Archive for the ‘People’s Movements / Struggles’ Category

Jordan hands over Syrian opposition voices and activists back to the regime – an appeal for Omar Alhariri

Posted: 07/21/2012 by editormary in Grassroots Activism, Human Rights, Jordan, People's Movements / Struggles, Resistance, Syria
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URGENT APPEAL:
The Jordanian authorities have handed over the activist Omar Aharir into the hands of the Syrian regime, more precisely, back to the secret services, despite the well-known fact that he has been a wanted man for his activities in favour of freedom and that, for this reason, he will be sentenced to death in Syria. Amman will hand over to the regime another 11 activists.

We are spreading this news as widely as possible so that this shameful action by the Jordanian authorities is stopped, aware as they are, of condemning these young people to certain death, people whose only crime has been that they have asked for the end of the dictatorship. The Jordanian authorities have been contacted and begged to not proceed in this act, but they have not listened. It’s not enough to undergo the abuse of the Syrian regime, now other States are chasing down and handing over for execution those who are demanding freedom for their people?

http://myfreesyria.com/2012/07/21/404/

Welcome Ramadan, get lost Bashar

Posted: 07/20/2012 by editormary in Culture and Heritage, Human Rights, Internet and Communication, Middle East, People's Movements / Struggles, Refugees, Religion, Resistance, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, Syria
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Welcome Ramadan, Get Lost Bashar

WRITTEN BY ASMAE SIRIA DACHAN, translated by Mary Rizzo

20 July 2012, 1 Ramadan 1433. Today is the beginning, for millions of Muslims the world over, of the month of Ramadan, considered by the faithful as a moment of sincere devotion, of purification and of prayer and it is for this reason welcomed with great celebration. It is one of the acts of faith that creates the greatest amount of gathering together, with families who reunite, sharing their meals at sunset even in the places of worship. Visits to the sick, as well as to friends and relatives increase in this period precisely to reinforce the connections between people and to mend any possible fractures that may have occurred.

Ramadan has a social meaning, as well as the religious one, so much so that it is felt even among persons who are generally less observant, because it expresses that sense of sacrifice, surrender, purification and rebirth that gives one hope. It is a light that shines at the end of the tunnel… even when the tunnel is long and it takes months and months to get to the other side of it. Just like the tunnel from which we see emerging, with great human sacrifices and an unmatchable commitment, the Syrian people, who find themselves welcoming Ramadan, for the second consecutive year, under the bombardment of the regime. The picture above refers to last year: Sawret al karamah, the “Revolt of Dignity”, had been started at that time already for four months by a group of young protesters, who wrote in candles: “Welcome Ramadan, Get out Bashar”. Perhaps no one could have predicted such a lengthy repression, which has already exceeded sixteen months, causing more than 19 thousand victims, among them, at least 1,400 children. The most recent veto of China and Russia has left the Syrian people feeling indifferent, who by now know that the International Community will not give them any real support, the contrary is true: the halting character of the world only reinforces the murderous folly of the regime, which has made its offensive even more brutal, and one once again we are hearing talk of the use of chemical weapons.

I say “once again” because it has already been months that the doctors of Baba Amr, the long-suffering neighbourhood of the old city of Homs, have denounced the use of white phosphorus, documenting irreversible damage provoked by its use.

Even the “Neighbours”, the Arab nations that are considered as “Sisters”, are enacting a policy of indifference regarding the humanitarian tragedy that is striking the civilians, even going so far as rejecting the entrance of refugees, pushing them back and treating them inhumanely, as the humanitarian associations have been stating.

It is such a sad Ramadan, the one that is beginning, which only this Thursday, on the first night of the vigil, has been grieving the deaths of over 280 persons killed, slaughtered in various locations in the suburbs of Damascus and in the Homs Province. Many Syrians who live abroad, even here in Italy, were used to spending Ramadan with their loved ones, returning to Syria or perhaps inviting their parents or grandparents to come here. Today the repression prohibits Syrians from living that very “normality”, forcing them into atrocious suffering, wounded by the loss of relatives, friends and acquaintances, for the destruction of homes, entire neighbourhoods and yes… entire cities… and especially for the wounds caused by the indifference of the world. It might sound like a paradox, but giving strength to those Syrians outside the homeland, telling them to not give up, to smile and to trust God with even greater force, as well as to have more belief in themselves, are actually those Syrians who are living under the repression, who yesterday by means of internet found a way to give the world their greetings for Ramadan, expressing the prayer that the Ramadan of 2013-1434 will be a different Ramadan, in which the Syrians will be rebuilding everything that the regime has destroyed, finally finding the longed-for peace and freedom.

original in Italian on My Free Syria

Syria, activists in Homs are in the crosshairs, together with doctors and dissident reporters.

Posted: 06/11/2012 by editormary in Grassroots Activism, Human Rights, Middle East, People's Movements / Struggles, Syria, War
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Syrian Red Crescent Volunteers, arrested, tortured, killed. And this is only part of the horror of what is going on in Homs under siege

To eliminate doctors and dissident reporters seems to be the prime objective of the Syrian army. There has been no further news on the whereabouts of Jihad Hakmi, volunteer of the Red Crescent in Homs, which since Saturday has been under heavy shelling as well as the helicopters of Damascus resuming their bombing of the city. The activists, in contact with the Italian Syrian community, have asked for the urgent intervention of organisations for human rights and have expressed the fear that the man is being held in conditions of extreme duress and may be subject to torture.

The Syrian Arab Red Crescent, in the meantime, has decided to suspend its activities in various parts of the country, affirming that it has not received protection from the Syrian government which instead is obligated to allow it to carry out all of its interventions in safety. The regime, which considers the organisation “not trustworthy” and “not neutral” has already killed, according to the activists, some of its volunteers, Alhakam Darq Sbaie and Abd-al-Razzaq Jbeiro, Mohammed Khadra, Murad Khoury and Adnan Wahbe, and is holding another volunteer doctor, Mohamad Nour Audi prisoner in an unknown place. The volunteer Ahmed Atfeh, who was imprisoned, has been freed.

The artillery of Bashar Assad continues to kill also in the world of information. The latest victim on the front of citizen journalism, referred by the Syrian community in Italy, is Khaled Ibrahim Albakr, known on the web as “Abu Suleiman”.  Ibrahim Alkbar, who the spokesman for the Homs dissidents Hadi Alabdallah has informed us, was killed yesterday at Al Qusair under the shelling “while he was recording the battle to liberate the place of death, that hated checkpoint from where day and night the snipers shoot at unarmed civilians and the regime troops have been bombing the city.”

Abu Suleiman, as affirmed by sources of the opposition, was one of the founders of the independent information network of Baba Amr, from where Ali Othman, who has been held prisoner for more than three months in the prisons of Bashar Assad, from when he helped the photojournalist Paul Conroy leave a Homs under siege after having watched Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik, other journalists, die before his very eyes. Nothing is known of the whereabouts of Ali Othman, for whom London has asked for his immediate release, since the interview-interrogation that aired in early May.

UN “HELICOPTERS ARE SHOOTING OVER HOMS” A MISSILE EACH MINUTE

Helicopters of Syrian aviation forces are bombing the Homs area. A spokesman of the UN Observers in Syria had made known. “We report of violent battles in Rastan and Talbiseh, north of Homs, which see the heavy use of artillery and bombardment from helicopters”, said Sausan Ghosheh. It is the first time that the UN confirms what has already been reported by the Syrian rebels, that is, the use of aviation by the regime’s armed forces.

The director of the BBC’s Middle East Desk, Paul Danahar, who this morning visited the city together with a team of UN Observers, affirmed that the armed forces of the Syrian government are utilising drones to individuate the objectives they will bomb. According to the British network, falling over the city is a bomb each minute. The situation in Homs has been dramatic since Saturday, the dissidents affirm. Yesterday the spokesman Hadi Alabdallah reported, in contact with the Italian Syrian community, that “the bombing of the city is incessant. The inhabitants speak of a continuous shower of missiles and shells that fall over them. There are no shelters, women, children and the elderly are holed up in their own homes, hoping only that the missiles do not strike their houses or at least do not hit the room where there are huddled in. We have witnesses of persons who declare that at least ten missiles have fallen around their house and one entered into the next room, destroying it almost upon impact. It was a miracle that they had been at that moment in the next room. Right now, one only can count on miracles happening.”

Translated from Italian by Mary Rizzo

Original http://affaritaliani.libero.it/esteri/siria-110612.html

Perché Homs?

Posted: 05/08/2012 by editormary in Culture and Heritage, Middle East, People's Movements / Struggles, Religion, Syria, War
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Homs per gli Alawiti, “Il Sogno di Homs”

The Syrian Sun

SCRITTO DA: Helen Dayem, Tradotto da Mary Rizzo

Homs, o Hims come è anche chiamata, è la terza città della Siria per grandezza ed è posizionata strategicamente nella fertile Vallata del Fiume Orontes  (Naher al-Aassi, – Assi significa Ribelle, siccome il fiume scorre verso il nord) della Siria centrale, tra Damasco (162 km più a sud) ed Aleppo (193 km più al nord). E’ molto vicina alla costa (Tartous, 96 km più al ovest) e geograficamente si trova nel centro della Siria.

E’ il posto ideale per una capitale per la setta Alawita!

Da quasi vent’anni ormai, Homs è diventata il luogo dove gli Alawiti emigrano a migliaia. Provengono dai loro paesini nelle montagne che circondano la città e costruiscono abusivamente aree gigantesche per le loro comunità. Quando dico “abusivamente”, intendo che  gran parte delle case, dei negozi e persino delle scuole nelle loro aree sono stati costruite senza permessi; non erano necessari naturalmente, perché il loro leader Bashar lascia fare loro ciò che vogliono, mentre il resto della comunità di Homs, composta per il 70%  circa da Musulmani sunniti e per il 10% circa da Cristiani, deve fare le domande per ottenere i permessi, persino per potere dipingere e decorare le proprie case all’interno, e ciò converranno tutti che ha dell’ incredibile!

Il problema più grande a Homs nella fattispecie è che la comunità Alawita non ha mai vissuto insieme ai Musulmani e Cristiani, preferendo restare unita nelle proprie zone, che però si spandevano a macchia d’olio lungo la via principale per  Damasco.

L’anno scorso, in occasione della mia ultima visita nella loro area, ero rimasta sbalordita da come si  fosse ingrandita l’area, con belle strade nuove di zecca, nuove strutture sportive, nuove aree commerciali: era cresciuta e si era sviluppata oltre ogni ragionevole aspettativa!

Naturalmente, erano venuti in città per lavorare, la maggior parte di loro ottenendo impieghi statali, spesso ricoprendo mansioni mai realmente svolte, addirittura senza presenziare nei posti di lavoro, ma arrivando prontamente in città ogni fine mese per riscuotere gli stipendi governativi, attendendo in file che potevano contare varie centinaia di persone fuori all’ufficio del governo.  Li vedevo ogni mese e nel mentre mi chiedevo da dove provenisse tutta questa gente.

Sì, i lavori statali erano riservati principalmente agli Alawiti, specialmente impieghi di alto livello, a prescindere dalla meritocrazia e, nei vent’anni in cui ho vissuto a Homs, ho realizzato che tenevano la città in pugno, in un pugno sempre più stretto: mentre le loro tasche si riempivano di tangenti, noi eravamo costretti a pagare per potere accedere ad un qualsiasi servizio e per svolgere qualsiasi attività, persino per fare le cose di tutti i giorni.

Anche la polizia a Homs, composta per lo più di Alawiti, poteva fermare la tua macchina, o il pulmino della scuola, senza motivo, solo per poter intascare dei soldi e noi …. pagavamo! Era più semplice che aspettare in fila per ore interminabili, ed essere trattati come cittadini di serie B per essere poi comunque costretti a pagare qualcosa di non dovuto!

Stavano cominciando a strangolare la popolazione con la loro corruzione, e stava diventando quasi impossibile per i giovani trovare un lavoro che meritavano.  Dopo aver compiuti gli studi universitari, diventava per loro chiaro che i posti migliori erano riservati ad altri.

I Professori universitari accettavano bustarelle dagli studenti affinché potessero superare gli esami. Non paghi? Allora, non superi l’esame! Il meccanismo era facile e trasparente, e so con assoluta certezza che gli studenti Alawiti durante gli esami erano informati preventivamente delle domande a cui sarebbero stati sottoposti negli esami. Era chiaro anche dal modo in cui loro finivano sempre gli esami a tempo di record, senza aver studiato neppure la notte precedente, e spesso erano proprio loro stessi che ridevano di questa situazione.

Homs sarebbe appartenuta a loro! Questo abbiamo capito quando il Sindaco, Eyad Ghazal, ideò un nuovo progetto: “Il Sogno di Homs”. E che sogno! Le proprietà che appartenevano ai Musulmani e ai Cristiani della Città Vecchia, sarebbe stata acquistata – coattamente – dal governo, e ad un prezzo che era sola una frazione del valore reale, e sarebbero state sostituite dei parcheggi. Sì, le vite delle persone sarebbero state sconvolte, e persino la zona agricola tra Homs e il quartiere Waar era compresa nel piano di esproprio, destinata a diventare giardini pubblici, e naturalmente, a meno del 10% del loro valore sul mercato immobiliare. La gente di Homs cominciava a preoccuparsi e a ragione. Il piano era evidente: la città doveva essere svenduta alla setta Alawita, dopodiché loro si sarebbero insediati lì!

Il piano era già in atto da diversi anni precedenti. Come mi era parso di notare con i miei professori nella mia scuola, molti di quali erano Alawiti, sui loro documenti d’identità  era scritto Homs, Khaldiyie o Bayada, mentre in realtà provenivano da Latakia o Tartous! Esiste una regola di ferro nella Siria: i documenti d’identità DEVONO riportare il luogo d’origine della famiglia, e dunque, il loro piano era già in azione, erano già Homsi, anche se né loro né i loro antenati erano nati lì. Il Sindaco era pronto a distruggere il patrimonio storico della Città Vecchia semplicemente per far sì che la sua gente potesse emigrare lì. Ma il popolo di Homs aveva capito questo trucco sporco e nelle prime manifestazioni aveva chiesto la rimozione del Sindaco e del suo terribile “Sogno”.

Vecchio Homs, destrutto per il Sogno Alawiti

La risposta dell’amministrazione locale furono pallottole vere, come io stessa avevo visto, e quella prima manifestazione aveva peggiorato rapidamente la situazione.

Sconvolti ed indignati dagli attacchi diretti e violenti contro di loro da parte delle forze del governo, gli abitanti di Homs cominciavano a chiedere la caduta del regime e non solo dell’amministrazione locale, e venivano strappate dai muri le foto del Presidente dall’ “Officer’s Club” sulla via Hama in Homs.

Homs aveva messo la parola “fine” al sogno del Sindaco, al sogno del Presidente. E Homs continua a lottare oggi, per fermare il progetto del governo di compiere il loro sogno folle: quello della distruzione della Vecchia Homs e la sua trasformazione in Capitale degli Alawiti. Ora, più del 53% della Città di Homs è stato distrutto, il 70% della comunità Musulmana e Cristiana è stata sfollata. Si potrebbe considerare questo come “Pulizia Etnica”? Assolutamente sì. Non posso pensare a nessun altro modo per descriverlo, ed il silenzio del mondo permette a Bashar di proseguire nell’attuazione del suo sogno Homs: Capitale Alawita della Siria!

Helen Dayem è un’attivista siriana da Homs e madre del coraggioso Danny Abdul Dayem. Tutte le opinioni espresse nell’ articolo sono quelle dell’autore.

Syria, the regime’s last card to play: civil war

Posted: 05/03/2012 by editormary in Middle East, People's Movements / Struggles, Syria
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Editorial staff of ilmediterraneo  Translated by Mary Rizzo

ROME – The Syrian regime has no intention of enacting the United Nations and Arab League plan. It is instead adopting a strategy of “buying time”. Having been advised by its inner circle, the regime is clearly betting on the future potential modifications that in the end will influence the structure of the events. It goes without saying, the regime has approved the mission of the United Nations due to pressure exerted by the international community. As it stands, the time margin of three months set out by the mission is considered as being opportune to allow the international community to accept the imminent modifications as facts on the ground (while both the French and American administrations are currently preoccupied with their own elections).

At the same time, the local scene within Syria is in a restructuring phase with constant killings, arrests of revolutionary activists and the continual displacement of the civilian population, especially in Homs. A clear signal of the success of the dismantling of the uprising as carried out by the government.

Based on the following facts, it seems like the regime has approved the United Nations mission on the basis of the evaluation of the Russian position on Syria, especially after the constitution of the “Friends of Syria” that has proposed a “group to monitor the follow-up on the crisis”.

THE RUSSIAN STRATEGY FOR SYRIA

It is clear that the Russian strategy has the purpose of softening the position of the international community, limiting it to concentration exclusively on the urgent humanitarian crisis in Syria and shifting the attention away from the strategic plan. Moreover, Moscow is attempting to drag the world in a controversial discussion regarding the presence of organised terrorism in Syria lead by “armed gangs”.

With the Russian strategy and the dilated time frame of the Annan “peace plan” the Syrian regime could try to stop the uprising with more solid arrests and more killings. It is furthermore trying to limit the defections within the armed forces, which are very dangerous for a regime that no longer can predict the defections and the possible consequences. Based on the above elements, it is correct to say that the regime is not willing to enact the Kofi Annan initiative regarding a pacific transfer of power. The Syrian government knows that the international community is considering a similar solution in Yemen, while the Syrian protesters are determined to continue in their struggle without compromising.

It is indeed impossible for the Syrian population, after the massacres and the destruction of the cities, to accept any agreement or conciliation. The choices of the regime are thus narrowing. It has to drastically silence the revolution and it needs to find the way to rebuild the regime in the international and regional scene, or it will push the country towards a civil war where the author remains unpunished, leaving all the parties to bear responsibility.

Original http://www.ilmediterraneo.it/it/cronaca/7803

Why I Am Against The Syrian Regime – “Vogliamo la Siria Libera” responds

Posted: 03/29/2012 by editormary in Europe, Grassroots Activism, Human Rights, Internet and Communication, Opinions and Letters, People's Movements / Struggles, Resistance, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, Strategy for Liberation, Syria
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We Want A Free Syria / Vogliamo la Siria Libera. Syrian Italians, Syrians and Italians together in the struggle for freedom. Italo-siriani, siriani ed italiani insieme nella lotta per la libertà.

A group of Syrian Italians, joined by Syrians and by Italian sympathisers for the cause of a Syria free of the dictatorial and brutal rule of the Assad regime has been communicating (and often organising actions) together in a group that meets under “Vogliamo la Siria Libera” (We Want Syria to be Free) and other internet groups. Mirco Tau asked a simple question to everyone, “Why are you against the regime?” and the answer of some of the members follows (in English and Italian).

Why we are against the regime 

* I am against this regime for the simple fact that after 40 years it has reduced the country to their own family farm where they think they are able to do things any way that suits them, depriving everyone else of their citizenship rights. I am against this regime because it’s been able to take the smiles away from children. -FS

* I am against the regime because any regime that uses violence against dissent is a sick regime. The dimensions and the tenacity of the dissent is the proof that there is no conspiracy directed by foreign agents or secret powers. It is a revolution of the people for their most basic rights. -MR

* I am against the regime for the simple reason that it is killing children, women, young people and elderly people in a systematic way, with no regard at all for human rights, the internal or international public opinion, as it lies until the bitter end, accusing the entire world of making a coalition against it with the lie of a conspiracy… It is a regime that for over 40 years has considered Syria and the Syrians as private property to manage in a personal way, subjugating civil living to the fear and terror of the secret services that control everything in the country, even personal relationships such as marriage! It is a regime that took power with blood and for 40 years has hidden behind false elections where systematically there was a 99.9% victory of false consent. A regime that has managed to weave ambiguous relationships with the rest of the Arab world and beyond… blackmailing its allies as it wishes and managing its dirty business without anyone being able to raise their voice against it… such a Nazi-Fascist regime of the sort should not exist in this day and age!  -MGN

* In addition to the violence, rape, repression, corruption, deaths… I am against the regime because a mother has been deprived of her own son for over 35 years, because he was exiled in Italy without permission to return to his homeland, for the sole reason that it is supposed that he is against the regime, a supposition that has broken up a family, caused litres of tears to run from the eyes of my grandmother and made my father live alone, alone without his parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends from his childhood. Alone with no one to give him comfort or help when he was in need, because only your family truly understands you and helps you in the darkest moments. Now I listen to my father (a severe and upright man) speak on the phone with a broken and trembling voice to his mother of 95, who now no longer hears or recognises anyone, repeating in the sweetest way, “mamma, do you remember me? I am your son. O mamma, forgive me and be proud of me, mamma, don’t cry and you will see that one day we will see one another again.” And she cries saying, “in paradise, my son. We’ll see each other in paradise if God so wills it.” This breaks my heart, to hear those words, but as long as I live, I will fight against this regime. -GZ

ان تطلق النار على مسلح فهذا مبرر. ان تطلق النار على مدني، فهذه جريمة. أما أن تطلق النار على المستشفيات * فهذه نازية وفاشية

Faisal Kassem wrote: I could accept the fact that you shoot at an armed revolutionary, but to shoot at a civilian is a crime and to bomb hospitals is nothing but Nazism and Fascism. -MT

* The Syrian regime has been compared to a mafia regime, but I think it is light years away from that, the mafia avoids killing women and children while the Syrian regime uses such atrocities to bring fear to the men. THERE IS NOTHING MORE DESPICABLE THAN THIS! Not even in the history books have I ever read about a regime that is comparable to the Syrian one. -IS

* I am against the regime because I am tired of hearing promises and speeches by the corrupt authorities, while they are shamelessly talking about fighting corruption. I am against the regime because I don’t want any Syrian citizen to spend his life in prison, to die from torture or to leave prison in a state of madness only because he has expressed his opinion. I am against the regime because I don’t want to see children scrounging through trash dumpsters only to find the remains of our meals, surrounded by the atrocious odour of a country where wealth is robbed every day by those who should be governing. I am against the regime because I don’t want the dream of young Syrians become exile and not travel. How sad it makes me to read in the local papers about their success in the lands of their diaspora, with the indication (of Syrian origins) only because their country gives them no possibility of expressing their talents. I am against the regime because I don’t want the young people of my nation to spend their lives studying and then leaving their degree in a drawer to go in search of a job (labourer, builder, taxi driver), while as time goes by they forget all that they have learned. I am against the regime because I want to see the plates on the scales of justice be in balance, I want to see the sick enter in the hospitals, not in slaughterhouses, because I want to see a profound reform of the system of instruction, police, the military and all the national institutions. I am against the regime because it taught us its slogans since we were children and they remained only slogans. I am against the regime because I don’t know who represents the people; I have recently discovered that one of the men in power is Mansour and I discovered it only because those who accompany him violently attacked a child, ruining his face only for a verbal discussion the child had with is youngest son. I am against the regime because it gets its help from evil persons only to protect its interests. I am against the regime because it invokes democracy, but it sets its militia against every individual who is asking for freedom. I am against the regime because I am tired of recognising the individual errors that have caused thousands of martyrs. I am against the regime because it says it fights against armed gangs and its death squads (Shabbiha) bring arms and use them brazenly against the protesters. I am against the regime because it invokes reforms and at the same time raises the rank of its corrupt affiliates and protects those who are responsible for the massacre of so many innocents. I am against the regime because it talks about conspiracies against it, as if it were doing its duty towards its people. Lastly, I am against the regime, I am against the opposition, I am against every drop of blood that a Syrian citizen shed, whatever his opinion may be. I am with the free Syrian people. -HD

* I am against the regime because its folly is not killing only the Syrian people, but it is trampling over the rights of all of humanity, and it has no pity, no mercy for anyone… There is a document that is essential as an ideal for all people to aspire to from every nation: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the preamble it is written: “Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge… for this reason I believe that the Syrian people are struggling not only for themselves but for the whole of humanity. May Allah grant them victory. – JL

* I am against the regime because I am a TRUE ANTI-FASCIST and this regime is a NAZI regime.- PP

* I am against the regime, but I have used all the words I have to express the rage I feel for the atrocities it is committing, and I am finished with all the words to express the offence regarding a world (other regimes) that in part are looking silently at the massacre, and in part is unrepentant and unpunished while they feed the bloody regime. The words are ending, but there is still Faith, and it is Faith alone that sustains me against this regime outside every “human” logic. InshAllah the change is coming soon. -TI

* I principally am against the violence and it is clear that I also must say that to make the hostilities in Syria end, a No Fly Zone is needed. Don’t call me a warmonger because I still believe that diplomacy has to be used if there are intermediaries who are able to bring that ahead and who can at the same time assure that in the meantime, all violence ceases. -AC

* Before the March 2011 revolution.

I am an Italian journalist and I have always been against the Assad regime. I have always been against the regime because every regime wants to have total control of persons and I am a free woman, I would never renounce my independence and dignity.

I have always been against the regime because it incarnates the opposite of all the values in which I believe.

I have always been against the regime because human life is sacred, and the Assad’s for 40 years, have killed women, children, the young and the old.

I have always been against the regime because the regime whoever brings its armoured tanks into the cities and shells unarmed civilians is nothing but a criminal.

I have always been against the regime because the practice of censorship negates the freedom of the word, of thought, of opinion.

After the Revolt for Dignity

I am against the regime because it is true that I am Italian, but my blood is Syrian.

I am against the regime because I have never seen my land of origin and for thirty years, could not even talk about it.

I am against the regime because I saw the Syrian border from afar, but I could not go near it.

I am against the regime because that day I felt alone in the world, without roots, without a place to call home.

I am against the regime because it robbed me of my identity.

I am against the regime because it impeded me from living a great love story, the love of one’s homeland…

I am against the regime because every time that a new martyr falls a part of me dies.

I am against the regime because for every child that cries or who shakes in fear, my heart breaks.

I am against the regime because I never have forgotten the massacre of Hama and I will never forget the massacres of Homs.

I am against the regime because I am Syrian. I am a free Syrian and I would die to defend my country. -AD

* I am against the regime because I am the son of a dissenter, brother of a martyr, cousin of two martyrs, I am a dissenter until victory. -MT

* I am against the regime because I am against every form of dictatorship, especially if it is a dictatorship tolerated by powers that take advantage of it when they could make it go down in a week. I am against the regime because I believe in the human rights that you can recognise on the streets, not in the conventions and treaties signed during gala dinners and aperitifs by people who give to themselves from these achievements, which are often completely unknown by the true subjects. I am against the regime because one cannot allow that innocents live a life of terror or that they don’t live at all only because fate made them be born in that place. I am against (all) the dictatorial regimes because there are people who continue to negate the evidence with empty rhetoric and propaganda and because there are other superficial and a-critical people who continue, incredibly, to believe them.  -MMB

perché siamo contro il regime

* Sono contro questo regime per il semplice fatto che dopo 40 anni ha ridotto il paese ad una loro fattoria familiare dove credono di potere fare e disfare come vogliono loro privando tutti dei loro diritti di cittadinanza. Sono contro questo regime perchè è riuscito a togliere il sorriso dal volto dei bimbi. -FS

* Sono contro il regime perché qualsiasi regime che utilizza la violenza contro il dissenso è un regime malato. Le dimensioni e la tenacia del dissenso è la prova che non è un complotto da registi stranieri o poteri forti. E’ un rivoluzione del popolo per i loro più basilari diritti -MR

* Sono contro il regime per il semplice motivo che sta uccidendo bambini,donne ,giovani ed anziani in modo sistematico fregandosene dei diritti umani,dell’opinione pubblica interna ed internazionale ,mentendo fino alla fine accusando l’intero mondo di coalizzarsi contro di lui con la menzogna del complotto……un regime che da più di 40 anni considera la Siria e i siriani una sua proprietà da gestire come meglio crede soggiogando la vita civile alla paura e al terrore dei servizi segreti che nel paese controllano tutto anche i rapporti personali come il matrimonio! Un regime che ha preso il potere con il sangue e che per 40 anni si è nascosto dietro a delle false elezioni dove vinceva sistematicamente con il 99.9 % di falsi consensi, un regime che è riuscito a tessere dei rapporti ambigui con il resto del mondo arabo e non …..ricattando i suoi alleati a suo piacimento e gestendo i suoi loschi affari senza che nessuno abbia mai alzato la voce…………un regime del genere nazi-fascista,oggi non deve esistere più! –MGN

* Oltre per le violenze, stupri, repressione,corruzione, morti,… io sono contro il regime perchè una madre è stata privata di suo figlio per oltre 35 anni, pechè esiliato in Italia senza il permesso di tornare nella sua terra natia, per il solo fatto che si suppone che sia contro il regime, una supposizione che ha spezzato una famiglia, fatto versare litri di lacrime a mia nonna e fatto vivere mio padre solo, solo senza genitori, fratelli, parenti e gli amici dell’infanzia, solo senza qualcuno che potesse dargli conforto e aiuto quando ne aveva bisogno, perchè solo la tua famiglia ti capisce veramente e aiuta nei momenti più difficili. Ora sento mio padre (uomo fermo e severo) parlare a telefono con voce spezzata e tremolante con sua madre di 95 anni, che ormai non sente e riconosce più nessuno, che le ripete in modo dolce «mamma mi riconosci? sono tuo figlio, o mamma perdonami e sii orgogliosa di me, mamma non piangere vedrai che ci rivedremo» e lei piangendo gli dice «nel paradiso figliolo, nel paradiso ci rivedermo se Dio vuole» mi si spezza il cuore sentire quelle parole ma io finche vivrò lotterò contro questo regime. -GZ

ان تطلق النار على مسلح فهذا مبرر. ان تطلق النار على مدني، فهذه جريمة. أما أن تطلق النار على المستشفيات * فهذه نازية وفاشية

faisal kassem ha scritto: potrei accettare il fatto che tu spari a un rivoluzionario armato ,ma sparare a un civile e un crimine e bombardare gli ospedali non e altro che nazismo e fascismo -MT

* Si era paragonato il regima siriano ad una regime mafioso,ma invece e’ lontano anni luce ,la mafia evita di uccidere bambini e le donne mentre il regime siriano usa tale atrocita’ per spaventare gli uomini PIU’ INFAMI DI COSI’ NON ESISTE !neanche nei libri di storia non ho mai letto di un regime paragonabile a quello siriano… -IS

* Prima della rivolta

Sono contro il regime perché mi sono stancato di ascoltare promesse e discorsi da parte delle autorità corrotte, mentre parlano spudoratamente di lotta alla corruzione. Sono contro il regime perché non voglio che nessun cittadino siriano passi la vita in prigione, muoia a causa della tortura o esca di prigione ormai senza senno solo perché ha espresso una sua opinione. Sono contro il regime perché non voglio vedere bambini rovistare nei cassonetti e mangiare gli avanzi dei nostri pasti circondati da un odore atroce in un Paese dove la ricchezza viene ogni giorno rubata da chi dovrebbe governare. Sono contro il regime perché non voglio che il sogno dei giovani siriani diventi l’emigrazione e non il viaggio. Così come mi rattrista leggere sui giornali locali dei loro successi nelle terre della diaspora, con l’indicazione (siriano d’origine) solo perché nel loro Paese non trovano possibilità di esprimere le proprie capacità. Sono contro il regime perché non voglio che i giovani della mia Nazione passino la vita a studiare per poi lasciare la laurea in un cassetto e andare in giro a cercare un lavoro (operaio, muratore, tassista), mentre l’avanzare del tempo fa dimenticare loro ciò che hanno imparato. Sono contro il regime perché voglio vedere le braccia della bilancia della giustizia equipararsi, voglio vedere i malati entrare in ospedale, non in macelli, perché voglio vedere una riforma profonda del sistema d’istruzione, di polizia, dell’esercito e di tutte le istituzioni nazionali. Sono contro il regime perché il regime ci ha insegnato i suoi slogan da quando eravamo piccoli e sono rimasti solo slogan. Sono contro il regime perché non so chi rappresenta il popolo; ho scoperto di recente che uno degli uomini al potere è Mansour e l’ho scoperto solo perché i suoi accompagnatori hanno deturpato il viso di un bambino per un diverbio a scuola con il minore dei suoi figli.

Dopo la rivolta

Sono contro il regime perché si fa aiutare da persone infami per tutelare i suoi interessi.

Sono contro il regime perché invoca la democrazia, ma scatena il suo esercito contro ogni individuo che chiede libertà. Sono contro il regime perché mi sono stancato di riconoscere gli errori individuali che hanno causato migliaia di martiri. Sono contro il regime perché dice di lottare contro bande armate e i suoi squadroni della morte (shabbiha) portano e usano spudoratamente le armi contro i manifestanti. Sono contro il regime perché invoca riforme e allo stesso tempo eleva di grado i suoi affiliati corrotti e protegge i responsabili del massacro di tanti innocenti. Sono contro il regime perché parla di complotto ai suoi danni, come se intanto stesse facendo il suo dovere nei confronti del suo popolo.

Infine

Sono contro il regime

Sono contro l’opposizione

Sono contro ogni goccia di sangue che versa un cittadino siriano, qualunque sia la sua opinione

Sono con popolo siriano libero. -HD

* Sono contro il regime perchè la sua follia non uccide soltanto il popolo siriano ma calpesta i diritti dell’ intera umanità, e non si pente di nulla, non ha pietà per nessuno…… C’ è un documento che è essenziale come ideale da raggiungere da tutti i popoli e da tutte le Nazioni: La Dichiarazione Universale dei Diritti dell’Uomo. Nel preambolo c’è scritto: ” Considerato che il riconoscimento della dignità inerente a tutti i membri della famiglia umana e dei loro diritti, uguali ed inalienabili, costituisce il fondamento della libertà, della giustizia e della pace nel mondo;

Considerato che il disconoscimento e il disprezzo dei diritti dell’uomo hanno portato ad atti di barbarie che offendono la coscienza dell’umanità, e che l’avvento di un mondo in cui gli esseri umani godono della libertà di parola e di credo e della libertà dal timore e dal bisogno è stato proclamato come la più alta aspirazione dell’uomo;

Considerato che è indispensabile che i diritti dell’uomo siano protetti da norme giuridiche, se si vuole evitare che l’uomo sia costretto a ricorrere, come ultima istanza, alla ribellione contro la tirannia e l’oppressione;

Considerato che è indispensabile promuovere lo sviluppo dei rapporti amichevoli tra le Nazioni;

Considerato che i popoli delle Nazioni Unite hanno riaffermato nello Statuto la loro fede nei diritti fondamentali dell’uomo, nella dignità e nel valore della persona umana, nell’eguaglianza dei diritti dell’uomo e della donna, ed hanno deciso di promuovere il progresso sociale e un migliore tenore di vita in una maggiore libertà;

Considerato che gli Stati membri si sono impegnati a perseguire, in cooperazione con le Nazioni Unite, il rispetto e l’osservanza universale dei diritti dell’uomo e delle libertà fondamentali;

Considerato che una concezione comune di questi diritti e di queste libertà è della massima importanza per la piena realizzazione di questi impegni ……. Per questo credo che il popolo siriano stia lottando non solo per sè stesso ma per l’ intera umanità. Che Allah gli dia la vittoria.  -JL

* Sono contro il regime perchè sono un ANTIFASCISTA VERO e questo regime è NAZISTA.. -PP

* Io sono contro il regime , ma ho esaurito financo le parole per esprimere la rabbia per le atrocità che questi commette , e sto esaurendo pure le parole per esprimere lo sdegno di un mondo (altri regimi) che in parte guarda silente il massacro , e in altra parte impenitente e impunito foraggia il regime sanguinario. Le parole si stanno esaurendo , ma c’è la Fede ; ed è la Fede che mi sostiene contro questo regime fuori da ogni logica “umana”. InshAllah il cambiamento è prossimo. -TI

* Io principalmente sono contro la violenza sia chiaro pero’ devo dire che per far cessare le ostilità in Siria sarebbe necessaria una no fly zone, non datemi del guerrafondaio he pero’ credo che la diplomazia si possa usare se ci sono intermediari che riescano a portarla avanti e che si assicurino che nel frattempo cessioni le violenze. -AC

* Prima della rivolta del marzo 2011

Sono una giornalista italiana e sono contro sempre stata il regime degli Assad.
Sono sempre stata contro il regime perché ogni regime vuole avere il controllo totale delle persone e io sono una donna libera, che mai rinuncerebbe alla sua indipendenza e dignità.
Sono sempre stata contro il regime perché incarna l’opposto di tutti i valori in cui credo.
Sono sempre stata contro il regime perché la vita umana è sacra e gli assad, da 40 anni, uccidono donne, bambini, giovani, anziani.
Sono sempre stata contro il regime perché chi schiera i carro armati nelle città e spara sui civili disarmati non è che un criminale.
Sono sempre stata contro il regime perché pratica la censura e nega la libertà di parola, di espressione, di opinione.

Dopo la Rivolta della dignità

Sono contro il regime perché è vero che sono italiana, ma il mio sangue è siriano.
Sono contro il regime perché non ho mai visto la mia terra d’origine e per trent’anni non ne ho mai potuto parlare.
Sono contro il regime perché un giorno ho visto da lontano il confine siriano ma non mi sono potuta avvinare.
Sono contro il regime perché quel giorno mi sono sentita sola al mondo, senza radici, senza una casa.
Sono contro il regime perché, mi ha privato della mia identità.
Sono contro il regime perché mi ha impedito di vivere un amore grande, l’amor di patria…
Sono contro il regime perché ogni volta che cade un nuovo martire muore una parte di me.
Sono contro il regime perché per ogni bambino che piange o che trema dalla paura mi si stringe il cuore.
Sono contro il regime perché non ho mai dimenticato il massacro di Hama e mai dimenticherò il massacri di Homs.
Sono contro il regime perché sono siriana, sono una siriana libera e morirei per difendere la mia patria -AD

* sono contro il regime perché:sono figlio di un oppositore,fratello,di un martire,cugino di due martiri,sono un oppositore fino alla vittoria -MT

* Sono contro il regime perché sono contro ogni forma di dittatura,peggio se si tratta di dittature tollerate da poteri che le sfruttano quando potrebbero metterci una settimana per rovesciarle. Sono contro il regime perché credo nei diritti umani che vanno riconosciuti per le strade,non nelle convenzioni e nei trattati firmati tra convenevoli e aperitivi da gente che si bea di testi di cui i veri destinatari spesso non saranno mai neanche a conoscenza. Sono contro il regime perché non si può ammettere che innocenti vivano una vita di terrore o addirittura non vivano solo perché la sorte li ha fatti nascere in quel posto. Sono contro (tutti) i regimi dittatoriali perché c’è gente che continua a negare l’evidenza con propagande vuote e retoriche e perché c’è altra gente acritica e superficiale che continua incredibilmente a crederci. -MMB

Who opposes the Assad family and why

Posted: 03/28/2012 by editormary in Human Rights, Middle East, People's Movements / Struggles, Resistance, Strategy for Liberation, Syria
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by Julie McLaughlin

WRITTEN BY SAAD KIWAN in Beirut, translated by Mary Rizzo

The Syrians have been living for over forty years under a dictatorship of a single part and of the absolute power of a military figure, Hafez Assad, who in 1971 organised a coup d’état, against his comrades of the “Baath” political party (national-social-chauvinist) already in power since 1963 following the first coup d’ètat by the same Baath officers, overthrowing the last civil government of coalition in Syria. Assad the father had governed for the first half of his reign arm in arm with his brother Refa’at (himself a soldier, exiled then in ’84 for having tried to overthrow Hafez), arresting the “Baathist” (civil) troika in power: the leader of the party, the president of the republic and the Prime Minister, all of them having died in prison. Assad has governed practically alone, putting in act the “perfect regime” of a police state, basing it on services, eliminating political life, outlawing parties (from the Communists to the Nasserians, from the Socialists to the Liberals and even the Baathists) and eliminating the Parliament, substituting the elections with plebiscites for the sole candidate-leader. For 30 years (1971-2000) he filled the Syrian prisons with persons who opposed him, militants and activists for thought crimes, practicing every kind of torture and brutality, with the disappearance of hundreds of prisoners, Syrians and Arabs. The Syrian dictator put a gag order on the stamp and the means of information, he forbid any type of labour association or activity of a cultural or social nature. With the famous Article 8 of the Constitution that sentences: “Baath is the party that leads the state and the society”!

The first horrible crime that the Baathist dictator carried out was the aerial bombing of the city of Hama in 1982, with the massacre of over 20 thousand people, in order to silence the Muslim Brotherhood. A massacre that had passed in complete silence in the West, but also in the East, for the absolute lack of “witnesses”, that is, of the traditional means of information of the time. Also because Assad was considered as a “secular” (but an Alawite) who opposed the fanatical and reactionary Muslims, it was of little matter that he massacred entire families. And it didn’t change things that the Syrian president, after that “secular” massacre introduces in the constitution that “Islam is the religion of the Syrian president”, which has been repeated in these days by his son Bashar (a secular as well!) with his “new constitution”, going so far as to add to that article that Islam is “the principle source of legislation”.

In 1976 Hafez Assad also sent his troops (30 thousand soldiers) in Lebanon “to bring peace” between the Lebanese, with the benediction of the United States and Israel. Result? Assad’s soldiers remained 30 years in Lebanon, bringing with them the occupation militia, destroying the state and its institutions, inventing a servile political class that did not respect any rule or civil or ethical code of conduct. Moreover, the men of the Assad apparatus and its officials sacked the economic-commercial wealth of the country. The sacking was part of the “divide and conquer” strategy, pitting forces and parties against one another, and doing the same thing for communities.

Regarding Palestine, the former Syrian dictator called himself “defender of the cause of the Palestinian Arab People” using every means possible and imaginable to tame the PLO and its policies, and to put the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat under the tutelage of the Syrian regime. For Assad, Lebanon and Palestine were “cards” to play and use in any way he wished. He did such things in the regional sphere to heat up the situation and raise the “price” of his dealings with Americans or Israelis, since the start of the 1970s. Successively, Iraq became another “card” that his heir Bashar used to deal with the USA, or to blackmail them, sending “volunteers” of fundamentalist and “Jihadist” groups there to carry out acts or terrorism or to give refuge to elements of Al-Qaeda.

In the third decade of his reign (1990-2000), Hafez Assad started to prepare his oldest son Bassel for his inheritance, passing from a despotic regime to a despotic-nepotistic regime. In 1994, the heir however died in a “road accident” that was later attributed to internal feuds within the Assad family itself. So, placed on the throne of leadership was the young ophthalmologist, “elected” with a plebiscite in 2000 upon the death of his father. There were many in Syria and in the Arab world who had hoped that the young president would be at the head of a new season of reform of the regime. The so-called “Damascus Spring” – which lasted a little over a year – turned out to be just a front. The son revealed himself to be even more merciless than the father. The campaign of arrests and ironclad repression by the regime, already since 2002, surprised everyone at some level. The prisons were filled with human rights activists and activists for freedom of speech, and they were left to rot in prison for years, without any trials.

Their doyen, the lawyer Haytham al-Maleh, today a leading figure in the opposition, was released at the start of the revolt, in March 2011, having celebrated his 80th birthday in prison, arrested several times, and never once put on trial. Among the regime prisons, the one of Mazze, in the capital city Damascus, stands out. Here Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners are detained and tortured, and they are then made to “disappear” (Lebanon still awaits to know the destiny of hundreds of Lebanese abducted by the Syrian troops in Lebanon), and that of Saidnaya, reserved for anyone opposing the regime and Syrian activists, where one of the massacres committed against the prisoners was carried out even by Maher, Bashar’s brother.

Intellectuals, writers and artists have been almost all exiled in Europe and in some Arab countries. We can’t even speak of journalists, because there are no independent or private newspapers and agencies in Syria, only the papers of the regime where the photo of the president-dictator dominates the layout. It is no different with the State TV, which opens the news with the sayings of the president-dictator. A high school student of 19 years, Tol al-Mallouhi was arrested in 2010 and sentenced to 5 years in prison for having expressed his thoughts in his blog regarding the Palestinian cause. The accusation? “Conspiracy against the regime” and “contacts with the American enemy”!

Today, Syria is governed by no less than 17 secret services agencies, under the command of the close circle of the Assad family: Bashar, his brother Maher, his mother and his brother-in-law. Then there are the Makhloufche cousins who hold the purse strings. In this “reign of terror”, the revolt erupted, which rapidly had transformed itself into a mass general uprising.

Thus was born the opposition with “three heads” inside and outside Syria: the Local Coordination Committees, the Coordination for Democratic Change and the Syrian National Council.

1 – The Local Committees are the true leaders of the revolts, rapidly organised throughout the entire territory by young volunteers who do not belong to any party; they are those of the new generation, born under the reign of the Assads and they have only known the workings and the practices of the Baath regime, but they also know the entire repertoire of the new technologies, despite the attempts of the regime to delay their access to them also by controlling their dissemination in the country, or lack thereof. These Committees are born and organised by means of Internet (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube), and they organise the protests throughout the country. In this way the revolt extended in the early months very rapidly, being able to escape from every attempt to control them or from direct intervention by the Special Forces of Bashar. But the most important and meaningful aspect is that all the young activists of the committees that lead the revolt operate clandestinely.  Those who go public are the spokespersons of the committees, who keep contact with the mass media, in that at the start of the revolt they found refuge in Beirut, Istanbul and then Cairo for logistic reasons and for coordination between the committees and the world outside Syria. And for greater safety, the committees have also created “shadow-committees”, which will substitute the “legitimate” ones in case these are discovered or arrested.

2 – The Coordination for Democratic Change. The outbreak of the revolt had practically taken also the old generation of militant politicians, writers and artists by surprise, included with them writers and artists, communists and nationalists, who already from the early 1970s fought against the Baath regime. Most of these had thus created the “Coordination for Democratic Change”, with its spokesman being Hassan Abdel-Azim, and it gathers together also parts of old political formations from ex-communists and ex-national socialists and Nasserians, as well as independent personalities such as Michel Kilo and Fayez Sara. The Coordination is a group that was born substantially within Syria, but it obviously has some of its figures abroad. It calls for the overthrow of the regime, but it also opposes any foreign intervention, the regime has winked at it, trying to get it involved in a fake dialogue that it from time to time invents, an in which some of the personalities of the Coordination have participated. The other day they refused to participate in the “meeting of the Friends of Syria” held in Tunisia to protest against the attempt to declare the National Council as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

3 – The National Council, led today by the professor of the Sorbonne Burhan Ghouliun, was instead formed abroad, in Istanbul, and it includes the majority of the foreign and internal opposition, having some renowned members such as the eighty-year-old lawyer Haytham Al-Maleh, politicians and intellectuals. The many young people who are part of the National Council in the role of representatives of the local committees guarantee the connection within Syria and make the Council the most popular among the populations of the cities in revolt. The Council also is comprised of a large number from the “Muslim Brotherhood”, backed by Erdogan’s Turkey. And it also enjoys the support of the vast majority of the Arab nations, from France and from quite a few Europeans. They insist upon “a humanitarian intervention to protect civilians” who are not victims of Bashar’s war machine which is killing them on an average of 100 persons per day.

4 – Then, there is the Free Syrian Army, formed by soldiers who had deserted the regime’s army and that despite the scarcity of arms it has available, it has been able to stand up to Bashar’s brigades, freeing some cities and guaranteeing protection to the population. And it seems that all the parts of the opposition are in agreement to support it and to consider it as the armed faction of the opposition.

The Local Committees are the true militants who move on the terrain among the people, and they are thus the structure that supports the uprising. They are for this reason not inclined to compromises, and thus they seem to guarantee solidity and continuity of the uprising despite the attempts of the regime to suffocate it and despite the failure of the Arab League to impose that the “little dictator” leaves or at least forcing him to step down. It is however obvious that with the passing of time and with the escalation of ferocity of the Assad gangs against a population that continues to peacefully protest, the danger of a militarisation of the revolt becomes greater. But it is the regime itself that pushes in the direction of a civil war that would justify a civil war and its war of extermination. It is also true that the most radical wing and those most willing to have a military response could predominate. Yet, it is likewise true that the population has reached almost a year of pacific revolts, and it is legitimate to then ask why they should be expected to resist and die? And for what reason or ideal should they have to expose themselves to the bombardments of cannons of the armoured tanks and aviation of Bashar’s regime, allowing men, when, the elderly and even children (as many as 500) to be killed?? (translator’s note: these statistics have now been overcome; children comprise around 850 of the victims to this date).

Lastly, two strong considerations: I believe that the primary and fundamental objective is that of dismantling a regime that is so totalitarian and repressive, merciless, cynical and inhuman, and to put Bashar and his close circle on trial. And regarding this point, there is no excuse in the world or justification. The “clean” and “pure” revolutionary ideals that know how to predict everything do not exist and they never have existed. But whoever it is that leads Syria after Assad could never be worse than him, his father and the Baath regime, which in addition to the Assad’s contributed to the museum of horrors also the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq.

One cannot therefore expect that an almost clandestine opposition that has been repressed for over 40 years, which has never been able to operate in a climate of freedom, to be democratic and guarantee rights, or to not be subject to foreign pressure or influence. Yet, an opposition so diverse and politically varied is in itself a guarantee of pluralism and at the very least, is the harbinger of a future with a political life that is open to new experiences.

Original http://giulianasgrena.globalist.it/Detail_News_Display?ID=8311

Syria, interview with Shady Hamadi: “Why is the world not outraged?”

Posted: 03/03/2012 by editormary in Grassroots Activism, Ideas and Projects, Interviews, Middle East, People's Movements / Struggles, Syria
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WRITTEN BY ANGELA ZURZOLO, translated by Mary Rizzo

ROME – Shady Hamadi is a young Italian-Syrian who was among the first to have openly spoken on the repression that the Bashar al-Assad regime is enacting against the Syrian people. Despite the intimidations, he continued to take to the streets in  protests and to address the mass media in order to raise awareness in the general public. Now, he is asking Italians to not cling to indifference and to join in the “Black Ribbon for Syria” campaign, by wearing a symbol of solidarity to the Syrian people each day.

Q: It has been almost a year of repression and death in the country of your origins, when the drama directly affected your loved ones as well. What happens when history bursts into the life of a family? How has the history of your family changed in two   generations, through the Assad governments?

A: My family’s history is interwoven with the fate of an entire people. The drama of the sudden deaths, of arrests and exile has touched my family as it has the families of millions of other persons. When this happens, the drama begins to be part of daily life, so one simply needs to move forward and never go back, avoiding regrets and second thoughts.

Q: Your family members in Syria have been intimidated due to your activism in Italy. You have decided to continue to speak and put yourself in the public eye, defending the cause of the Syrian opposition even in the Italian and European Parliaments.  What resistance and difficulties have you met since then?

A: I didn’t have any real difficulties myself. At times I felt very much alone, abandoned, but during those moments I thought of my family in Syria and about my father’s example  so that I could carry on.

Q: Tell us about your first travels to Syria. What was happening those years in the capital? Did the Damascus Spring leave any traces of cultural life in the country? What are the “Voices of the Spirits” that you would write about today?

A: In 2009, Damascus was a sleepy city, the times of the Damascus Manifesto were by then far away and certainly no one imagined to be able to muster up so much courage. I remember having met many persons who were literally famished for knowledge, they wanted to know what people from other countries thought on any cultural argument or even wanting to know their simple conception of daily reality.  The Syrian people are not stupid, and they never have been. There are so many voices to talk about today, but one comes to mind in particular, a friend who recited poetry in English in the basement of a hotel on Monday evenings, and we would meet to listen to him.

Q: You have started a campaign called “Black Ribbon for Syria” why did you think of this kind of initiative to involve the Italian public?

A: A symbol is able to raise awareness more than a thousand words. Unfortunately the Italian public is not very aware of the Syrian tragedy, since its beginnings. This initiative, present also in other countries where small committees have been formed, seeks to create a common awareness on what is happening in Syria, bringing people into the street and squares. It is not possible that in Syria even children are executed and the world is not outraged.

Q: What are the greatest fears of those Syrians who live in the cities these days? With the shelling of the cities, the Syrian repression seems to have entered into a new and more terrible phase.

A: There are many kinds of fears: that of ending up in prison, that women in one’s family will be raped, and so forth. The situation is terrible, we are not even able to send medicine from Lebanon to Syria because the Lebanese government collaborates closely with the Damascus regime.

Q:The price that journalists have paid with their blood in Syria has been high. What has been the contribution of journalists to the coverage of information? Some say that they had been silent for too long, others challenge the information that comes out of Syria.

A: I think that more could have been done. Today we celebrate, rightly so, the two western journalists killed but together with them was Rami al Sayd and the hundreds of young people who continue to die for the reasons of uploading their videos on Youtube. Western journalism has to give more credit to the Syrian activist journalists who are in Syria and live there. If a journalist is treated like a hero because he entered into Syria for four days wouldn’t it be right to publicly recognise that there are Syrians who have done this work for eleven months, right in Syrian, in such a risky situation and they have died for this?

Q: During the rebellion of the Muslim Brotherhood, between 1976 nd 1982, one of the accusations raised against Assad and his loyalists was that of belonging to a sect of non-believers, and those most harshly struck by the armed actions of those doing the revolt were not only the government representatives and the Alawite officials of the military, but also ordinary citizens whose only fault was belonging to the same religious group as that of those in the regime. How do you interpret the relationship between Alawits and Sunnis in recent years?

A: There is the false believe that all the Alawites are with the regime and that all of them gain from it. This is untrue. In Syria, coexistence between religions is rooted in the society and has been for millenia, not only since 1963, as the government tries to suggest. Killing persons only because they are Alawites, has had happened in 1982 is wrong, just as it is wrong to kill anyone, if it it might sound merely rhetorical. The Syria of tomorrow will also have Alawites and for this reason work must be done to destroy the culture of the vendetta.

Q: Do you think that the new Constitution could open a margin for reaction to the opposition or do you think that it has definitively handed the keys of the nation over to Bashar?

A: I think that it is a farce. Assad has never recognised that an opposition exists, he has always said they are only a band of salafist terrorists who want to kill the minorities. When he recognises that there is dissent, then maybe one can start thinking about it.

Original:  http://www.ilmediterraneo.it/it/interviste/7570

The Realpolitik of armchair anti-imperialists

Posted: 02/29/2012 by editormary in Grassroots Activism, Internet and Communication, Iran, Middle East Issues, People's Movements / Struggles, Syria
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A Syrian protester

WRITTEN BY ENRICO DE ANGELIS – translated by Mary Rizzo

The Syrian revolution is a conspiracy devised by the United States: thus goes the discourse of many leftists activists and their newspapers. But behind this vision is a distorted reading of reality and an increasing difficulty in interpreting the complexity of the contemporary world. Which risks making them lose credibility even in the future struggles. 

Since the revolt in Syria started, many have been convinced that it has been an American-Zionist conspiracy that has been behind the scenes, directing the uprising. They say that the majority of Syrians still support Bashar al-Assad.  They say that the living is still good in Syria and that the life conditions were better than in the other Arab states where the revolts broke out. They say that the activists of the opposition and the mainstream media that support them exaggerate the number of victims. They say that right from the start it was an insurrection armed by the United States and Gulf countries. They say that Syria is the last secular State and especially that it is the last bastion, together with Iran, against the policies of the United States and their allies in the region. Expressing this vision of what is happening in Syria since last March are persons who see themselves as belonging to the so-called Anti-imperialist camp. It is difficult to identify with precision those who belong to it: more than anything else, it is with a way of thinking, which emerges when one finds himself in discussion with human rights activists, those who sympathise with the Palestinian cause, anarchists, exponents of social centres (translator’s note, leftist student groups) and many others. In general, those who are against the world order that has the stamp of the United States. But it is a reading that at times also finds its expression in more official ways. In Italy, an example is il manifesto, which since the start had an attitude regarding Syria that can be called ambiguous at best. Any argument seems valid as long as it deviates the attention from the repression of the regime regarding the protests: the geo-political interests at play, the lack of precision in the count of the victims, the armed character of the revolt, the infiltration by al Qaeda and Iraqi Jihadists.

And, on the other hand, il manifesto is in good company – in a recent article entitles “The United States should stay out of Syria”, the American magazine The Nation  begins immediately with a geo-political analysis of the question, stressing who is against whom in the international panorama. Then it follows saying that “the Syrian opposition is, at least in its most external form, obscure” and concludes that the revolt could end in a massacre of the Alawites. Joseph Massad, the champion of the conspiracy theory writes in al-Jazeera English that the Syrian revolt has been “taken hostage” by the imperialist forces within (???) and outside Syria, and that certainly the outcome cannot be a true democracy. And in that vein still others. In these months I often found myself encountering persons who have these opinions. An example is an Italian activist I met in Tahrir Square in Cairo, on the occasion of 25 January, anniversay of the Egyptian revolt. He also came to celebrate with the victory against the Mubarak regime with the Egyptians. But when it comes to Syria, the position is striking, “the situation is completely different. The Egyptian regime was supported by the United States, the Syrian one is on the other hand against them.”

When Che Guevara talks like Kissinger – This is the first point that I’d like to discuss: the cold realpolitik that comprises this way of thinking. Suddenly the discourse of human rights, the defence of freedom at all costs, the opposition to State violence against citizens slip into the background. What counts now are only geo-political types of concerns. Though hidden behind other arguments, the discourse is essentially: the enemy of my enemy is my friend, no matter what he does. Syria and its regime is the enemy of the United States, thus it has to be protected. The Syrian people can be sacrificed on the altar of the global struggle of anti-imperialism, because, too bad for them, they happen to be fighting from the wrong side. What is important is to be against the United States, and anything that goes against the, is fine with me. This passage from a discourse based on ethics to a discourse based exclusively on political concerns seems to be experienced by those who use it without contradictions. Che Guevara all of a sudden starts to talk like Kissinger or Metternich, yet, everything seems normal. What happens on a local level counts for nothing, the struggle of a people for their freedom: the only thing that counts is geo-political equilibrium.

Protesters waving the revolutionary flag (pre-Assad era flag)

An erroneous reconstruction of reality – The second consideration goes under the name of ignorance. Because the contradiction referred to above is often overcome by claiming that it’s not truly a spontaneous revolt, but it is an armed insurrection orchestrated by the United States with the intention to intervene militarily. This is the same script that is used regarding the Iraq war of 2003 or, more recently, that in Libya. If the revolt is authentic, then the humanitarian case does not exist. There is no place here for challenging in detail all the pieces that make up this invented mosaic. And I don’t want to deny that there are foreign interests at play: there always are some. In fact, the longer the revolt lasts and the more that the clampdown of it is bloody, the more that an external intervention becomes pressing and influential, conditioning the future of the country. As a Syrian activist has said: when you don’t know who to turn to, you would even deal with the Devil.

But to think that the insurrection in Syria is fruit of a pre-ordained plan from outside is simply false. And for those who know the situation well, for those who have followed every single development since the beginning, there is no shadow of a doubt. No regional or international power wanted a revolt in Syria. It is sufficient to analyse the declarations of the American administration since last March. After less than a month Hillary Clinto declares that “Assad is a reformer”, dismissing the repression as “disproportionate use of force” and reassures Assad, excluding armed intervention in Syria. On 20 May Obama states that “Assad should lead the transition towards democracy”. On 20 May, Obama repeats that “Assad has to step down in the interest of the Syrian people”. And lastly, 6 February he excludes once more any military intervention. Clearly, it is not what one can call a defamation campaign as the one against Saddam Hussein prior to the invasion of 2003. On the contrary, the doors have always remained open for Bashar al-Assad, even when the brutality of the repression had become clear to all. The Syrian National Council, the main opposition organ abroad, has been recognised only one month ago and by very few countries. And the Free Syria Army, despite all the widespread rumours this year, judging by the rudimentary arms it possesses, has not yet received any help from foreign countries.

A revolution against the entire world – The Syrian revolution, as some activists have written, seems to be a revolution against the entire world. Not in the sense that there is any kind of conspiracy against it, but in the sense that the struggle for independence is evidently a solitary struggle. No external actor has the force to intervene, or the intention to place their bets on this revolution. Yet everyone follows it closely, anxious to understand how it will end and to know which horse to bet on so that they can cash in when all is over and done. There are many interests that must be safeguarded, except for the Syrian ones. The truth is that the Bashar al-Assad regime is convenient for everyone, the West and Israel included. Syria and the Assads have always barked tremendously and bitten very little, and they offered stability to the entire area. Fundamentally, Israel needs to have a threat to exhibit in order to continue reciting the role of victim under siege. And the Assad regime constitutes a threat only on paper. On the contrary, a truly independent Syria is a certain loss for someone and the terrible unknown for the others. It is precisely for this reason that the lack of solidarity in those movements and those persons who instead are always ready to participate in protests for Palestine or against the wars of NATO stands out even more as incomprehensible behaviour.

It is a world, that of the “anti-imperialists”, which shows that it not only has remained behind in its own incapacity to understand contemporary reality and its transformations, but also to be imprisoned within ideological prisons that impede them from reading the nature of local phenomena in their specificity. They say: one always must read events in a global key. But even if that were true, one first of all needs to read them well, and second, they need to do so without forgetting the persons who live in places where the events take place and who are undergoing more often than not local forces. As the Syrians know well, at times local powers can be more violent and ferocious than global ones. What does it matter to a Syrian if in the end the United States should make gains in geopolitical interests, if this of course is true, if the day before a follower of Assad has killed his brother? The Syrian regime perhaps is not a friend of the West, but it is an oppressive regime that has in recent years started a process of free market policies and policies of centralisation of economic power that resemble unrestrained capitalism, limited only to the need to ensure that the distribution of wealth is compatible with the interests of the authorities.

The loss of credibility of international solidarity movements – It is a paradox and disquieting that the insurrection brought forward in the first place in the name of freedom, democracy and social justice, and which is brought ahead by the less advantaged social classes of the country, is perceived as a revolt in favour of global imperialism. Why can’t one simply be on the side of the people and against the forces that limit their freedoms, wherever they may be? But this would already be an operation that is far too complex within the rigid framework of imperialism vs the free world. One is either against Iran or against the United States. These persons in general exhibit a presumptuous scepticism that often translates into a hasty conclusion: the mainstream media lies, therefore, reality is the opposite of what they affirm. In other words, if CNN affirms that there is a massacre in Syria, it means that the revolt has been organised by the Americans. They know how the world works, the others are poor lobotomised idiots who drink down anything that the mass media decides to force their way.

But unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the world (and also that of the media) is much more complex than that. If it is true that the mainstream media are often subordinated by the agendas of governments, it is also true that one cannot so easily dismiss them and thing that there is a permanent international conspiracy woven by the United States. But all of this, for those pseudo-intellectuals who are sitting comfortably in their own armchairs while people die, is if no importance at all. They should however remember one thing, and that is when they take to the streets again to march for a just cause, against the occupation of Palestine or against another NATO intervention, they will have very much less credibility from now on.

continua su: http://www.fanpage.it/la-realpolitik-dell-anti-imperialista-da-salotto/#ixzz1nZvtmQWG
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Chiudendo gli occhi di fronte al sangue – perché gli attivisti per i diritti umani ce l’hanno tanto con i manifestanti siriani?

Posted: 02/29/2012 by editormary in Grassroots Activism, Middle East, Palestine, People's Movements / Struggles, Syria, War
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100 civili siriani, vittime di 2 soli giorni di attachi

SCRITTO DA MARY RIZZO

“Sarebbe stato meglio nascere animali piuttosto che siriani. Avresti ricevuto maggiore protezione.”

Stavo riflettendo tra me e me, ed a volte a voce alta, “Che cavolo è successo all’empatia e all’umanità del movimento degli attivisti? Quando hanno deciso quale sangue non valeva molto? Dove sono andate la loro compassione, empatia e senso della giustizia?”

Ci sono alcune qualità che un’attivista dovrebbe possedere come parte obligatoria del proprio bagaglio. Non tutti devono avere una soluzione ai problemi che affligono le vittime o i deboli nelle cause che sostengono. Nemmeno devono dedicare molto tempo o soldi alla causa. Si potrebbe fare l’attivista oggigiorno localmente o anche se si è disabili o si  hanno difficoltà a lasciare le proprie case. Ci si può esprimere, condividere informazioni, e fare azioni di solidarietà attraverso internet. Le qualità, però, che dovrebbero essere a disposizione di ogni attivista includono l’empatia, un po’ di coraggio ed un forte desiderio che “il bene” abbia il sopravento e sconfigga “il male”. Che questo bagaglio così cruciale e obligatorio sia diventato così selettivo deve essere il colpo più fatale all’universo dell’attivisimo. Lo fa puzzare di ipocrisia e serve principalmente la causa degli oppressori.

L’empatia è una risposta sociale ed emotiva alle condizioni in cui vivono altri essere senzienti. Siccome tutti noi possiamo concordare che dolore e sofferenza (compresso quello d’essere vittima di abusi, fame e privazioni) sono cose negative, non dovrebbe essere difficile sentirsi male, “come se” quello che succede potesse succedere a noi o alle persone che amiamo. Se siamo capaci di sconnettere l’empatia perché abbiamo un’ideologia cui fare fede, accompagnata da una sorta di strana pressione sociale, qualcosa è andato storto. Se siamo selettivi per un concetto quale il dolore umano e la per nostra capacità di accettarlo (per gli altri), abbiamo bisogno di una lunga pausa di riflessione per pensare ex novo che cosa stiamo facendo nel mondo dell’attivismo. Dobbiamo ricordare che l’empatia potrebbe essere uno strumento per il cambiamento, dobbiamo metterlo al nostro servizio e capire che la gente che soffre (e in alcuni casi gli animali) percepisce il nostro coinvolgimento oppure la nostra indifferenza, e possono servire delle capacità tipiche degli (soprattutto) attivisti per far sì che i sentimenti di empatia si manifestino e vadano verso la fine della sofferenza, che rimane l’oggetto primario ed immediato.

Per poter capire, testimoniare ed identificarsi con la sofferenza estrema che è la realtà di alcuni, un attivista deve possedere la capacità di aiutare in una maniera concreta il cambiamento della condizione di dolore e di sofferenza attraverso il riconoscimento della condizione, seguito da azioni atte a    intervenire a favore delle vittime. Dall’altra parte, la loro indifferenza potrebbe dare sostegno al violento, all’ oppressore, che crede che la sua violenza sia giustificata.

Non c’è stata mancanza di prove per moltissimi mesi che in Siria la situazione attuale è una crisi umanitaria di gravità estrema. A citare alcune statistiche, molte delle quali provenienti dagli organi internazionali considerati come altamente autorevoli come l’ONU, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International e altri ancora, in undici mesi dalle prime manifestazioni contro il regime, ci sono stati 6.000 civili uccisi, da cecchini, da  bombardamenti con mortai, bombe e pestaggi, anche se altre fonti dichiarano che il numero vero è molto più alto, visto che la scoperta di fosse comuni e la “sparizione” di manifestanti è un evento frequente. 70.000 persone sono state arrestate, la stragrande maggioranza senza accuse specifiche oppure accusate di crimini che nessun tribunale normale potrebbe sostenere, compresi crimini di pensiero e di intento. Ci sono stati casi documentati in modo costante di abusi e tortura, con i corpi segnati dalla brutalità che è difficile immaginare. Le scene sono così orribili e devastanti, che in anni ed anni di attivismo per i diritti umani e soprattutto per quelli palestinesi, non ho mai visto questo livello di depravazione, questo livello di crudezza.

La settimana scorsca, la città di Idleb ha subito un attacco molto sanguinoso: un gruppo di persone sono state vittime dello scoppio di una bomba di chiodi, che ha conficcato piccolissimi pezzi di metallo nella loro carne, daneggiando gli organi interni e causando emorragia interna fino ad arrivare ad una morte dolorosa. Sono stati trasportati all’ospedale civile per il loro funerale, ma lì, altri 60 corpi erano scoperti nelle celle frigorifere, tutti con segni di tortura estrema. L’ospedale è occupato dalla militia del regime che ha sparato alla gente e proibito a qualsiasi ferito le cure. Gli ospedali ora servono soltanto al regime per rimanere al potere a tutti i costi. L’immagine che è venuta alla mente di un’amica attivista che ha visto le foto erano le immagini  di persone faccia in giù nel proprio sangue a Sabra e Shatilla. Ma, questi sono siriani, e per un motivo che non riesco a capire, la maggioranza degli attivisti per la Palestina preferiscono ignorare il tutto. Stano portando gli paraocchi oppure sono incapaci di provare empatia con i siriani?

Che ci sono più di 20.000 rifugiati che hanno cercato la salvezza in Turchia nelle tende è un altro numero che dovrebbe essere un dato insopportabile per un attivista. Sappiamo bene quello che è il destino dei rifugiati, il fatto che spesso non possono mai tornare e soprattutto, le condizioni atroci in cui sono costretti a vivere. Un attivista dovrebbe essere preoccupato per tutto questo. Quanti siriani sono fuggiti in Libano o anche più lontano? Nessuno conosce i numeri perché spesso questa gente continua ad essere minacciata e ricercata anche in esilio.

Come mai gli attivisti non riescono a capire la severità della situazione? Perché denunciano i manifestanti negli stessi termini che sono usati dal regime, nonostante montagne di prove che dimonstrano che non è un governo umano? Come mai hanno fatto uso di Twitter, Facebook ed i blog per settimane contro lo spray al pepperoncino negli occhi dei manifestanti americani, ma gli assalti mortali contro civili (compreso più di 300 bambini che sono morti per mano del regime, molti di loro soggetti alla detenzione e alla morte per torture) sono ignorati? Sono i Siriani figli di un dio minore?  Sono meno degni di protezione e di interesse? E’ mai possibile che studenti universitari americani che dopo la manifestazione possono tornare nei loro dormitori e sanno che le loro vite non sono in pericolo ottengono più comprensione e empatia dagli attivisti che bambini arabi innocenti che hanno perso le loro vite sotto la crudeltà di una milizia repressiva?

Alcuni diranno, “Perché dici che è peggio se qualcuno uccide la propria gente?” come una scusa per poi parlare di un altro luogo geografico, un’altra situazione. Altri diranno che il regime di Assad è l’ultimo baluardo contro l’imperialismo, che è l’unico argomento che riescono a trovare. Sono sicuri che dietro tutte le proteste c’è un complotto imperialista, qualcosa che non dicevano  per le stesse proteste in Tunisia, Egitto ed a volte, verso l’Intifada palestinese. Molte di queste persone che dichariano che non può  essere una rivolta sincera e popolare oppure una rivoluzione vivono in società ricche in Europa e Nord America, dove hanno il diritto di dire qualsiasi cosa vogliono senza avere paura di essere arrestati. Però, non hanno mai fatto parte di una rivoluzione o di una rivolta contro il governo al  potere. Altri dicono che non ci deve essere l’intervento esterno, ma fanno il tifo per la Russia, il Libano e l’Iran perchè continuino ad armare il regime perché lo sostengano per il più lungo tempo possibile. Altri diranno che l’Esercito della Siria Libera è una milizia imperialista (???!!!) e che sta fomentando la guerra, non essendo una vera milizia di resistenza. Ancora altri dicono che entrambi i lati hanno la colpa, mettendoli sullo stesso piano, una cosa che non si azzardarebbero a fare se fosse la Palestina. Come è possible mettere a pari merito civili con un potere armato che controlla il governo, l’economia, che potrebbe togliere l’acqua, la corrente e il gas per proprio sfizio, arrestare persone in modo arbitrario a migliaia, chiudere ospedali, invadere città con carri armati, bombardare le persone mentre stanno nelle loro case e mettere cecchini sui tetti,  dovesse mai qualcuno provare a scappare?

Un mio amico siriano mi ha detto qualche mese fa, “Se solo fossimo degli animali, credo che ci sarebbero più persone a provare la compassione per noi.” Dopo alcune settimane, ha preso atto anche dell’abbandono totale degli Attivisti per la Palestina, che ripetono le posizioni retoriche di Assad senza nemmeno un motivo pratico per farlo se non la loro mancanza di umanità oppure la loro mancanza di occhi per vedere. Mi ha detto, “Dovremmo dire a tutti semplicemente che siamo palestinesi, forse solo allora si sentiranno male per come stiamo morendo.” Io lo porterei ancora avanti il pensiero: alcuni anni fa Vittorio Arrigoni ha scritto un pezzo molto toccante. Io chiedo agli attivisti per la Palestina in modo particolare di leggerlo e rifletterci sopra.

“Prendi dei gattini, dei teneri micetti e mettili dentro una scatola” mi dice Jamal, chirurgo dell’ospedale Al Shifa, il principale di Gaza, mentre un infermiere pone per terra dinnanzi a noi proprio un paio di scatoloni di cartone, coperti di chiazze di sangue. “Sigilla la scatola, quindi con tutto il tuo peso e la tua forza saltaci sopra sino a quando senti scricchiolare gli ossicini, e l’ultimo miagolio soffocato.” Fisso gli scatoloni attonito, il dottore continua “Cerca ora di immaginare cosa accadrebbe subito dopo la diffusione di una scena del genere, la reazione giustamente sdegnata dell’opinione pubblica mondiale, le denunce delle organizzazioni animaliste…” il dottore continua il suo racconto e io non riesco a spostare un attimo gli occhi da quelle scatole poggiate dinnanzi ai miei piedi. “Israele ha rinchiuso centinaia di civili in una scuola come in una scatola, decine di bambini, e poi la schiacciata con tutto il peso delle sue bombe. E quale sono state le reazioni nel mondo? Quasi nulla. Tanto valeva nascere animali, piuttosto che palestinesi, saremmo stati più tutelati.”A questo punto il dottore si china verso una scatola, e me la scoperchia dinnanzi. Dentro ci sono contenuti gli arti mutilati, braccia e gambe, dal ginocchio in giù o interi femori, amputati ai feriti provenienti dalla scuola delle Nazioni Unite Al Fakhura di Jabalia, più di cinquanta finora le vittime. Fingo una telefonata urgente, mi congedo da Jamal, in realtà mi dirigo verso i servizi igienici, mi piego in due e vomito.”

In questo momento, queste vittime sono siriani. In questo momento, la media di 40 vittime al giorno (ma cresce negli ultimi giorni), a volte 100 vittime ogni giorno, è ciò che accade in Siria.

(grazie a Eugenio Dacrema per l’aiuto)

Syria: rethinking the origins of the revolt almost a year later (+ italiano)

Posted: 02/25/2012 by editormary in Children\'s Corner, Grassroots Activism, Human Rights, Middle East, People's Movements / Struggles, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, Strategy for Liberation, Syria, War
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the amount of marches and number of participants has grown exponentially

WRITTEN BY ENRICO DE ANGELIS, translated by Mary Rizzo

After almost a year, let’s take a look at the fundamental moments of the revolt in Syrian, running the gamut of repression, the regime’s propaganda and “hope”. From the first protests in Damascus up to the bloody episodes of recent days.

A Syrian dissident once told me that ever since the revolts in Syria started, time passes faster than in the rest of the world. If outside, a day goes by, within the borders, it is as if a week has passed. It is hard to think that only a year ago, Syria had one of the most stable regimes in the Middle East. Its president Bashar al-Assad seemed to enjoy a consensus that the other Middle Eastern dictators, starting from Hosni Mubarak, did not have. The economic difficulties hadn’t yet reached the breaking point of tolerance as they had in Egypt. And lastly, the geopolitical position of Syria put several obstacles in front of a possible revolt. For years the Syrian regime had been the only certainty in an area that is dense with ambiguity and problems: the chaos of Iraq following the American occupation, the fragility of Lebanon with its intermittent civil wars, Israel and the occupation of Palestine. No one wanted, and in many ways no one still wants, the sudden and violent fall of the Syrian regime, not even the Western powers, starting from the United States. It is impossible to think of a “calculated” regime change, it is impossible to predict what will happen if the Assad regime, which has lasted 40 years, should fall.

All of these certainties collapsed one after the other. No one expected that the Syrian revolution could have reached such proportions and developed in this way. From a year since the start of the revolts, which began in March 2011, Syria today appears to be on the brink of a civil war. The regime’s repression of the uprising in the most recent days has reached its apex. The prolonged shelling of the city of Homs, one of the strongholds of the “rebels”, is bringing about the death of hundreds. A few days earlier, there was the failure and the withdrawal of the Arab League’s observers, after having admitted their own incapacity to put a halt to the violence. Then, the lack of reaching an agreement on the UN resolution from the Arab League initiative that asked for Bashar to step down and to start the transition process towards democracy. A resolution that, though excluding a military intervention, was blocked in no uncertain terms by the double veto of Russia and China.

Never before as today are all eyes set on the armed aspect of the revolt, that Free Syrian Army (FSA) constituted prevalently of deserters of the armed forces that since July 2011 has militarily opposed the repression. The United States, though excluding a direct armed intervention, seems to think of supporting the FSA with arms and money, with the help of Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. On the other side, Russia and Iran continue to support the regime and supply Bashar al-Assad’s militia. In essence, there are all the elements for a sort of “proxy war” with dynamics that resemble those of Vietnam in the 1960s or, to stay in the region, similar to the style of the Lebanese civil wars.

The armed revolt and the regime’s propaganda – What is unfolding before our eyes can be defined as a sort of “self-fulfilling prophecy”. The regime has insisted since the beginning that the revolt was an armed on, directed by foreign elements, fruit of an international conspiracy and underscored by ethnic reasons: Sunnis against Alawites. Even when that was evidently not the case at all. In the regime’s version, the repression of the protesters has always been presented as a fight against invisible “terrorists” and against armed gangs that were not identified in any clear way. It had been Bashar al-Assad himself, in a speech held at the People’s Council at the end of last March, to set this narrative of events, deluding a good number of Syrians who hoped at least in a partial recognition of the growing dissent in the country and in the opening towards a pacific exit strategy that at the same time seemed still to be realistic. Today, some of the elements that constitute the regime’s propaganda have become reality: it is true that the armed revolt has assumed a certain importance. It is true that foreign intervention is ever more pressing, first under the form of economic and diplomatic pressure, and perhaps from now on even under the form of military aid. It is true that even the ethnic aspects of the clashes have become more evident. The Alawites, a minority group to which the al-Assad family belongs, are almost all on the side of the regime, as well as how the able propaganda of the regime has always tried to paint the revolt as directed towards the creation of an Islamic state in which the exponents of other religious groups would find themselves emarginated or worse, persecuted. Some of the lies of the regime have transformed themselves, at least in part, into truth.

The wind of the Arab Spring – But it has not always been that way. The Syrian revolt started spontaneously and it is still prevalently an authentic revolt, brought forward by the Syrian citizens without the help of anyone. The requests of the protesters are for the most part extraneous to a religious discourse: they are asking for freedom, democracy, social justice. And, despite everything, the peaceful protesters continue to build the true motor of the revolt. Everything had its start in Tunisia and Egypt. The Syrian revolt would probably never have taken place without the precedent Arab Springs. The domino effect in this case is striking. When the so-called Arab Spring began in North Africa, something in Syria had shaken. Small events, but taken all together make up a definite change in the environment. When I was in Damascus, in the winter of 2010, the transformation was evident. It was enough to look at the debates that were flooding the information sites in that period: there were discussions on the news of the uprisings against Mubarak and Ben Ali, and it is simple to pass from these arguments to the situation in Syria. One almost does not even notice it happening. In substance, the problems are and remain the same in all the Arab countries: corruption, growing gap between the rich and the poor, daily humiliation, lack of freedom, an economy that is on the decline in a way that is seemingly unstoppable. One talks of Egypt and Tunisia, and in reality, one is talking of Syria.

The phenomenon doesn’t concern only Internet. Even outside of the web, the atmosphere is visibly changing. The traditional remissive and apolitical nature that has always characterised the population seems to be crumbling. Acts of bullying and arrogance that were once tolerated by perseverance are now met with a growing impatience. In February the first marches were organised, in front of the Egyptian and Libyan embassies, to express solidarity with the Arab Spring. Then something that until only a few months before had been unthinkable: dozens of persons took to the streets of Damascus to protest against the violence of a policeman against the child of a shopkeeper. The protesters shouted, “the Syrian people will not be humiliated,” which successively became one of the most widespread slogans in the protests to follow. Damascus was thus the first city to move, something that today might seem incredible.

On 15 March, a group of youth gathered together at the suq (market) of Hamidiya: it was the first time that films that had been made using mobile phones had been put onto Internet. Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab network of Qatar, one of the Arab world’s most widespread channels, immediately began to transmit them, also allowing those who did not have an Internet connection to know what was going on. On 16 March, the relatives of some political prisoners gathered in front of the Ministry of the Interior. The security forces intervened with violence, beating the protesters and arresting dozens of them.  Small groups of protesters continued to take to the streets, but this was still a limited phenomenon. Until that moment, the only ones to make a move had been the “civil society” of Damascus: a middle-to-upper class of intellectuals and youth who were working in the cultural field, in journalism, civil organisations and human rights groups.

participation spans all ages

The dynamics of the protests had changed in those very days. In the small city of Dera’a, in southern Syria, a group of children with spray paint wrote some slogans against the regime on a wall. The emulation of the Egyptian revolt was quite clear: the writing was imitating the anti-Mubarak slogans used by the young Egyptians of the 25 January movement. The children copied them directly from the reports on Al Jazeera. The reaction of the regime was immediate: the children were arrested. The next day their parents and the families of the children took to the streets to protest, encouraged by that same atmosphere that had materialised a few days earlier in Damascus. The security forces intervened, shooting: there were the first deaths. The funerals became the occasion for even larger protests, and the repression was growing more and more ferocious. The nearby villages ran in support of Dera’a. The protesters numbered in the thousands. The Syrian revolt had begun.

The evolution of the revolt – From Damascus, the uprising moved to the provinces, and from the elite, it was substituted by the lower-middle class. This takes into consideration very often those same sectors of the population which initially constituted the pillars of the support to the regime: farmers, labourers, office workers and shopkeepers who in the last fifteen years had been abandoned and penalised by the liberalisation reforms. They were the ones who most strongly felt the effects of growing corruption in the circles of power that gravitated around the regime and of the progressive cuts in state aid. Other cities and regions progressively joined the protests: Banyas, Nawa, Homs, Latakia, Idlib, Qamishli, Hama and many others. At the start, the protests were born from various, localised needs: each region has its own requests and its own complaints regarding the regime. Especially, at the start, it was not asked for Bashar al-Assad to step down: the slogans demanded the end of corruption, reforms, more freedom.

It’s been the ferocious repression of the regime to give unity to this fragmented chain of uprisings. And, it is the repression of the regime to radicalise the requests of the protesters. As they gradually saw their death toll rise in the dozens, and then in the hundreds of protesters, the legitimacy of the president had progressively crumbled, and the marches became an open revolt against Bashar al-Assad and his regime. It has been a peaceful uprising: no one at the start thought of using arms against the army and the security forces. The control of the military by the regime is total, almost all of the officers are Alawites and their loyalty is absolute.

But even this story started to change: someone started to take weapons as a vendetta, then the first individual desertions took place as well as the formation of armed anti-regime groups. The prophecy of the regime became reality as civil war seems to get nearer, even if it is still avoidable. But looking at the current situation, one should not forget how the revolt began, and who is responsible for its degeneration.
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Siria: ricostruire le origini della rivolta quasi un anno dopo

A quasi un anno di distanza, ripercorriamo le tappe fondamentali della rivolta in Siria, tra repressione, propaganda di regime e “speranza”. Dalle prime manifestazioni a Damasco fino ai cruenti episodi degli ultimi giorni.

Un dissidente siriano una volta mi ha detto che da quando le rivolte sono cominciate in Siria il tempo passa più velocemente che nel resto del mondo. Se al di fuori è passato un giorno, all’interno dei confini è come se fosse passata una settimana. È difficile pensare che un anno fa quello siriano fosse uno dei regimi più stabili del Medio Oriente. Il presidente Bashar al-Assad sembrava godere di un consenso che altri dittatori mediorientali, a cominciare da Hosni Mubarak, non avevano. Il disagio economico non aveva ancora raggiunto il limite massimo di sopportazione come in Egitto. E infine, la posizione geopolitica della Siria poneva più di un ostacolo a una possibile rivolta. Per anni il regime siriano aveva costituito la sola certezza in un’area percorsa di incognite e problemi: il caos dell’Iraq dopo l’occupazione americana, la fragilità del Libano con le sue intermittenti guerre civili, Israele e l’occupazione della Palestina. Nessuno voleva, e per molti versi nessuno ancora vuole, una caduta improvvisa e violenta del regime siriano, neanche tra le potenze occidentali, a cominciare dagli Stati Uniti. Impossibile pensare a un passaggio di regime “calcolato”, impossibile prevedere cosa succederebbe se il regime quarantennale regime degli Assad dovesse crollare.

Queste certezze sono crollate una a una. Nessuno si aspettava che la rivoluzione siriana potesse raggiungere simili proporzioni e svilupparsi in questo modo. A un anno dallo scoppio delle rivolte, cominciate nel Marzo del 2011, la Siria appare oggi sull’orlo di una guerra civile. La repressione del regime nei confronti dell’insurrezione in questi ultimi giorni ha raggiunto il suo apice. Il bombardamento prolungato della città di Homs, una delle roccaforti dei “ribelli”, sta mietendo centinaia di vittime. Pochi giorni prima, l’insuccesso e il ritiro degli osservatori della Lega araba, dopo aver ammesso la propria incapacità ad arginare le violenze. Poi il mancato accordo per una risoluzione ONU su iniziativa della Lega araba che chiedeva le dimissioni di Bashar al-Assad e l’inizio di un processo di transizione verso la democrazia. Risoluzione che, pur escludendo l’intervento armato, viene bloccata senza mezzi termini dal doppio veto di Russia e Cina.

Mai come oggi gli occhi sono puntati sul lato armato della rivolta, quell’esercito siriano libero (ESL) costituito prevalentemente di disertori dell’esercito regolare che dal luglio 2011 si oppongono militarmente alla repressione. Gli Stati Uniti, pur escludendo un intervento armato diretto, pare comincino a pensare di sostenere l’ESL con armi e finanziamenti, con l’aiuto di Turchia, Qatar e Arabia Saudita. Dall’altra parte, Russia e Iran continuano a sostenere il regime e a rifornire le armate di Bashar al-Assad. Insomma si sta profilando una sorta di “guerra per procura”, con dinamiche simili a quella del Vietnam negli anni sessanta o, per restare nel Vicino Oriente, sullo stile delle guerre civili in Libano.

La rivolta armata e la propaganda del regime – Quella che oggi si dispiega sotto i nostri occhi ha l’aria di una “profezia che si autoadempie”. Il regime ha sostenuto fin dall’inizio che la rivolta fosse armata, pilotata da elementi stranieri, frutto di un complotto internazionale e mossa da ragioni etniche: sunniti contro alawiti. Anche quando evidentemente non era così. Nella versione del regime, la repressione contro i manifestanti è sempre stata presentata come una lotta a degli invisibili “terroristi” e a non ben identificate bande armate. È stato lo stesso Bashar al-Assad, in un discorso tenuto al Consiglio del Popolo alla fine del marzo scorso, a fissare questa narrazione degli eventi, deludendo non pochi siriani che speravano almeno in un parziale riconoscimento del dissenso crescente nel paese e nell’apertura verso una via d’uscita pacifica che al tempo appariva ancora realistica. Oggi alcuni degli elementi che costituiscono la propaganda del regime sono divenuti realtà: è vero che la rivolta armata ha assunto un peso importante. È vero che l’intervento straniero è sempre più pressante, prima sotto forma di pressioni economiche e diplomatiche e forse da ora in poi anche sotto forma di aiuti militari. È vero anche che gli aspetti etnici dello scontro sono divenuti più evidenti. Gli alawiti, gruppo minoritario cui appartiene la famiglia di Bashar al-Assad, si sono quasi tutti schierati dalla sua parte, anche come risultato dell’abile propaganda del regime che ha sempre dipinto la rivolta come diretta alla creazione di uno stato islamico al cui interno gli esponenti di altre confessioni religiose sarebbero marginalizzati o, peggio, perseguitati. Alcune delle bugie del regime si sono trasformate in, almeno parziali, verità.

Il vento della Primavera araba – Ma non è sempre stato così. La rivolta siriana è iniziata spontaneamente ed è ancora prevalentemente una rivolta autentica, portata avanti da cittadini siriani senza l’aiuto di nessuno. Le richieste dei manifestanti sono per lo più estranee a discorsi di tipo religioso: si chiedono libertà, democrazia, giustizia sociale. E, nonostante tutto, i manifestanti pacifici continuano a costituire il vero motore della rivolta. Tutto ha avuto in inizio in Tunisia ed Egitto. La rivolta siriana non sarebbe probabilmente mai avvenuta senza le precedenti Primavere Arabe. L’effetto domino in questo caso è lampante. Quando la cosiddetta Primavera Araba è cominciata nel Nord Africa, in Siria scatta qualcosa. Piccoli dettagli, ma che insieme disegnano un deciso cambio d’atmosfera. Quando ero a Damasco, nell’inverno del 2010, la trasformazione era evidente. È sufficiente guardare ai dibattiti che affollano i siti d’informazione in quel periodo: si commentano le notizie sulle insurrezioni contro Mubarak e Ben Ali, ed è facile passare da questi argomenti alla situazione in Siria. Quasi non te ne accorgi. In fondo i problemi sono e restano gli stessi in tutti i paesi arabi: corruzione, crescente differenza tra ricchi e poveri, umiliazioni quotidiane, mancanza di libertà, un’economia che declina apparentemente in modo inarrestabile. Si parla di Egitto e Tunisia, e in realtà si parla di Siria.

Il fenomeno non riguarda solo internet. Anche al di fuori della rete l’atmosfera sta visibilmente cambiando. La tradizionale remissività e apoliticità che ha sempre caratterizzato la popolazione sembra cominciare a sbriciolarsi. Atti di bullismo e prepotenza che prima erano tollerati a testa bassa sono ora accolti con crescente insofferenza. A febbraio vengono organizzate le prime manifestazioni, davanti alle ambasciate egiziana e libica, per esprimere solidarietà alla Primavera Araba. Poi è accaduto qualcosa che era impensabile fino a qualche mese prima: decine di persone a Damasco scendono in piazza a protestare contro la violenza di un poliziotto nei confronti del figlio di un negoziante. I manifestanti gridano “il popolo siriano non sarà umiliato”, che successivamente diverrà uno degli slogan più diffusi nelle proteste successive. Damasco è quindi la prima a muoversi, cosa che oggi può sembrare incredibile. Il 15 marzo gruppi di giovani si riuniscono al suq (mercato) Hamidiya: è la prima volta che vengono girati e sono diffusi in rete i filmati realizzati con telefoni cellulari. Al-Jazeera, la rete pan-araba del Qatar, uno dei canali più visti del mondo arabo, comincia immediatamente a trasmetterli, permettendo anche a chi non ha una connessione internet di sapere cosa sta succedendo. Il 16 marzo i parenti di alcuni prigionieri politici si riuniscono di fronte al ministero dell’interno. Le forze di sicurezza intervengono duramente, colpendo con forza i manifestanti e arrestandoli a decine. Piccoli gruppi di oppositori continuano a scendere in piazza, ma si tratta di un fenomeno ancora limitato. Finora a muoversi è stata unicamente la “società civile” damascena: una classe medio-alta di intellettuali e giovani che lavorano nel campo della cultura come giornali, organizzazioni civili, gruppi di diritti umani.

La dinamica delle proteste è cambiata in quegli stessi giorni. Nella piccola città di Deraa, nel sud del paese, un gruppo di bambini muniti di bombolette spray scrive sui muri slogan contro il regime. L’emulazione della rivolta egiziana è fin troppo chiara: le scritte sono copiate da slogan anti-Mubarak usati dai giovani egiziani del 25 gennaio. I bambini le hanno copiate direttamente dai report di Al-Jazeera. La reazione del regime è immediata: i bambini vengono arrestati. Il giorno successivo i genitori e le famiglie dei bambini scendono in piazza a protestare, incoraggiati da quella stessa atmosfera che si era materializzata qualche giorno prima a Damasco. Le forze di sicurezza intervengono, sparando: ci sono i primi morti. I funerali divengono occasione per manifestazioni ancora più ampie, e una repressione ancora più feroce. I villaggi vicini corrono a sostegno di Deraa. I manifestanti si contano a migliaia. È cominciata la rivolta siriana.

L’evoluzione della rivolta – Da Damasco l’insurrezione si sposta alla provincia, e alle elite si sostituiscono ceti medio-bassi. Si tratta molto spesso di quegli stessi settori della popolazione che prima costituivano il pilastro di sostegno del regime: contadini, operai, impiegati e piccoli commercianti che negli ultimi quindici anni sono stati abbandonati e penalizzati dalle riforme di liberalizzazione. Sono loro che hanno maggiormente risentito della crescente corruzione dei circoli di potere che gravitano intorno al regime e del taglio progressivo degli aiuti statali. Altre città e regioni si uniscono progressivamente alle proteste: Banyas, Nawa, Homs, Latakia, Idlib, Qamishli, Hama e tante altre. All’inizio le proteste nascono da esigenze diverse, localizzate: ogni regione ha le proprie richieste e le proprie lamentele contro il regime. Soprattutto, all’inizio non si chiede la caduta di Bashar al-Assad: gli slogan domandano la fine della corruzione, riforme, più libertà.

È la repressione feroce del regime a dare unitarietà a questa catena frammentata di sollevamenti. Ed è la repressione del regime a radicalizzare le richieste dei manifestanti. Man mano che i morti arrivano a decine, poi centinaia di manifestanti, la legittimità del presidente si sgretola progressivamente, e le manifestazioni divengono un’aperta rivolta contro Bashar al-Assad e il suo regime. Si tratta di un’insurrezione pacifica: nessuno all’inizio pensa di poter usare le armi contro l’esercito e le forze di sicurezza. Il controllo dell’esercito da parte del regime è totale, quasi tutti gli ufficiali sono alawiti e di fedeltà assoluta.

Ma anche questa storia comincia a cambiare: qualcuno comincia a prendere le armi per vendetta, cominciano le prime diserzioni individuali e la formazione di gruppi armati anti-regime. La profezia del regime diviene realtà e la guerra civile sembra avvicinarsi, anche se è ancora evitabile. Ma nel guardare la situazione attuale non bisogna dimenticare mai come la rivolta è cominciata e di chi è la responsabilità della sua parziale degenerazione.

Leggi anche:

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Fahmi Huwaidi – Delle Scuse al Popolo Siriano

Posted: 02/22/2012 by editormary in Egypt, Middle East, People's Movements / Struggles, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, Syria
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Fahmi Huwaidi

TRADOTTO dall’inglese da Luca Urbinati

Dobbiamo delle scuse al popolo Siriano per ogni giorno che furono macellati prima che i nostri occhi (potessero vedere) durante i passati undici mesi. I popoli Arabi li hanno delusi ed hanno guardato dai bordi come se “il cuore dell’Arabismo” è divenuto circondato da Arabi senza cuori.

Da Venerdì 3 a Venerdì 10 Febbraio, 755 Siriani furono uccisi, e dall’inizio della leggendaria Intifada a metà Marzo lo scorso anno, il regime di Assad ha ucciso 8.000 persone. Altri 10.000 sono scomparsi e le prigioni Siriane sono riempite da numeri incalcolabili. L’unico crimine che queste persone hanno commesso è di domandare dignità e libertà per il loro Paese, dopo quasi 45 anni di tirannide ed oppressione.

Durante i mesi scorsi, non abbiamo visto nulla della Syria ma un Paese macerato dal sangue del proprio popolo. Le sue strade traboccano di precessione funerarie delle vittime, e le sue città sono minacciate di devastazione e distruzione al suono delle voci che chiedono libertà. L’unica cosa ad essere udita è il ronzio dei missili e bombardieri; l’angoscia di coloro intrappolati che chiedono la fine dei massacri, le urla di coloro che insistono a rovesciare il regime, ed i sostenitori per ogni Arabo od intervento internazionale che possa frenare i nuovi attacchi Tartari (Huns).

Questo crimine, che è stato in corso per gli undici mesi passati, ha mosso duramente ognuno nel mondo Arabo dove la maggioranza pensa che sia sufficiente seguire gli eventi in televisione, come fanno con ogni soap opera Turca!

Ironicamente, il mondo Arabo e Musulmano si scosse con rabbia quando Salman Rushdie ha pubblicato i “Versi Satanici”, ed ugualmente quando un quotidiano Danese ha pubblicato dei cartoni del Profeta Muhammad (Maometto) (pace su di Lui), ma poco importa riguardo il massacro in corso contro il popolo Siriano.

E mentre capisco la legittimità nell’esprime rabbia quando una violazione viene commessa contro le sacre scritture, io sono sorpreso al caso contrario in difesa della dignità dei Musulmani. Questo, in parte, mostra l’estensione dello squilibrio nei prevalenti concetti che separano fra la dotrrina e la dignità di una persona. Questo confina gelosia e protezione al primo ma non si estende al secondo. Questo, mentre si conosce che le dottrine sono protette da Dio, mentre la violazione della santità del popolo e la loro dignità rappresentano un attacco ad uno dei diritti di Dio che richiede vigilanza, condanna e chiama a stringersi intorno e punire l’oppressore.

Se qualcuno dovesse dire che la Lega Araba ha intrapreso iniziative, ha iniviato controllori ed è andata al Concilio di Sicurezza allo scopo di guadagnare un po’ di influenza nei confronti del regime di Damasco, io non sarei in disaccordo. Tuttavia, la Lega Araba rappresenta i governi e non il popolo. Gli osservatori sono andati in Siria, e sono tornati indietro non avendo fatto nulla che possa cambiare l’equazione. Invece, il regime di Assad ha capitalizzato nella loro missione per guadagnare tempo allo scopo di terminare la soppressione delle manifestazioni.

Con riguardo al Concilio di Sicurezza, questo approccio è stato abortito dai Russi e Cinesi usando il loro veto. Non ci sono più iniziative capaci di risolvere questo problema internazionalmente eccetto per la conferenza di Amici della Siria sollecitata dalla Francia, ed una conferenza parallela sollecitata della Turchia. I più importanti sviluppi ufficiali che hanno preso posto nel livello Arabo sono stati il ritiro della Missione dell’Osservatore, l’espulsione degli ambasciatori Siriani dalla Tunisia e dai Paesi del Concilio di Cooperazione del Golfo (GCC), e la ricognizione della Libia da parte dei Concilio Nazionale rappresentante la rivoluzione Siriana.

Nel caso della Libia, era chiaro che la caduta di Gheddafi si è verificata per l’intervento della NATO. Questo è stato ripetuto nello Yemen dal lancio dell’Iniziativa del Golfo con chiaro supporto Occidentale, e dove il Presidente Ali Abdullah Saleh non ha avuto scelta se non lasciare alla fine. Nel caso della Siria, le cose sono più complesse alla luce dell’impossibilità dell’intervento internazionale, l’impossibilità della riconciliazione fra il popolo ed il regime dopo tutto il sangue che è stato versato, l’intrattabilità dell’azione militare interna, e la fragilità della pressione Araba. Ciò significa tre cose: in primo luogo, che il regime Siriano è ancora relativamente coerente e può andare avanti a meno che ci sia una sorpresa inaspettata. In secondo luogo, che nell’attuale clima Arabo ed internazionale, sembra che il popolo Siriano sia destinato a combattere la propria battaglia da solo. Ed in terzo luogo, che questa battaglia sarà estesa, che la sofferenza del popolo continuerà e con questa, il pedaggio dei sacrifici ed il dolore aumenteranno.

Raccogliendo forza attraverso i fattori interni così come attraverso il supporto regionale ed internazionale, il regime Siriano è a suo agio nel trattare con il popolo Siriano nel modo in cui vuole, ed è riluttante nel fare un passo indietro. Quindi, tutti i suoi slogans di cambiamento e parlare di dialogo nazionale e riforma politica sono senza senso, e non vengono più prese seriamente. E’ divenuto chiaro a tutti che sono scuse per guadagnare tempo.

Internamente, il regime Siriano dipende dalla sua forte presa di sicurezza, e dal supporto di gran parte del segmento della minorità Alawita che il regime utilizza come spaventapasseri non solo per spaventare il popolo con la probabilità di una guerra civile, ma anche per spaventare il vicino della Siria, la Turchia, che ha più di dieci milioni di cittadini Alawiti. Il regime Siriano utilizza la carta della minoranza etnica e religiosa non soltanto per spaventare gli altri delle sue alternative, ma anche per sfidare ed intimidire i suoi vicini.

Nella faccia della pressione Turca, ad esempio, si agitano entrambe le carte gli Alawiti ed i Kurdi. Sebbene i Kurdi della Siria sono 200.000, maggiormente nella provincia di Qamishli, nel nord della Turchia, ci sono più di 12 milioni di Kurdi ed il loro conflitto con Ankara ha una lunga storia.

Il regime ottiene forza anche attraverso l’esteso supporto Iraniano che è accompagnato dal supporto Iracheno e dal supporto degli Hezbollah in Libano.

E’ risaputo che c’è un’alleanza strategica fra Siria ed Iran ove Teheran fa affidamento sul regime di Assad, e non sul popolo Siriano, e che la coalizione protegge i due Paesi, da un grado od un altro, di fronte alla minaccia Israeliana. Comunque, anche l’Iran ha i suoi motivi religiosi. Esso rafforzerebbe la posizione della setta Alawita più vicina agli Sciiti in Siria, e rafforza la posizione degli Hezbollah in Libano. Il cambio del regime a Damasco non soltanto pone questa equazione a favore dei Sunniti in Siria, minaccia anche il cambio della situazione in Iraq, in quanto rafforza i Sunniti là di fronte ai dominanti partiti Sciiti fedeli all’Iran.

La conclusione è che il regime Siriano, nella sua resistenza ad ogni cambio politico, deriva forza da diverse carte che tiene in mano e si riscalda contro l’alterare l’equilibrio delle forze regionali. Il messaggio che il regime di Assad desidera inviare ad ognuno è che se è cattivo, ciò che comunque può venire dopo la sua morte sarebbe molto peggio.

Come per l’arena internazionale, il regime Siriano sta contando sul supporto di Russia e Cina, come è stato visto nel veto utilizzato dai due Paesi nel Conciglio di Sicurezza. Ciò che spinge i due Paesi ad attuare questa presa di posizione è che essi sono contro l’incremento dell’influenza Americana nella Regione. Essi hanno detto esplicitamente che i Paesi Occidentali li hanno “ingannati” quando hanno deciso di non opporsi all’imposizione dell’embargo aereo in Libia. Là, la NATO divenne impegnata nelle operazioni militari, e Russia e Cina furono ignorate – uno scenario che loro non vogliono veder ripetersi. In aggiunta, la Russia ha relazioni speciali con Damasco in quanto ha una base di servizio militare al porto di Tartus, e tutte le armi Siriane vengono acquistate da Mosca. Come per la Cina, è delicato appoggiare ogni cambiamento democratico attraverso il Concilio di Sicurezza e non vuole che il Concilio di Sicurezza inferferisca negli affari interni di ogni Paese in quanto ciò potrebbe ritorcersi contro Pechino ed aprire un numero di files interni, causando imbarazzo.

Ciò che è così rimasto lontanamente assente dalla scena è la pressione dei popoli Arabi, specialmente da un Paese come l’Egitto, il quale si supponeva avrebbe preso l’iniziativa e che ognuno tratta come una “grande sorella”. La domanda è, perché tutto questo sangue versato  in Siria non ha causato reazioni nelle strade Arabe in generale, e particolarmente in Egitto? Ci sono vari fattori che hanno contribuito a questa assenza, inclusi i seguenti:

Da quando l’Egitto ha firmato il suo trattato di Pace con Istraele nel 1979, praticamente ha abdicato il suo ruolo di comando, ed è caduto in un coma a lungo termine che continua a persistere. Durante questo trance, non lo ha tenuto solo per lui, ma ha pure aderito alla campagna dei cosiddetti “moderati” che praticamente si risolvono nell’orbita delle politiche Americane. Uno può soltanto immaginare la eco in tutto il mondo Arabo che hanno portato le azioni della “grande sorella”.

L’atmosfera della Primavera Araba ha sopraffatto vari Paesi e li ha resi occupati dai loro affari interni. Il ribaltamento dei regimi richiede un grande sforzo dato che altri nuovi devono essere stabiliti il che, distoglie l’attenzione da altri eventi importanti che prendono posto nell’arena Araba.

Alcune delle élites ricordano ancora la posizione del regime Siriano a supporto della resistenza palestinese. Loro considerano questa posizione positiva come uno che assolve l’errore, e sono sospettosi dei membri dell’opposizione Siriana.

Il file Siriano è molto più complicato di quanto molti percepiscono che sia. Non c’è disaccordo che il regime a Damasco è dominato da una manciata di cattivi ragazzi, ma che le forze esterne che cercano di rovesciarlo sono anch’esse guidate da una lunga linea di cattivi ragazzi anche – una materia che sgretola parecchi che stanno ora pesando preferenze fra il male che conoscono e quello che non conoscono.

L’internazionalizzazione del problema è divenuta sospetta dopo l’esperienza della NATO in Libia. La situazione che stiamo trattando ora è più difficile, perché la Libia ha solamente ricchezza di petrolio, mentre la Siria è unita ad una nuova mappa dell’Est, e forse tutto il Medio Oriente se teniamo conto dell’impatto della caduta del regime Siriano in Iran e Turchia.

Cosa fare poi? La mia risposta è che dovremmo gridare pazzamente dicendo NO al continuo dei massacri, e NO all’intervento della NATO. Considerato questo, non abbiamo scelta se non renderci conto che il collasso del regime di Assad si frappone fra di noi ed aspettando una soluzione Araba che può applicare pressione per fermare i massacri e spedire l’autorità al popolo Siriano.

Sembra che non ci sia altra scelta prima di noi se non affidarsi ai popoli Arabi, che si sono finalmente svegliati ed hanno aumentato le loro voci che furono per così tanto tempo oscurate dai regimi autoritari. Abbiamo recentemente sentito le voci di quei popoli nelle manifestazioni in Tunisia, Libia e Mauritania. Fin quando non si sente la voce del resto dei popoli Arabi, particolarmente del popolo dell’Egitto, dobbiamo offrire le scuse al popolo Siriano per averli delusi ed aver omesso di dichiarargli solidarietà. Se loro non ci perdonano o non accettano le nostre scuse, allora sono scusati. Io non sono autorizzato ad offrire delle scuse, ma io la offro a nome mio sentendo un alto grado di tristezza e vergogna.

*L’autore è uno scrittore Egiziano. Questo articolo è una traduzione dall’Arabo che è apparso su al Jazeera net  il 14/02/2012

Originale su http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/articles/middle-east/3441-an-apology-to-the-syrian-people

Razan Ghazzawi – statement from Syrian Center for Mediia and Freedom of Expression

Posted: 02/22/2012 by editormary in Grassroots Activism, Human Rights, Internet and Communication, Middle East, People's Movements / Struggles, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, Syria
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detainment as a way to prevent freedom of speech

Dear friends,
As you might have heard, the office in which I work at was raided by Air Force security branch on Thursday 16-2-2012. My boss, friend and mentor, Mazen Darwich, along with 8 male colleagues and friends, are still in detention since that day at air  force security branch, known to be the worst security branch in Syria.

I spent only 3 nights there along with five other female colleagues, those three nights were the longest hours of my life. You know that I was detained previously for two weeks, which was my first experience with detention, but those 3 nights at air security branch were the worst in comparison to my previous detention.

Below is SCM statement with regards to the raid and the arrest of our male colleagues, please share it with whomever you think might be helpful in getting the word out around the world.

Raid of Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression office in Damascus, Arrest of its Staff and Visitors
In a new escalation against freedom of expression and media work in Syria, the Office of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) in Damascus was raided on Thursday 16 February at approximately one and a half PM by agents of the Air Intelligence Intelligence (Mazzeh branch). The raid, that was carried out by members of the security apparatus along with a group of armed men, who caused panic and fear among employees and visitors of the center, especially since the officer in charge did not disclose the arrest or search warrants that are supposed to be issued by a public prosecutor.

The security forces took the IDs of SCM employees and visitors in addition to their mobile phones. They were prevented from proceeding their work and were asked to gather in one room until 4 PM; they were transferred to the Air force Intelligence detention center of Mazzeh then.

Following are the names of staff and administrators who have been arrested that day:
1 – Mazen Darwish, director of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of expression.
2 – Yara Badr, Syrian journalist and the wife of Mazen Darwish.
3 – Hani Zitani, a graduate of the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Sociology and university teacher.
4 – Sana Zitani, a graduate of the Faculty of Sociology and wife Hani Zitani.
5 – Abdel Rahman Hamada, student at the Institute of Accounting.
6 – Hussein Gharir, graduate at the Faculty of Information Engineering.
7 – Mansour Al Omari, English literature graduate from Damascus University.
8 – Joan Fersso, a graduate of the Faculty of Arabic literature.
9 – Mayada Khalil, graduate at the University of archaeology in Aleppo.
10 – Ayham Ghazoul, a dentist.
11 – Bassam Al-Ahmed, a graduate of the Faculty of Arabic literature.
12 – Razan Ghazzawi, a graduate in English literature.
13 – Rita Dayoub.
Two visitors were also arrested; Shady Yazbek (student in medicine) and Hanadi Zahlout.

Female employees working at the center were released on Saturday 18 Feb 2012 around 10 PM (Yara Badr – Sanaa Mohsen – Mayada Khalil – Razan Ghazzawi) in addition to the visitor Hanadi Zahlout on one condition that at they are to show up at Air force Security every day from 9AM to 2PM for further investigation until unspecified date. Rita Dayoub was released.

The arrest of the President of the SCM, “Mazen Darwish,” and male colleagues and visitor, however, continues: Hani Zitani – Abdel Rahman Hamada – Hussein Ghrer – Mansur Al Omari – Bassam Al-Ahmad -Ayham Ghazoul – Joan Fersso, and the visitor Shady Yazbek are still in custody.

The Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression strongly condemns the raid conducted against its office as well as the ongoing arbitrary detention of the journalist Mazen Darwish and its staff. SCM expresses its deepest concern regarding the fate of persons remaining in detention, demands the Syrian authorities to release all detainees immediately and unconditionally, and holds the Syrian authorities fully responsible of the psychological and physical conditions of the detainees.

The center calls upon the Syrian authorities to put an end to arbitrary arrests and harassment of journalists, media workers and freedom of opinion and expression advocates.

Finally, the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression expresses its gratitude to all institutions and individuals who have expressed solidarity with the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression against such oppressive policies.
— Best, Razan

Promoting peaceful solutions to the Syrian crisis to stop the massacres

Posted: 02/08/2012 by editormary in Grassroots Activism, Human Rights, Interviews, Middle East, People's Movements / Struggles, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, Syria
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Dr. Mohamed Nour Dachan

Interview with Doctor Mohamed Nour Dachan, Italian delegate of the Syrian Coalition of Support to the Syrian Revolution

 by Giovanni Sarubbi, translated by Mary Rizzo

Doctor Mohamed Nour Dachan is the Italian delegate of the Syrian Coalition of Support to the Syrian Revolution. Born in Aleppo, Syria 65 years ago, he has been living in Italy for 45 years. Doctor of Medicine and Surgery, he has various specialisations and works as a family doctor. Currently he is the President Emeritus of the Union of Islamic Communities of Italy (UCOII) of which he is among the founders, and of which he was the acting President until two years ago. Recently he participated in the meeting of the Syrian National Council with the Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Giulio Maria Terzi di Sant’Agata. The Syrian National Council has promoted a national protest in Rome to be held on the date of 19 February, which has as its slogan “Let us stop the massacre of the innocents”. He has accepted to answer our questions regarding the Syrian situation, and for this, we are grateful. In his words, one can feel the suffering of who, still very young, was forced to leave his own country, bringing him to firmly oppose the Assad government. But, and this should be stressed, it is also an appeal to not leave anything untried for a peaceful solution, without arms or war, to the Syrian crisis. It is a hypothesis on which he works intensively. Following is the text of the interview.

Giovanni Sarubbi (GS): Doctor Dachan, you have been living for many years in Italy, and you have become a member of the Syrian National Council. Can you kindly explain to us the reasons for your choice and describe what forces comprise such Council?

Dr. Mohamed Nour Dachan (MND): To become a member of the SNC is not a novelty for me, seeing that for many years I have chosen freedom and democracy and that during these years I have fought against dictatorships and injustice and for this reason, I could not hesitate to give my contribution to my country of origin.

The SNC joins together very many components of the Syrian opposition, an opposition that has a wide variety of elements, given that there has been over 40 years of dictatorship which has slowly but surely allowed the birth of one opposition group after the other. The advantage of the SNC is that it has the largest opposition groups taking part in it: religious, secular and liberal ones.

GS: What do you propose to do, what is your programme and by the means of what initiatives and instruments do you plan on realising your goals?

MND: The programme is to support the peaceful revolution of the Syrian people, to work and raise awareness to all the world’s countries so that they help us to obtain the fall of the Syrian regime.

GS: What relationship do you have with the Free Syrian Army?

MND: There has to be some clarification regarding the name: it is called Free Syrian Army, which means that they are soldiers, officers and non-commissioned officers who have chosen to refuse shooting at unarmed civilians and it is not an offensive army that is at war, but it has exclusively the task of defending the protests.

It is constituted of a bilateral commission which has started its collaboration between the SNC and the Free Army.

GS: The Syrian National Council has been recognised at an international level by some countries such as France and the USA. What relationships have you got with these countries? Don’t you believe that this support could harm your cause and the liberation of your people from oppression?

MND: The SNC has not yet been recognised by any country, but there have been meetings with several countries, both Arab-Islamic and not. For the time being, the only country that has expelled the Syrian Ambassador has been Tunisia, and Libya is preparing to give the SNC official local offices, in addition to other countries such as Turkey where the SNC has its actual headquarters.

GS: You have recently had a meeting with the Foreign Affairs Minister of the Italian government. What have you asked of the Italian government and what response did you receive?

MND: We have already had a meeting with the previous government’s Foreign Affairs Minister Frattini, and successively with Minister Terzi: our first requests have been to obtain support for the Syrian revolution with all possible means and to remove the support and collaboration they have with the Syrian regime. The relationship has begun very well and we hope that the collaboration is continuous and fruitful.

GS: In your communiqué you have written that: “Today everyone is pointing their finger against Russia and China, but in reality, behind their positions are hidden other diplomatic entities who are complicit in this slaughter.” Who are you referring to? From your point of view, who are the forces in play in Syria and what are the objectives they have set for themselves?”

MND: We don’t have any particular nation in mind, but in the time that has passed, eleven months with massacres each and every day – (and this is only my personal point of view) much more could have been done and perhaps much more can be done, if the positions of China and Russia had been different.

The forces in play by the regime are the army and the forces of the security services. Certainly, the Assad family and those dependent upon it have a sole objective: to continue to rule.

GS: In point 28 of the Report of the International Observers in Syria it is written: “The Mission had made note that various parties reported that there had been explosions of violence in many areas. When the observers had gone to these areas, they found that this information was unfounded.” Just as in all wars, the first victim is the truth and correct information. What can you say, from your point of observation, on what is truly going on in Syria? Do you have direct sources of information on all the things that are taking place?

MND: The mission of the Observers in Syria was dead before it had a chance to be born. There were three objectives to that mission:

1. Withdrawal of all the military vehicles from the streets, an objective that was neither applied nor taken into consideration,

2. The liberation of all the prisoners of thought who have been arrested from the beginning of the revolution to this very date: of the 150,000 person arrested, the government has liberated only a few hundred, only to arrest others from other places,

3. The number of observers was supposed to be 5,000, and instead those who had actually arrived were only 150, some of whom could not even be able to observe a high school graduation test in any high school at all!

The Syrian government, with its excuse of protecting them, first sent in the police forces and then they themselves made these very observers be accompanied by the security forces, in this way, they ensured that the people were terrified and they did not speak with anyone.

Of course, we have direct sources, and we are able to communicate with them now in every way that is possible, including those that are widespread communication instruments: Facebook, emails, cell phones and so forth.

GS: What is your point of view on the various proposals of solution to the Syrian crisis that have been set forth by different international organisations?

MND: We are favourable to any proposal at all which is peaceful but protects civilians, and most importantly, immediately stops this barbarity.

GS: There are about ninety associations, unions and parties, among them FIOM-CGIL, which have taken the position against any hypothesis of a new war in Syria, similar to what has recently been fought in Libya. From your point of view, is a pacific solution possible for the Syrian crisis, without wars or the intervention of foreign powers in your country?

MND: I thank you for this question and allow me to express an appeal, because some forces and some friends with which we have already shared in some activities and sit ins, when faced with the massacres of the Syrian people, are not evaluating the human question, but the political question, as if we were in the Cold War. The revolution started with the actions of children, and still today, each day its characteristic feature is the peaceful protesting in the street and squares. To allow a dictator to keep on assassinating his own people or to join in a war as the one in Libya? Between the two things there are actually many solutions, and for this I invite all the free and democratic men and women to take the side of the people: one simply cannot say, “we are against the war” in words, and then support the government that is using its own army against defenceless people. We ask our brothers and sisters who are against the war to join us with other solutions, but with a sole objective: to immediately put an end to the massacres.

Thus ends the interview. Obviously, whoever is against the war in Syria does not support any regime or any assassin, whoever it is committing these acts, but believes that one must to all that is necessary to find peaceful solutions to the crisis.

By Giovanni Sarubbi – Director of the site www.ildialogo.org (Italian)

Original in Italian: http://www.ildialogo.org/cEv.php?f=http://www.ildialogo.org/noguerra/NotizieCommenti_1328690852.htm

An appeal by the writer Hamadi: “A black ribbon for Syria” (ENG and FR)

Posted: 02/07/2012 by editormary in Grassroots Activism, Human Rights, Ideas and Projects, People's Movements / Struggles, Resistance, Syria
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Shady Hamadi and other Italian Syrians protest against the Assad Regime

WRITTEN BY Monica Ricci Sargentini, translated by Mary Rizzo

In the days in which the city of Homs is under massive shelling by the Assad Regime and there has been a call for the evacuation of Americans from Syria, the writer and activist Shady Hamadi, born in Milan in 1988 from an Italian mother and Syrian father, writes an appeal to the Italian and International Community so that they forcefully condemn the massacre of unarmed people that is happening in his country of origin. His appeal seems to me to be a cry of anguish which we should not ignore. Shady Hamadi (photo) is a son of a leader of the Arab Nationalist Party in the region of Homs who underwent the torture of electrical cattle prods in the regime’s cells and at the end of the 1960s, was able to flee to Italy. A student of Political Sciences, Shady has already exposed himself on many occasions. He has given interviews on TV and web networks (“We can break the wall of fear”), and he is among the members of a Facebook community “Comunità siriana in Italia”. He is in contact with opposition figures in Paris and last year his book Voci di anime was published. It is a spiritual voyage in the search of one’s identity that is divided between two cultures. In the letter that we publish below, he invites us to “not remain in silence” and to set upon the task of “raising awareness” to inform others of the reality of the situation.

“My request of you all,” says Hamadi, “is that of putting a black ribbon around your bags, cases, backpacks, coats, wherever you can. This simple act will allow us, the Syrians who pass by you in public places, to recognise those who have chosen to not abandon the Syrian people, because they believe in the values of freedom and respect for human life.”

A simple act that, for the Syrians, means “solidarity”.

Here is the full letter:  

“I hope that my words will be a shout that comes from the whole of Syria and a kind request to all of you.

For eleven months, the land that has been the cradle of civilisation, is experiencing one of the darkest moments of its history that spans the millennia. Syria is bleeding. There is not a single city that has been able to spare itself from burying the young and old, women and children.

This revolution – different from others by the means and macabre repression it is using – is costing the city of Homs the highest price in human lives.

Hart Safsafi, Bab Sba, Bab Amr, are only some of the neighbourhoods of this audacious city, which have continued to pay a constant price in human lives. In these streets, my family has its origins and its memories, while today, those who live there, are facing a daily challenge against death.

Only in the last week more than 500 persons have lost their lives, due to the constant shelling that is striking their homes. This massacre of human beings must no longer be tolerated by the whole of humanity. There are no excuses, nor can there be any excuses for these actions carried out by the militia of the Syrian regime, with the goal of bending the city of Homs, given its strenuous and indomitable resistance. The people of Syria – Alawites, Sunnis, Shi’as, Christians, the entire enormous puzzle of ethnic and religious groups – has chosen to no longer accept the silence, striving for the breath of freedom that is common to human nature.

The task entrusted to the Syrians abroad and to any person at all, disregarding any differences in faith, nationality, ethnicity, is that of witnessing and being aware of what is happening in Syria.  No one should be silent or observe with indifference the continuation of this drama.

I invite all of you to begin a campaign to raise awareness, with the aim of informing others of what is going on in this nation that is suffering. Talk with your neighbours, your friends, write, protest and learn – from the Syrian tragedy – to love your neighbour, to not forget about his needs.

My request of you all is that of putting a black ribbon around your bags, cases, backpacks, coats, wherever you can. This simple act will allow us, the Syrians who pass by you in public places, to recognise those who have chosen to not abandon the Syrian people, because they believe in the values of freedom and respect for human life.”
Shady Hamadi

Original: http://lepersoneeladignita.corriere.it/2012/02/07/lappello-dello-scrittore-hamadi-un-fiocco-nero-per-salvare-la-siria/

EN FRANCAIS – Traduit par Wassyla Hayat

* Fr. L’écrivain et militant Shady Hamadi, né à Milan en 19…88 d’une mère italienne et d’un père syrien, lance un appel à la communauté italienne et internationale afin que soit énergiquement condamné  le massacre de gens désarmés dans son pays d’origine. Il est le fils d’un chef de file du parti nationaliste arabe de la région de Homs qui a subi la torture des aiguillons électriques pour bovins dans les cellules du régime et à la fin des années 1960, et a réussi à s’enfuir en Italie. Etudiant en Sciences Politiques, Shady a déjà pris position à de nombreuses reprises.

Voici son appel. “J’espère que mes paroles seront un cri qui s’élèvera de la Syrie toute entière et une demande à vous tous. Depuis onze mois, la terre qui a été le berceau de la civilisation, connaît l’un des moments les plus sombres de son histoire qui s’étend sur des millénaires. La Syrie saigne. Pas une seule ville n’a été exempte d’enterrements de jeunes et d’anciens, de femmes et d’enfants. Cette révolution – différente des autres par les moyens et la macabre répression macabre mis en œuvre – coûte à la ville de Homs le prix le plus élevé en vies humaines.

Hart Safsafi, Bab Sba, Bab Amr, ce ne sont que quelques-uns des quartiers de cette ville audacieuse, qui ont continué à payer un prix constant en vies humaines. Dans ces rues, ma famille a ses origines et ses souvenirs, alors qu’aujourd’hui ceux qui y vivent, sont confrontés à un défi quotidien contre la mort.

La semaine dernière seulement plus de 500 personnes ont perdu la vie, en raison du bombardement constant qui  s’abat sur leurs maisons. Ce massacre d’êtres humains ne doit plus être toléré par l’ensemble de l’humanité. Il n’y a pas d’excuses, il ne peut y avoir aucune excuse pour ces actions menées par la milice du régime syrien, dans le but de faire plier la ville de Homs en raison de son énergique et indomptable résistance. Le peuple de Syrie -, sunnites, alaouites chiites,  chrétiens, l’ensemble de l’immense puzzle de groupes ethniques et religieux – a choisi de ne plus accepter le silence, en luttant pour la liberté, aspiration commune à la nature humaine.

La tâche qui incombe aux Syriens vivant à l’étranger et à tous, sans tenir compte des différences de  foi, nationalité, ethnicité, est d’être témoin et conscient de ce qui se passe en Syrie. Personne ne doit se taire ou observer avec indifférence la poursuite de ce drame.

Je vous invite tous à commencer une campagne de sensibilisation, dans le but d’informer de ce qui se passe dans ce pays meurtri. Parlez à vos voisins, vos amis, écrivez, manifestez,  et apprenez – de la tragédie syrienne – à aimer votre voisin, à ne pas oublier ses besoins. Ce que je vous demande, c’est de mettre un ruban noir à vos sacs, mallettes, sacs à dos, manteaux, partout où vous le pouvez. Cet acte simple nous permettra, nous Syriens qui passons parmi vous dans les lieux publics, de reconnaître ceux qui ont choisi de ne pas abandonner le peuple syrien, parce qu’ils croient dans les valeurs de liberté et de respect de la vie humaine.”

Vous pouvez bien sûr rejoindre la page (en anglais pour le moment) “Un ruban noir pour la Syrie, éveiller les consciences” ( le lien figure en haut) et, si vous êtes anglophone, lire l’article https://wewritewhatwelike.com/2012/02/07/an-appeal-by-the-writer-hamadi-a-black-ribbon-for-syria/

A. Dachan: Our children in Syria – S. Hamadi: The Martyrdom of Syrian Children

Posted: 01/30/2012 by editormary in Children\'s Corner, Human Rights, Middle East Issues, People's Movements / Struggles, Syria
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Our Children in Syria
WRITTEN BY Asmae Dachan, translated by Mary Rizzo

Syrian children carry the photo of Hamza Al Khatib, before and after his torture and death

Every parent would like to buy their own children toys so that they can play, books so that they can get an education, clothes and shoes to wear, food and drink for their nourishment. They would like to smile while they get out of bed during the night to check on their children as they sleep in their room, tucking them in well under their covers; wake them up in the morning, help them get ready, bring them to school, kiss them goodbye and then embrace them again when they return from work, sit beside them on the sofa, listen to them tell about their day, watch their eyes light up when they are excited, look through their notebooks with them to see what they are learning, hugging them tightly, watch a film with them…

These are scenes from daily life: you may be asking yourself why I have used a conditional mode for this text. Because in Syria, for 11 months, none of these things exist any longer. In Syria, it has been exactly the love of freedom of a group of children from the city of Dar’à who wrote on a wall of their school “The people want the fall of the regime” to cause the repression and wicked violence of the bloody regime, which has been in power for over 40 years. In Syria, for 11 months, unarmed civilians are suffering unspeakable violence, they are under the guns of snipers and their homes shelled by armoured tanks. To this day, there are over 7,000 dead, among them, 400 children! Children who have been torn away from life, from the love of their families, their relatives, their friends. Children who have been deprived of the right to play, dream, grow.

More than 400 flowers cut by the criminal hands of the dictator Assad and his militia. More than 400 little voices who filled the lives and homes of their mothers and fathers, the classes of their schools, the streets of their towns, the gardens and playgrounds and now have been silenced forever. More than 400 innocent victims full of love and curious to discover life, who today sleep eternally. More than 400 tiny souls who will always remain in the hearts and the memories of those who loved them, including the other children with whom they shared the days in school or the afternoons of play. 400 times “goodbye” to these pure angels.

Their stories burn in our souls as if we are being branded. Our children in Syria know what it means to be tortured, they know what it means to die on account of an infection, from a bullet that penetrates their bodies, from a grenade launched against the homes they live in. Our children in Syria have learned what it means to spend days without eating and drinking, they know what it means to die from the cold, since the regime with determination cut the electricity and the gas, and they prohibited the inhabited centres in the zones of the protests from being supplied with these basic necessities. In Syria our children know what it means to see their own mother or father die before their eyes, they know what it means to look fear in the eyes…

Today in Syria parents are forced to buy shrouds for their children, and when it is not possible, they give them the final farewell wrapping them in their own blankets.

What kind of humanity can accept all of this?

In Syria our children die twice: The first time at the hands of the regime, the second time on account of the world’s indifference!

Do not be accomplices in this slaughter of innocents!
The Martyrdom of Syrian Children WITH VIDEO

WRITTEN BY SHADY HAMADI, translated by Mary Rizzo

victims of a massacre, women and children included

The week that has just ended has been the bloodiest since the start of the Syrian uprising. At least 66 killed yesterday alone, as reported by activists in Syria. The regime of Damascus has started a violent offensive against the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the protesters: the deaths come from each one of these groups. The Syrian Foreign Minister Mohammed Ibrahim al Chaar has declared, by means of the official SANA news agency that, “the regime is determined to re-establish order and security and to clean the territory of its criminals.”

In the suburbs of Saqba and Zabadani, which are now under the control of the FSA, there are equally heavy attacks from the regime underway, which aim at regaining control, not only of these two zones, but of the entire band of suburbs surrounding the capital. The Arab League, due to the escalation of the violence, has ended their observers mission. Nabil al Arabi, secretary of the Arab League, has flown to New York in order to United Nations’ support for a plan of peaceful transition of power.

What is now in Syria becoming a true war of liberation encloses one tragedy in another: it is that of the Syrian children who have become involuntary protagonists in a revolution that is robbing their innocence from them. More than 400 children have died from violence since the beginning of the protests.

Hamza al-Khatib, born in October 1997 in Jiza, in the Daraa province, was arrested on 29 April in a checkpoint, while he was going to Daraa with other persons to bring aid to the citizens under siege by the Syrian regular militia. The body of the child was brought to his family completely mutilated, his penis was cut off, and bearing many other signs of torture, he had gunshot wounds on his limbs and chest.

Tamer Mohammad al-Sharey, 15 years old, he was arrested together with Hamza al-Khatib and like him, he died under torture; his teeth were pulled out of his mouth while he was alive, they gouged out his eyes and shot him in the legs, stomach and face. Signs of cigarette burns were found on every part of his body.

And several days ago was the terrible massacre of children in the village of Hasal al Wuard. Eleven components of the Bahado family were executed by the regime’s “security forces” and among the victims, five children. How long will mankind be attracted to evil, How long will be keep accepting that all of this happens?

Original http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2012/01/30/martirio-bambini-siriani/187597/

Mine Eyes Have Seen the Gory – Why are human rights activists dumping on Syrian protesters?

Posted: 01/25/2012 by editormary in Grassroots Activism, Human Rights, Middle East, People's Movements / Struggles, Rant / Musings / Discussion, Refugees, Resistance
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100 Syrian civilian vicitims in 2 days of attacks against them

WRITTEN BY MARY RIZZO

“You may as well be born an animal rather than a Syrian. You would have been given more protection.”

I have been wondering to myself and at times aloud, “What the hell has happened to the empathy and humanity of the activism movement? When did they start deciding whose blood was expendable? Where did their compassion, empathy and sense of justice go?”

There are a few qualities that an activist should have as a mandatory part of their baggage.  Not all of them are required to have a solution to the problems that are afflicting the victims or the weak in the causes that they are advocating. Nor are they even required to dedicate a lot of time or money to the cause. One can be an activist nowadays locally or even if they are disabled and unable to leave their homes, as they can express their views, share information and engage in solidarity by means of internet. The qualities however that should be part of every activists’ tool kit include empathy, a bit of courage and a strong desire for “good” to overpower and defeat “bad”.  And, that this vital and obligatory baggage has become so selective, has got to be the most fatal blow to the activism universe. It makes it reek of hypocrisy and plays directly into the hands of the oppressors.

Empathy is a social and emotional response to the conditions that other sentient beings are in. Since we all can agree that pain and suffering (including being a victim of abuse, starvation, deprivation) are negative things, it is not difficult to feel bad, “as if” what is happening could be happening to us or to the people or animals we love. If we are able to unplug the empathy because we have an ideology that we buy into, accompanied by a kind of strange peer pressure, something has gone wrong very seriously. If we are selective in such a subject as human pain and our acceptance of it, we need a major time out to rethink what we are doing in activism. We should remember that empathy can be a tool towards change, we should put it to use and understand that suffering people (and to some extent animals) are aware of our involvement or our detachment, and they tap into the capacity of (especially) activists, to make the feelings of empathy manifest and bring about an end to the suffering, which is the primary and immediate goal.

By understanding, witnessing and realising the extreme suffering that some are subject to, an activist has the ability to concretely help to change the condition of pain and suffering through the recognition of the condition followed by acts that aim at intervening in favour of the victims. On the other hand, their indifference can empower the abuser and oppressor, who believes that there is justification for his violence.

There has been no lack of evidence for many many months coming from Syria that the situation in Syria is a humanitarian crisis of an extremely severe nature. To cite some statistics, much of them from international organs that are considered to be highly authoritative such as the UN, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and others, in eleven months since the first protests against the regime in power took to the streets, there have been a confirmed 6000 civilians killed, by snipers, shelling, bombs and beatings, though other sources claim that the actual number is much higher, since discovery of mass graves and bodies of “disappeared” protesters is a constant occurrence. 70,000 persons have been arrested, most of them charged with nothing or charged with crimes that would not stand up in any normal court of law, including thought crimes and crimes of intention. There have been constant and documented abuses and torture, with corpses bearing the signs of brutality one can hardly imagine. The scenes are so horrible and devastating, in years and years of activism for human rights and especially Palestinian rights, I have never witnessed this level of depravity, this level of gore.

Last week, the town of Idlib had a most gruesome event: a group of people were victims of the explosion of a nail bomb, sending tiny projectiles into the flesh, damaging internal organs and causing internal bleeding until painful death comes. They were brought to the civil hospital for holding before their funerals, but 60 other bodies were discovered in the refrigerator cells, all of them bearing signs of gruesome torture. The hospital was occupied by the regime’s militia who also prohibited any wounded from receiving treatment. Hospitals were now simply for serving the regime’s fight to stay in power at all costs. What came to mind to an activist I know who had seen the still shots of the bodies face down in pools of their own blood was scenes of Sabra and Shatilla. But these are Syrians, and for some strange reason, most activists for Palestine are ignoring this. Are they wearing blinders or are they unable to empathise with the Syrians?

That there are over 20,000 refugees who have sought refuge in Turkey in a tent facility is another number that should cause any activists to tremble. We know the fate of refugees, the way they often never come back and mostly, the dire living conditions they are faced with. An activist should be concerned about this problem. How many Syrians have fled to Lebanon or even farther? No one knows the numbers because often these people continue to be threatened and hunted even in exile.

Why do the activists fail to understand the severity of the situation? Why do they denounce the protesters in the same exact terms used by the regime with mountains of evidence against it being a humane government? Why have they tweeted, blogged, shouted for weeks about pepper spray in the eyes of American demonstrators, yet the mortal assaults on civilians (including 300 children who have had a violent death at the hands of the regime, many of them subjected to arrest and death at the hands of their torturers) are all but ignored? Are Syrians children of a lesser God? Are they less worthy of protection and concern? Is it possible that American university students who later in the day can go to their dorms and realise their lives are not in danger get more sympathy and empathy from activists than innocent Arab children who have lost their lives under the cruelty of a repressive militia?

Some will say, “Why do you say that it’s worse if someone is killing their own people?” as a kind of excuse to then talk about a different geographical place, a different situation. Others will say that the Assad regime is the last bastion against imperialism, which is the sole argument they seem to be able to muster. They are certain there is an imperialist plot behind all of this, something they were reluctant to say with the same protests in Tunisia, Egypt and to some extent, to the Palestinian Intifadas. Many of these people who are proclaiming it can’t be a sincere popular revolt or revolution live in affluent societies in Europe and North America, where they have the right to say what they want to without being arrested and yet, have never taken part in a revolution or revolt. Others will say that there should be no outside intervention, but they root for Russia, Lebanon and Iran continuing to arm the regime and give it economic solvency for as long as possible. Others will say that the Free Syria Army is an imperialist militia (???!!!) and that it is fomenting war and is not a true resistance militia. Yet others are claiming that both sides are to blame, putting them on equal footing, something they would never dare do if this were Palestine. How can an armed power that controls government, the economy, can turn off water, electricity and gas at a whim, arbitrarily arrest people in the thousands, close down hospitals and invade cities with tanks, bombarding people as they are within their own homes and placing snipers on the roof should they dare seek to escape be equated with the civilians?

A Syrian friend of mine said to me a few months ago, “If only we were animals, then I think that more people would feel for us and care.” After a few weeks, he noticed even the total abandonment of the Activists for Palestine, who are touting the Assad line without a practical reason to do so unless they are inhumane or blind. He said, “We should just tell everyone we are Palestinian, perhaps they will then be upset about how we are dying”. I would take it further: several years ago Vittorio Arrigoni wrote a piece that was very poignant. I ask especially the activists for Palestine to read it and reflect upon it.

“Take some kittens, tiny little cats and put them in a box” said the surgeon at Gaza’s main hospital called Al Shifa, while the nurse placed a couple of big boxes on the floor right in front of us, covered in splashes of blood. “Seal up the box, then with all your might jump on top of it until you hear the little bones crunching, and the last suffocated “meow”. I’m astounded and I stare at the boxes. The doctor goes on “Now try to imagine what would happen straight after the broadcast of a scene like that, the justifiably indignant reaction of the world-wide public, the denunciations of the organisations protecting animals…” The doctor goes on with his account and I can’t take my eyes off those boxes placed by my feet. “Israel has enclosed hundreds of civilians in a school as though in a box, dozens of children, and then it squeezed it with all its might using its bombs. And what were the reactions of the world? Almost nothing. You may as well be born an animal rather than Palestinian. We would have been given more protection.” At this point the doctor leans towards the box and takes the lid off in front of my eyes. Inside there are mutilated limbs, arms, legs, from the knee down or whole femurs, amputated from the people injured inside the Al Fakhura United Nations school in Jabalia. Up until now there are more than 50 victims. I pretended I had an urgent telephone call, I told Jamal I had to go, but actually I ran for the toilet, I bent over and threw up.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewWorldOrderWhistleBlowers3/message/32547

Right now those victims are Syrians. At this moment, the average of 40 victims each day, at times close to 100, belongs to Syria.  “You may as well be born an animal rather than a Syrian. You would have been given more protection.”

The Women of the Syrian Spring

Posted: 01/23/2012 by editormary in Grassroots Activism, Human Rights, Middle East Issues, People's Movements / Struggles, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, Syria
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WRITTEN BY SHADY HAMADI, translated by Mary Rizzo

Fadwa Soliman

Since the start of the Syrian revolution, approximately eleven months ago, women have played a role that is equal to that of men. Young Syrian women have been leading the protest, they are at the head of human rights organisations and they are leading protagonists in the political opposition. But who are these women?

Fadwa Soliman was one of Syria’s most famous actresses. When the revolution began, she decided to actively participate. Her parents, upon discovering their daughter’s choice, disowned her, because they were dedicated supporters of the president Assad as well as belonging to the same religious group as the Assad family, the Alawite sect. Being a public figure whose face was known to all, Fadwa, wanted by the police, decided to cut her long black hair so as to render herself less recognisable. Her activity, in this moment, is concentrated especially in leading protests and sending video messages by means of You Tube. She has been living in hiding for months, and every day she is forced to change where she is living so as to avoid capture.

Razan Zaithouni, born in 1977, she manages a network of local coordination committees for human rights in Syria. She is wanted because she is accused by the Syrian regime of being a foreign spy. Razan Zaithouni was awarded the Sakharov Prize in October and also in 2011 won the Anna Politkovskaya Award. Her husband is currently detained in the Syrian prisons.

Bassma Kodmani, spokesperson of the Syrian National Council – the principle opposition group to the regime – in 1968 left Syria with his parents who abandoned their country due to political problems, transferring themselves to Paris. Prior to the start of the revolution, she had published various books in France and has managed, for the Ford Foundation, the programme of government and cooperation in the Middle East. She is the most influential Syrian woman on a political level at this moment, and she is the second in command of the Syrian National Council.

Suhair Atassi, human rights activits, member of the Atassi family, which has a lengthy political history behind it, manages the Jamal Atassi Forum. In this moment the form is only online because it was outlawed by the government. She was arrested at the start of the protests and released several months later. Her identity card has been taken by the security forces so as to prevent her from escaping. She lives under the constant threat of being arrested again.

The list of the women who are changing Syria is long. Christian, Muslim, Alawite women, as well as women from all the other religions are participating, collaborating actively in this spring that is late in blooming. I believe that the saying “behind every great man there is a great woman” isn’t sufficient for the Syrian situation, because men and women are walking side by side, hand in hand.

PLEASE WATCH THIS IMPORTANT VIDEO MESSAGE

Original: http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2012/01/23/donne-della-primavera-siriana/185771/

Global Day of Rage in Solidarity with the Syrian People – Giornata Mondiale della collera per Siria

Posted: 01/20/2012 by editormary in Grassroots Activism, Human Rights, Middle East Issues, People's Movements / Struggles, Syria
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Global day of rage

21 January 2012 Global Day of Rage in Solidarity with the Syrian People

Why?

  • Because the Syrian people have been undergoing the atrocities of the dictatorship of the Assad dynasty for more than 40 years. First, the father Hafez, then his son Bashar, with the complicity of the entire family and the mercenaries of the Ba’ath party.
  • Because the Syrian people, for 11 months, have taken to the streets to demand the end of this regime, to demand the respect of their human rights, invoking freedom and democracy and for this reason, and no other, are killed by an inhumane repression.
  • Because in Syria innocents are dying, children are killed in cold blood, as well as adolescents, women and men of every age, unarmed and defenceless civilians. The centres of their towns and villages are bombarded and shelled and their places of worship are broken into. Universities are raided in order to arrest and kill those who oppose the regime.
  • Because in Syria there is a strike to demand the protection and safeguarding of human dignity, paid for in blood.
  • Because in Syria thousands of people are imprisoned for thought crimes: even children!!
  • Because in Syria women are abducted and raped, including minors, in order to dissuade people from the desire to demand their freedom.
  • Because in Syria funeral processions are shot upon and the bodies of the martyrs are subject to every kind of vilification.
  • Because in Syria the regime controls information, instruction, economy and every aspect of the people’s lives.
  • Because there are entire cities in Syria that are subject to constant shelling by armoured tanks of the regime, with snipers positioned on the roofs and in the streets who are there to kill passers-by and protesters.
  • Because the world is standing by and only watching, from the UN to the Arab League, no one has moved a finger decisively and effectively to make this massacre cease!!
  • Because 6,700 martyrs, many of them children, thousands of wounded and mutilated people, prisoners and desaparicidos ask that this massacre ENDS and that justice be done!!

These are only some of the reasons for which, the 21st of January 2012, the World Day of Rage in Solidarity with the Syrian People has been declared. We can no longer stand by in silence! Silence and indifference are accomplices in this massacre! We make an appeal to the consciences of everyone, citizens, administrations, workers, political and religious leaders, academics and students, for mobilisation towards the respect of human rights in Syria.

SYRIA ASKS FOR FREEDOM: LET US SUPPORT HER!!

Giornata Mondiale della Collera per la Siria

21 gennaio 2012 Giornata Mondiale della collera in Solidarietà con il Popolo Siriano
Sabato, 21 gennaio 2012 sarà celebrata dalle donne e dagli uomini liberi di tutto il mondo la Giornata Mondiale della collera in Solidarietà con il Popolo… Siriano.
Perché?

• Perché il popolo siriano subisce le atrocità della dittatura della dinastia Assad da oltre 40 anni. Prima il padre, Hafez, poi il figlio, Bashar, con la complicità di tutta la famiglia e dei mercenari del partito Ba’ath.

• Perché il popolo siriano da 11 mesi è sceso in piazza per chiedere la fine di questo regime, per domandare il rispetto dei diritti umani, invocando libertà e democrazia e per questo viene colpito a morte da una repressione disumana.

• Perché in Siria muoiono innocenti, vengono uccisi a sangue freddo bambini, adolescenti, donne e uomini di ogni età, civili inermi e disarmati. Si bombardano i centri abitati e si fa irruzione dei luoghi di culto e nelle università per arrestare e uccidere chi si oppone al regime.

• Perché in Siria chi sciopera per chiedere la tutela e la salvaguardia della propria dignità paga con il sangue.

• Perché in Siria migliaia di persone si trovano in carcere per reati d’opinione: anche bambini!

• Perché in Siria vengono sequestrate e stuprate le donne, comprese le minorenni, per dissuadere il popolo dalla volontà di chiedere libertà.

• Perché in Siria sparano sui cortei funebri e vilipendiano i corpi dei martiri.

• Perché in Siria il regime controlla l’informazione, l’istruzione, l’economia e tutti gli aspetti della vita del popolo.

• Perché ci sono intere città in Siria che vengono bombardare dai carro armati del regime, con i cecchini appostati sui tetti e nelle strade per uccidere i passanti e i dimostranti.

• Perché il mondo sta a guardare, dall’ONU alla Lega Araba, nessuno si è mosso con decisione ed efficacia per dire stop al massacro!

• Perché 6700 martiri, tra cui molti bambini, migliaia di feriti e mutilati, di prigionieri e di desaparecidos chiedono che venga fermato il massacro e sia fatta giustizia!!!

Queste sono alcune della cause per cui il 21 gennaio 2012 è stata proclamata la Giornata Mondiale della collera in solidarietà con il Popolo Siriano! Non possiamo più sopportare in silenzio! Il silenzio e l’indifferenza sono complici di questo massacro! Ci appelliamo alle coscienze di tutti, cittadini, amministrazioni, lavoratori, esponenti politici e religiosi, accademici e studenti, per una mobilitazione generale per il rispetto dei diritti umani in Siria.

LA SIRIA CHIEDE LIBERTA’: SOSTENIAMOLA!

The Syrian revolution against the Assad Regime / La rivolta siriana contro il regime di Assad

Posted: 01/19/2012 by editormary in Grassroots Activism, Middle East Issues, People's Movements / Struggles, Resistance, Syria
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Ho dovuto sacrificare la nazione siriana per salvare il regime

Written by ASMAE DACHAN, translated by Mary Rizzo

It’s been ten long months since the start of the Syrian revolution against the regime of Bashar Assad. Ten months that have cost the lives of more than 6,000 martyrs, with thousands of people wounded, thousands tortured and thousands who have disappeared. There have been people forced from their homes and have become refugees. And, there is constant abuse against women and ferocious brutality against children. The regime in Syria has lasted for more than 40 years, since the father of the current dictator-president, Hafez Assad, rose to power by a coup d’état. Upon his death, power passed “by inheritance” to Bashar, and this dynasty has brought about an ever-growing discontent, while the regime continues to impose a curfew, which for over 40 years has served to impede and prohibit any kind of demonstration or right for the people to assemble.

Watching the images of the protests on TV, a group of children from the city of Dar’à wrote on a wall of their school, “The people want the fall of the regime”. The children were identified and abducted, then they were tortured and their bodies thrown in the streets. Their parents went into the squares to protest, in a pacific manner, but as a response to this, the regime opened fire on them and they are remembered as the first fallen martyrs.

Thus began the Syrian revolution: with slogans, chants, songs, protests, the voices of young Syrians who came from every part of the country: in particular, the people of Homs, Hama and Dar’à. The regime deployed its army in the cities, it started a policy of extreme and violent repression, using the instruments of abductions, rape and terrible torture. In many parts of these cities, there has been no supply of gas or electricity for months, they are running out of medicine and even food, including milk for their children. There are thousands of refugees, both internal and those who seek refuge abroad.

But nothing can bend the will of the people, not even the lining up of the so-called Shabbiha, that is, the infiltrate squadrons, those shadow-like figures who clandestinely join in the protests to stab the youth, even the children, then to indicate them to the secret services, who will arrest them and kill them. But the voice of the revolution cannot be silenced. Not even the deployment of the army, from which each day dozens of soldiers who no longer want to shoot into the crowds are defecting from, giving life to the Free Syrian Army. To distinguish the spontaneous protests of the Syrian revolution from those ordered by the regime to its supporters, the new Syria has chosen a new flag. The old flag with the colours black, white and red has been abandoned in order to adopt the new won, green, white and black, with 3 red stars.

One of the particularities of this revolution is its horizontal character: everything is organised, spread and transmitted by means of the network, with messages, videos, slogans and documents transmitted from one part of the world to another. In this way, for the first time, Syrians of the diaspora are involved, that is, those Syrians who had emigrated, some of whom had never been allowed to return home due to the regime. So has been born the first free and actual Syrian opposition, the SNC Syrian National Council, which is now working with international diplomacy in order to bring the country towards freedom. At this moment, the international community is doing very little, the Arab League is worse. The mission of the observers has proved itself to be useless.

The Syrian people are alone, but they are not surrendering. We will continue until Freedom comes!   Asmae Dachan

I am against the regime

I am against the regime because it is helped by wicked people who know it will protect their interests.

I am against the regime because it invokes democracy, but it unleashes its own army against every individual who asks for freedom. I am against the regime because I am tired of recognising the individual errors that have caused thousands of martyrs. I am against the regime because it says it is fighting against armed gangs, yet its death squadrons (Shabbiha) brazenly bring and use weapons against protesters. I am against the regime because it invokes reforms, but at the same time raises the rank and degree of its corrupt affiliates, while protecting those who are responsible for the massacre of so many innocents. I am against the regime because it talks about conspiracies against it, as if it was were itself doing its duty towards its own people.

Hani Dalati from Aleppo

La rivolta siriana contro il regime di assad

Ho dovuto sacrificare la nazione siriana per salvare il regime

Sono ormai dieci lunghi mesi che è iniziata la rivolta siriana contro il regime di bashar assad. Dieci mesi che sono costati la vita ad oltre 6000 martiri, con migliaia di feriti, di persone torturate, scomparse, con sfollati e profughi, abusi su donne e ferocia contro i bambini. Il regime in Siria dura da oltre 40 anni, da quando il padre del dittatore-presidente attuale, hafez assad, salì al potere con un colpo di stato. Alla sua morte il potere è passato “per eredità” a bashar, con un malcontento popolare sempre più diffuso, mentre continua a perdurare il regime di coprifuoco, che di fatto impedisce ogni manifestazione o riunione popolare, da oltre 40 anni.

Guardando in tv le immagini delle manifestazioni, un gruppo di bambini della città di Dar’à ha scritto sul muro della scuola “Il popolo vuole la caduta del regime”. Individuati e sequestrati, i bambini sono stati torturati e poi gettati in strada. I loro genitori sono scesi in piazza a manifestare, in modo pacifico, ma per tutta risposta il regime ha aperto su di loro il fuoco e sono caduti i primi martiri.  Ha preso così il via la rivolta siriana: cori, canti, manifestazioni, le voci dei giovani siriani si sono rincorse da una parte all’altra del paese: in particolare, a Homs, Hama, Dar’à. Il regime ha schierato l’esercito nelle città, ha avviato politiche di repressione feroce, mettendo in atto sequestri, stupri e torture terribili. In molti quartieri manca la corrente e il gas da mesi, mancano i medicinali e persino i viveri, il latte per bambini. Si contano migliaia di sfollati e profughi.

Ma nulla può piegare la volontà del popolo, nemmeno lo schieramento dei cosiddetti shabbiha, cioè gli infiltrati, i fantasmi che si intrufolano nelle manifestazioni per accoltellare i giovani, persino i bambini, segnalarli ai servizi segreti, farli arrestare e uccider, ma la voce della rivolta è inarrestabile. Nemmeno lo schieramento dell’esercito, da cui ogni giorno si defezionano decine di soldati che non vogliono sparare sulla folla e hanno dato vita al Free Syrian Army. Per distinguere le manifestazioni spontanee della rivolta siriana da quelle ordinate dal regime ai suoi sostenitori, la nuova Siria ha scelto una nuova bandiera. È stata lasciata quella nera bianca e rossa per adottare quella nuova, verde, bianca e nera, con 3 stelle rosse.

Una delle peculiarità e di questa rivolta è il suo carattere orizzontale: tutto si organizza, si diffonde e si trasmette tramite la rete, con messaggi, video, slogan e documenti trasmessi da una parte all’altra del mondo. Vengono così coinvolti, per la prima volta, anche i siriani della diaspora, i siriani cioè, emigrati all’estero, alcuni dei quali non hanno mai potuto fare ritorno a casa per via del regime. Nasce così la prima opposizione siriana libera e reale, il SNC Syrian National Council, che sta ora lavorando con le diplomazie internazionali per portare il Paese verso la libertà. Ad oggi la comunità internazionale tentenna, la Lega Araba peggio. La missione degli osservatori non è servita a nulla.

Il popolo siriano è solo, ma non si arrende. Andremo avanti fino alla Libertà!

Asmae Dachan


Sono contro il regime perché si fa aiutare da persone infami per tutelare i suoi interessi.

Sono contro il regime perché invoca la democrazia, ma scatena il suo esercito contro ogni individuo che chiede libertà. Sono contro il regime perché mi sono stancato di riconoscere gli errori individuali che hanno causato migliaia di martiri. Sono contro il regime perché dice di lottare contro bande armate e i suoi squadroni della morte (Shabbiha) portano e usano spudoratamente le armi contro i manifestanti. Sono contro il regime perché invoca riforme e allo stesso tempo eleva di grado i suoi affiliati corrotti e protegge i responsabili del massacro di tanti innocenti. Sono contro il regime perché parla di complotto ai suoi danni, come se intanto stesse facendo il suo dovere nei confronti del suo popolo.

Hani Dalati, Aleppo

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