Bashar al-Assad has become the latest Mideast Milosevic. Amnesty International released a report this week documenting "systematic persecution on a vast scale" by Bashar al-Assad's Syrian secret police and paramilitary forces against Syria's democracy movement. Amnesty's report portrays a gruesome catalogue of documented and independently corroborated atrocities committed in the name of Assad and his subordinates against the Syrian people by his regime. Almost 2,500 people have been killed by Assad's forces since the start of the uprising and untold thousands more have been tortured, imprisoned, or wounded.
None of this, however, accurately portrays the full extent of the atrocities Assad's henchmen are committing throughout Syria day in and day out.
Amnesty's report includes video smuggled out of Syria of 45 bodies of detainees who were tortured and dumped on roadsides. "The accounts of torture we have received are horrific. We believe the Syrian government to be systematically persecuting its own people on a vast scale," said Amnesty's Syrian researcher Neil Sammonds and a courageous Damascus-based human rights lawyer, Razan Zeitouneh.
Substantiating portions of Amnesty's detailed allegations, Adnan al-Bakkour, the Attorney General of the city of Hama, defiantly resigned in a video statement over the killing of over 70 detainees in his city in recent days.
Amnesty's report is just the latest in an alarming list of atrocities being documented by Syrian human rights organizations and international human rights monitors. Just last week, the UN Human Rights Council overwhelmingly adopted a resolution condemning Syria for " ...grave and systematic human-rights violations." The resolution censured Syria for every type of human rights crime, ranging from arbitrary executions, the torture of children, ill-treatment of innocent detainees -- you name it.
The Assad regime denies that it is responsible for any hair being harmed on any Syrian, robotically resorting to the absurd canard that reports of abuse are fabrications hatched by armed terrorist groups. The Assad regime will never perfect the Big Lie. Having had enough of their blather condoning the regime's conduct, the State Department blacklisted "shameless tool and regime mouthpiece" Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, a former ambassador to Washington, and Bouthaina Shaaban, a top political media adviser to Assad, whom I had the privilege to confront during a television debate a couple of years ago on Lebanese television. Bravo to State for its choice words leveled at Syria's version of Tariq Azziz.
So far, despite repeated media demands, the Syrian government has been unable to produce a shred of evidence that any such "armed terrorist group" exists or is responsible for the crimes committed.
Assad's use of murder, torture and abuse against unarmed, courageous Syrians is perilously close to remaining just another occasional media story since it is so pervasive, consistent and, well, "expected" from a regime that has defied every call from the international community to cease and desist. Moreover, unlike his more hapless Libyan counterpart who permitted global media access to Libya, Assad has sealed Syria off.
To his undeserving credit, Assad's ploy has limited media coverage of the popular revolt against his regime. Regrettably, most media outlets are still giving short shrift to the stories of human rights abuses inside Syria because they are unable to report from inside the prison-state.
Given the unyielding escalation of terror emanating from Syria in recent days, the fortitude and courage of the Syrian people warrants greater international coverage and a full-fledged effort to bring Assad and his cohorts to justice.
One way to help persecuted Syrians is for the United States government to play a more proactive role with Syrian opposition leaders. This would publicize and highlight these abuses, and galvanize greater international support to bring an indictment against Assad and his family before the International Criminal Court. Indeed, like Gaddafi, Assad has now earned a one-way ticket to The Hague.
However belatedly (and I have been quite vocal about her tardiness), Secretary of State Clinton has finally embraced a more aggressive stance against Syria in recent days, and is putting her considerable diplomatic skills to work to compel the European Union to ban the sale of Syrian oil to Europe -- Assad's monetary lifeline that is greatly helping to maintain the regime's killing fields throughout Syria. This may happen at an EU meeting in Poland this weekend.
But despite the mounting evidence of international war crimes, the United Nations Security Council has so far failed to come to the Syrian peoples' rescue. Ten days ago Britain and France circulated a draft resolution against Syria aimed at imposing a weapons embargo on Syria. Russia is holding the UN hostage, dragging its feet along with China to filibuster any concerted action against Syria in spite of the overwhelming evidence of human rights violations. Both are determined to prevent any concerted international action against Assad. For both countries it takes one to know one, after all.
American and international supporters of a free Syria need to do much more to encourage media outlets to report more regularly on developments inside Syria. Leaders of the Syrian opposition, meeting shortly in Istanbul, also deserve to have far more media focused on their efforts, to solicit regularly from them the smuggled reports they themselves can transmit to a greater international audience from secret sources inside Syria.
With the U.S. government and the EU more determined to turn the screws on Assad, the Syrian people deserve to know that their cries are being heard and that the world is watching and witnessing another sad chapter of a dynasty that has more blood on its hands now than virtually any other throughout the Arab world. Assad, after all, is truly a State Sponsor of Terror in every meaning of that phrase.
Amb. Marc Ginsberg: Syria's Shame
Dr. Faheem Younus: Islamic Reasons Why the Syrian President Must Go
Will Marshall: Arab Spring in the Balance
Sasa Milosevic: No Asylum for Gaddafi in Serbia
UN condemns Syria's human rights violations - regjeringen.no
UN Human Rights Council Condemns Syrian Government, Calls for ...
US denounces Syria's abuse of prisoners - Yahoo! News
In Video Resignation, Syrian Official Describes Prisoner Abuse ...
The high price of protesting in Syria: jail and abuse - World news ...
Lybia is a vast country, sparsely populated by multiple (140) tribes. When NATO intervened, the Eastern part of the country had already rebelled and was not in Gaddafi's control. A rebel government was already trying to organize itself.
Syria, in contrast, is a smaller, much denser country, with fewer cultural or tribal divides. The government is not a one-man show like Lybia. It is a secular regime with Shia roots that persecutes Sunnis and others, but mostly wants a secular peace. The opposition movement is loose, and there is no base for the opposition right now. The regime's grip is still too strong for any military actions by outsiders. Syria is also in the middle of a much denser, hotter spot of the world, at the center of Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey....
Regime destabilization/change could destabilize the region, activate the military arm of Hezbollah, involve Israel, throw the Palestinians into a mess (more than it is already), decrease stability in Iraq.... As bas as Assad is, extreme caution must be exercised.
The Syrian regime is under relentless attack from the mighty aljazeera of Qatar along with the formidable Saudi propaganda machine to mention just Arab media. I would add that reporting about Syria has long abandoned any pretense to objectivity and is effectively precluding dialogue between government and opposition.
Then I am very against it
Because people like yourself are what they are rebelling against
Amb Ginsburg, whatever his stance on Israel, has nailed it in this article.
http://pierre.piccinin-publications.english.over-blog.com/1-index.html
"Amnesty International's agenda tends to fit nicely with the political needs of the United States and Great Britain. Around the world, supporters of the Nicaraguan people's struggle for self-determination were outraged by the timing of a 1986 Amnesty report critical of the Sandinista government, which helped Reagan push another Contra Aid appropriation through a reluctant congress, at exactly the moment when the anti-Contra movement was beginning to get serious political traction.....
By the time Amnesty endorsed the Hill & Knowlton nursery tale concerning Kuwaiti infants pulled from incubators by Iraqi soldiers, many otherwise sympathetic observers of Amnesty's work became increasingly alarmed.....
This magazine will cover the topic of Human Rights Watch in a future issue. For this issue, we were fortunate to be forwarded the transcript of a June 13th [2002] interview with Dr. Francis A. Boyle, professor of International Law and former board member of AI."
http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/articles/article0004573.html
"Amnesty International has not been able to conduct first-hand research on the ground in
Syria during 2011" I suggest caution.
The Syrian Government is fighting an insurgency which we know is armed with machine guns. Amnesty relies on reports from activists and does not list any of the Government forces or supporters who have died. We know there are many.
We have just witnessed the overthrow of the Libyan Government by Islamic fundamentalist forces backed by NATO. Something very similar is happening in Syria. It is strange to see the likes of this writer finding common cause with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Even if they had machine guns, they certainly don't have tanks, planes or missiles.
PS: why do you hate freedom?
Intervention has always resulted in a deterioration of living standards. Go check it.
Now to your first question mark.
"The assault prompted opposition gunmen to fire machine guns and set police stations on fire."
http://www.skynews.com.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=644978&vId=
"The State Department has secretly financed Syrian political opposition groups and related projects, including a satellite TV channel that beams anti-government programming into the country, according to previously undisclosed diplomatic cables."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-secretly-backed-syrian-opposition-groups-cables-released-by-wikileaks-show/2011/04/14/AF1p9hwD_story.html
You are our champion this month. Collect your award here:
http://catb.org/jargon/html/G/Godwins-Law.html
If only there were just a few.
Take for example, President Allende, ordered kicked out by Henry Kissinger with the words: "we can not afford a to country to turn to socialism because of the irresponsiÂÂble behaviour of it's voters."
And that's how Pinochet came in.
As for Algeria, did you have any idea that the civil war in the nineties actually started because the Islamic Party (FIS) won the elections, but they were not allowed into power?
After all... can we allow Islamic countries to be run by Muslims?
Especially when they have large oil and gas supplies?
With over 4-5 million dead in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and a million dead in Iraq (Allbright boasted in 1996 that 500 000 dead Iraqi children were "worth the prize"), there is no competitioÂÂn for the USA where tyranny is concerned.
To those that really want to be so heroic, I would advise to walk to that recruitment agency down the road... unless they think that other people's kids should have their brains blown out for capitalism...
There is no political segment in Syria that will recognize Israel no matter what the author desires. But, there are segments who will breach the armistice line in Golan and try to get it back by force. There are considerable amount of weapons and money that are going to Syria through northern Lebanon. This is a reckless mess we are creating, Ginsberg is a cheerleader for it.
Yeah, 2500 people have died who were just demonstrating for religious freedom. You can't fool people anymore.
Statement 2: The U.S. is orchestrating them. We don't actually have any power there.
Statement 3: The U.S. is capable of coordinating with Al Qaeda. That's ridiculous on the face of it; even if the CIA were willing to work with them, they would never work with us.
Statement 4: In other places, the U.S. is not supporting regime change, therefore they shouldn't here. Which do you want, less involvement, or more? Pick one and stick with it.
Statement 5: "Don't believe everything you read." Oh, should I believe you then?