Archive for the ‘Syria’ Category

LA ROTTURA DEL PERNO DELLA MEZZALUNA SCIITA

Posted: 02/22/2012 by editormary in Iran, Middle East, Syria

la situazione attuale

WRITTEN BY Alon Ben-Meir per l’Huffingtonpost byTraduzione di TIZY ITALYA

Raramente la linea di demarcazione che si trova tra le forze della moderazione e le forze dell’estremismo è stata così chiara in Medio Oriente. L’estremista anti-occidentale, guidato dall’Iran sciita e costituito dall’ Iraq (in gran parte operante per volere dell’Iran), Siria e Libano, sono stati fortemente sovvenzionati, negli ultimi tre decenni, dalle risorse finanziarie di Teheran. La capitale politica ora è in grave pericolo di crollo grazie alla crepa nel suo anello più critico: il regime di Assad in  Siria. D’altra parte, la tragedia umana in Siria ha creato un interesse comune, rara tra i vecchi ed i nuovi regimi arabi, Turchia, Stati Uniti e l’Unione europea per far emergere le potenzialità di un governo rappresentativo a Damasco.

Tuttavia, mentre l’Iran, la Russia e la Cina stanno facendo tutto il possibile per evitare la caduta di Assad, le forze internazionali e le forze regionali moderate, devono ancora raccogliere la sfida. A meno che questa libera alleanza di forze moderate chiuda i ranghi e si imbarchi su uno sforzo decisivo per rompere la Mezzaluna sciita, il popolo siriano sarà lasciato solo ad affrontare una strage continua e perderà l’occasione storica di entrare in un nuovo, pacifico e potenzialmente più democratico orientamento in Medio Oriente. La Turchia si distingue soprattutto per la sua influenza e la valutazione di quello che otterrebbe da un coinvolgimento più forte delle forze di moderazione.

Infine, le riforme introdotte dal governo di Assad, che annunciano il referendum su una nuova costituzione, con elezioni parlamentari sono solo un espediente volto a guadagnare tempo. Pertanto, nessuno deve sorprendersi che queste riforme fasulle sono state supportate dalla Russia e, più recentemente, dalla Cina. Riforme che non saranno accettate dal popolo siriano che ha sacrificato così tanto solo per accontentarsi delle briciole, pretese sotto la costrizione di un governo che ha perso l’orientamento e la credibilità. Assad e la sua corte ha rifiutato di assumere un impegno solido e, successivamente, è stato coinvolto in una totale prevaricazione sistematica – per tutto il tempo in cui persistono violente repressioni. Il problema della Siria non sta nella formulazione delle sue leggi, ma nel regime stesso che elabora e implementa queste leggi.

La prossima riunione della LA, in Tunisia il 24 febbraio, dovrebbe capitalizzare il forte messaggio inviato dalle 137 nazioni al consiglio generale delle Nazioni Unite, che  condanna l’assalto delle forze di sicurezza siriane sui suoi cittadini, fornendo quel sostegno morale che va al di là delle polemiche e apre la porta all’azione reale sul terreno. I membri del campo moderato dovrebbero attuare le misure coraggiose come la creazione di un “Corridoio Umanitario libero” ritagliandosi una porzione di territorio siriano al confine Nord con la Turchia . Come in Libia, una no-fly zone air-pattugliata dalla NATO e  gli Stati membri della LA, dovrebbe essere immediatamente istituita su questo corridoio, ma senza impegnarsi in combattimenti con le forze governative, fatta eccezione per la difesa del corridoio.

Il corridoio, da un lato fornirebbe un rifugio umanitario sicuro per i rifugiati civili in fuga dalla violenza e l’accoglienza per i militari disertori da una parte, e dall’altro servirebbe come base per armare l’esercito siriano Libero, come hanno recentemente sostenuto i senatori John McCain e Lindsey Graham, entrambi membri del Senate Armed Services Committee. Inoltre, il corridoio consentirà al Consiglio nazionale siriano (SNC) di mettere un piede sul terreno siriano, preparando così il terreno per il suo riconoscimento da parte della Lega Araba, potenze musulmane occidentali e altri. Inoltre, il SNC dovrebbe istituire un governo ombra composta da professionisti non-ideologici e tecnocrati che inizino a pianificare un accordo per l’era post-Assad. I Membri della NATO, in particolare la Francia (che ha già avanzato l’idea di un corridoio aereo umanitario nel novembre scorso), così come la LA probabilmente sosterranno tale proposta.

Israele può tranquillamente contribuire aprendo e monitorando da vicino la frontiera con la Siria per i rifugiati provenienti dal sud della Siria, in quanto la zona nord, totalmente assediata dalle forze di sicurezza, non sarebbe per loro praticabile. Questa azione israeliana può essere fatta in coordinamento con la Giordania, che confina sia con la Siria e Israele. Ma la più grande responsabilità è della Turchia con il pieno sostegno della Lega araba.

Di tutti i membri moderati del campo, la Turchia è la più grande delle parti interessate in Siria. Breve di un intervento della comunità internazionale, l’attuale conflitto in Siria si trasformerà presto in una vera e propria guerra civile che inonderà la Turchia con i rifugiati, potenziare la base PKK nel nord della Siria, e garantire un’influenza allargata iraniano sue immediate vicinanze, tutti a svantaggio della Turchia. Allo stesso tempo, la Turchia è meglio situato geograficamente e politicamente, per consentire e sostenere la creazione di questo corridoio lungo il confine sud-est. Una Turchia che prende l’iniziativa non solo dimostrare una vera leadership in Medio Oriente e rafforzare ulteriormente la sua alleanza con l’Occidente, ma anche di colmare le sue relazioni con un mondo arabo che è diventato sempre più preoccupati per un neo-ottomano nella politica estera regione. Per Ankara, è il momento di riconciliare con la realtà amara che non c’è via di mezzo: o fermare l’Iran, in Siria e terminare i campi di sterminio o consegnare la Siria al dominio iraniano, in tal modo incoraggiando ulteriormente l’Iran a perseguire la sua ambizione di diventare potenza egemone della regione potenzialmente dotato di capacità nucleari.

Per tutti gli effetti, la Siria è diventata il campo di battaglia tra le forze della moderazione e le forze dell’estremismo in Medio Oriente. Deboli tentativi da parte della comunità internazionale porterà da nessuna parte finché ignorare le realtà del regime baathista in Siria. Allo stesso tempo, ogni prospettiva di raggiungere un qualche tipo di un accordo concordato da Assad, che ha lo scopo di responsabilizzare il popolo siriano è un’illusione. Rimuovere la Siria dalla stretta dell’Iran, tuttavia, pur liberando il popolo siriano Assad da catene avrà drammatiche conseguenze geopolitiche come sarà anche cambiare l’equazione di potenza in tutto il Medio Oriente. A dire il vero, il disaccoppiamento Siria in attesa Iran sarebbe sottolineano ulteriormente l’isolamento regionale e internazionale di Teheran e potrebbe evitare un’azione militare contro l’Iran da Israele o gli Stati Uniti, il cui scopo sarebbe quello di porre fine alle sue ambizioni nucleari. La vittoria dell’Iran e co. in Siria sarebbe catastrofico per la regione e deve essere interrotto l’opportunità attualmente disponibili. Garantendo un cambiamento di regime di sostegno del desiderio del popolo siriano per la libertà, la Mezzaluna sciita sarebbe rotto e mettere pressione insormontabile contro l’Iran per porre fine alla sua ingerenza negli affari dei suoi vicini arabi.

ORIGINALE http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alon-benmeir/syria-the-lynchpin-to-bre_b_1290902.html

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

a father mourns his slaughtered son in Homs

WRITTEN By Soubhi Dachan, translated by Mary Rizzo

In a world in which communication has become a duty, the silence that reigns over the Syrian tragedy is even more shameful.

Only yesterday, Tuesday 21/02/2012 in the city of Homs there were 400 rounds of shells launched upon the defenceless city for the 18th consecutive day.

In this slaughter which is being consumed before our very eyes, no one is spared, not even journalists, killed under the cannon mortar.

In a country in which all foreign press is prohibited and in which every foreign observer is now forbidden entry, it is natural to ask some questions to those who still today sustain that there is no truth to the news that reaches us from Syria:

– Why are outside journalists now allowed to report from Syria?

– Why are the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent forbidden from operating in Syria?

– Why are all the Syrian cities under siege?

– Why are non-government agencies not allowed entry into cities such as Hama or Baba Amr and other Syrian cities?

The protesters have reported widespread use of chemical weapons against civilians, carpet-bombing, bombing of hospitals and mosques, shortages or absence of food, water and medicine, lack of gas and electricity. For over a month, there has not even been oxygen for the sick who need it.

Four hundred victims in only a few days. Among them women, children, the elderly.

What is going to have to happen so that this genocide will stop? What other excuses do people need to fabricate in order to maintain their shameful silence? And thus, to remain accomplices of this state terrorism adopted by the criminal dictatorship of the Syrian regime?

 ITALIANO

In un mondo in cui la comunicazione è diventata dovere è quanto più vergognoso il silenzio che si cela sulla tragedia Siriana.
Solo ieri martedì 21.02.2012 nella città di Homs sono stati lanciate 400 cannonate sulla città inerme per il 18° giorno consecutivo
In questa mattanza che si sta consumando nessuno è risparmiato, nemmeno i giornalisti, uccisi sotto i colpi di mortaio.
In un paese in cui …ogni stampa estera è vietata e in cui ogni osservatore estero è bandito, viene naturale chiedere a coloro che ancora oggi sostengono la non veridicità delle notizie che giungono dalla Siria:

– Come mai non sono ammessi altri giornalisti?
– Come mai non è permesso alla croce rossa internazionale o alla mezza luna rossa operare in loco?
– Come mai le città di tutta la siria sotto assedio?
– Come mai non si permette alle organizzazioni non governative di entrare nelle città come HOMOS e BABA AMR e nelle altre città Siriane?

I rivoltosi denunciano l’uso di armi chimiche, bombardamenti a tappeto, bombardamento di ospedali e moschee, la mancanza di viveri, acqua e medicinali, gas e corrente. Nemmeo l’ossigeno per i malati è presente oramai da più di un mese.

Quattrocento morti in meno di pochi giorni, donne, bambini e anziani.
Cosa bisogna aspettare ancora per fermare questo genocidio? Quali altre scuse bisogna fabbricare per rimanere ancora in questo vergognoso silenzio, e dunque, complice di questo terrorismo di stato adottato dalla dittatura criminale del regime Siriano?

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

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/

grazie Mobin Safi    نحن مواطنون وناشطون سياسيون ومثقفون من منبت علوي وخصوصا من حمص وريف الساحل، ندين بقوة

The Assad System: To Kill More

جرائم بشار الأسد وندين بالخصوص القصف الذي تعرضت له مدينتنا الباسلة مدينة حمص الذي راح ضحيته اكثر من ثلاثمئة وخمسون شهيداً، بينهم شبان وأطفال ونساء، كلهم أ…برياء وكلهم سوريون وكلهم مظلومون وندين كل أنواع القتل والإجتياح التي يمارسها …النظام في ريف دمشق وحماه وإدلب وكل مكان من سورية، نحن ومن منطلق حرصنا على وطننا السوري المعذّب ندعو بشدة أهلنا السوريين من كل الطوائف والإثنيات للبقاء صفاً واحداً لتفويت الفتنة التي يحاول النظام الأسدي المجرم زرعها لجرالبلاد إلى حرب أهلية لا يعرف أحد كيف أوأين تنتهي، نحن السوريون العلويون في كل مكان من سورية ننبّه أخواننا إلى أن الجيش الأسدي يستخدم أحياء العلويين في حمص ليمارس إعتداءه على بقية الأحياء محاولاً بهذه الوسيلة إثارة الإقتتال الطائفي، لذلك فنحن نحمّل افراد النظام ا…لأسدي وكل المتعاملين معه من اشخاص وقوى واحزاب في الداخل والخارج مسؤولية ما يجري في البلاد ونحملهم بالأخص مسؤولية أيقاد الفتنة الطائفية التي قد تؤدي إلى تقسيم سورية، كما ندعو كل العسكريين الشرفاء من ضباط وصف ضباط ورجال أمن الإنشقاق عن آلة نظام العصابة القاتلة، هذه الآلة المدمّرة لبنيان الوطن السوري الحبيب، كما ندعوهم الوقوف في وجه هذا النظام اللاوطني في محاولته لزرع الفتنة الطائفية والمناطقية والقومية ومحاولة تقسيم سورية كي يبقى على أشلائها، كما إننا ندين الموقف الروسي اللامسؤول ونحمّل النظام الروسي القاتل مسؤولية كل طفل وامرأة ورجل يقتل برصاصه وأسلحته ونعلن ما يلي : 1- وقوفنا العلني واللا مشروط إلى جانب الثوار في سوريا 2- وقوفنا العلني واللا مشروط ضد العصابات الحاكمة لسوريا وضد من يساندها أو يدعمها مهما اختلفت التسميات والحجج 3- وقوفنا العلني واللا مشروط ضد الذين يراهنون على قتل الشعب فهؤلاء هم أعداء سوريا المستقبل مهما اختلفت انتماءاتهم عاشت سورية حرة واحدة مستقلة من الموقعين: د. تماضر عبدالله د.توفيق دنيا -د.رامي حسين- رشا عمران- نزار حمود كفاح علي ديب- المحامي عُباب رياض خليل- عادل محفوظ -الفنانة لويز عبدالكريم -الفنانة ريم علي- يامن حسين- عبدالكريم علي- فايق المير فراس سعد- عُلا رمضان- ماهر إبراهيم- مرح وسّوف- نينار حسن -علي بدرية- علي عبود- ربا حسن- غياث الجندي- راغدة حسين- ميلاد أمين علي نزير -علي سهير- أسمر خلدون الإبراهيم- محمود سلمان محمود عبدالله أسماء- عمار سوزان- سلوم تميم- أحمد أحمد- م أحمد شعبان وسّوف -سليمان علي- حسام وقّاف- حبيب محمد- نضال سعيد ماهر اسماعيل جميلة بركات- نضال س سلامه -ربى حداد- عادل سعود- عبير محمد نهلة -عباس ماهر اسبر- نور الهدى -عودة علي -سعد بيسان الفقيه- صبا خضور هشام- شوكت احمد -اياد الكردي- سميرة قابقلي عبير سليمان -سلاف صبح -همام حداد- وسيم حسن- علي سعد -علي علي- نوار قاسم

The Assad System: To Kill More

VERSIONE ITALIANA SEGUE!

by لجان التنسيق المحلية في سوريا on Sunday, 5 February 2012 at 23:30

A Statement of Condemnation from Homs the Coastal Cities (Alawites)

We the citizens, political activists, and intellectuals from the Alawite sect in Homs and the surrounding suburbs of the coastal cities, strongly condemn the massacres committed by Bashar al-Assad. In particular, we condemn the bombardment of our city, the brave city of Homs, where hundreds were martyred and hundreds more wounded, including women and children. These people are oppressed innocent Syrians that have been affected. We condemn the massacres and raids committed by the regime in Damascus, Hama, Idlib, and all the Syrian cities and towns. Out of fear for our beloved Syria, we are committed to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people. We call upon all sects and ethnic minority groups to unite as one and to halt all efforts put forth by the Assad regime to drag the country into a never-ending civil war. We, the Syrian Alawites, warn all of our brothers and sisters in Syria that Assad’s Army has been using Alawite dominated neighborhoods in Homs, to launch its assaults on the remaining neighborhoods and surrounding areas. It has been doing so to spark a sectarian revenge among the people of Homs. We hold Assad’s regime and forces along with Ba’ath Party members at home and abroad, completely responsible for the massacres in the country. In particular, we hold them responsible for igniting sectarian strife to divide Syria.

Moreover, we call upon all honorable military soldiers, officers, aides and security members to defect from the regime’s destructive army; a killing machine that is destroying our beloved Syrian nation. We also call upon them, to stand united against this unpatriotic regime that promotes sectarian and regional strife in its attempt to divide Syria.

In addition, we condemn the irresponsible stance of the killer Russian regime and hold them entirely responsible for each child, woman and man murdered by their bullets and weapons.

We announce the following:

– Our public and unconditional support of the Syrian revolutionaries

– Our public and unconditional denouncement of the Syrian thugs ruling the country and everyone supporting it despite of his/her motivations and excuses.

– Our public and unconditional support against those who encourage the killing of the unarmed civilians; for they are the true enemies of the new Syria regardless of their sect.

Long Live Syria: One Independent, Free and Democratic Country

Una Dichiarazione da alcuni membri della comunità Alawita siriana condannando le atrocità del regime

Una Dichiarazione di Condanna da Homs le Città Costiere (Alawite) Tradotto in italiano da Luca Urbinati

Noi i cittadini, attivisti politici ed intellettuali della comunità Alawita ad Homs e dei circostanti sobborghi delle città costiere, condanniamo duramente i massacri commessi da Bashar al-Assad.

In particolare, condanniamo il bombardamento nella nostra città, la coraggiosa città di Homs, dove centinaia sono stati martirizzati ed altri centinaia feriti, compresi donne e bambini. Queste persone sono innocenti Siriani oppressi che sono stati colpiti. Noi condanniamo i massacri ed i raid commessi dal regime a Damasco, Hama, Idlib e tutte le città e cittadine Siriane. Per paura della nostra amata Siria, noi siamo impegnati di alleviare la sofferenza del popolo Siriano. Noi invochiamo tutti i credi religiosi e  gruppi di minoranza etnica ad unirsi come uno a fermare tutti gli sforzi tesi dal regime di Assad per portare il Paese ad un’infinita guerra civile. Noi, i Siriani Alawiti, mettiamo in guardia tutti i nostri fratelli e sorelle in Siria che l’Esercito di Assad ha utilizzato quartieri dominati Alawiti ad Homs, per lanciare i suoi assalti nei rimanenti quartieri ed aree circostanti. E’ stato fatto così, per accendere una settaria vendetta in mezzo al popolo di Homs. Noi riteniamo il regime di Assad e forze, insieme con i membri del Partito di Ba’ath in Patria ed all’estero, completamente responsabili dei massacri nel Paese. In particolare, li riteniamo responsabili di accendere un settario conflitto per dividere la Syria.

Inoltre, invochiamo tutti gli onorevoli militari soldati, ufficiali, aiutanti e membri della sicurezza a disertare dall’esercito distruttivo del regime; una macchina per uccidere che sta distruggendo la nostra amata nazione Siriana.

Invochiamo anche loro, ad unirsi contro l’antipatriottico regime che promuove un conflitto settario e regionale, con il suo intento di dividere la Siria.

In aggiunta, noi condanniamo l’iriresponsabile posizione del killer-regime Russo e lo riteniamo interamente responsabile per ogni bambino, donna e uomo ucciso dalle loro pallottole ed armi.

Annunciamo il seguente:
– il Nostro pubblico ed incondizionato supporto ai Siriani rivoluzionari.
– la Nostra pubblica ed incondizionata denuncia del teppismo sparso nel Paese ed ogniuno che lo supporta nonostante le sue motivazioni e scuse.
– il Nostro pubblico ed incondizionato supporto contro quelli che incoraggiano l’uccisione dei civili disarmati; per loro sono i veri nemici della nuova Syria senza riguardo del loro settore.

Lunga vita alla Siria: Un Indipendente, Libero e Democratico Paese

Dr. Tamador Abdallah

Dr. Taofic Dunia

Dr. Rami Hussein

Rasha Omran

Nizar Hammoud

Kifah Ali Deeb

Obab Riad Kalil, JD

Adel Mahfouth

Artist Louise AbdelKareem

Artist Reem Ali

Yamen Hussein

Fouad Malla

Abdelkareem Ali

Fayek Almeir

Firas Saad

Oula Ramadan

Maher Ibrahim

Marah Wassouf

Ninar Hasan

Sarah Saleh

Ali Badrieh

Ali Aboud

Rami Kousa

Rouba Hasan

Ghayath Aljundi

Raghida Hussein

Rawan Masoud

Milad Amin

Ali Nazir Ali

Suheir Asmar

Khaldoun Ibrahim

Mahmoud Salman

Mahmoud Abdallah

Asma’ Ammar

Susanne Salloum

Tamim Ahmad

Ahmad M. Ahmad

Shaban Wassouf

Suleiman Ali

Hussam Wakkaf

Habib Mohammad

Nidal Sa’id

Maher Ismail

Jamileh Barakat

Nidal S. Salamah

Rouba Haddad

Adel Masoud

Abeer Mohammad

Nahla Abbas

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/

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

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!

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

Declaration of Dignity
by لجان التنسيق المحلية في سوريا on Monday, 19 December 2011 at 18:47

Symbol of the Syrian Struggle for Dignity

The humiliation our Syrian nation faces is incomparable to any other of its kind. Women and men, fathers and mothers, and sons and daughters of all ethnic and religious backgrounds have faced enormous abuses. Our nation’s people have been forced, through decades of dictatorship and tyranny, to accept regular offenses as part of their daily lives. The disregard and contempt for human dignity have resulted in barbarous acts that have hurt both the national unity and the human conscience throughout the country.

Syrians have struggled bravely for their freedom and their dignity, and have paid a very high price during their struggle: the lives of many, as well as dignity of many others.

From our participation in this glorious uprising, the uprising of dignity, and from our perspective, we hereby announce that:

·         Syrians are precious and their lives are valuable.

·         No public authority has the right to deprive any Syrian of life, or expose any Syrian to risk without legitimate authority.

·         No one is allowed to torture Syrians, or harm their physical or psychological integrity.

·         Syrian citizens are their own masters, and no government authority may arrest Syrians or deny them their right to self-determination, unless there is a legal reason issued by a fair, impartial, independent, and legitimate judicial authority.

·         No one, whether a public figure or private individual, has the right to curse or ridicule the Syrian citizen, or abuse him or her with obscenities, nor to treat him or her harshly or brutally, in a manner that affects his or dignity or self-respect.

·         Every Syrian citizen shall be secure in his or her home, property, and life. No public authority shall interfere with these rights unless they have a legal reason to do so, as determined by a fair, impartial, independent, and legitimate judicial authority.

·         No public authority may stop any Syrian from enjoying the fruits of his or her labor; the Syrian worker will not be taken advantage of.

·         No public authority may undermine any Syrian’s religious belief, or lack thereof, nor force anyone to accept any belief that goes against his or her conscience.

·         All Syrian citizens are equal in dignity and honor.

·         The diverse religious and ethnic groups that make up the Syrian community are all equal in Syria in their dignity and honor. The state may not favor one group over another.

·         The commitment to people’s dignity serves as the basis for freedom, justice, and civil peace in the country.

·         Syria’s strength is measured by the dignity of its weakest citizens.

·         Syrians cannot and should not accept any dealings that would adversely impact their dignity or honor.

Local Coordination Committees in Syria 19-11-2011

Dichiarazione della Dignità 

by لجان التنسيق المحلية في سوريا

lunedì, 19 dicembre 2011

Comitato dei Coordinamenti locali in Siria

il simbolo per la lotta siriana per la libertà e la dignità

L’umiliazione che la nostra nazione, la Siria, deve affrontare, non può essere confrontata con nessun’ altra umiliazione. Donne e uomini, padri, madri, figli e figlie di ogni provenienza etnica e religiosa sono testimoni di abusi terrificanti. La gente della nostra nazione è stata costretto, attraverso decenni di dittatura e tirannia, ad accettare le offese costanti come se, semplicemente, facessero parte delle loro vita quotidiana. Il disdegno ed il disprezzo della dignità umana si è manifestato in atti barbarici che hanno ferito non solo l’unità nazionale, ma anche la coscienza umana in ogni parte del Paese.

I siriani hanno lottato con coraggio per la loro libertà e la loro dignità e hanno pagato un prezzo altissimo durante la loro lotta: le vite di molti ed anche la dignità di molti altri.

Dalla nostra partecipazione in questo intifada gloriosa, l’intifada della dignità e dalla nostra prospettiva, annunciamo che:

·          I siriani sono preziosi e le loro vite hanno grande valore.

·          Nessuna autorità pubblica ha il diritto di togliere la vita ai siriani, o di esporli a rischi senza l’autorità legittima di farlo.

·          Nessuno ha il diritto di torturare i siriani, o di recare loro dolore o danno nella loro integrità fisica o psicologica.

·          I cittadini siriani sono gli artefici del proprio destino e nessuna autorità governativa ha il diritto di arrestarli oppure di negare il loro diritto all’autodeterminazione, se non esiste un motivo legale che è stato emanato da una legittima autorità che è obiettiva, imparziale e indipendente.

·          Nessuno, neanche se è una figura pubblica o un individuo privato, ha il diritto di maledire o ridicolizzare un cittadino siriano, né abusare di lui o di lei con parole oscene, né di trattare lui o lei con durezza o brutalità, in una maniera che mina alla sua dignità o auto-stima.

·          Ogni cittadino siriano deve essere sicuro nella propria casa, come deve essere sicura la propria proprietà e la propria vita. Nessun autorità pubblica ha il diritto di interferire con questi diritti se non con un motivo legale di farlo, motivo determinato sempre da un legittima autorità che deve essere obiettiva, imparziale ed indipendente.

·          Nessuna autorità pubblica ha il diritto di proibire a qualsiasi siriano di godere dei frutti del proprio lavoro; i lavoratori siriani non devono essere soggetti allo sfruttamento.

·          Nessuna  autorità pubblica ha il diritto di penalizzare o di punire alcun siriano per la sua fede religiosa, o per la mancanza di fede religiosa, né può costringere alcuna persona ad accettare qualsiasi credo che vada contro la propria coscienza.

·          Tutti i cittadini siriani sono uguali in dignità ed in onore.

·          I diversi gruppi religiosi ed etnici che compongono la comunità siriani sono tutti uguali in Siria nella loro dignità ed onore. Lo Stato non deve favorire un gruppo a discapito degli altri.

·          L’impegno verso la dignità delle persone serve come  base per la libertà, la giustizia e la pace civile nel Paese.

·          La forza della Siria è misurata a secondo la dignità dei suoi cittadini più deboli.

·          I siriani non possono e non dovrebbero accettare alcun patto che possa avere un impatto negativo sulla loro dignità.

scritto da Maysaloon, tradotto da Mary Rizzo
orignale Berating the Arab Resistance Crowd  

to many pundits, it's all about Western Imperialism

Dovrebbe essere condotta un’indagine seria sul comportamento di alcuni individui riguardo alla rivoluzione siriana. Nonostante il fatto che siano in prima linea per la causa palestinese, e siano stati tra i primi a denunciare ogni volta che un’ingiustizia veniva compiuta, hanno dimostrato, a dispetto dei loro migliori tentativi di mantenere un’apparenza di imparzialità, di essere tra i peggiori sostenitori del regime siriano.

Che esista una cospirazione contro il regime siriano oppure no, voi state sostenendo l’uccisione di siriani innocenti quando non solo vi rifiutate di condannare il regime siriano, ma abbandonate il popolo siriano ai capricci e alle stragi dei servizi di sicurezza di Assad con il proposito d’essere “imparziali” rispetto a entrambi le parti. Ma esiste una sola parte da sostenere, siccome esiste una parte che fa stragi di gente e l’altra che subisce le stragi.

Io trovo una vera assenza di coerenza tra quelli i quali, per esempio, pretendono i più alti livelli di integrità giornalistica quando si parla della Siria, ma al tempo stesso si sentono in dovere di disseminare YouTube di video del Bahrain oppure delle proteste di Qatif in Arabia Saudita dell’Est, senza pretendere dagli attivisti di quei luoghi lo stesso livello di esame minuzioso. Inoltre, gli errori commessi dagli attivisti siriani non possono essere perdonati, ma gli errori degli attivisti in Paesi governati dai regimi “venduti”, sono ignorati ed a volte addirittura giustificati. La storia delle incubatrici per neonati ora viene citata come un esempio imperdonabile per cui non si deve fare affidamento sugli attivisti siriani, ma le migliaia di video che documentano la brutalità di Assad sono opportunamente ignorati. Se quegli stessi video fossero usciti invece dal Bahrain, dallo Yemen oppure dall’ Egitto, questi stessi attivisti “pro-resistenza” sarebbe sul piede di guerra.

Poi ci dicono che la rivoluzione siriana è guidata dalla Fratellanza Musulmana, e che sono schifosi, e non ci si deve fidare di loro; ma la Fratellanza Musulmana era attiva anche in Egitto, però la rivoluzione egiziana è posta sull’altare della santità con retweets sul Twitter, oppure con citazioni su Facebook, che sono coerentemente contro lo SCAF attualmente al potere, e completamente dalla parte delle manifestazioni – anche se i movimenti di protesta in Egitto sono una moltitudine di persone, compresi quelli dalla sinistra, laici, salafiti e membri della Fratellanza Musulmana. Però, il fatto che in Siria ci siano anche i salafiti che sono esplicitamente contro la repressione del regime significa che è una condanna de facto, che la rivoluzione siriana è stato dirottata, oppure che è guidato dai “Wahhabi Sauditi”. Questa gente non ha capito – oppure ignora – il punto che non esiste una rivoluzione nella storia che fosse portata avanti da una massa monolitica con una sola ideologia, e che non c’è mai stata una rivoluzione totalmente libera dall’interferenza straniera e dai progetti eversivi. Ma, per loro, la rivoluzione siriana deve essere uccisa prima ancora d’essere nata, e quando è già stata partorita, deve essere abbandonata e lasciata a morire perché non è il giusto tipo di rivoluzione e non è all’altezza dei loro ideali.

Alcuni scherniscono i canti della rivoluzione siriana, e fanno commenti molto sprezzanti riguarda alla mancanza di “valore” culturale e linguistico dei canti in confronto a quelli delle altre rivoluzioni – come se questo fosse una specie di concorso creativo (i canti siriani, infatti, sono ampiamente ammirati come alcuni dei più creativi e orecchiabili di tutti i canti nel mondo arabo). Quelle stesse persone poi mettono sullo stesso piano l’ opposizione siriana – politicamente frammentata e lungamente repressa – con i rappresentanti della rivoluzione siriana, e vogliono raddoppiare il peso del popolo siriano insistendo che la rivoluzione deve rimanere “pura” e che il popolo deve combattere non solo il regime, ma anche le figure politiche dell’opposizione, compresa la Fratellanza Musulmana. Io insisto che questo è crudele ed anche stupido. C’e gente che è costretta a confrontarsi con una brutalità schiacciante, mentre voi insegnate le finezze di principi rivoluzionari dall’altra parte del mondo o al di là del mare? E’ come dire ai manifestanti in Bahrain che, mentre un poliziotto ti sta spezzando la tua gamba, devi insistere nella denuncia contro Iran e l’Arabia Saudita, altrimenti la vostra rivoluzione non è abbastanza pura e non è degna del loro sostegno.

Ci sono molte parole che io potrei dire a persone del genere, ma non userò quel tipo di linguaggio. La rivoluzione siriana non ha bisogno di voi; il popolo siriano non ha bisogno di voi; e la causa palestinese che voi così dogmaticamente e passionatamente difendete – per qualsiasi motivo – certamente non ha bisogno di voi.

Posted by Maysaloonat 11:02 AM Tradotto in italiano da mary rizzo

Written by Lorenzo Trombetta for Sirialibano, translated by Mary Rizzo

Gilles Jacquier

A French journalist, Gilles Jacquier, reporter for France 2 (photo), was killed in Homs by an explosion in the Alawite neighbourhood of Akrama. He is the first Western journalist to lose his life in Syria since the beginning of the repression of the anti-government protests.

His life was not lost in Gaza, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Libya. He lost his life in Syria. One of his Dutch colleagues – Steven Wassenaar, a freelance journalist – was slightly injured in an eye (initially he was reported as being Belgian). Another seven Syrians – states the TV channel Duniya, close to the regime – were killed.

As a photographer for AFP, witness to the event, states, the journalists were part of a tour organised by the authorities in the third city of the nation and epicentre of the repression and the consequent revolt. They were going to follow a march of loyalists when the group was struck by shells. This fact stimulates some spontaneous questions.

1) Who has the possibility to use shells and mortar in Syria?

a) if they are deserters, to say it the way the conspiracy people do, the salafites-infiltrators-terrorists-zionists, then this is REALLY a piece of news. It means that a military escalation is underway. Up to this point, the deserters, and the civilians who have joined them, have shown that they are able to use automatic rifles and RPGs. At Jabal Zawiya (Idlib) they said that they were able to bring an anti-missile rocket launcher. But mortars up to this point, no one has any knowledge of that.

b) if it is not the deserters, then it must be the regime. Because the protesters at this point are still not equipped with anything of the sort.

2) If it was the deserters with brand new mortars – which came to them from the French-Turks-NATO-Israel, still bearing the plastic wrapping and tags – why aim them into a loyalist neighbourhood?

a) because, some will say, since they are really bad people, they can’t wait to exterminate their enemies, the Alawites who are victims of the conspiracy. By chance, in that moment, there were also Western journalists. But in the regime’s rhetoric, aren’t Western journalists in the service of the conspiracy? On the one hand, the agents of the conspiracy are described as being very shrewd, on the other – if it is true that they killed one of their accomplices by accident – the reporter – they show themselves to be simply bunglers.

3) If it was the regime, why shell a loyalist neighbourhood and risk killing – as had in fact happened – your own supporters and some foreign journalists?

a) to demonstrate, others will say, that Homs is dangerous and it is important to stay away from the city. Observers and accredited journalists have now been warned. To then attribute the attack to terrorists who impede free access to information operators, freely welcomed by the authorities of Damascus.

4) Why are the agents of the conspiracy attacking Syrian civilians (Damascus, 6 January) when they should have been trying to collect internal consensus? And why do they attack Arab observers (11 of them have been injured in Lattakia and Homs on 9 January), when they should have tried to convince them of the worthiness of their cause? And why attack Western journalists, when they should instead have them as allies to serve for receiving international support?

6) Why, for the first time, have the terrorists-bad guys attacked a loyalist march, and why precisely when there is a Western journalist?

7) Why does the regime organise tours only in the loyalist neighbourhoods with an Alawite majority (a circumstance confirmed by at least four authoritative colleagues who have participated in these trips)?

a) because, some will say, the other neighbourhoods are too dangerous for the Syrian authorities, who are responsible and care about the safety of their guests. For reasons of safety, in essence.

b) because, others will say, the regime does not want to show the other face of Homs. The one in revolt against the government and the one that is under siege and bombarded by loyalist artillery.

We furthermore report that it took around an hour and a half after the killing of a journalist in Homs for dissemination of the first news for the activists to be able to release any amateur videos on Internet. “Because Akrama is a zone that is forbidden to us, no one can enter at all except for the loyalists,” was what I was told by telephone from two inhabitants of Homs that were reached by phone and who live in the neighbourhoods with a Sunni majority.

The TV channel al Duniya was speedy, instead, in releasing news, something which in these ten months it has never been – which is the same case as the State-run channel Sana – which has been this fast only in case of attacks attributed to Al Qaeda, to salafites and to terrorists.

We await your questions and possible replies. In the meantime, an homage to Gilles Jacquier, winner of the Ilaria Alpi prize in 2011 for the best international reportage for his Tunisie, la révolution en marche.

ORIGINAL: http://www.sirialibano.com/short-news/ucciso-giornalista-francese-a-homs-qualche-domanda.html

Written by Valentina Baruda, translated by Mary Rizzo

You who talk about Syria without knowing anything about it.

You who talk in defence of the regime, saying that those who are revolting are Islamic Fundamentalists, manoeuvred by who knows which Western puppeteer.

You talk and talk, but never take into consideration – I don’t mean the farmers that have been slaughtered, or even the shepherds or the nomads who live in that land, but you ignore all the illuminated minds, all the revolutionaries, all the university professors (of a certain side), all the cartoonists, all the singers, all the actors and actresses, all the writers that are abducted, plummeted with beatings, tortured, assassinated. You don’t take any of that into consideration: it’s all fictitious.

Even the tortured flesh and blood of those who one recognises is “Zionist fakery”, for those of you who are creating a role for yourselves as experts of the Middle East.

If you are such experts on that country then you certainly know Paolo Dall’Oglio well. You will know his story, his strength, the place that he had renewed, certainly you know him!

You will have milked some goats in the highlands, you would have made incense with your own hands, or listened to your first mass in Arabic inside a tent. Before your eyes would be the brimming youthfulness and rebellion of that priest, like no other in the world.

A priest so unique and rare so well-loved in that land full of different religions, so in love with Islam and with his Christ… who now has become the enemy that the regime so dearly needs to defend itself from!

He will be expelled, after thirty years of building an extraordinary community: Paolo Dall’Oglio is a priest, yet, so very far from any conception of religious division. In that monastery one will be able to witness Mohammed arm in arm with Christ: in that monastery, thanks to this extraordinary man, you could see with your own eyes the TRUE Middle East, what real Islam is, what is the true way to live on a land, to love it to respect it and to rebuild it with other concepts of freedom.

Now dear Father Paolo has been issued a mandate for expulsion and in his defence we see all the revolutionary components who have been moving within the Syrian territory in these months, almost all of them Islamic.

This has to make us understand something, even to those bigots who fill their mouths with utterances only about anti-imperialism that has a sound to it that is sterile and reactionary in the face of reality, that those who are dying in the dusty streets of my Syria do not have to be classified so recklessly as being Salafis or Muslim Fundamentalists, and those who are being banished are certainly not those who want to bring about religious strife and division and a civil war: but those arguments are merely the regime’s instruments to keep mouths flapping…

Everyone with a conscience is writing, shouting and demonstrating in the defence of Paolo Dall’Oglio, a Jesuit by pure chance, a revolutionary by birth.

ALL OF MY SOLIDARITY TO THE ONLY PRIEST IN THE WORLD WHO MADE ME LISTEN TO A MASS FROM ITS BEGINNING TO ITS END, WHO HAD OPENED HIS HOME TO ME, WHO HAD TAUGHT ME THINGS THAT SHALL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.

A MAN THAT I DID NOT BELIEVE EXISTED, AND WHO NOW NEEDS ALL OF OUR SOLIDARITY!

DAMN TO HELL BASHAR AL-ASSAD, ASSASSIN, BUTCHER

http://baruda.net/2011/12/04/siria-solidarieta-a-paolo-dalloglio/

Razan Ghazzawi (photo by Gillian York)

Following the arrest of Syrian-American blogger Razan Ghazzawi on December 4 by Syrian authorities, Razan subsequently faces various anti-state charges that carry up to 15 years of imprisonment. Today, a group of Palestinian bloggers and activists issued the following statement of support, which appeared on a range of internet outlets and blogs and follows weeks of campaigns for her release. The statement read:

We, a group of Palestinian bloggers and activists raise our voices loud and clear in solidarity with all the prisoners of the Great Syrian Revolution. We stand with all the prisoners, activists, artists, bloggers and others, all who are shouting in the streets or on various platforms demanding freedom and justice, while decrying the huge amount of injustice and oppression practiced by the Syrian regime for more than four decades.

We issue this statement in solidarity with all those Syrian activists, and with the blogger Razan Ghazzawi who was arrested on December 4th, on the Jordanian-Syrian crossing border. Razan was adamant in her support for the Palestinian cause. She was the first to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian bloggers who were not granted a visa to enter Tunisia in order to participate in the Arab Bloggers Conference. Razan posted a blog in 2008 during the massacre on Gaza titled, “The Idea of Solidarity with Gaza.” She wrote, “I understand when Cubans, Brazilians, and Pakistanies stand in solidarity with Gaza. But what I do not understand is when Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians, and also Palestinians in exile stand in solidarity. What is the meaning of solidarity in this context?”

Not only do we stand in solidarity with Razan and the other prisoners, but we also affirm that our destiny is one, our concerns are one, and our struggle is one. Palestine can never be free while the Arab people live under repressive and reactionary regimes. The road to a free Palestine comes with a free Syria, in which Syrians live in dignity.

Freedom to all of the prisoners in the Syrian regime’s cells. Long live the Syrian Revolution, free from dictatorship, sectarianism, and foreign intervention.

If you wish to help #FreeRazan, repost this on your own blog and spread the call.

Signatories:

Abir Kopty

Abrar Agil

Ahmed Fahoum

Ahmed Nimer

Alaa Abu Diab

Ali Abunimah

Ali AlMasri

Ali Bari

Amal Murtaja

Amani Ighbaria

Amra Amra

Anas Hamra

Asmaa AlGhoul

Bashar Lubbad

Budour Hasan

Dalia Ghorab

Dalia Othman

Deema AlSaafin

Diana Al-Zeer

Doa Ali

Fidaa Abu Assi

Hala AlSafadi

Hamza Elbuhaisi

Hanaa Mahameed

Huwaida Arraf

Ebaa Rezeq

Irene Nasser

Jalal AbuKhater

Khaled AlShihabi

Linah AlSaafin

Maath Musleh

Maha Rezeq

Majd Kayyal

Mariam Al-Barghouti

Meera AlBaba

Mira Nabulsi

Nader Al-Khuzundar

Nadine Darwish

Nalan Al Sarraj

Nihal ElAlami

Nisreen Mazzawi

Ola Anan

Osama Ghorab

Osama Shomar

Rasha Hilwi

Rowan Abu-Shahla

Saed Karzoun

Saleh Dawabsheh

Thameena Husary

Yusra Jamous

by Shepard Fairey

by Aya Homsi (translated by Mary Rizzo) graphics by Shepard Fairey, quote by Frederick Douglass

* Reassure yourself that your country is not country X (X is the country that had undergone revolution right before yours). Throw the blame on Al Jazeera, then close its offices in your country.

* Say that you “support the young protesters” (as long as your security forces are ready to beat those same youth to death).

* Denounce the Islamists. Start at the lowest levels (the Muslim Brotherhood) prior to climbing straight towards the biggest nightmare of all, Al Qaeda.

* (At the start) Act as if nothing is happening. Then you will become aware of the severity of the situation once it is too late, addressing the nation at around midnight. * Warn people about the menace of Communism, Sectarianism, Tribalism and the other “isms” that frighten them to death.

* Make an explosion in a Church and then accuse the Islamists. Say that your permanence in power is synonym of stability and protection of the minorities. * Make some changes in government then… make some more.

* Burn the police stations and then accuse the protesters.

* Insist upon the fact that everything is going just fine.

* Once the situation has degenerated totally, cut off all the telephone lines and block access to the social networks. When things get REALLY bad, just block Internet.

* Make statements that the protesters represent merely an infinitesimal percentage of the population. The majority supports you. Cite the results of the last “elections”.

* Say that “change is necessary” and promise a lot of fun things if the youth accept to stay at home.

* Order the Ministry of the Interior to kill protesters, but then fire them for “excessive use of force”.

* Say that the youth have been pushed to protest under the influence of X (X can be KFC, Nescafè or other hallucinogens).

* Organise huge assemblies in favour of your regime. But instead of providing banners and flags to those present, offer them 50 dollars each and some AK47s (Kalashnikovs).

* Accept to be interviewed by a very famous journalist. (Christiane) Amanpour will do it. * Prohibit funerals.

* If people in the West criticise you, denounce their interference in your affairs and affirm that “they understand nothing of the culture of this country”. “In our culture, I am the leader and the people obey.”

* Evoke the spectre of the economic situation. Youth are about to destroy the country. But especially mention the state of the economy of your nation before (prior to the start of the revolts).

* If the evidence of billions in your accounts, declare that you are only saving so that you can make a big gift to the people.

* Book a suite in Jeddah (where Ben Ali took refuge), in case of…

Shady Hamadi

“Just like a poet, I will try to escape, to make a breakout from prison, to make the road on which I take flight become your road and to take you with me to safety” (Voices from the Spirit – S.H.). Shady Hamadi was born on 23 May 1988 in Milan, of a Syrian father and Italian mother. A very young writer, he is the son of a political dissident who had been tortured and sent into exile.

by Angela Zurzolo, translated by Mary Rizzo

“For a certain period we even tried to go back to Syria. Then, in 1997 we received amnesty from President Assad. Despite that, my father was always stopped at the airport and he was only able to enter Syria twice in his 35 – almost 40 – years of exile.”

Shady Hamadi instead has seen Syria three times, in 2001, in 2006 and then in 2009, “the first time that I can say I had really been there.”

He recounts: “Syria enchants you, it is for this reason that many Italians who have been there are unable to accept and to understand that behind the ‘beautiful’ Damascus, there is a population who for 40 years has been downtrodden and oppressed. If one said anything at all against the President, he would be intercepted by the omnipresent Syrian Secret Services and then they would drag him away in the dead of the night.”

This is one Damascus. Then there is another, the one hidden behind the poetry clubs, the one that is found under Hotel Fardus, where the intellectuals of the “Damascus Declaration” met in 2001: “Directors, actors and poets who wrote verses against the regime. Kurds and Syrians together.”

Since the start of the protests in Syria, Shady Hamadi has stepped forward to encourage the Syrians who live in Italy to publicly air their dissent. A ‘moral obligation2, inherited, he says, even from history and from the example of his father, who had been arrested and tortured various times during the 1960s.

“This revolution is the moment for those whose fathers had been tortured and forced into exile to put themselves on the line, as I have been trying to do since this May.”

Of his father he mentions that “he was a young leader of the Arab Nationalist Party that was ‘thrown’ in prison numerous times, as well as tortured with electrical wires and beaten with clubs. They would kill people right before his eyes in order to try to get him to talk.”

Concerning the Syrian situation, Hamadi insists that Hezbollah are controlling the border between Syria and Lebanon, while the Iranians are alongside Assad’s army at the checkpoints. “Some NGO reports denounce cases of persons kidnapped in Lebanon and then brought to Syria.”

Regarding Turkey, the other key player in the Syrian events, he stresses: “Now they are playing an important role for our people, but we must not forget that Ankara is responsible for the kidnapping of Colonel Harmoush who came from the city of Deraa – one of the first to have founded the ‘free officials’, and who ended up in Syrian hands thanks precisely to the help of Turkish intelligence. The colonel was then executed before dozens of officials. His sacrifice has awakened the conscience of many in the army.”

On the shabbiha, commonly defined as “armed forces that get their orders directly from Assad”, Shady explains that “they are not actually armed forces in the normal sense of the term,” but instead “mafia bands that belong to some important families who deeply believe in the ideology of the regime.”

“The shabbiha are dressed in plainclothes, they ride in pickups, armed with Kalashnikovs, and they are the reason why in Aleppo and Damascus there have not yet been the large protests as we see in all the rest of Syria.”

The regime, Shady affirms, resists because the armed forces number “almost 400 thousand men, 100 thousand of them are loyalists to Maher al Assad.”

And regarding the Arab League proposal, Hamadi comments: “It has been an excellent move, I only hope that the League will keep the same consistency in the future as well, with the other countries that are violating human rights and personal dignity. Because the revolutions of this Arab Spring have been done in the name of dignity.” Indeed, “Assad should have been able to easily have saved himself right from the start, if he had granted freedom of thought, dignity and free elections.”

Then, when asked about the French proposal to open a humanitarian corridor, he observes: “We need to see what clauses this is going to bring with it. The Syrian people have already expressed their will to not want military intervention from the French or from the Americans. No one should be entering into our country. We can save ourselves by ourselves. But we need consistency in foreign diplomacy, which has never happened. Just think about this: Bashar was decorated on the 11th of March of 2010 with honours from the Italian Republic. Is that not scandalous?”

For Shady, consistency has never been a strong point of the Italian government: “Look at the optimal relationship between Berlusconi and Gaddafi or the fact that after having granted honours to Assad, the Italian parliamentary and ministerial authorities welcomed Burhan Ghaioun, leader of the SNC, to Rome.”

“The meeting with the Vatican was instead organised to clarify that there will not be a Christian diaspora from Syria as well, as has happened in Iraq and how it is presumed will happen in Egypt.”

It is precisely the fear of sectarian clashes that dominates, while Hamadi stresses that among the revolutionaries there are both Sunnis and Alawis, many of whom are renowned intellectuals.

“The solution that we are hoping for,” he concludes, “is that of the no fly zone, a buffer zone. Then the defections of the army will reach 85%.”

10 December 2011

http://www.osservatorioiraq.it/siria-intervista-allo-scrittore-siriano-shady-hamadi Italian original

After years of watching human rights abuses, censorship and detention of civilians in Syria for no other reason than them writing or even commenting on Syria in a negative way, the latest arrest hits me very personally. Razan Ghazzawi is a personal friend, and as others have said much better than I ever could, a heroic individual, and I will add, a true Syrian.

Like many others, I “virtually met” Razan in her role as a blogger. I admired her attention to all kinds of issues, especially Palestine and the fate of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, but also her dedication to other issues such as animal rights and women’s rights. I admired her bravery to personally campaign for each and every man or woman detained for expressing their views, and there are probably 20 or so campaigns she sent to me, which I circulated in my own network. I asked her to join the anti-imperialist translations collective I founded, Tlaxcala, and she was enthusiastic, though, never had much time to for it, which was understandable, given her intense writing and research activities as well as her very extensive on-the-ground activities. Our friendship grew, as well as my awareness that she was an outstanding communicator, so I invited her to be one of the speakers at a convention I was organising (not about blogging, but about the concept of living under occupation and attempts to make an Italian public become familiar with the idea of Palestinian right of return and the refugee situation). Unfortunately, she was unable to make it.

It was due to Razan’s older blogs, Decentering Damascus, especially (which contains some of the best writing I’ve ever encountered), but also Free Occupied Syrian Golan and Damascus Spring, which introduced me to the Damascus Spring movement and the repression they underwent, which prior to then, I had not been remotely aware of. She had an archive of Asmi Bishara writing in a blog as well. She gave me permission to use many of her photos on posts for my blog and site and quite often, I would republish her articles on them as well. Later, I got to know her even better, as her posts became more personal, though always strong and focused, on the blog everyone knows well, Razaniyyat. In an interview for Maktoob, when asked who my favourite writers were, it was easy to come up with a list, and topping the list was Razan. Her writing is simply intense, and it could only be because of her very powerful sense of justice, her keen perception and her amazing humanity and compassion for people and animals.

But I wonder if the “authorities” who stole her liberty and are detaining her realise that they do not have an enemy at all. This is the huge mistake that the regime makes, by pointing the finger at various outside entities or a perversion of the idea of patriotic spirit in their repression of dissent and in their will to quelch all who are perceived as their enemy. They fail to realise in the desperate clinging to power, that they are killing off those who love Syria. So, after reading once again the blog of hers that meant the most to me, tears running down my face worrying about her well-being, I invite you to read just one passage and to ask yourselves: is Syria’s regime so afraid of Syrians who THINK about Syria and question it and seek to belong to it as much as their hearts want them to?

“With a country and our belonging to it, the process becomes rather complex. Each Syrian loves her Syria, and each fights or not, to maintain the Syria she sees or wants to see growing. I think most of our belonging to Syria is either fictionist if not imagined. For some, Syria lies in Syrian food, for others it lies in old cafes in Old Damascus. Some belongings to Syria lie in the longing for her. I think some belongings are “touristy” when it comes to Syria’s traditional atmosphere.

Syrian becomes its “ornamentation”.

I believe racism, sexism, sectarianism, human rights’ abuse, are unconsciously celebrated in the Syrian daily life. Just like the Syrians are now the prime reason for everything wrong happens in Lebanon, the Iraqi refugees are the prime reason of everything wrong happens in Syria, if one caught AIDS, it’s an Iraqi girl, if one cannot find a job, it’s the Iraqis’ fault, if a family are sleeping in the streets, it’s the Iraqis fault. Syrians now, and away from the regime’s tyranny, are constructing the “Syrianism” within this binary opposition “Syrians/Iraqis”, as a continuous process that started with the “Syrians/Lebanon”. Syrians are formulating a belonging to Syrian in opposition to the “new comers” of Syria.

I am not here trying to unfold the current Syrianism in order to come up with another, I don’t like fixed entities, I like chaos, I trust chaotic identities. My Arabism is like no other Arabist, neither is my Syrianism. To be a Syrian is not a question to be answered or to look for, it shouldn’t be there or obvious, it should be a repeatedly questioned question.”

Also, in 2007, her article about the censoring of Facebook is definitely worth a read.

Now, all I can add after this is: please participate in all the campaigns to free Razan. A petition: http://www.avaaz.org/en/free_razan/  a Facebook page with many useful campaigns: https://www.facebook.com/freerazan and a site with many useful links: http://freerazan.pen.io/

Please write, call, share information, use the #FreeRazan hashtag on Twitter and don’t stop until Razan is safe at home with her family, friends and loved ones. ALL Syrian detainees MUST be freed immediately.

The lifeless body of 14 year old Mohmmed Abdul Salam Al Mlaessa

The 14 year old shot dead by a soldier in front of his classmates

He was a model student, just like the rest of his classmates. Mohammed was a student at one of the institutes for gifted youth in Eastern Syria, near the Iraqi border. The other morning, together with his classmates, Mohammed was taken from his classroom: brought to the street, he was forced to join in a pro-regime march in the city of Deir ez Zor, a hotbed of dissent. Mohammed dared to give voice to those who like him did not want to go and protest against the decision of the Arab League to suspend Syria for the brutality of Assad’s repression of dissenters. He dared to ask to simply go home. The response was a bullet in his chest, in front of his classmates as they witnessed in
shock.

The teen had fallen to the ground, but Assad’s military security forces continued to shoot: first they kicked him and clubbed him with sticks and then they ended by firing one more shot into his side. “Make sure he is dead,” was the order given by the commander of the Military Security Forces, in the account given of the incident before the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an NGO with a London base that has access to a large number of voluntary informers who life in Syria.

Mohammed Abdul Salam Al Mlaessa was only 14 years old. How he was beaten and brought to such pitiful condition at the end of this brutal execution can be seen in the videos on You Tube (it is not possible to verify the authenticity, Western journalists are forbidden to report by the regime): a bullet hole in the left side, his face plummeted and in a pool of blood. An “exemplary” lesson for the other youth present.

That Damascus is afraid of students was something that was clear from the start:  at the beginning of the protests, last March, repression against a group of youth that had made anti-Assad graffiti on the walls of their school. “From primary school to high school, the youth of Syria are in the front line in the protests,” Mousab Azzawi, from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights states. “No regime can resist when students protest and for this reason, they fear them, they kill them, they take them as hostages. And they make their families hear their voice over the phone as they are torturing them.”

The funeral of Mohammed was attended by at least 45 thousand people, according to estimates. “To disperse the crowd, agents used electrical sticks that provoked temporary paralysis,” Azzawi states. At the ceremony there was an evening sit-in with 8 thousand youths in what has been renamed “Liberty Square”. The gathering was dispersed by firing from the security forces: here there were two of the day’s thirty victims, the majority of which in the city of Homs, the capital of the protesters, where the deserters have taken refuge. But also in the streets of Hama, Deraa, Idleb, people continue to be killed. The activists report that yesterday forty protesters had been killed by soldiers near the Jordan border.

The repression has not stopped, despite the agreement made by Damascus on 2 November to follow the Arab League’s peace plan which calls for the end of the violence and the withdrawal of the tanks from the cities. And after the assaults on the Embassies of the Arab countries that had announced the suspension of Syria from the pan-Arab organisation, the regime has used the iron fist to fill the squares with pro-Assad marches and demonstrations. The case of Mohammed is not an isolated one. Similar incidents have been reported in other parts of the country. Azzawi states: “This same Sunday at Hama, the security forces shot against a group of students who had refused to participate in a loyalist march: five of them never again opened their eyes.”

Alessandra Muglia for Corriere della Sera (translated by Mary Rizzo)

http://www.corriere.it/esteri/11_novembre_15/20111115NAZ19_22_97cf31c6-0f59-11e1-a19b-d568c0d63dd6.shtmlv

 

 STATEMENT FROM THE SYRIAN OBSERVATORY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, Sunday, 13 November 2011 19:41
On November the
13th , 2011, 09.15 local time in Dir Zour, the elements of military security took out the students of the pioneer students school in the city by force to the street and compelled them to participate in a march organized by Syrian security forces to condemn the decisions of Arab League concerning the  suspending of Syrian membership in the League.When first-graders of high school refused to participate in the march, and asked to be allowed to go back homes, security forces arrested the student Mohamed Abdul Salam Al-Mlaessa (14 years) who spoke on behalf of his classmates who do not want to participate in the march supporting Syrian Regime, and shot him directly in his chest just under the right wishbone in front of his friends. Then, they started beating him with batons while he bleeds in front of all students crowded for few minutes. When they were not sure about his Death, several minutes after the first shot in his chest, and the awful beating he was subjected to, the commander of the present elements of military security recommended the elements to shoot him again to ensure that he dies (this is literally what the commander said), and this is exactly what happened through the second shot in the flank of the child Mohamed Abdul Salam Al-Mlaessa, which led to his death.Syrian Observatory for Human Rights calls on all Arab and International organizations concerned with protecting civilians and child rights, to urgently intervene to protect civilians in Syria and refer all those responsible for committing such crimes against civilians in Syria to International Criminal Court to consider what might be a typical example of the crimes against humanity that are taking place daily in Syria.To see the documenting videos, you can click on the links below:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=68_uLBMKs0o

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-QdqGQ5Auc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT6nrDpSrVQ

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

London, November
13th , 2011