlijn

Een groep van ongeveer dertig activisten heeft vanochtend de Syrische ambassade in Berlijn bestormd. De betogers slaagden erin de ambassade binnen te dringen en hebben vernielingen aangericht.

De groep betogers haalden gisteravond al de Syrische vlag bij de ambassade naar beneden, zei een woordvoerder van de Berlijnse politie vanochtend tegen persbureau AP. Na het binnendringen van de ambassade vanochtend werd door de boze demonstranten schade aangericht aan schilderijen en het meubilair. De ambassadeur en het personeel bleven volgens de politie ongedeerd. Niemand werd gearresteerd.

Zeven arrestaties in Londen na beklimmen Syrische ambassade

Gisteren arresteerde de politie in Londen zeven betogers die op het dak van de Syrische ambassade waren geklommen en met een Koerdische vlag stonden te zwaaien. Syri�rs in Londen, Berlijn en over de hele wereld zijn woedend over de dood van de Koerdische oppositieleider Mashaal Tammo. Hij werd vrijdag gedood door gemaskerde en gewapende lieden die zijn appartement in de noord-Syrische stad Qamishli waren binnengedrongen.

In Syri� zelf woonden gisteren ongeveer 50.000 mensen de begrafenis van Tammo in Qamishli bij. Bij gevechten tussen activisten en veiligheidstroepen voorafgaand aan de begrafenis kwamen zeker twee mensen om het leven. Volgens de Verenigde Naties heeft de bloedige repressie door het Syrische bewind van president Bashar al-Assad inmiddels aan bijna drieduizend mensen het leven gekost.

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Syri� sluit grens bij Qamishli

De Syrische autoriteiten hebben in de grensstad Qamishli de grensovergang naar het Turkse Nusaybin gesloten.

Dit berichten plaatselijke Turkse autoriteiten vandaag. Gisteren was Qamishli het toneel van een massale betoging tegen het regime van president Bashar al-Assad.

Activisten spraken over zeker 50.000 mensen die in Qamishli naar de begrafenis van de prominente Syrisch-Koerdische oppositiepoliticus Meshaal al-Tamo kwamen en hun afkeer van Assads regime kenbaar maakten. Tamo werd vrijdag in zijn woning in de stad vermoord. Turkije heeft 'de weerzinwekkende moord op Tamo en aanvallen op andere oppositieleiders' fel veroordeeld.

Tamo stichtte de liberale Partij van de Koerdische Toekomst en was lid van de onlangs gevormde Syrische Nationale Raad, die oppositie voert tegen Assad. Hij werd onlangs vrijgelaten nadat hij drie�nhalf jaar als politieke gevangene vastzat. Tamo was in eigen kring omstreden omdat hij Koerdisch nationalisme afwees.

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Op zondag 9 oktober 2011 11:57 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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BERLIJN - In heel Europa hebben Koerdische betogers zaterdagavond Syrische ambassades aangevallen.

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Op zondag 9 oktober 2011 13:05 schreef Monidique het volgende:

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http://www.nu.nl/buitenla(...)mbassades-syrie.html

Ik denk dat de Syrische regering met deze moord -ik ga ervan uit dat het de regering was- feitelijk een nieuw front heeft geopend. Er waren al demonstraties in het noord-oosten, maar dat zal nu intensiveren.

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Sun, 9 Oct 2011, 15:38 GMT+3 - Syria
The Associated Press news agency is reporting that the son of assassinated Kurdish-Syrian activist Mishaal al-Tammo has called for huge Kurdish protests in Syria.

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Op zondag 9 oktober 2011 14:55 schreef zuiderbuur het volgende:
De Syrische minister van buitenlandse zaken heeft vandaag landen gewaarschuwd niet de Syrian National Council te erkennen, en er is mee gedreigd om ambassades in Damascus "gelijkaardig" te behandelen. Opmerkelijk is dat er een delegatie van de ALBA in Damascus is om steun aan het regime te tonen.(Chavez, Morales,..?)

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/09/world/meast/syria-unrest/

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Op maandag 10 oktober 2011 17:14 schreef rakotto het volgende:
Volgens AJA schijnt dat er 15.000 soldaten gisteren zich bij het volk hebben aangesloten.

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Op dinsdag 11 oktober 2011 00:33 schreef Confetti het volgende:

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Propaganda.

Assad is een gewetenloze massamoordenaar die voor het strafhof moet verschijnen.

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Ik kom zelf uit Syri�, ik ben v��r Assad. Hij wil een beter Syri� cre�ren, misschien lukt dat niet zoals hij heeft gezegd maar ik denk dat g��n ��n persoon dat op korte termijn op de wereld kan want Syri� is ��n grote chaos. Mijn pa komt pas geleden uit Syri�, hij was daar op vakantie voor 3 weken en kon daar niks vinden met betrekking tot wat er in de nieuws wordt gezegd. Het word allemaal dramatisch verteld hier op het nieuws alsof mensen daar elke dag voor hun leven vrezen. Hij is in verschillende steden geweest zoals Homs, Aleppo, Kamishli maar iedereen liep daar vrolijk door de straten. mensen zijn tot in de nacht nog met z'n allen waterpijp aan het roken.

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Op dinsdag 11 oktober 2011 00:54 schreef Kelb het volgende:

Jij bent een gewetenloze geloofd-alles-wat-de-media-zegt. Jou kennis komt uit wat de (westerse) media je verteld terwijl die niet eens het land binnen mogen komen.

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Op dinsdag 11 oktober 2011 00:54 schreef Kelb het volgende:

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Jij bent een gewetenloze geloofd-alles-wat-de-media-zegt.

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At home with the Assads: Syria's ruthless ruling family

The dynasty founded on Hafez al-Assad's rise from poverty and obscurity is maintained by some uncompromising characters

It is evening, and in a large house in a leafy, upmarket district of Damascus, a trio of siblings have gathered in the home of their mother, Anisa Makhlouf al-Assad, the reclusive former first lady of Syria. Along with her son Bashar, the country's current president, his younger brother Maher, commander of the brutal Fourth Division, and their formidable older sister, Bushra, she pores over the latest reports from officials across the country, as Bushra's husband, Asef Shawkat, the president's chief of staff and former military intelligence chief, looks on.

How many people came out on the protests? What did they chant? How many were killed? The family debate, perhaps, over what more can be done to put down the protests, and argue over what reforms to offer, or where next to direct the extensive security forces at their disposal. The subtext to the gathering is clear: under no circumstances will they release their grasp on the country they have ruled for more than four decades.

Is this how they happen, the family gatherings of the house of Assad, whose brutal response to the wave of popular uprisings in Syria since January has reportedly left nearly 3,000 people dead? Only whispered reports have emerged of how the country's ruling family are co-ordinating their response – most journalists, of course, have been banned from Syria since the uprising began – but the many rumours of these meetings chime with the image, long-established, of a tightknit and power-hungry cabal that rules in secret, presided over by the steely family matriarch.

"It's a mafia; the family rules as a family," says someone who was formerly allowed glimpses into the Assad regime's inner sanctum. "No one knows the exact workings, but they are closing ranks more and more."

Despite the family's obsessive secrecy, tantalising clues to their relationships and often dysfunctional workings can be gleaned from talking to former associates, embassy officials, biographers and diplomatic correspondence, including cables released by WikiLeaks. They paint a picture of a once-humble family that rose, ruthlessly, to rule Syria with a combination of megalomania and arrogance, corrupted by power and paranoia.

It was not always this way. Hafez al-Assad, the former president and father of the current incumbent Bashar, was born in 1930 to a poor family, and into the minority Alawite sect, in the remote coastal village of Qardaha in western Syria. No one in the family had been educated even to secondary school level, and the village, at that time, did not have a road connecting it to the city.

But the smart, ambitious young man joined the Ba'ath party at 16 and the Syrian air force at 22, where he rose, eventually, to the post of commander-in-chief. In 1970 he seized the presidency in a coup, a position that the family have shown no inclination to relinquish, even after Hafez's death in 2000.

"Hafez was tough and shrewd, and attained power by working for it, while Bashar inherited it," said one Damascus-based analyst who, like most observers commenting these days on the Assad regime, asked for anonymity. "We can tell a lot about the family from that – today they have forgotten where they came from." The family and their entourage are now very much an urban elite, their spiritual home the wealthy Damascus suburbs of swish coffee shops and fast cars rather than the rural poverty from which they rose, and in which many Syrians now languish.

Hafez al-Assad's intentions to turn his presidency into the family business became clear, but the family's dynastic ambitions did not go according to plan. It was always Basel, the oldest, flamboyant son, who was being groomed, via a military career, to inherit the presidential mantle. A handsome, competitive jockey with a love of fast cars, he was killed in 1994, aged 31, after crashing his Mercedes on a Damascus motorway.

It is rumoured that for a time there was a debate over which brother should take Basel's place in the succession, with some, including, it was rumoured, the first lady, Anisa, favouring Maher, a military hardman in the mould of his father.

Instead it was Bashar, Maher's older brother by three years, who was recalled from London where he was training as an opthalmologist and pushed into the military. He was 34 when he became president.

The early years of Bashar's rule were marked by a brief opening of civil society that many hoped might herald a more liberal presidency. Any sense of Bashar, now 46, as a reformer has long since disappeared, however.

"[Bashar] changed over time from a well-intentioned man into someone who believed the propaganda and praise of the sycophants surrounding him," said David Lesch, an American academic and Assad's official biographer. Associates portray him as pleasant and gregarious, taking pains to act modestly – the family live in a house in Damascus's Malki neighbourhood, where Bashar has been known to surprise visitors by answering the door himself.

But critics are scathing of the president's leadership qualities. A guest who attended several dinners with him described him thus: "He has no charisma. You don't feel the urge to lean across the table to hear what he has to say." A 2009 cable from the US embassy in Damascus, released as part of the WikiLeaks hoard, is even less flattering, describing the president as vain and not as shrewd as his father, and yet to grow into his role after the loss of the head of the family.

In December 2000, five months after inheriting the presidency from his father, Bashar married Asma Akhras, a 25-year-old British-Syrian banker who had been born and educated in London, where her father, a consultant cardiologist, was a prominent member of the expat Syrian community.

Though the sophisticated and always beautifully dressed first lady attended a private London girls' school and speaks with the accent of the expensively educated, the family home is a modest, pebbledashed terrace in an anonymous street in Acton, west London.

Asma is smart and cosmopolitan and, in Damascus, her views are avidly discussed and speculated upon. How can she, an outsider to the family from a liberal western home, tolerate their brutality? "Some say she is upset and is isolating herself, others that she knew she married a dictator and is as bad as the rest of them," says the regime insider.

She is certainly an enigma, attending a Church of England school in west London (her family are secular Sunni Muslims) before sixth form at the private Queen's College, where her Syrian identity was almost hidden, and she called herself Emma.

"I don't remember her being referred to as Asma; she was definitely just Emma," recalls one schoolfriend. "She didn't stand out as a Muslim at all, not like some girls who wore more traditional dress. You wouldn't have thought she was anything but English, I guess. And I'm not sure I would have singled her out for great things."

She remembers her friend as funny, kind and "very friendly" – as one who did not take school that seriously, but did not cause a lot of trouble. There was, however, "a sharp side to her, and she didn't like being told off by the teachers", says the friend, recalling her walking out of more than one lesson, and on one occasion getting involved in a "huge catfight" with another girl – "proper scratching and knocking over lockers".

Whatever her private views, to many Syrians, Asma will always be an outsider. "She is his wife and has power over him, but ultimately she's seen as a foreigner and excluded from the core decisions," says Ayman Abdel Nour, a schoolfriend of and former adviser to the president, who now lives in exile. The same is not true of the couple's three children, a girl and two boys, who appear on posters and fridge magnets of the Assad family sold widely in Damascus markets. The oldest, called Hafez and aged just nine, is already being spoken of by some hardened regime loyalists as his father's successor.

Having been passed over for the presidency, Maher has pursued his military career with vigour. As a commander of the elite Republican Guard and the Fourth Division, he has been central to the violence. Despised by the protesters, he is, accordingly, lionised by some sections of the military who see his brother the president as weak, and posters of him adorn some neighbourhoods in Homs. Abdel Nour calls him "a military guy, the tough sort".

Maher reportedly shot and wounded his brother-in-law, Asef Shawkat, in 1999, though the two men were named together in a report into the death of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri as possibly having been responsible.

Shawkat's relationship with the family is complex. Basel reportedly blocked his marriage to Bushra because he had been married before, was older and had children,. The wedding was delayed until Bashar, to whom he is close, took power. But in another 2005 WikiLeaks cable, Shawkat was portrayed as isolated, with the president willing to sacrifice him if necessary to protect his brother Maher.

Bushra, a pharmacist, is described as smart and steely, a reclusive figure who nonetheless wields great influence behind the scenes. Her children are named Bushra, Maher, Basel and Anisa after other members of the family. "It shows her power hunger," the insider said. "People who know her say Bushra is a nightmare, stroppy and ruthless."

Despite their strong, uncompromising characters, the family are seen as close, presided over by Anisa as "head of the family council", according to Abdel Nour. "They all dine together on a Friday night – at least until the uprising," says Lesch. "I got the impression that relations were good."

Assailed in Syria, however, and increasingly isolated internationally, the family have become more insular, paranoid and out of touch with reality, say observers. "1982 is informing the regime," says Lesch, referring to the year the former president brutally quashed an armed Islamist uprising, killing thousands of civilians. Assad's speeches in which he said he has "felt the love" of his people suggests either delusion or vociferous self-denial, given the scale of dissent. It is this hubris, and this focus on its more secure past, that may be the family's downfall.

"The protests will not go away and the regime is finished," says one Damascus resident who has taken to the streets in protest. "But the family's gradual detachment from the people and its arrogance means they will be the last to realise it."

quote:

Syrische leger doorzoekt huizen in jacht op vijanden

Syrische troepen hebben vandaag stellingen van tegenstanders van het regime in de stad Homs met granaten bestookt. Ook worden huizen doorzocht in de jacht op tegenstanders. Dat meldden oppositieleden vanuit Libanon.

Zeker twee burgers zijn vannacht omgekomen. Vier Syrische militairen zijn volgens de staatsmedia door 'terroristen' gedood.

De top van de grootste religieuze groepering in Syri�, de soennitische moslims, heeft het Westen gewaarschuwd zich niet op militair vlak te bemoeien met Syri�. De top dreigde met het plegen van zelfmoordaanslagen in de Verenigde Staten en Europa als Syri� onder vuur wordt genomen.

Westerse landen hebben overigens vooralsnog geen intentie getoond om een militaire operatie in Syri� op te zetten zoals dat in Libi� gebeurde.