Onrust in Syri� #8 Waar overgelopen militairen Assad's leger aanvallen

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Syrische troepen vechten aan grens met ‘terroristen’ uit Turkije

Syrische grenswachten blokkeerden naar eigen zeggen vandaag een infiltratiepoging van ongeveer “35 terroristen” vanuit Turkije. Bij gevechten zouden infiltranten gewond zijn geraakt en geholpen zijn door het Turkse leger.

Dat meldt het Syrische staatspersbureau SANA. De gewonden zouden getransporteerd zijn naar ziekenhuizen door Turkse legervoertuigen. Het regime van de Syrische president Bashar al-Assad heeft in toenemende mate te maken met gedeserteerde soldaten en rebellen die de strijd aangaan met regeringstroepen. Volgens SANA zouden er bij de gevechten geen slachtoffers zijn gevallen bij de gevechten aan de grens.

Syrische deserteurs opereren vanuit Turkije

De banden met buurland Turkije verslechterden nadat het regime van Assad geen gehoor gaf aan oproepen van de Turkse regering om het geweld tegen de burgers te staken. Volgens de Verenigde Naties zijn bij de al bijna negen maanden durende volksopstand tegen het Syrische regime al zeker vierduizend doden gevallen.

Ankara zinspeelt al langer over het oprichten van een bufferzone langs de negenhonderd kilometer lange grens tussen de twee landen. Tienduizenden Syri�rs vluchtten al de grens over om te ontsnappen aan het regeringsgeweld. Naar verluidt smokkelen deserteurs en leden van het zogeheten ‘Vrije Syrische Leger’ (video) wapens vanuit Turkije Syri� binnen om aanvallen uit te voeren op de troepen van Assad, schrijft persbureau Reuters.

Amerikaanse ambassadeur keert terug naar Syri�

Internationaal staat Syri� zwaar onder druk om het geweld tegen de burgers te staken. Vorige week stelde de Arabische Liga een handelsverbod en een reisverbod in tegen elementen binnen het Syrische staatsapparaat. Ook Turkije, voorheen een bondgenoot van Assad, stelde economische sancties in tegen Syri�.

De Amerikaanse ambassadeur Robert Ford zal naar verwachting later vandaag terugkeren naar Damascus na zes weken afwezig te zijn geweest. Ford vertrok omdat zijn veiligheid niet meer gewaarborgd kon worden in het land. Eerder kreeg hij forse kritiek van het regime nadat hij zijn steun uitsprak aan de demonstranten en werd zijn konvooi bekogeld door woedende aanhangers van Assad in Damascus.

De Amerikaanse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Hillary Clinton riep ondanks de terugkeer van Ford, en daarmee het herstel van de diplomatieke banden, opnieuw op tot het vertrek van Assad.

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Assad tegenover de ABC:
. “Wij doden ons volk niet. Geen overheid doodt eigen burgers, tenzij deze geleid wordt door een gestoord persoon.”

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Op woensdag 7 december 2011 15:48 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
Assad ontkent verantwoordelijkheid voor 4000 dode betogers

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Syrian oil pipeline hit by explosion

State news agency blames terrorists for blast on pipeline carrying oil to refinery in restive Homs province

An explosion has hit a Syrian pipeline carrying oil to a refinery in the restive Homs province, activists and the state-run news agency said.

No casualties were reported and it was not clear who was behind the blast. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the pipeline had been bombed, and the state-run news agency Sana blamed terrorists.

"An armed terrorist group committed an act of sabotage," Sana reported. A government official said the blast caused a fire that had been burning for four hours.

In July there were two similar blasts on Syrian pipelines, with no injuries. Nomair Makhlouf, the general director of the Syrian Oil Company, said the pipeline hit this time served domestic requirements and carried 140,000 barrels a day.

Syria is trying to crush a popular uprising that is turning more violent as protesters take up arms. Sanctions from Turkey, the Arab League and the European Union are aimed at squeezing the Syrian economy and forcing the regime to halt the bloodshed. The EU has banned oil imports from Syria, a move that costs the regime millions of dollars a day.

On Wednesday, in a rare interview, Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, said he had not ordered the brutal suppression of the uprising, and insisted only a "crazy person" would kill his own people.

"I did my best to protect the people," he told ABC's Barbara Walters in Damascus. "You feel sorry for the life that has been lost, but you don't feel guilty when you don't kill people."

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Op donderdag 8 december 2011 20:11 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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فلاش باباعمرو انفجار انبوب النفط الذي تم قصفه صباحا مع المدرعة التي قصفته 8 12 2011

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Syria: lightly armed townsfolk against tanks as the army closes in on Benish

As Bashar al-Assad's security forces near a town that has lost 11 fighters, the resistance, although afraid, prepares to fight again.

Twice the army had come to Benish. On the first occasion, they arrested more than 70 people, demonstrators, old and young. The lucky ones were released after two months. Some are still missing. On the second occasion the people fought back, with hunting rifles, old guns, stones even. When the security forces withdrew there were 21 dead: 11 demonstrators and 10 pro-regime fighters.

The people had won their liberty, temporarily at least. Buildings were covered with anti-regime slogans. "Benish is free," reads graffiti scrawled with red paint on a whitewashed town wall. In the middle of the market square is a huge revolutionary flag in green and black and adorned with three red stars: it is the old Syrian flag, the one that predates the Assads.

But this freedom is precarious. The security forces are amassing once again at the town's margins. Today, as in other hotspots in Syria's nine-month uprising, this is a town under siege, surrounded by tanks and roadblocks manned by the army, police and pro-regime militias.

This menacing array does not dampen the revolutionary fervour. By night, crowds gather in the town centre. More than 100 men stand in rows waving their hands and chanting. A man called Hamza, who before the revolution sold gas canisters, had converted his wagon into a jury-rigged mobile broadcasting unit with two megaphones. He stood next to it, reading out slogans directed against the regime of the president, Bashar al-Assad, from a piece of paper.

"Ya Bashar. Ya Bashar. Ya Bashar must leave."

The crowd swung with rhythm and shouted back: "Ya Bashar must leave!"

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Inside Syria: the rebel call for arms and ammunition

Exclusive: With Syrian rebels desperate for arms, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad finds smugglers doing a roaring trade selling guns and bullets

The route across the Syrian border was marked by a single shining piece of string. It stretched from the road on the Turkish side for a few hundred metres to the steel and razor-wire fence that ran along the boundary.

The smugglers followed it silently and quickly, jumping from one stone to another in the moonlight. Each man carried a thick, plastic-wrapped load on his back. The plastic bundles rattled and clinked as they ran along.

Beyond the fence the shadows of men and animals moved. "Do you have money?" asked a Turkish voice.

"Next shipment," the Syrian replied.

A man with a scarf wrapped around his face held the coils of barbed wire flat while the cargo was passed across and loaded on to the backs of the waiting mules. Then the men hurried the animals away from the border and up into the mountains of northern Syria.

The smugglers paused on a cliff to examine the cargo. Inside the plastic packages were small boxes filled with pistols and bullets of different calibres.

One of the men broke off to answer his mobile phone. It was one of several lookouts keeping watch for Syrian security forces. There was a government patrol on the mountain: the men had to split up and move quickly.

"Grab the mule's reins and run along next to it," a smuggler hissed. In this fashion we climbed further into the mountains, playing cat and mouse with the Syrian patrol.

At the edge of a small village we lay in a ditch and waited. A man whistled and a white truck appeared. It had come to collect the cargo.

After eight months of vicious crackdowns by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, Syria's revolution is sliding towards civil war. Many in the opposition who have seen their friends and family members disappeared, tortured or shot by the Syrian security forces are looking for ways to fight back.

The smugglers, sensing a business opportunity, have been quick to respond. In the south of the country the weapons come from Lebanon.

Here in the north, they are flowing in from Turkey and Iraq.

"We used to smuggle cigarettes coming from Lebanon via Syria," a portly man told me the night before in Turkey as he channel-hopped between Egyptian chatshows. Since the start of the Syrian uprising new business opportunities had opened up. "Now we only do weapons," he said. "Three shipments per day."

After crossing the border into the north Syrian province of Idlib, we travelled to meet the revolutionary command council with Muhyo, a fighter, and Abu Salim.

Abu Salim had made it his job to find weapons and ammunition for the rebels after running out of bullets during a firefight with the regime. .

"When the army came to [the town of] Benish last time, we ambushed a bus filled with security people," he said. "I had a pistol and eight bullets, but after a few minutes of shooting I had run out. I stood there watching those dogs but had no ammunition. That's when I decided I would arm every man in my town."

Now he spends his days driving through villages and deserts, meeting smugglers and weapon dealers, scavenging bullets and old rifles. Each day he comes back with a gun or two and few bags of ammunition.

"The last time the army attacked Benish there were 30 Kalashnikovs in the town," he said. "Now we have more than 600."

In this part of Syria, the young men tell how they have sold their wives' jewellery, their cars and even their furniture to buy weapons and ammunition. "A man would rather sleep with his Kalashnikov than his wife," they say in Idlib.

Were they getting any support from outside Syria? Abu Salim laughed. "There is no outside support," he said. "You have seen how hard it is to get ammunition: the price of a bullet is $2, and an old Kalashnikov is $2,000."

To avoid the checkpoints around Benish, we left the road just before reaching a roadblock of four Syrian army tanks and drove on muddy dirt roads cutting through villages and olive orchards.

In the villages, we passed schoolchildren chanting revolutionary songs. Graffiti that read "the people want to topple the regime" and "Freedom" was painted over Ba'ath party slogans on school walls.

We climbed into hills covered in stubby olive trees. The army was unable to reach the fighters' hideouts on the mountain, so they harassed the people in the lower-lying villages to try to stop them helping fighters with food and assistance.

Driving up a narrow street in one village at the foot of the mountain, Abu Salim stopped the car and froze. Ahead of us, less than 100 metres away, was a long army and security convoy, three green army trucks, two military jeeps, six civilian SUVs, two buses and a couple of armoured vehicles.

Abu Salim swerved and entered the backyard of a house. Women were sitting outside the house sifting wheat and rice, but they moved their chair towards the entrance of the yard, to cover for us, strangers avoiding a military convoy. A few minutes later they gave us the signal to leave.

We followed the convoy from a distance. The commander of the village, a veteran jihadi from the Iraq war, drove ahead on a motorbike, his Kalashnikov slung on his back. He and a few of his gunmen escorted us to the safe house where members of the revolutionary command council would convene later in the day.

From the window, the mountains folded away towards the horizon. Around 20 fighters sat in the different rooms, chatting, eating, praying or just sleeping.

The walls of each room were piled with blankets, mattresses and gym bags. Towels and jackets were hung from nails on the walls. Muhyo sat with an older fighter, in his late 50s, exchanging stories of torture. The man had been detained by the security forces in President Assad's father's era, when Muslim Brotherhood fighters roamed the mountains and the countryside in Edlib.

"Each day they would leave the food for us in the middle of the prison yard where one of us had to fetch it. They would beat him on the way out and on the way back."

A teenage boy in a black tracksuit sat listening and cleaning guns. He dismantled each weapon methodically and then with a small towel dipped in petrol cleaned every joint and bolt.

Late that night, the revolutionary leadership gathered in a small room. A dozen men sat around a kerosene heater whose fumes mingled with cigarette smoke and made a stuffy atmosphere. They were an eclectic mix of tribesmen, farmers and city people, Islamists and nationalists, young and old, bearded and clean-shaven.

"We started the revolution because we wanted to be treated like humans, we are looking for our humanity," said Amar, a commander with a short beard and thick arms. "All my life I have been treated like an inferior, a human being of the 10th class, while Assad and his people controlled this country. We also have a right in this country."

One of the council members seemed to carry more authority than the others. He was thin and angry, his face creased like an old leather chair.

"This revolution was led by the kids, the children," he said. "It's their revolution. This is the generation that didn't see the horrors of the 80s.

"If it was up to us we would have never started the revolution. We have been burned once. But they are brave. They led and we followed."

Who was in charge of it? The people inside Syria or the Syrian National Council based in Turkey? "We don't have a Benghazi so the revolution has two arms. The people outside, who have no weight on the ground, and the people inside, who are actively leading. But the people inside are scared. They can't talk in public. No one knows who they are because they are afraid and we don't have a safe haven.

"Look at all these men in this room," he said, gesturing towards them. "I didn't know any of them before March and they didn't know me. I don't trust them and they don't trust me. I know one of us is a spy and this is why we take all these precautions. This is an evil regime. It has converted Syria into a big prison where everyone is a spy.

"I don't count on major defections in the army because all the big commanders are Allawite. But if there was a safe haven, a protected zone or a no-fly zone, people would defect. Low-ranking officers and NCOs, the backbone of the army, would defect."

When two short, delicate Bedouin tribesmen entered the room, the fighters sprang to their feet.

Abu Ali and his companion were two smugglers from the Iraqi border. Their tribe, the Shamar, stretches from eastern Syria to Mosul in northern Iraq and south to Saudi Arabia, and they move freely between these countries in pick-up trucks, ferrying goods and sheep and smuggling weapons and fuel. They laid out their wares on the floor: 10 old Kalashnikovs, two rusty RPGs, six rockets for the RPG and one medium machine gun.

The revolutionaries fell on the rusty old weapons and carried them to the boys sitting behind the commanders. The boys stripped each gun to its bolts and springs in a few minutes, cleaned them and put them back together. They cocked them and pulled the triggers. The weapons gave a metallic click.

Abu Ali, who spoke in a thick Bedouin accent, began. "I swear by Allah, I told our Iraqi brothers that these weapons are going to help our brothers in their fight and they should help us because we are fighting for the sake of god."

"How much?" asked Ammar.

Abu Ali told Ammar he knew him and had worked with him before and trusted him: "Wallah for your eyes each one of the Kalashnikovs is $1,600. The RPGs are $5,000 with two rockets. The machine-gun is $5,000."

There were gasps. "Abu Ali, you are a charity," said one of the commanders sarcastically.

"The Syrians have mined the border," said Abu Ali. "We have to walk for miles each way carrying them on our backs."

"We have emptied Mosul; no more guns there," said the smuggler's companion, who sat at the back, his eyes darting from one man to the other.

The bargaining proved irrelevant; the men had already snatched their guns and were now counting out thick slabs of money.

"What about ammunition," said an old man. "We need bullets. I can't send them to fight with one magazine each."

"Tomorrow, inshallah," said Abu Ali.

The fighters packed the guns and left, each taking a different route, leaving nothing to chance.

To defect or not to defect?

Hussam is a soldier in the Syrian army. His brother and two cousins are fighting for the rebels.

"I would defect tomorrow if you could protect my family," Hussam said. "But if I defected they would arrest my father and my brothers and the whole family would have no income. The regime is still in control.

"I am as low as I can be, my morale is below zero. I don't know what to do, my family and people are getting killed – yet still there are no defections in the army.

"When they say the Syrian army is an ideological army they are right. The political officers and the Ba'ath party and the Assad family control the army. Even if a general did defect, he wouldn't defect with his tanks and soldiers, he would defect on his own. So arming of the revolution is a mistake, it will not be strong enough to stand against the army and resist properly.

"With my artillery unit I could sweep through Benish in one hour. When the officers and the regime tell the soldiers that the villagers are armed, they will come in scared and shoot at everything.

"But when soldiers know that they are facing unarmed civilians, they are human beings after all. How many bullets were fired when they toppled Mubarak? Zero. Now everyone is armed, fine. But what's next?

"If you want officers to defect give them a no-fly zone, give them a safe haven, where they can take their families."

Hameed defected from the Syrian army three months ago.

"We were fighting in Rastan. They gave us the order to shoot and I could see we were shooting at civilians. Then the demonstrators started shooting back. There was chaos and I ran away down an alleyway heading towards the edge of town, but I saw the town was surrounded so I turned back. I walked through the dark streets knocking at doors, but no one would let me in. They saw me in my military uniform carrying a gun and they must have thought I was there to search or detain people. Then Allah sent me one man who opened his door. I told him I had run away and he took me in gave me fresh clothes and kept me inside."

Three days later Hameed arrived back in his village. From there he was smuggled over the mountains into Turkey where he claimed asylum and was hosted in a refugee camp for defected officers. He later joined the Free Syrian Army under the command of Colonel Reyadh Assad.

"We did nothing there [in Turkey], just sat in our tents and watched TV and sometimes gave press interviews. I told them I hadn't defected to sit in a tent, I wanted to fight. They kept telling me to wait, that they had a plan, but nothing happened."

After three months in Turkey Hameed ran away again; this time he arranged for the rebels to smuggle him back into Syria.

"There is no such thing as a Free Syria Army," he said. "It's a joke. The real revolutionaries are here in Syria in the mountains."

On Zawiya mountain, I met another defected officer. He had taken leave from the army to see his family, and when he reached his village he joined the fighters in the mountains.

"The regime can't reach my family," he said. "That's why I could run away." Most soldiers couldn't defect because they feared for their families if they did. "The army is under the strict control of the political officers, who ensure we live in cocoon where we can't see what's happening outside." Soldiers were not allowed to watch the Arabic news channels, just the propaganda served up by state TV, he said. "The political officers tell us every day that we are fighting armed gangs paid by the Americans and the Saudis.

"If only they would impose a no fly zone," he said, "then the whole army would split."

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

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Syria holds elections amid crackdown- live updates

• Clashes between Syrian defectors and army spread
• Low turn-out expected in local vote as opposition calls for boycott
• Speculation of Homs assault mounts ahead of 'deadline'

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Syrian rebels gun down eight soldiers in retaliation after civilian deaths

Men described as defectors from the armed forces ambush a convoy of four jeeps on the outskirts of Hama

Eight Syrian soldiers have been gunned down in an apparent revenge attack after security forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed five civilians.

In an incident that was seen as further evidence of Syria's downward spiral into permanent insurgency, the soldiers were ambushed while driving in a convoy of four jeeps on the outskirts of Hama, by men described as defectors from the armed forces. The Syrian Observatory for Human rights, the UK-based opposition group, posted the details on its website and said the attack was retaliation for the killing of five civilians by security forces in nearby Khattab. Witnesses said their vehicle was hit by a tank or mortar shell.

In a separate casualty tally for the day, the Local Coordination Committees, an opposition network, reported 26 dead, including two women and a child. Nine people died in Homs, eight in Hama, three in Idlib and two each in Damascus and Deraa, it said. The Syrian Revolution General Commission said it had recorded 30 killed.

Activists also described tanks attacking Hama after a three-day general strike that shut down most businesses. The city's rebel council called it the biggest government incursion since Ramadan and described "random shelling" by regime forces.

None of these claims can be independently verified due to restrictions on the media imposed by the Syrian government. It insists it is fighting "armed terrorist gangs" backed by a "conspiracy" of its western and Arab enemies.

Sana, Syria's official news agency, gave prominence on Wednesday to a report on the funerals of seven members of the security forces who had been killed "in the line of duty" in Homs, Hama and Deraa.

The latest violence followed rising tensions after the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, told the UN security council that Assad's government should be investigated by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. Pillay said 5,000 people had been killed since unrest erupted in March and more than 14,000 people were in detention.

But Syria's envoy to the UN dismissed Pillay's findings, saying she was not objective and had allowed herself to be used to mislead public opinion. Bassam Jaafari said the evidence was based on the testimony of defectors and was therefore unreliable. On Thursday, Human Rights Watch is set to issue a report naming 70 Syrian military commanders and intelligence officials it says need to be investigated for issuing or condoning "shoot-to-kill orders".

In Damascus, the official media highlighted a meeting between senior Syrian and Iranian officials about economic co-operation, apparently designed to signal Tehran's continuing support for Damascus after Arab League economic action against the Assad regime. Iran backs Syria in describing the unrest as a western plot.

In a related development the Syrian human rights activist Ammar Qurabi told Al Arabiya TV that a plan for establishing humanitarian corridors on the Syrian-Turkish border had been drawn up, and suggested that Turkey might seek help from Nato to establish them.

The US and EU have also imposed economic sanctions on Syria, and Washington and its western allies are pushing for UN sanctions in the face of strong resistance from Russia and China – which wield vetoes on the UN security council.

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Rusland stelt Syri�-resolutie VN voor

Rusland heeft vandaag verrassend een VN-resolutie over de toestand in Syri� voorgesteld. De ontwerptekst voor de Veiligheidsraad veroordeelt het geweld 'van alle partijen, waaronder buitensporig gebruik van geweld door de Syrische autoriteiten'. Rusland blokkeerde tot op heden ieder VN-optreden tegen bondgenoot Syri�.

Frankrijk noemde het Russische resolutievoorstel 'een buitengewone gebeurtenis'. Volgens de Franse VN-gezant Gerard Araud 'heeft Rusland de druk van de internationale gemeenschap gevoeld'.

De kritiek is echter dat de resolutie niet ver genoeg gaat. Zo wil Rusland geen sancties omdat die volgens Moskou 'counterproductief' zouden zijn. Frankrijk en Duitsland geloven juist dat een wapenembargo en hard, duidelijk taalgebruik, nodig zijn. Ze hopen hier met Rusland over te kunnen onderhandelen, en zo het voorstel 'sterker' te maken.

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‘Assad zet binnen 24 uur handtekening onder vredesplan Liga’

Bashar al-Assad is eindelijk van zins het vredesplan van de Arabische Liga te ondertekenen. Na weken van traineren komt er een einde aan het met geweld neerslaan van antitegimeprotesten. Althans, dat beweert het hoofd van de commissie die zich namens de Liga bezighoudt met Syri�.

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Op maandag 19 december 2011 09:34 schreef zuiderbuur het volgende:
Is dit hier al gepost? Het dateert van november, en toont twee Libanese politici die live bijna op de vuist gaan omtrent Assad. Libanon is het kleine broertje van Syri�, dat verder enkel aan Isra�l grenst (maar dat niet erkent), en bestaat net zoals Syri� uit allerlei groepen (Armeni�rs, Druzen, Alawieten, soennieten, Palestijnen,maronieten,...)

Lebanese Politicians Fight on Live TV [ENGLISH SUBTITLES]

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Minister: Syri� stemt in met vredesplan Arabische Liga

Syri� zegt vandaag te hebben ingestemd met een vredesplan van de Arabische Liga. Dat meldde de Syrische minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Walid al-Moualem.

Syri� staat waarnemers toe, trekt troepen terug uit stadscentra en zal politieke gevangenen vrijlaten. 'De ondertekening van het protocol is het begin van de samenwerking tussen ons en de Arabische Liga en we zullen hun waarnemers verwelkomen', aldus Moualem, die zei op advies van de Russen te hebben getekend.

De eerste waarnemers moeten binnen 72 uur al in Syri� aan de slag zijn, meldde de Arabische Liga. Het kan Frankrijk niet snel genoeg gaan. 'We betreuren het dat er meer dan 30 mensen zijn gedood in de afgelopen twee dagen. Het is urgent', aldus een woordvoerder van het Franse ministerie. Ook media zijn welkom in het Arabische land, op voorwaarde dat ze hun werk objectief doen, zei Moualem.

De minister verwacht dat de waarnemers met eigen ogen zullen zien dat gewapende rebellen de rellen veroorzaken en niet, zoals het Westen en mensenrechtenorganisaties zeggen, vreedzame burgers. 'Er zijn veel landen in de wereld die niet willen toegeven dat er gewapende terroristengroepen in Syri� zijn', zei de minister. 'De waarnemers zullen komen en zien dat ze er wel zijn. We hebben niets om bang voor te zijn.'

De Arabische Liga hoopt met de afspraken een einde te kunnen maken aan een maandenlang conflict tussen burgers en het regime van president Bashar al-Assad. Het verbond trekt al weken aan Damascus om hen aan de onderhandelingstafel te houden. Pas nadat de Liga sancties instelde, werd Syri� meegaander.

Vooralsnog geldt de overeenkomst een maand, daarna moeten de afspraken worden verlengd.

Weinig waarde
De Syrische Nationale Raad, een koepel van oppositiegroepen, hecht weinig waarde aan de acceptatie van een vredesplan door het regime van president Bashar al-Assad. Voorzitter Burhan Ghaliun van de Nationale Raad zei dat Damascus het plan alleen heeft aanvaard om te voorkomen dat de Veiligheidsraad van de Verenigde Naties zich gaat buigen over het geweld in Syri�.

Leden van de oppositie meldden dat ondanks de acceptatie van het vredesplan door Damascus, veiligheidstroepen vandaag weer keihard hebben opgetreden tegen betogers. Daardoor zouden zeker 13 doden zijn gevallen, onder meer in het zuiden en de noordelijke provincie Idlib.

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Bloedige dag in Syri� – VN veroordelen schending mensenrechten

Vandaag zette Syri� een handtekening onder het vredesprotocol waarin staat dat internationale waarnemers het land in mogen. Tegelijkertijd was het ��n van de bloedigste dagen in het land sinds de opstand negen maanden geleden uitbrak. Volgens Syrische activisten kwamen er vandaag meer dan 100 mensen om het leven.

70 deserteurs van het legers zouden in de buurt van de Turkse grens zijn neergeschoten door Syrische veiligheidstroepen. 30 andere mensen kwamen om het leven bij gevechten op andere plekken in het land, aldus activisten aan persbureau AP. Omdat vrijwel geen buitenlandse journalisten toestemming krijgen in Syri� te werken, is het moeilijk om onafhankelijke bevestiging te krijgen van nieuws uit het land.

Volgens de Verenigde Naties zijn al meer dan vijfduizend mensen omgekomen sinds de demonstraties in Syri� in maart begonnen. Assad ontkent de verantwoordelijkheid te hebben voor de slachtoffers.

VN veroordelen schending mensenrechten

De Verenigde Naties hebben tijdens de Algemene Vergadering het geweld van het Syrisch regime zwaar veroordeeld. Een resolutie waarin wordt gesproken van het “schenden van mensenrechten” en waarin de regering in Damascus word opgeroepen om een einde te maken aan het geweld tegen betogers, werd aangenomen met 133 stemmen voor en 11 tegen bij 43 onthoudingen. Onder andere Cuba, Wit-Rusland, Noord-Korea, Venezuela en Zimbabwe stemden tegen de resolutie.

Op het hoofdkwartier van de Arabische Liga in Kairo ondertekende de Syrische onderminister van Buitenlandse Zaken Faisal Mekdad vandaag wel het het vredesprotocol van de Liga. Syri� weigerde wekenlang het vredesplan te ondertekenen omdat dan internationale waarnemers moeten worden toegelaten. Het land kreeg als diverse sancties opgelegd van de Arabische alliantie en werd bovendien als lidstaat geschorst. Volgens de Syrische minister van Buitenlandse Zaken, Walid al-Moallem, zijn waarnemers van de Liga vanaf nu wel welkom in het land.

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‘Meer dan honderd doden op bloedigste dag in Syri�’

Syrische troepen hebben gisteren volgens activisten 111 mensen gedood in aanhoudende pogingen de volksopstand tegen het regime van president Assad neer te slaan. De dag van gisteren is daarmee de bloedigste dag van de Syrische opstand tot nu toe.

De berichten over de meer dan honderd doden die gisteren zouden zijn gevallen komen een dag voordat waarnemers van de Arabische Liga beginnen aan hun missie om toe te zien op de naleving van het vredesplan dat het Syrische regime maandag ondertekende. Gisteravond stond het dodental van gisteren nog op iets meer dan dertig.

Frankrijk: slachtpartij van ongekende schaal

Het in Londen gevestigde Syrisch Observatorium voor Mensenrechten zei vanmiddag tegen persbureau Reuters dat de 111 dodelijke slachtoffers van gisteren burgers en activisten zijn en dat de slachtoffers verspreid over heel Syri� vielen. Een woordvoerder van het Franse ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken sprak over “een slachtpartij van ongekende schaal”. Het dodental onder burgers is volgens activisten opgelopen tot boven de 200 in de laatste 48 uur.

In de noordelijke provincie Idlib zouden gisteren ook nog eens meer dan honderd deserteurs uit het Syrische leger zijn gedood. Gewapende opstandelingen zouden sinds zondag veel zeventien voertuigen van het Syrische leger in brand hebben gezet en veertien regeringssoldaten hebben gedood. In reactie hierop zou het Syrische leger genadeloos hebben gereageerd en tientallen deserteurs hebben gedood.

Syrische oppositie roept VN op veiligheidszones in te stellen

De Syrische Nationale Raad, waarin belangrijke oppositiegroeperingen vertegenwoordigd zijn, riep de Verenigde Naties en de Arabische Liga vandaag opnieuw op meer te doen om de burgerbevolking te beschermen. De tegenstanders van Assad willen dat de VN het geweld sterk veroordeelt en dat er binnen Syri� veiligheidszones voor burgers worden ingesteld.

De Verenigde Staten lieten in een schriftelijke verklaring weten dat het regime van Assad het niet langer verdient om Syri� te besturen en waarschuwde dat de internationale gemeenschap harde maatregelen zal nemen als Syri� het vredesplan van de Arabische Liga niet accepteert.

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'Syrisch leger slacht volledig dorp af'


Syrische regeringstroepen hebben gisteren het dorp Kfar Owaid, zo'n dertig kilometer van de Turkse grens, omsingeld en alle burgers in het dorp gedood. Het beleg, dat gepaard ging met raketvuur, tankgranaten, bommen en geweervuur hield urenlang aan en heeft aan 110 mensen het leven gekost. Dat heeft Rami Abdul-Rahman van het Syrische Observatorium voor de Mensenrechten gezegd.

Het was een vooraf opgezette slachting, zei Abdul-Rahman. 'De troepen hebben de mensen omsingeld en vervolgens gedood.' De Syrische autoriteiten hebben niet op de berichten gereageerd.

Volgens Abu Rabih, een ooggetuige, vluchtten tientallen activisten gisterochtend van Kfar Owaid naar de nabijgelegen Budnaya-vallei. Daar werden ze omsingeld door de regeringstroepen. Volgens Rabih werden er ook met spijkers gevulde bommen ingezet om het aantal dodelijke slachtoffers te vergroten. 'Wat gisteren is gebeurd was een misdaad tegen de menselijkheid', aldus Rabih.

Slachting
Turkije heeft de aanval op Kfar Owaid scherp veroordeeld. De Turkse minister van buitenlandse zaken Ahmet Davutoglu noemde de dood van zoveel burgers 'onaanvaardbaar'. Het plan van de Arabische Liga om waarnemers naar Syri� te sturen kan nog steeds op de steun rekenen van Turkije, aldus Davutoglu. Hij zei te hopen 'dat de slachting snel wordt be�indigd'.

De Verenigde Staten riepen vandaag opnieuw op tot het aftreden van de Syrische president Bashar Assad. Volgens het Witte Huis is het regime van Assad ongeloofwaardig en heeft het de toezegging om het geweld te be�indigen 'op grove wijze geschonden'. De VS zullen verdere stappen tegen Syri� ondernemen als het plan van de Liga niet volledig wordt doorgevoerd. Ook Duitsland en Frankrijk hebben het geweld vandaag scherp veroordeeld.

De Syrische Nationale Raad, de belangrijkste oppositiebeweging, omschreef de aanval op het dorp als 'een brute slachting en genocide'. De groep heeft er bij leden van de VN-Veiligheidsraad op aangedrongen een spoedberaad over Syri� te houden.

Assad stemde maandag in met het plan van de Arabische Liga. Het alsmaar oplopende dodental doet echter vermoeden dat Assad alleen maar probeert tijd te rekken om nieuwe sancties van de internationale gemeenschap zo lang mogelijk uit te stellen. 'Het regime probeert de situatie onder controle te krijgen voordat de Arabische Liga waarnemers stuurt, maar het is voorbij. Het regime zal vallen', aldus Abdul-Rahman.

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A picture has emerged of a mass defection in Idlib on Tuesday that went badly wrong, with loyalist forces positioned to mow down large numbers of defectors as they fled a military base. Those who managed to escape were later hunted down in hideouts in nearby mountains, multiple sources have reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated that "100 deserters were besieged, then killed, or wounded". "Regular troops allegedly also hunted down residents who had given shelter to the deserters," it said.

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More than 10,000 soldiers have deserted from the Syrian army according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Its sources claim half the conscripts are not reporting for duty.