Crisis in Syri� #12 Als christenen in een Colosseum

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Op zondag 24 juni 2012 20:54 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Zonder Ghaddafi die ongewapende demonstranten met luchtafweer van de weg af schoot was er helemaal geen gewapende opstand geweest.

Alle regimes maken dezelfde fouten en gaan ten onder.

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Op dinsdag 26 juni 2012 18:43 schreef Aloulou het volgende:
Zijn regime gaat niet nog een jaar standhouden denk ik. Militairen blijven overlopen en ook hogere generaals. Op Al Jazeera ook weer dat een regiment v circa 200 soldaten is overgelopen. De gevechten zijn in Damascus inmiddels overdag, wat aangeeft dat de macht van Assad langzaamaan wegvalt. Hoe langer en langzamer de macht wegglipt hoe meer hogere pieten met Assad ook eieren voor hun geld gaan kiezen.

Khadafi was tenminste niet gevlucht naar een buurland, zoals hij aangaf dat hij niet zou doen. Maar Moammer had dan ook een flinke steek los zitten. Dat heeft Assad niet op dezelfde manier. Zal vermoedelijk wel richting Teheran of Moskou gaan inderdaad. Of misschien nog een verdwaalde communist in Zuid Amerika die hem graag ontvangt, Cuba?

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Op dinsdag 26 juni 2012 18:43 schreef Aloulou het volgende:
Zijn regime gaat niet nog een jaar standhouden denk ik. Militairen blijven overlopen en ook hogere generaals. Op Al Jazeera ook weer dat een regiment v circa 200 soldaten is overgelopen. De gevechten zijn in Damascus inmiddels overdag, wat aangeeft dat de macht van Assad langzaamaan wegvalt. Hoe langer en langzamer de macht wegglipt hoe meer hogere pieten met Assad ook eieren voor hun geld gaan kiezen.

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Khadafi was tenminste niet gevlucht naar een buurland, zoals hij aangaf dat hij niet zou doen. Maar Moammer had dan ook een flinke steek los zitten. Dat heeft Assad niet op dezelfde manier. Zal vermoedelijk wel richting Teheran of Moskou gaan inderdaad. Of misschien nog een verdwaalde communist in Zuid Amerika die hem graag ontvangt, Cuba?

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Op dinsdag 26 juni 2012 22:05 schreef Ikwilookeenfokkerzijn het volgende:
Naast Moskou zit ik aan Londen te denken. Zijn vrouw is toch een Britse? Wie weet zal Assad wel een deal met de VK maken. Maar of de gewone Brit dat ziet zitten

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On 23 March 2012, European Union ministers froze her assets and placed a travel ban on her and other family members. Asma al-Assad herself remains able to travel to the UK because of her British nationality.

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Op dinsdag 26 juni 2012 16:10 schreef JaJammerJan het volgende:

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Bron van dat luchtafweer?

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Libya protests: Reports of intense Benghazi violence

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Wherever they are hiding, they must be running out of arms. All day defecting troops and officers were lugging in thousands of pounds of ammunition to a courtyard inside the secret police headquarters on Bengazi's waterfront. By the day's end an arsenal that could easily supply an army brigade was piled up. There were plastic explosives, rockets, machine guns and even the anti-aircraft weapon that was used to mow down demonstrators as they assaulted the military base on Sunday.

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"That is where the anti-aircraft gun was and that is where all the African mercenaries were found dead," said Mohamed Fatah, who was part of the throng that attacked the base. "The people were leading a funeral march past the big roundabout and people from inside the base opened fire," he said. "They went home, gathered themselves and came back. This is what happened."

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Gaddafi's reported use of mercenaries appears to have tipped the hand of many protesters and armed forces. "That is why we turned against the government," said air force major Rajib Feytouni. "That and the fact that there was an order to use planes to attack the people."

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Assad: Syri� verkeert in oorlog

Syri� verkeert aan alle kanten in een echte oorlog. Dat zei president Bashar al-Assad vandaag tegen het kabinet dat hij kort daarvoor had ge�nstalleerd. 'Als we in oorlog zijn, moet al het beleid en moeten alle partijen erop gericht zijn die oorlog te winnen', aldus de president.

Assad gaf geen signaal dat hij bereid is tot toenadering tot de oppositie. Hij beschuldigde het Westen ervan dat het alleen neemt en nooit geeft. Daarvan heeft het volgens hem steeds weer blijk gegeven sinds de opstand tegen zijn bewind in maart vorig jaar begon.

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Op dinsdag 26 juni 2012 23:38 schreef Ikwilookeenfokkerzijn het volgende:
Volgens Wiki heeft Asma nog steeds de Britse nationaliteit en:

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Dat de bevolking het niet leuk vindt, snap ik. Maar men zal duidelijk maken dat �f hij komt hier naartoe �f hij zal doorgaan met moorden. Al denk ik wel dat Moskou zeker een veel grotere kanshebber is.

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Ik hoorde dat Bashar Assad niet de opvolger was, maar zijn broer die later om kwam in een auto-ongeluk. Assad wilde oogarts worden. Je zal hem maar als oogarts hebben..

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Op woensdag 27 juni 2012 00:16 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Ze schoten op een begravenisstoet.

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Anders lees je even terug:
Protesten in Libi� - deel 2

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and even the anti-aircraft weapon that was used to mow down demonstrators as they assaulted the military base on Sunday.

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who was part of the throng that attacked the base.

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"The people were leading a funeral march past the big roundabout and people from inside the base opened fire,"

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Op woensdag 27 juni 2012 03:12 schreef JaJammerJan het volgende:

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Heb je het wel goed gelezen?

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dus eens kijken,

De vredige demonstranten waren een militaire basis aan het belegeren. Zeer vredelievend enzo..en je kan dan totaal niet verwachten dat er op je teruggeschoten gaat worden.

Wat denk je dat er zou gebeuren als een groep gewapende rebellen Area 52 in de Verenigde Staten proberen te belegeren? Kapot geschoten worden ze.

en dan dit:

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en toen was er toevallig een begrafenisstoet die daar liep tijdens de aanval op de basis die beschoten werd?
Of als dat eerder gebeurd is, is het nog altijd zeer dubieus.

Bevestigt mijn verhaal

Libya on the Line - Part 1

Libya on the Line - Watch part two

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Op woensdag 27 juni 2012 09:47 schreef HAKIM_1988 het volgende:

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Voordat jij dit topic verder vervuilt met je rollende en trollende reacties , doe de moeite eens om even deze vijf documentaires te bekijken.

- The long road to Tripoli part 1

http://www.aljazeera.com/(...)112874023937788.html

- The long road to Tripoli part 2

http://www.aljazeera.com/(...)112891213848598.html

- Holding the line

http://www.aljazeera.com/(...)128125052290525.html

- Libya on the line part 1

Libya on the Line - Part 1

- Libya on the line part 2

Libya on the Line - Watch part two

Ze zullen medelijden met je hebben in Libie als je begint over de 'geweldige gezondheidszorg' van Gaddafi.

Mensen die 42 jaar onder hem hebben geleefd hebben meer recht van spreken dan jij. Jij kan alleen maar die mensen geluk toewensen.

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Syrian pro-Assad TV station staff killed in armed raid on studios

Government says rebels attacked press freedom as debate rages whether those dead were journalists or propagandists

Gunmen raided the headquarters of a pro-government Syrian TV station early on Wednesday, killing seven employees, kidnapping others and demolishing buildings, officials said.

An Associated Press photographer who visited the al-Ikhbariya station's compound said five portable buildings used for offices and studios had collapsed, with blood on the floor and wooden partitions still on fire. Some walls had bullet holes.

Al-Ikhbariya is privately owned but strongly supports President Bashar Assad's regime. Pro-government journalists have been attacked on several previous occasions during the country's 15-month uprising. "What happened today is a massacre," the information minister, Omran al-Zoebi, told reporters. He blamed terrorists – the same word the government uses for rebels.

Rebels deny they target the media. Much of the violence that has gripped Syria over the past 15 months has been sanctioned by the government to crush dissent. But rebel fighters are launching increasingly deadly attacks on regime targets, and several massive suicide attacks this year suggest al-Qaida or other extremists are joining the fray.

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said on Wednesday that she has "great hope" that a meeting of key powers on Saturday in Geneva can be a turning point in the Syria crisis. But the UN gave a dire assessment of the crisis, saying the violence has worsened since a ceasefire deal that was supposed to go into effect in April, and the bloodshed appears to be taking on more dangerous, sectarian overtones.

Syria severely restricts the media in the country, making it difficult to gain a credible account of events on the ground. Assad denies that there is any popular will behind the uprising, saying terrorists are behind a conspiracy to destroy the country.

Zoebi said gunmen stormed al-Ikhbariya's compound in the town of Drousha, about 14 miles south of the capital Damascus, and detonated explosives. He said the attackers killed seven people and kidnapped others.

In comments broadcast on state-run Syrian TV, he said the killings amounted to "a massacre against the freedom of the press". Most news organizations in Syria are either state-run or private bodies that carry the government's point of view. Most of the private TV stations and newspapers are owned by politicians or wealthy businessmen who have close links to the regime.

An employee at the station said several other staffers were wounded in the attack, which happened just before 4am local time. He said the gunmen kidnapped him along with several station guards. He was released but the guards were not.

The employee, who did not give his name for fear of repercussions, said the gunmen drove him about 200 metres away, then he heard the explosion from the station being demolished. "I was terrified when they blindfolded me and took me away," the man said by telephone.

Earlier this month, two al-Ikhbariya employees were shot and seriously wounded by gunmen in the north-western town of Haffa while covering clashes between government troops and insurgents. Hours after the attack, the station was still on the air, broadcasting a rally in Damascus's main square against the station raid.

Meanwhile, Burhan Ghalioun, the former leader of Syria's main opposition group, said he briefly entered rebel-held areas in the north of the country in a rare trip by the exiled political opposition to the country. Ghalioun told al-Jazeera TV that the areas he visited in Idlib province are ruling themselves, without any regime presence.

Ghalioun, former head of the Syrian National Council, did not say when the visit happened. "I went to see the war that the Syrian regime is staging," Ghalioun said. "The regime continues to shell and kill." Ghalioun said he spoke with wounded Syrians including some who lost limbs and others who were paralysed. He added that he was able to drive about freely and that "part of the country is liberated".

Activists reported violence throughout Syria on Wednesday. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 10 government soldiers were killed in an ambush in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour.

The group said that rebels on Tuesday were able to shoot down a helicopter gunship in Idlib province. Amateur videos showed a helicopter burning in a field but the report could not be independently confirmed.

In neighboring Turkey, some 30 more Syrian soldiers defected with their families overnight, the country's state-run Anadolu news agency reported. It was not clear if the group included any senior officers.

Assad's regime has suffered an embarrassing string of high-ranking defections this week, with dozens of soldiers, including senior officers, reported to have fled to Turkey.

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Russia 'would support a Syrian national unity cabinet'

Envoys say plan to bring an end to the 16-month conflict could include both government and opposition members

Russia and other big powers have told Syria mediator Kofi Annan they support his idea of a Syrian national unity cabinet that could include government and opposition members but would exclude those whose participation would undermine it, envoys said on Wednesday.

The proposal is one of the main topics that Russia, the other four permanent Security Council members and other key players in the Middle East will discuss at a meeting in Geneva on Saturday about the 16-month conflict in Syria, diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

"It could comprise present government members, opposition and others, but would need to exclude those whose continued participation or presence would jeopardise the transition's credibility, or harm prospects for reconciliation and stability," a diplomat said, summarising Annan's proposal.

The diplomat added that the idea of excluding certain people was clearly referring to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, though Annan's proposal does not explicitly say Assad could not serve in a national unity government.

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Russia attacks 'meddling' on eve of Syrian crisis talks in Geneva

Foreign minister warns Moscow will not support outside interference over the fate of president Bashar al-Assad

Hopes of a political solution to the Syrian crisis suffered a fresh blow on Thursday when Russia insisted it would not endorse an internationally backed plan for a political transition that would require President Bashar al-Assad to surrender power.

Syrian opposition groups warned that Assad would have to step down and leave the country before they would negotiate future political arrangements.

Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said in Moscow: "We will not support and cannot support any meddling from outside or any imposition of recipes. This also concerns the fate of the president of the country, Bashar al-Assad."

Lavrov was due to meet Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, to discuss Saturday's Geneva conference, called in an attempt to agree broad support for a transitional national unity government in Damascus that could include anti-Assad forces.

But the Syrian National Council, the most coherent anti-Assad grouping, said it would reject any plan that did not include the unconditional departure of the president, his family and close allies. The SNC position was "firm and clear," insisted spokesman George Sabra. Elements of the Syria-based internal opposition who once advocated dialogue with the regime also now say it is too late.

Reports from Syria depicted another day of violence. Deir Ezzor, in the east, came under tank and artillery fire for the seventh consecutive day in an apparent attempt to take back the only city under almost complete rebel control. Gunfire and arrests were reported from several parts of Damascus.

Casualty levels this month have hit an average of 100 dead a day, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Kofi Annan, representing the UN and the Arab League, is formulating a plan for negotiations between government and opposition that can be presented as a "Syrian-led political process" – language that has been endorsed by Moscow.

The US and Britain say they discern mixed signals and ambiguity in Russia's position. Clinton, speaking in Latvia before travelling to St Petersburg, said: "It was very clear from the invitations that were extended … that people were coming [to Geneva] on the basis of the transition plan that [Annan] had presented."

Lavrov criticised Annan's failure to extend an invitation to Iran, Syria's closest regional ally. "Iran is undoubtedly a powerful player in the whole situation," he said. "Leaving it out of the loop of the Geneva meeting is a mistake."

Saudi Arabia, which is financing elements of the armed opposition, was also excluded from the Geneva event.

Lavrov attacked western governments for "unscrupulous diplomatic practices" in leaking ideas which he said Russia had not endorsed.

Diplomatic efforts should focus on urging Syrian opposition groups to drop their "uncompromising approaches and ... sit down for negotiations with the government," he said.

SNC leaders were meeting on Thursday to discuss whether to go to Geneva before holding an opposition-wide dialogue sponsored by the Arab League in Cairo next week.

The novelty of the Geneva conference is participation by Russia and China, which have vetoed punitive action against Assad at the UN and shunned the western-Arab Friends of Syria grouping on the grounds that it is working against Assad. The Friends of Syria was "not the right format for serious discussion but a tool for generating propaganda," Lavrov said.

France's foreign ministry said the Geneva meeting must "agree on the principles and steps for a democratic transition in Syria, as well as the priority attached to an end to repression and free access for humanitarian aid to civilians".

Underlining its long-standing support for Assad, Russia confirmed it would follow through with plans to deliver refurbished attack helicopters to Syria. "Syria is our friend, and we fulfil all our obligations to our friends," Alexander Fomin, head of the federal service for military-technical co-operation, told RIA-Novosti.

A Russian ship sailing under the Cura�ao flag attempted to deliver three helicopters as well as air defence systems last month, but it turned back as it rounded the coast of Scotland after its British insurers withdrew their coverage amid international criticism. The ship returned to port in Russia and was re-outfitted with a Russian flag. It would sail with a non-military escort, the ship's owner said this week.

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Syria crisis - Friday 29 June 2012

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• Video has emerged showing two senior officers captured by the Free Syrian Army. One of the men was reported to have been abducted by an armed gang, according to state media. Another video claimed to show a brigadier general announcing his defection to the opposition.

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4.02pm: Syria: Ameer, a Barzeh activist who we spoke to earlier (see 3.11pm) has highlighted more YouTube footage of a helicopter gunship firing over Damascus. Here's audio of him describing witnessing a helicopter attack over Damascus for the first time.

دمشق برزة قصف عنيف بالطيران الحربي 29 6 2012

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Op vrijdag 29 juni 2012 21:39 schreef zuiderbuur het volgende:
Hebben VN-waarnemers die aanval al veroordeeld?

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Op woensdag 27 juni 2012 22:29 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
Syri�rs hebben ook genoeg van propaganda.

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Op zaterdag 30 juni 2012 14:01 schreef Die_Hofstadtgruppe het volgende:

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Ja het koud maken van ongewapende burgers die voor de media werken laat zien hoe vredelievend de baarden zijn.