Syria: Ongoing crimes against humanity

Amnesty international statement on fresh evidence of Syrian armed forces’ ongoing crimes against humanity:

The shocking escalation in unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detention and the wanton destruction of homes in Syria demonstrates just how urgent the need for decisive international action to stem the tide of increasingly widespread attacks on civilians by government forces and militias which act with utter impunity, Amnesty International said in a new report today.

The 70-page report Deadly Reprisals provides fresh evidence of widespread as well as systematic violations, including crimes against humanity and war crimes, being perpetrated as part of state policy to exact revenge against communities suspected of supporting the opposition and to intimidate people into submission.

“This disturbing new evidence of an organized pattern of grave abuses highlights the pressing need for decisive international action to stem the tide of increasingly widespread attacks against the civilian population, including crimes against humanity and war crimes, committed by government forces and militias with utter impunity,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Adviser, who recently spent several weeks investigating human rights violations in northern Syria.  

"For more than a year the UN Security Council has dithered, while a human rights crisis unfolded in Syria.  It must now break the impasse and take concrete action to end to these violations and to hold to account those responsible.”

Although not granted official permission by the Syrian authorities to enter the country, Amnesty International was able to investigate the situation on the ground in northern Syria, and has concluded that Syrian government forces and militias are responsible for grave human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law amounting to crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Amnesty International visited 23 towns and villages in the Aleppo and Idlib governorates, including areas where Syrian government forces launched large-scale attacks including during negotiations over the implementation of the UN-Arab League-sponsored six-point ceasefire agreement in March/April.

In every town and village visited grieving families described to Amnesty International how their relatives – young and old and including children - were dragged away and shot dead by soldiers - who in some cases then set the victims’ bodies on fire.

Soldiers and shabiha militias burned down homes and properties and fired indiscriminately into residential areas, killing and injuring civilian bystanders.  Those who were arrested, including the sick and elderly, were routinely tortured, sometimes to death.  Many have been subjected to enforced disappearance; their fate remains unknown. 

“Everywhere I went, I met distraught residents who asked why the world is standing by and doing nothing,” said Donatella Rovera.
 “Such inaction by the international community ultimately encourages further abuses.  As the situation continues to deteriorate and the civilian death toll rises daily, the international community must act to stop the spiraling violence”.

The government crackdown has been targeting towns and villages seen as opposition strongholds, whether the site of clashes with Free Syria Army (FSA) forces or where the opposition remains peaceful. 

In Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, on several occasions in the last week of May, Amnesty International watched uniformed security forces and plainclothes shabiha militia members firing live rounds against peaceful demonstrators, killing and injuring protesters and passers-by, including children. 

The patterns of abuses committed in these areas are not isolated, and have been widely reported elsewhere in the country, including in the attack by Syrian forces on Houla on 25 May. According to the United Nations, 108 individuals, including 49 children and 34 women, were killed there.

Since the outbreak of pro-reform protests in February 2011, Amnesty International has received the names of more than 10,000 people who have been killed during the unrest, although the actual figure may be considerably higher.

The report underpins findings from other investigations into the situation in Syria including the UN Secretary General’s report on children and armed conflict, which highlighted that, over the last year, government forces were responsible for “killing and maiming, arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and ill-treatment” of children as young as nine years old.

In the report, Amnesty International again calls on the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and to impose an arms embargo on Syria with the aim of stopping the flow of weapons to the Syrian government.

It urges the governments of the Russian Federation and China in particular to halt immediately transfers to the Syrian government of all weapons, munitions, military, security, and policing equipment, training and personnel.

It also calls on the Security Council to implement an asset freeze against President Bashar al-Assad and others who may be involved in ordering or perpetrating crimes under international law.

Amnesty International has made numerous recommendations to the Syrian authorities, which, if implemented, would help to curtail the widespread violations – amounting to crimes against humanity or war crimes - currently taking place.

But it appears the Syrian government has no intention of ending, let alone investigating, these crimes.

“The Syrian government’s attempts to block access to Amnesty International, other human rights monitors and the international media, have failed to shield it from scrutiny. This report provides further detailed evidence that the Syrian authorities are engaged in a sustained, widespread and brutal attack against the civilian population,” said Donatella Rovera.

Video: Shabiha bar monitors from reaching al-Heffa

This is the video posted on YouTube showing Syrian President Bashar a-Assad's shabiha thugs barring UN monitors from checking on restive al-Heffa.

At least 86 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in attacks this week by government forces on the township of about 30,000 set in rugged countryside near Syria's seaport city of Latakia and the border with Turkey. Forty of the injured have reportedly been moved to Turkey. 

Syrian army primed to “wipe out” armed opposition

"Syrian Shuhada" database shows Homs topping the "provinces of death" 

As in the Vietnam War, a Syrian army “Tet Offensive” is in the cards.

President Bashar al-Assad’s forces are seemingly about to blitz all rebel strongholds across Syria and along its borders with Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan.

Ibrahim al-Amin, editor-in-chief of the pro-Assad Lebanese daily al-Akhbar, and an unimpeachable source of official Syrian news and views, says Syrian forces are set to initiate a “campaign to wipe out the armed rebels.”

According to Amin, “The plan this time is for comprehensive military operations… aimed at obliterating all armed groups irrespective of their nature or identity…

“The reasons and spurs for across-the-board cleansing campaigns are multiplying by the day.

“Syrian military and security circles believe a recurrence of chaos in the presence of UN monitors, as happened under the Arab observers, would open the way to greater deterioration and more bloodshed. (The difference now) is that the majority of extremist armed gangs are led by non-Syrians.

“Also, the behavior of foreign intelligence services helping them suggests they are prepared to destroy everything in Syria. They are primed to target, not only military and security forces, but all public and civil establishments as well under the pretext that these belong to the regime.

“In addition, they are raising the level of confessional and sectarian tensions through a series of roving criminal operations…

“The important thing now is to deal them blows of the kind that would redraw the entire scene – on the ground, politically and publicly.

“It seems Syrian security is now focused on Damascus’ immediate vicinity.

“A decision is also in place to mount a major campaign to stamp out any (hostile) activity in the Damascus suburbs, down to the borders with Lebanon…

“Talk is of massive and very fierce operations along the border with Lebanon to shut out all the sites being used by the opposition – even if this led to strikes against forces operating on the border proper. The implication is that Lebanese groups supporting the Syrian opposition are directly in harm’s way. The implication also is that since Lebanon can’t prevent the establishment of regions harboring armed rebels, the Syrian authorities will act to neutralize such areas.

“Together with the decision to make the city of Homs and its environs free of military bases or pockets of Syrian armed rebels, preparations are underway for the selective targeting of Syrian opposition fighters, chiefly those using areas bordering Turkey, Iraq and Jordan as gathering and training hubs.

“It seems the Syrian army has already mounted highly punitive actions there, which led to the extermination of entire clusters.

“Concerning the Syrian leadership, coordination with its Russian counterpart on such matters is ongoing.

“Insiders say Moscow might have blocked some military orders that were about to be executed. But – in the context of bracing for the next round of diplomacy – Moscow will not stand in the regime’s way to carry out operations unseen before.”

“Radiation is leaking from the Syrian reactor”

I fancied the political subtleties in the leader comment appearing this morning in the pan-Arab-daily al-Hayat. Its Lebanese editor-in-chief Ghassan Charbel wrote it. I hope I did not lose its nuances by putting it in English

The region is living on Syria’s watch.

Initially, everyone was concerned with Syria. You couldn’t ignore her role. Today, you can’t disregard her tribulations. The scenes of cruelty she is sending out have pushed all nearby and faraway homes to closely monitor her struggles.

In that land, which is vulnerable by virtue of its makeup, location and radiation hazards, a conflict connected to the region’s main arteries is raging.

It is a relentless and merciless Syrian-Syrian war.

It is a regional confrontation that is unprecedented by its severity and stakes.

And it is a public show of force involving the Great Powers after the withdrawal from Iraq and the onset of the Arab Spring, chiefly the latter’s Libya episode.

The Syria we knew before the outbreak of protests is no more. The regional player’s grip has slackened. The cards have fallen from his hand.

Khaled Meshaal prefers to shuteye in other capitals.

Syria’s allies in Lebanon are anxious lest she would drown in her crisis and her own blood. Those who dreaded Syria’s role and her ability to shuffle cards outside her borders now fear for Syria and the shuffling of cards within her borders.

One side is anxious about a protracted civil war.

Another is stressed by recollections of Yugoslavia dragging the world into military intervention.

A third is losing sleep over prolonged and blood-drenched chaos and the fall of the missiles and chemical weapons arsenal in this or that hand.

A fourth is worrying about the waves of refugees and a meltdown of the sectarian reactor.

That’s what the journalist hears when trying to take the region’s pulse. You ask your Iraqi friend about the “Maliki crisis” in which he is involved.

His answer is that the crisis in Baghdad is serious, but the one in Damascus is more alarming and that the Iraqi street is split over happenings there.

He said he was deeply concerned “because (a) the Shiite Iraqi wants the regime in Syria to survive, notwithstanding its wrongdoings, and (b) the Sunnite Iraqi wants to see the regime brought down, irrespective of the alternatives and fallouts.”

My Iraqi friend also said, “Tehran’s worry exceeds Baghdad’s. The Syrian regime’s fall implies the collapse of an endeavor that cost (Iran) billions over several decades. It would mean weakening Iran in the region and at home.”

Jordan too lives on Syria’s watch despite its internal woes.

Jordan is caught between the hammer of the Palestinian-Israeli peace stalemate and the anvil of Iraq’s setbacks and Syria’s flames. It fears an influx of Syrian refugees and increased public sympathy with Syrian protesters. It is also in fear of waking up one morning to the sound and fury of international military intervention in Syria.

Lebanon has been living on Syria’s watch for decades. This country has an exceptional capacity to invite trouble.

The recent bloody face-off between Sunnites and Alawites in northern Lebanon is only a sample of what could happen. Much of the positions of the Lebanese on the events in Syria are undeniably sectarian-tainted. This is true of the regime’s allies and adversaries.

Lebanon shudders in fear. The Sunnites fear the likelihood of the regime remaining on its feet “for a while.”  The Shiites fear the likelihood of decision-making in Syria reverting to factions that challenged and fought them. The Christians run their eyes over the embers of minorities and minorities’ fears and then disunite.

Amidst the mounting fears and predictions, President Michel Suleiman is trying to reunite the Lebanese under one roof. He is trying to put off the outbreak of fire. The Lebanese feign busying themselves with national dialogue topics and files with their eyes glued to Damascus. It would be hard to rein in disintegration in Lebanon once it kicks off in Syria.

Turkey too is monitoring the Syrian reactor. Its radiations muddled policies it spent years formulating; it also brought about economic losses.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan dreams today of ousting his former friend. The game plan is intricate. Turkey can’t ignore the Iranian and Russian positions. At the same time, Erdogan cannot tolerate a prolonged regional civil war on Turkey’s borders.

Radiations from the Syrian reactor are being transmitted through the atmosphere to nearby and outlying capitals. The radiations have become more lethal lately. The world can’t bear that for long.

Russia herself will need to act and propose a solution to stop the leakage of radiation. It is wrong though to sleep like a log on the silken Russian pillow.

Russia releases text for proposed Syria conference

Following Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s press conference in Moscow on Saturday, the Russian Federation issued the following “non-paper” (or discussion text) to formalize its proposal for an international conference on Syria:

Being guided by its consistent policy aimed at reaching political and diplomatic settlement of the Syrian crisis and in support of the joint special envoy for the United Nations and the League of Arab States on Syria, Kofi Annan's Peace Plan, the Russian Federation is putting forward an initiative to convene an international conference on Syria.

(1) Purpose of conference: To negotiate practical steps aimed at finding a durable political solution to the Syrian crisis. Encourage key external players who may exert real influence on various Syrian parties, to take coherent measures in support of Kofi Annan's Peace Plan and to ensure full implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 2042 and 2043, in which the Security Council endorsed the Plan and authorized the deployment of the UN Supervision Mission in Syria.

(2) Suggested participants in the conference: China, France. Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran, LAS (League of Arab States), OIC (Organization of Islamic Countries), EU, UN. 

(3) Level of the conference: Foreign ministers, heads of regional organizations, with possible preparatory meetings of experts.

(4) Expected outcome: All conference participants undertake to exert all their influence on the Syrian parties in order to immediately stop the armed conflict and fully comply with their obligations under Kofi Annan’s Plan and UN Security Council Resolutions 2042 and 2043.

They further undertake to give up any rhetoric which contradicts the letter and the spirit of Kofi Annan's Plan, particularly with respect to ending all violence in all its forms by all parties and creating a favorable environment for starting a political dialogue between the Syrian government and opposition groups aimed at negotiating every aspect of the Syrian political system. The problems faced by Syria should be dealt with on the basis of agreements between the Syrians themselves.

All participants undertake to provide their practical support to Kofi Annan in his efforts to consolidate the opposition on a common platform of readiness to such a dialogue.

All participants undertake to support the UN Supervision Mission in Syria and to block any attempts to question its mandate.

All participants undertake to refrain from putting any limitations, other than for security reasons, on the activities of mass media focused on the situation in Syria.

(5) At first stage, the suggested conference should consolidate the potential of external players for the sake of the settlement of the Syrian crisis. In case of success, further meetings of the conference will he held in order to negotiate various aspects of the settlement in a more substantive way. At further stages the Syrian parties, including the government and the opposition, united on a common platform of readiness to a political dialogue, might join the conference.

The suggested conference aimed at supporting the implementation of Kofi Annan’s Plan and UN Security Council Resolutions 2042 and 2043 -- that should be the only possible format for negotiating a coherent policy of external players with regard to the Syrian settlement.

(6) Venue of the conference: Moscow or Geneva.

The Russian Federation wishes to convene the conference at the earliest possible date.

Russia’s best Syria defense is a good offense

Clockwise from top, Sergei Lavrov, Mao Zedong and Jack Dempsey

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov seems to believe the best way to defend the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad is to go on the offensive.

“The best defense is a good offense” is an expression that has been used in many fields, including sports, politics and military combat.

The quote is often attributed to Jack Dempsey and Mao Zedong.

Jack Dempsey was an American professional boxer who held the World Heavyweight Championship from 1919 to 1926. Dempsey’s aggressive style and exceptional punching power made him one of the most popular boxers in history.

Mao Zedong is the first head of state of the People’s Republic of China, leading the communist revolution from 1935 to his victory over Chiang Kai-Shek in the mainland in 1949, establishing communist rule in China and ruling it until his death in 1976.

To my mind at least, “the best defense is a good offense” seems to be the underlying tone of Lavrov’s remarks to journalists in Moscow yesterday.

Here is what he said:

The issue of foreign intervention in Syria is being posed in a “radical and quite emotional way.” Foreign players are encouraging the armed opposition to hope “the Libyan scenario” could be repeated, “All this is a dangerous game… Some foreign players support armed groups of the opposition and at the same time demand that the international community take decisive steps to change the regime in Syria.”

“Today (Saturday), a bus carrying Russian specialists was attacked in western Damascus.” On Friday, a building housing Russian specialists was fired at from a grenade launcher. “One grenade hit the second floor wall, causing damage. Fortunately, no one was injured.”

Russia has enough evidence about arms being supplied to the Syrian opposition, which is acting under the command of external forces. “Our Saudi colleagues, our Qatari colleagues… just yesterday, there was a forum for businessmen who want to support the Syrian opposition. All this information is openly available… There are enough data confirming the armed opposition is being supplied with weapons and other means which are necessary to maintain combat capability.”

Moscow has heard from Russians living in Syria, and from reporters on the ground, that the opposition is persecuting Assad loyalists.

The main reason Kofi Annan’s peace plan is beginning to “seriously falter” is because those who support external intervention in Syria impede its implementation. They “don’t like” the idea of the stabilization it can bring. “They want the international community to be filled with indignation and start a full-blown intervention in Syria.”

Disruptions of Annan’s plan should be blamed on the uncoordinated actions of outside forces. “Not only the Syrian government is responsible for what’s going on now; the crisis is also to be blamed on the actions of those people who have not stopped giving money to illegal armed groups, hire mercenaries, help transfer them abroad and flirt with extremists to reach their own goals.”

Advocates of military intervention in Syria want to dominate the Arab world. Russia will do everything it can to prevent this.

To justify outside intervention, certain parties “keep talking about the refugees from Syria. However, nobody talks about refugees inside Syria itself. This is similar to the former Yugoslavia. Does anybody think about the refugees from Serbia and Slovenia?”

There are an estimated one million refugees from Iraq and half a million Palestinians in Syria, and “people don’t talk much about that.”

Western countries’ attempts to set a deadline for implementation of the Annan plan are meant to send an ultimatum to the Syrian authorities. But Russia will “never agree to the UN Security Council sanctioning the use of force” against Damascus as it would lead “to severe consequences on the entire Middle East region.”

Russia will not oppose Assad’s exit resulting from a dialogue among Syrians themselves. “If the Syrians agree amongst themselves (on Assad’s exit), we will only be happy to support such a solution. But we believe it is unacceptable to impose the conditions for such a dialogue from outside." 

Obviously, “The way the Syrian crisis is resolved will play an important role in the world tomorrow -- whether the world will be based on the UN Charter, or a place where might makes right.”

And “blocking Syrian government and private channels from (TV and radio) broadcasting,” as recently demanded by Arab League foreign ministers, does not “square well with freedom of speech…We should all be on the same page regarding freedom of speech and how it should be respected by the international community to ensure access to information – no matter what kind of information it is.”

Moscow sees “no alternative” to an international conference to support Annan’s plan and encourage dialogue between the state and the armed opposition. “The conference should come under the UN umbrella.” Participants would discuss ways to improve Annan’s plan. “I do not think the plan is outdated. Moreover, all its points remain vital.”

To be effective, “all forces that have influence on Syria should take part in the conference. And Iran is one of the counties having real influence on the Syrian government.”

Blocking Iran from the conference “would be thoughtless at the very least… We would like the conference to be open, with explicit discussion that will show whether there is a possibility to agree on coordinated… measures towards both the Syrian government and all the country’s opposition groups.”

Moscow wants the conference held as soon as possible, but expert consultations with representatives of other countries that also have influence on Syria should precede the meeting.

“We are not supplying the Syrian government with arms that even an overwrought imagination could suppose are being used against peaceful protesters. We are completing the implementation of contracts signed and pre-paid long ago on deliveries of air defense weapons that could be used only if Syria is subjected to military intervention from abroad. We are not delivering anything else.”

In contrast, “Our U.S. colleagues are supplying countries of the Persian Gulf region with the very type of arms that could be used against peaceful demonstrators.”

(Syria, the largest importer of Russian weapons in the Middle East, has recently signed contracts with Rosoboronexport for the supply of 24 MiG-29M/M2 fighter jets and eight Buk-M2E air-defense systems. A contract for the supply of Bastion anti-ship missile systems armed with SS-N-26 Yakhont supersonic cruise missiles is currently being implemented.)

Syria: Choice is civil war or outside intervention

The BBC graph shows death toll rising by all counts

Death count breakdown by "Syrian Shuhada"

Newswires and international media continue to parrot the old United Nations line, “The UN estimates that more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians have been killed in Syria” since the uprising.

The problem is that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva stopped producing estimates last December because verifying the roll had become too difficult.

A current graph featuring in a BBC News feature, titled “Syria crisis: Counting the victims,” shows differences in Syria casualty estimates ranging from a government low of some 6,000 to a high of 15,000 by activists’ networks.

One reliable opposition website, referred to by some branches of the UN, Syrian Shuhada (Syrian Martyrs), puts the number of civilians and military killed at 16,014 in 448 days up to June 7, 2012.

Syrian Shuhada breaks down its death count by province, city, day, week, month, gender, age and surname. It documents the killing of 2,663 people – including 240 children and 251 women – since joint special envoy Kofi Annan’s proposed April 12 ceasefire.

Tariq Alhomayed, editor-in-chief of the Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat, today takes Annan to task for effectively giving Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “an extra opportunity to kill” by failing to unequivocally notify the UN Security Council of the collapse of his six-point plan and his mission.

Had he done that, he would have opened the way for ending the Syrian people’s hemorrhage either trough UN-mandated military action or a “coalition of the willing” against the regime

Instead, Alhomayed writes, Annan’s idea of a so-called “Contact Group” actually invites the Iranians, Russians and Chinese to partake in the “Syrian bazaar” and gives “the tyrant a new opportunity” to keep killing.

Hazem Saghieh, political editor of the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat, says Annan’s mission having breathed its last the choice henceforth is between “outside intervention and civil war.”

The Houla and Qubair massacres make an open-ended civil war more likely for showing that:

• For the regime, holding on to power is do or die
• Post-Ottoman Syrian society is deeply disjointed
• Clamorous condemnations fed to public opinion and the media are simply meant to “mask regional and international apathy.”

With a “political solution” in Syria now defunct, says Saghiyeh, unremitting “regional and international apathy” turns into “a crime.”

Massacres such in Houla and Qubair risk becoming a daily occurrence and escalating militarism and sectarianism make unrestricted civil strife inevitable.

Outside intervention is imperative – “not only to oust a murderous regime” but also “to keep Syria governable” by any side in future.

Outside intervention can additionally reprieve Lebanon and Iraq, where hatreds and sectarian divisions are rampant. Sectarian flames in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq risk encircling the oil-rich rich northern Gulf as well.

Saghieh tells opponents of outside intervention it is civil war that nurtures Islamist bigots rather than the other around. Likewise, outside intervention can shield ethnic and religious minorities instead of them becoming civil war victims.