The Houla massacre has totally eclipsed UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s
talks today with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.
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| The UN helping count Houla bodies (Photo from bbc.co.uk) |
Jihad el-Khazen, a renowned and veteran Arab journalist who is usually
softspoken, says Houla marks the end of Assad.
“There are bodies of 35-to-50 children who were either shot or knifed to
death,” the former editor-in-chief of the Saudi-owned pan-Arab dailies Asharq Alawsat and al-Hayat writes today in his column for the latter.
“I don’t see the outside world, whether Arab or European, remaining mum
this time. Public opinion wants more than words from leaders.
“I can see two possibilities, but not a third: Either the regime disappearing
by international consensus à la Yemen
or an open-ended civil war. Long term, I frankly can’t see Dr. Bashar al-Assad
remaining as president.
“…We’ve had thousands of fatalities so far and more are in the offing.
There’s no end in sight for the Syrian crisis. But the Houla massacre marks the
point of no return for the regime and its men.”
Ghassan Charbel, al-Hayat’s
current editor-in-chief, writes in his editorial today, “Damascus
is not accustomed to international envoys coming to question its doings on
Syrian territory. It didn’t accept that previously, whether the envoys carried
warnings or words of advise. Syria was used to receiving envoys soliciting its
help to control this or that regional fire. That stage is gone. Syria is now an
ailing state.”
Charbel continues, “The Syrian government couldn’t have shut out Annan
today. It is receiving him, not because he carries a magic panacea for its ills
but because it wants to keep Russia and China on its side… Syria would not have
welcomed Annan had it succeeded in stifling the protests. Russia gave it the
time to do so, but it failed… The scenes coming out of Houla have now burdened
Syria’s allies. Proof was the UN Security Council condemnation of the massacre.
Russia was able to soften the censor but failed to stop it.”
In New York, Human Rights Watch said Annan should push Syria’s
government to allow the UN-appointed Commission of Inquiry access into the
country to investigate the killing of at least 108 Houla residents. The Syrian
government has so far refused entry to the UN-mandated commission. Human Rights
Watch also reiterated its call to the UN Security Council to refer the
situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Survivors of the Houla attack have meantime spoken to the BBC, which published their accounts on its website.
Here is what it quoted them as saying:
Hamza
Omar, opposition
activist based in Houla
"The shabiha
militias attacked the houses. They had no mercy. We took pictures of children,
under 10 years [old], their hands tied, and shot at close-range, from 10cm,
just 10cm. By knife they cut their neck, not exactly all his neck, but they
make a hole in the neck, a hole in his eyes."
Rasha
Abdul Razaq, survivor
"We were in the
house, they went in, the Shabiha and security, they went in with Kalashnikovs
and automatic rifles.
We asked them what was
going on and they told us to go inside. We said: 'What is it? What do you want?’
They said: 'Take everything out, whatever you are hiding,' and we told them:
'We are not hiding anything'.
They took us to a room,
and hit my father on the head with the back of a rifle and shot him straight in
the chin.
They took us inside and
told us to gather in the corner of the room. A man started shooting in the air
so we all hid behind my mother. We were about 15 people.
Then they opened fire.
After they shot us they started to step on us, and one of the men asked the
other to check whether we were all dead. Then they went outside and started
shooting in the air.
We were eight siblings,
including myself, and my sister-in-law and her son -- she was also six months
pregnant. With us as well were my father, my uncle's wife and her daughter, as
well as our neighbor and her three kids.
My aunt and her two
daughters -- one of them was only injured and she's here with me -- she is one
month old, the other one died. We were all in the house.
I survived with my
mother and the one-month-old girl and my sister. They shot at us but we
survived.
What's going to happen
to us? When we hear that the army and the security is coming we start running
in the streets, we are afraid they would repeat what they did to us the other
day.
There were 100 houses
in the neighborhood; they killed everyone inside. They went into people's
houses and opened fire and killed them all.”
Rasha
Abdul Razaq's mother, survivor
"He [an attacker]
said: 'We are from the mountain there, from Fulla,' so I said: 'We are neighbors
then, we don't have any terrorists here,' and he said: 'You are the
terrorists'. They thought I was dead. It was thanks to God that I survived. He
was shooting my kids and yelling. Please get my daughter and me some protection
-- we are staying now in different people's houses. We are worried they will
liquidate us.”
Anonymous,
survivor
"We were opening
our houses to them, we thought they were the army, and that they were doing
inspections.
One of them told me:
'Go back inside, your turn is next'. I was with my husband and kids. So I got
my husband's army service card, I thought maybe they would not bother with us
when they see it. But I only survived because one of them shot another by
mistake, and he yelled: 'I need help, Fakher was shot'. That kept them busy
while we ran away, bullets were flying around us, from the army and the
shabiha."
Anonymous,
survivor
"When they opened
the door, I was still with them in the room. I was standing behind the door of
the living room. They took my brothers outside, and I hid on the attic. All I
could hear was gunfire; it felt like the whole house was shaking.
I opened the door, and
I saw bodies, I couldn't recognize my kids from my brothers. It was indescribable.
I have three children; I lost three children. I am shaking, I'm shaking as I'm
speaking to you."
Um
Mohammed, survivor
"We fled Friday
night... They are targeting us with rockets and killing people… We fled through
the plantations bombed here, bombed there. I don't know how we made it to the
good people. As we walked the snipers targeted us, we hide between the
plantations."
Um Abdullah, survivor
"Rockets and
bombardments everywhere … I don't have any news of my own family. Why are you
not intervening? All the corpses are piling up. If it were a foreign country
all countries would have intervened. Come and remove all these corpses from the
streets."
Akrama
Bakour, Free Syrian
Army, Houla
"There were two
massacres. The first happened on the Sadd road and started at around 2:30pm on
Friday afternoon.
The second massacre
happened around 11pm, on the road at the main entrance of Taldou, facing the
military security point.
On the Fulla-Taldou
road -- 500m to 700m from Fulla village -- this village is supportive of the
regime -- a van, two pickup trucks and a group of motorcycles came from that
village.
They entered the neighborhood,
and met a shepherd at the entrance. His name is Mahmoud al-Kurdi, and he was
with his daughter-in-law and his four grandsons. They shot them, killing them
all except the daughter-in-law. She was shot in the thigh and belly area but
she is still alive.
They then entered the
house of Samir Abdul Razaq. He was killed with his children -- Sawsan, Houda,
Jouzila and Nada. And his daughter-in-law Halloum El Khlaf, six months
pregnant, with her son Ala'a Abdul Razaq, and Samir's sister-in-law Khaloud El
Khalaf, and her daughter, Rahaf Al Hussein -- but her daughter Zahra Al Hussein
was shot twice but survived.
Samir's wife was hit
with the back of the rifles but she fainted and is now still alive. Also among
the victims in this house were four kids whose father is Fadi al-Kurdi.
The next house they
entered was the house of Qutayba Abdul Razaq, he survived and his one-year-old
daughter was injured. He lost his wife and five of his children.
All of those I'm
counting died by gunshots, direct fire. They were gathered in one room and
shot. There was one kid however whose head was skinned with a knife. The knife
was found among the bodies and we have its picture.
The third house belongs
to Nidal Abdul Razaq, his wife and four of his children were killed, and he and
one of his children are still alive.
Adel Abdul Razaq -- his
whole family, a wife and six children.
Mustafa Abdul Razaq was
killed with his four daughters, his wife and his daughter in law.
Ayman Abdul Razaq --
all of his six children were killed as was his wife, one of the children was
disabled.
Abdul Khalek Abdul
Razaq -- his wife and daughter survived gunshots but he lost six other children
and his daughter-in-law and her three children.
Abdul Rahman Abdul
Razaq lost his wife, his five daughters and 11 grandchildren as well as his six
daughters-in-law and four of his sons. He still has two who are still alive;
one is called Firas and the other Rateb. This massacre was of 27 people in the
same room.
Also
killed in the massacre were Yaacoub Hussein Abdul Razaq, Mohammad Shafiq Abdul
Razaq, Mohammad Abbara and his daughter Amina and her family of seven."
