Showing posts with label Syria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Syria. Show all posts

West only sees the censored Syria conflict

Posted by Admin On Wednesday, 26 February 2014 0 comments
Civilian deaths have sadly become routine in Syria, but they are not always powerfully photographed and presented to Western readers — despite a nearly constant flow of cell phone images out of the country.
Abdullah Omar is 20 years old, and works as a translator. On Sunday, he became one of the many amateur photographers of the Syrian conflict when a devastating car bomb went off in the Syrian border-town of Atmeh, damaging the hospital where he works. Omar also witnessed the strange scene that followed, as those rushing to help quickly turned on one another — a reminder of the complexity and deep divisions among Syria’s rebel factions. He has given GlobalPost permission to publish the photos he took.
The blast killed 14 and injured at least 60. Five houses were completely destroyed while countless other homes, businesses and a local hospital 250 meters from the blast suffered damage. Among the dead was a baby
— just months old — along with the baby’s mother and brother. Omar’s pictures show the boy being rushed from the scene. Tragically he died shortly after on route to hospital. A woman in purple, the boy’s grandmother, was injured in the blast. A picture shows her shoeless and in shock as her son, who had just lost his entire family, attempts to console her.
“At least 14 were killed in this massacre. We, and the other hospital, did refer some patients to Turkey due to critical injury so we don’t know anything about these patients yet. Maybe this number is higher now,” Omar said.
As with so many tragedies in Syria, it is not yet clear who is responsible.
Atmeh, whose pre-conflict population was just 5,000, is now home to anestimated 30,000 displaced Syrians who live in tents along the Turkish border. In addition to refugees, the town’s population is augmented by rebel groups ranging from secular Free Syrian Army to al Qaeda-affiliated extremist groups and foreign jihadists that use the unofficial border crossing to bring in reinforcements and supplies.
In recent months the town fell largely under the control of notorious extremist group ISIS. But as 2014 began, an Islamic coalition that includes al Qaeda-linked Jabhat al Nusra joined forces to oust ISIS from Atmeh, Aleppo and other areas of Northern Syria. They now control the town along with groups from the FSA. While no one has claimed responsibility for the blast, many are blaming ISIS. Others blame the Syrian regime.
“Everybody is blaming ISIS, not because they are who did it but because they are like the government — they are easy to blame. But nobody knows the truth,” said Basel Almasri, a Syrian refugee now working on rehabilitation for injured Syrians in Turkey and Syria.
Witnesses said foreign and local fighters from extremist groups were the first on the scene to assist the injured. But the frantic and tragic atmosphere led to accusations as FSA members arrived. Omar described how shots were fired in the air as extremist fighters, in particular non-Syrians, were chased from the scene.
“They blame all the foreigners,” Omar said referring to foreign jihadist fighters. “In the first place they blame ISIS and they’re saying maybe it was done by the defected ISIS troopers who joined al Nusra recently after their problems.”
Locals say the atmosphere in Atmeh remains tense. The brief unity between the various rebel factions that prevailed over ISIS has been dealt a blow. Distrust is high.
To date, the Syrian conflict, which is about to enter its third year, has killed more than 140,000 and displaced over nine million Syrians. While 2.5 million live as refugees in neighbouring countries, a further 6.5 million have fled areas of heavy conflict to towns like Atmeh and now live in appalling conditions in tents or in over-crowded homes, according to USAID figures.
READ MORE

Have Saudis influenced Pakistan’s stance on Syria

Posted by Admin On Tuesday, 25 February 2014 0 comments
The heads of Senate Standing Committees on Foreign Relations and Defence on Sunday expressed concern over the government’s move to shift its policy on the civil war in Syria after the visit of a high-profile dignitary from Saudi Arabia.
Chairmen of the two committees Haji Mohammad Adeel and Mushahid Hussain Sayed said any attempt by the government to intervene in Syria for regime change would be strongly opposed and rejected.
Last week, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan authorities had called for ‘the formation of a transitional governing body in Syria with full executive powers enabling it to take charge of the affairs of the country’.
“We have already passed a unanimous resolution in the (Senate) committee calling on the government to be neural about (efforts at) regime change in Syria,” said Senator Haji Mohammad Adeel talking to The Express Tribune.
He said the committee passed the resolution in the presence of Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and the Foreign Office officials.
“The government cannot go against the national consensus while changing a policy on Syria,” he maintained.
He said Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee would soon meet about the latest development pertaining to Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia and would ask the government to explain if any policy change had taken place on these countries.
“Our government should avoid attempts to change regime in Syria from outside,” Senator Mushahid Hussain said.
He said that he had already talked to Sartaj Aziz, who had stated it was just a follow-up meeting of the consensus reached in Geneva about Syria and not any policy shift.
“There would be serious implications of any interference by Pakistan in the Syrian civil war,” said Mushahid. “National consensus is the key to taking any stance on Damascus. The government should avoid making any attempt unilaterally,” he added.
PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar has asked the PM’s adviser to take the upper house into confidence on this ‘matter of great public importance’ as there seemed a sudden, unexplained and a major departure from the known and stated position of Pakistan on this issue.
READ MORE

Can Mouaz al-Khatib unite Syrian opposition forces?

Posted by FS On Wednesday, 14 November 2012 0 comments

Mouaz al-Khatib, a religious leader and a voice of moderation, has been chosen to lead the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces. Supporters hope the new coalition can...
Mouaz al-Khatib, a religious leader and a voice of moderation, has been chosen to lead the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces. Supporters hope the new coalition can provide a conduit for foreign aid.
BEIRUT
Syria‘s political opposition has struggled to prove its relevance amid the civil war under a leadership largely made up of academics and exiled politicians. With its relaunch as a new organization, it has taken a different tack: choosing as its head a popular Muslim cleric who preaches sectarian unity and can fire up a crowd.
The selection of a moderate religious figure, Mouaz al-Khatib, to head the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces is also an attempt to counter the growing influence of Islamic extremists in the rebellion against President Bashar Assad.
While lacking in political experience, the 52-year-old preacher-turned-activist is described by Syrians as a man of the people — a modest, unifying figure who commands wide respect among the country’s various opposition groups and rebels.
A Sunni Muslim former preacher at Damascus‘ historic Ummayad Mosque, al-Khatib warned against the militarization of the Syrian uprising and the pitfalls of sectarianism very early in the conflict.
“My brothers, we lived all our lives, Sunnis, Shiites, Alawites and Druse as a one-hearted community, and with us lived our dear brothers who follow Jesus peace be upon him,” he told a crowd of supporters in a Damascus suburb in April 2011, only one month into the uprising.
“We should adhere to this bond between us and protect it at all times,” he added, drawing in excited cries of “One, one, one! The Syrian people are one!”
Twenty months into the conflict — as Syria sinks deeper in a civil war with increasingly deadly sectarian overtones — it is this message of unity and moderation that many inside and outside the country are hoping the new leaders can help convey.
Under intense international pressure to form an opposition that includes representatives from the country’s disparate factions fighting to topple Assad, the anti-government groups struck a deal Sunday to form the coalition headed by al-Khatib.
The coalition includes representatives from the main opposition group, the Syrian National Council, which was harshly criticized by many, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, for being cut off from rebels fighting the war on the ground and for failing to forge a cohesive and more representative leadership.
The SNC itself elected a new head on Saturday — George Sabra, a Christian dissident who was repeatedly imprisoned by the Assad regime. His group holds 22 of the 60 seats in the coalition.
The opposition has been deeply divided for months despite the relentless bloodshed and repeated calls from Western and Arab supporters to create a cohesive and representative leadership that could present a single conduit for foreign aid. The agreement, reached after more than a week of meetings in the Qatari capital of Doha, could boost efforts to secure international backing — and possibly weapons — that will be needed to oust Assad.
Al-Khatib has appealed to foreign countries to supply military aid to the rebels, but unlike other opposition leader, he opposes foreign military intervention, saying Syrians should topple Assad on their own.
Born in Damascus in 1960 to a well-known Sunni family, al-Khatib took the same road as his father, Sheikh Mohammed Abu al-Faraj al-Khatib, a former preacher and prominent Islamic affairs scholar.
He studied applied geophysics and worked as an engineer for nearly six years at the state-run Al-Furat Petroleum Co. before becoming the imam of the Ummayad Mosque. In the 1990s, he was banned by Assad’s father and predecessor, Hafez, for sermons that were perceived to be against the regime.
Unlike many of Syria’s exiled opposition leaders who have been seen as out-of-touch, jet-setting academics, al-Khatib is an activist who often criticized the regime even before the uprising began. Once it started, he was arrested and jailed four times on charges of supporting anti-government groups, before he finally fled the country in the summer of 2011.
“He is a man of the people, a very popular figure who is close to the young and knows how to talk to them,” said Maath al-Shami, a Damascus-based activist who said he spent a lot of time talking to al-Khatib before and after the uprising began.
“Al-Khatib has an open mind and he comes from a respected family. He is not a politician, but I think he is someone that all Syrians can rally around and trust,” he added.
At first glance, the soft-spoken, somewhat professorial al-Khatib may not come across as a commanding figure. In interviews and speeches, he uses language full of metaphors and flowery images. Unlike many clerics who wear flowing robes, he wears a suit and sports a short, graying beard.
But at anti-government rallies, al-Khatib has proved to be a fiery orator.
At a protest in the Damascus suburb of Douma in April 2011, he climbed a podium, grabbed a microphone and urged demonstrators to repeat after him: “Peaceful, peaceful, peaceful!”
The protest was organized by a crowd mourning Sunni demonstrators who were said to have been killed by pro-Assad militiamen from the president’s Alawite minority sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Al-Khatib stressed unity among Syrians and preached against hatred and sectarianism. Standing next to him were two prominent Alawite and Christian regime opponents.
“I say to you that Alawites are closer to me than many other people I know,” he said. “When we talk about freedom, we mean freedom for every single person in this country.”
Omar al-Rami, a student and rights activist who left Syria earlier this year, fearing arrest, said al-Khatib’s election gave him renewed hope after months of frustration at the ineffectiveness of the opposition.
“He is also someone who can influence and help rein in extremist groups who have hijacked our revolution,” al-Rami said.
Foreign fighters and Islamic extremists, including the al-Qaida inspired Jabhat al-Nusra group, are gaining influence in Syria, which has discouraged the West from giving military aid to rebels, fearing the weapons will end up in the wrong hands.
But some opposition figures believe Washington could give its tacit support to others funneling weapons if the new broad-based rebel coalition holds together and gains international legitimacy, winning recognition from the Arab League and other groups.
In an interview with broadcaster Al-Jazeera aired Tuesday, al-Khatib said the international community has a “moral and legal” obligation to side with the united opposition leadership.
He declined to say whether Qatar or Gulf allies would begin shipping heavy weapons to the rebels, but made clear that efforts to increase the rebel arsenal is a top priority. He suggested that rebel forces could impose their own no-fly zone if given heavy weapons.
“Give them the means to defend themselves, and they will create their own no-fly zone,” he said in fluent English.
Al-Khatib also said he supports a tolerant, Islamic state that respects everyone including secular Syrians.
“Any garden is so nice if full of flowers of all kinds,” he added.
READ MORE

France recognizes Syrian Opposition as people’s representatives

Posted by FS On 0 comments

France has become the first Western power to recognise the newly united Syrian opposition as the only representative of the Syrian people. “France recognises the Syrian National Coalition as the...
France has become the first Western power to recognise the newly united Syrian opposition as the only representative of the Syrian people.
“France recognises the Syrian National Coalition as the only representative of the Syrian people and therefore as the future provisional government of a democratic Syria,” President Francois Hollande told a press conference in Paris on Tuesday.
The question of arming the rebels would be looked at as soon as the rebel coalition formed a transitional government, Hollande said.
“On the question of weapons deliveries, France did not support it as long as it wasn’t clear where these weapons went,” Hollande said.
“With the coalition, as soon as it is a legitimate government of Syria, this question will be looked at by France, but also by all countries that recognise this government.”
The announcement comes after opposition groups agreed on Sunday in Doha to unite against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
The French move comes 24 hours after the coalition was recognised by the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Oman.
Pledging support
Arab League and European Union foreign ministers pledged after their meeting in Cairo on Tuesday to support the Syrian opposition and welcomed steps to unite the various groups under a new, united banner, in order to facilitate a solution to the 20-month conflict.
“The ministers welcomed the formation of the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces. They called on all opposition groups to adhere to the national coalition and on the national coalition to engage with all sections of Syrian society,” said a statement issued at the close of the meeting held in Cairo on Tuesday.
Syria’s divided opposition had come under pressure from Western powers to join forces and offer a single interlocutor during negotiations, in order to provide a single contact for international critics of the regime’s efforts to stamp down the opposition since 2011.
The coalition brings together the Syrian National Council and other groups inside Syria.
The Arab League has recognised the coalition as “the legitimate representative of the Syrian people’s aspirations.”
Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi described it as “a glimmer of hope.”
Frustration at UN deadlock
British Foreign Secretary William Hague called on the group “to demonstrate they are acting on behalf of all Syria’s communities. The more progress the coalition makes towards those goals, the greater practical support it will have from the United Kingdom.”
Hague expressed frustration at the deadlock on Syria in the UN Security Council, saying that “our efforts … to encourage the UNSC to take on its responsibilities have been vetoed by Russia and China. In the absence of such progress, we will increase our support to Syrian opposition groups.”
Moscow and Beijing, both allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, have vetoed three Western-and Arab-backed resolutions at the Security Council condemning the Syrian regime for violence.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said his country “is ready to join hands with the Arab League to help (the new alliance) to become a credible and inclusive alternative to al-Assad’s regime.”
Westerwelle and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius both met the head of the coalition, Mouaz al-Khatib.
READ MORE