Truth smugglers use internet to pressure Assad #Syria

Christine Marlow and Nick Meo
January 2, 2012
This image made from amateur video and made available by Shaam News Network dated Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, purports to show a wounded protester carried away by others in Idlib, Syria.

”We go outside only to film or report” … net-savvy Syrians are documenting scenes from the government crackdown, including a wounded man.

Young activists defy torturers and thugs to reveal the Syrian government’s repression, write Christine Marlow and Nick Meo.

Naked on the concrete floor of the interrogation room, hands tied behind his back and a blindfold covering his eyes, the boy listened to the slowly approaching footsteps of the intelligence officer. The screams of his brother came from the next room.

”Where is the media rat? Where is Ali?” the interrogator rasped into his ears. He felt someone clamp cables to his toes and push him back into the shallow pool of water as the voltage was turned up for his next electric shock.

The two teenagers were detained after Syrian officers found loudspeakers at their home in the Damascus suburb of Douma which, they said, could be used at protests.

This image made from amateur video and made available by Shaam News Network and dated Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, purports to show an Arab League monitor describing seeing a sniper in Daraa, Syria.

An Arab League monitor purporting to have seen a sniper.

Kept in a political intelligence base in the capital for two months, they were alternately interrogated and tortured for information on opposition activists in their town.

Their questioners especially focused, the brothers said, on who was documenting crackdowns on demonstrations for dissemination to the foreign media.

In more than nine months of protest against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, culminating in some of the largest demonstrations two days ago, it is Syria’s media activists who have ensured that the outside world knows what is going on.

The number and scale of the protests, and the barbarity with which they have often been suppressed, have been witnessed by hundreds of millions abroad, not least in nearby Arab countries.

Last week, a 66-strong team of Arab League observers was finally admitted into the country, forced on the reluctant government as the price of avoiding tougher sanctions from its neighbours and agreed by Assad in what may yet turn out to be a final gamble to stay in power.

Under the peace plan being monitored by the league, the government is supposed to pull its forces out of the centres of towns where an estimated 5000 civilians have been killed.

But, in Douma, there were reports that troops used tear gas and nail bombs to disperse demonstrators, causing hideous injuries to some.

Once again, all that the world could see of last Friday’s events came from video sent illicitly by activists - people such as the two brothers from Douma whom The Sunday Telegraph met just an hour after their release.

Thin and pallid, with dark circles under their eyes and their hair only just beginning to grow back after it was shaved off, they met the man whose identity and whereabouts they had been striving to protect, an activist known as Ali who, for months, has filmed repression in the town and given frequent interviews to foreign news channels.

”They wanted to know everything about you, Ali,” one brother said. ”They interrogated us separately to play mind games with us. They told me, ‘Your brother knows where Ali is and has told us. You should tell us too.”’

The other said: ”I had so many electric shocks because of you! But I didn’t tell them anything.”

Concerned for his security, Ali asked: ”How did they know you were connected to me? I didn’t visit your home, we didn’t speak on the phone.”

The boy shrugged. ”They had many stories about you, they have been trying to follow you.”

With foreign journalists banned from operating independently, shaky hand-held camera images and Skype conversations with activists have been crucial to the world’s understanding of events in Syria, and have played a big part in building pressure on the regime. Such activity is illegal.

”Many friends have been taken to prison and tortured; their crime was speaking to someone on Facebook. Speaking on Skype, this is the biggest offence,” Ali said.

When Ali decided to take on this life, he left behind his wife and child and, with three colleagues, went underground, living in a safe house and changing to a new one every two months to evade capture.

Details, the men said, could be the difference between life and death; women’s and a child’s shoes lay scattered casually by the front door, to give the impression of a family home. Metal crossbars erected across the inside of the front door could buy precious seconds for escape.

Four mattresses lay on the floor and an old television sat in the corner broadcasting al-Jazeera. A tiny window high in a corner let in a crack of light and a bare light bulb hung overhead.

The men huddled around an electric heater, focusing on laptops and working silently but for Skype conversations with overseas news channels, or opposition co-ordinators in other cities. They paused only to eat or pray.

”This is our life. We go outside only to film or report. The rest of the time, this room and the internet are our world,” Yahya, 17, the youngest of the four, said.

When electricity was cut and mobile phone signals jammed to block communications, the activists responded by buying generators and satellite communications equipment smuggled into Syria from Turkey and Lebanon.

They play a game of cat and mouse with security forces. One of their colleagues described leaping from a second-floor window to evade capture.

”A television crew had been streaming live video of anti-regime protests from our location,” Omar said.

”A few days later, we were attacked by security forces. We saw them run down the street and into our building. We had no choice but to jump.”

”I broke my leg,” Hassan, another of the four, said. ”It was a painful day, they took all of our cameras.” Others were not so lucky. ”A friend of mine went to see his family. He slept in his own bed for just one night. But that was the night they came to arrest him,” Hassan said.

”He was forced to tell everything. They tortured him badly and promised to release him if he spoke.

”Now he is free but we can’t talk to him. He is dangerous. His phone is tapped, his movements are watched.”

Signs of the strain on the Assad regime are visible even in central Damascus, according to fresh accounts from fleeing Syrians in neighbouring Lebanon last week.

The government sent security forces on to the streets of the capital, which until recently have been mostly quiet.

A student aged 28, who uses the name Abdullah, said: ”You can often hear shooting and sometimes bombs as well.

”People are scared: they are sending each other texts to say where the shooting is. You can see fear in people’s eyes. I live in a modern, prosperous area in the centre of town. We’re just not used to this.”

Speaking in Beirut, where he arrived on Thursday, he said checkpoints had proliferated across the city, with security forces and even tanks, to the dismay of better-off residents who had seen little of the uprising.

His biggest shock was an encounter with regime thugs known as Shabiha, outside a mosque in the Kafarsouseh district. ”There were 50 of these ugly guys with short hair and long sticks, gathered because there had been some protesters around,” Abdullah said.

He said he heard later the thugs had attacked the mosque’s sheikh, who was taken to hospital.

A TV crew and secret police had turned up there demanding he say he was attacked by terrorists. ”The sheikh refused, saying that he was only scared of God,” Abdullah said.

Telegraph, London

Source: smh.com.au

Dispute among Arab League observers over #Syria snipers

Arab League observers in Syria have given apparently conflicting accounts of an incident said to have involved snipers in the restive city of Deraa.

Footage posted online appears to show one official saying he had seen government snipers on rooftops and calling for them to be withdrawn.

However in a BBC interview, the chief of the Arab League mission later denied that the official had seen the snipers.

Violence in Syria has continued unabated despite the monitors’ mission.

The latest footage posted on the internet cannot be verified, but it shows what appears to be an Arab League observer complaining about snipers shooting at demonstrators in Deraa.

The man is filmed telling protesters: “You’re telling me there are snipers? You don’t have to tell me, I saw them with my own eyes.”

He says the observers’ concerns would be conveyed to the Arab League, and that if the snipers were not removed within 24 hours, action would be taken.

Syria deaths

  • More than 5,000 civilians have been killed, says the UN
  • UN denied access to Syria
  • Information gathered from NGOs, sources in Syria and Syrian nationals who have fled
  • The death toll is compiled as a list of names which the UN cross-references
  • Vast majority of casualties were unarmed, but the figure may include armed defectors
  • Tally does not include serving members of the security forces

Source: UN’s OHCHR

In a separate report, the German news agency DPA also quoted a source close to the mission saying observers had also seen snipers in Douma, a suburb of the capital Damascus.

However the head of the Arab League mission, Gen Mustafa al-Dabi, later contradicted these accounts. He told the BBC’s Newshour programme that the official seen in the video was making a hypothetical remark.

“This man said that if he saw - by his own eyes - those snipers he will report immediately,” Gen Dabi said. “But he didn’t see [snipers].”

Correspondent say the statement will add to protesters’ allegations that Gen Dabi - who is Sudanese - is biased towards the Syrian government.

After a visit to the restive northern city of Homs on Thursday, he told Reuters news agency that “some places looked a bit of a mess but there was nothing frightening”.

Gen Dabi has held a number of senior Sudanese military and government posts, including in the troubled Darfur region.

Frustration

Despite the comments reportedly made by the monitor in Deraa in the video, he is berated by protesters for not doing enough.

The BBC’s Jon Donnison in Beirut says that with the Arab League mission now in its fifth day, many demonstrators are becoming frustrated at the league’s inability to stop the violence.

About 60 monitors from the Arab League are in Syria to verify the implementation of a peace plan, which demands an end to all violence, the withdrawal of troops from the streets and the release of political prisoners.

Although some tanks have reportedly pulled back, snipers have been visible during demonstrations and rallies.

According to the Local Co-ordination Committees, a network of anti-government groups inside Syria, at least three people were killed by security forces on Saturday - one each in Damascus, Homs, and Bokamal in the east.

At least 35 people were killed on Friday, activists say, as security forces opened fire to stop protesters holding rallies in flashpoint cities like Hama, Deraa and Homs, all of whom were being visited by monitors.

Opposition agreement

The UN says more than 5,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March. The government says 2,000 security forces personnel have died.

Activists estimate that more than 150 people have been killed since monitors arrived in the country on Monday.

Casualty figures and other information are hard to verify as most foreign media are barred from reporting freely in Syria.

Meanwhile, Syrian opposition groups have signed a draft agreement which charts a democratic transition should President Bashar al-Assad fall.

Analysts say the move is a serious attempt by a fractured opposition to unite against the Syrian authorities.

Representatives from the two main opposition groups, the Syrian National Council and the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria (NCB), say the draft agreement was signed in Cairo on Friday night.

Source: BBC

Vast Syrian crowds demand Arab League observers’ help #Syria

In the largest demonstrations for months, as many as a million Syrians poured on to the country’s streets yesterday, determined to draw their plight to the attention of Arab League observers who some fear will turn a blind eye to atrocities by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The protesters who swarmed on to public squares and roads from the country’s most northerly cities to its southern border towns appeared emboldened by the presence of up to 100 monitors.

About 250,000 demonstrated in the central province of Hama, with a similar number in Idlib, near the Turkish border, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The organisation put the total number on the streets at nearly one million, in the biggest display of anti-government sentiment since at least July. In Homs, the city at the heart of the revolution, television footage showed dancing protesters chanting: “Revolution of glory and freedom Syria”.

“This Friday is different from any other Friday. It is a transformative step. People are eager to reach the monitors and tell them about their suffering,” said Abu Hisham, an activist in Hama.

But, even with the Arab League team present, the violence continued, and appeared to take a more sinister turn. The Observatory claimed to have spoken to two people injured when a nail bomb was used by security forces to disperse a 70,000-strong demonstration in the Damascus suburb of Duma.

Live rounds and tear gas were also reported to have been fired on the protesters. With press access in the country severely restricted, such reports are difficult to verify.

Five were reported to have been shot dead when security forces opened fire on protesters in the southern city of Deraa, and another five were killed in Hama, with a total of 20 dead in the clashes across the country, according to the human rights group. Five people were snatched by security forces in an overnight raid in Homs, it claimed.

The Syrian government had posted snipers on rooftops and deployed its forces at trouble spots after opposition groups called for mass demonstrations to mark the first Friday prayers of the Arab League mission.

The team is in Syria to verify the government’s compliance with an Arab League plan to end the violent crackdown, which includes the removal of tanks from the streets.

Human rights groups have accused the government of hiding artillery from observers. Yesterday activists in Idlib said tanks had been concealed. “They have moved the tanks out of main streets,” said a member of the opposition Local Co-ordination Committee.

Comments from the head of the monitoring group, the Sudanese general, Mohamed Mustafa al-Dabi, who said he saw “nothing frightening” during his visit to Homs this week, have raised concerns among the opposition.

“70,000 people were shot with tear gas as they approached Clock Square. How can you not see anything?” said Rami Abdulrahman, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

While the remarks by General Dabi met with disbelief in the West, the Russian foreign ministry yesterday described his statement as “reassuring”.

The comments came as government forces opened fire on demonstrators after Friday prayers in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, the southern city of Deraa and elsewhere. In an indication of the diminishing levels of confidence in the Arab League team, protesters in Damascus chanted: “The monitors are witnesses who don’t see anything.”

The Local Co-ordination Committees said at least 130 people, including six children, have been killed in Syria since the Arab observers began their one-month mission on Tuesday.

In Washington, a State Department spokeswoman said that violence was continuing. “It’s not only a matter of deploying the monitors,” she said. “It’s a matter of the Syrian government living up to its commitments to withdraw heavy weapons from the cities and to stop the violence everywhere.”

Meanwhile, the Turkey-based commander of the anti-government Free Syrian Army said he had ordered fighters to stop offensive operations pending a meeting with the monitors.

Colonel Riad al-Asaad said his forces had so far been unable to talk to them. “I issued an order to stop all operations from the day the committee entered Syria last Friday,” Colonel Asaad said.

Arab League: The Observers

The Arab League mission in Syria descended into farce almost as soon as it began. Despite video footage showing Syrian forces continuing their bloody crackdown on protesters in Homs on Wednesday, the man overseeing the League’s observation of the unrest described the situation as “calm”, adding “there were no clashes”.

Mustafa al-Dabi, a Sudanese general, was head of military intelligence following the 1989 coup led by Omar al-Bashir (subsequently accused of war crimes). It is alleged that General Dabi encouraged a brutal crackdown on rebels. He also cultivated Sudan’s links with Syria.

Even as General Dabi spoke on Wednesday, the body of a child allegedly murdered by Assad’s forces was placed on the bonnet of a white Arab League 4x4. He went on to say that there was “nothing frightening” in the town.

Source: independent.co.uk

#Syria’n opposition groups join hands to chart ‘transition period’ should Assad regime fall

Saturday, 31 December 2011

Two major Syrian opposition forces have come together and signed an accord which sets out rules for a transitional period as and when the regime is toppled. (Reuters)

Two major Syrian opposition forces have come together and signed an accord which sets out rules for a transitional period as and when the regime is toppled. (Reuters)

By Al Arabiya with Agencies
 

The Syrian National Council (SNC) opposition group has signed a political agreement with another faction of dissidents laying the ground rules for a “transitional period” should the regime be toppled, a statement said.

The SNC, a major umbrella of factions opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, signed the deal with the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria, NCB chief Hassan Abdel Azim told AFP on Saturday.

According to the statement received by AFP in Nicosia, the NCB and the SNC signed an agreement “which sets out the political and democratic rules for the transitional period,” should Assad be ousted by a pro-democracy uprising that erupted in March.

The accord also “determines the important parameters for Syria’s future which aspire to ensure that the homeland and every citizen’s rights are treated with dignity, and for the foundation of a civil democratic state,” according to an English-language text from the NCB.

The deal was signed late Friday in Cairo by SNC chief Burhan Ghalioun and the NCB’s Haytham Manna and “will be deposited as an official document with the Arab League” on January 1, said the statement.

Speaking to AFP from Damascus, NCB chief Abdel Azim said the agreement underscores the need for the opposition to close ranks in a bid to fend off any foreign intervention in the country.

“Opposition factions inside and outside Syria must unite their efforts,” he said.

“A common political vision is needed to ensure a total change in Syria and achieve the goals of the peaceful revolution to avoid the dangers of foreign military intervention,” he added.

The SNC is a coalition of 230 members, including the banned Muslim Brotherhood and liberal figures who are determined to end Assad’s 11-year autocratic rule. Only 100 of its members live in Syria.

The NCB is an umbrella group of Arab nationalist figures, socialists, independents, Marxists and also comprises members of Syria’s minority Kurdish community. The coalition is staunchly opposed to any international military intervention.

The agreement, posted on the Internet, calls for the protection of civilians in Syria, where a government crackdown on dissent has left more than 5,000 people dead since March according to U.N. estimates.

It also opposes foreign military intervention and says “the transition period starts with the fall of the regime and all its symbols.”

The pact voices support for the so-called dissident Free Syrian Army that has been battling regular army troops.

No let up in violence

As many as 38 people were shot dead by the Syrian security forces, Al Arabiya reported on Friday citing Syrian activists at the Local Coordination Committees.

Syrian forces were accused of firing nail bombs Friday to disperse protesters as tens of thousands of people flooded streets across the country to make their voices heard to Arab monitors, according to AFP.

Friday also saw more than 100,000 protesters stage a sit-in in Douma as the Arab observers toured the city, Syrian activists said.

The Arab League mission has been tainted by some controversy, with some opposition members unhappy with the head of the observers General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi — a veteran Sudanese military intelligence officer.

For some, Dabi is a controversial figure because he served under Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes committed in Darfur region.

“The observers must remain in the cities they visit to protect civilians,” said prominent human rights lawyer Haytham Maleh who is also a member of the main opposition Syrian National Council.

Around 66 monitors are currently in Syria but there are plans to deploy between 150 and 200 observers.

Source: english.alarabiya.net

#Syria forces fire ‘nail bombs’ as masses protest

AFP - Syrian forces were accused of firing nail bombs on Friday to disperse protesters as tens of thousands of people flooded streets across the country to make their voices heard to Arab monitors.

Protesters called for the ouster and prosecution of President Bashar al-Assad, whose autocratic regime has been blamed for the deaths of more than 5,000 people since pro-reform protests erupted in March.

Activists urged monitors, who started this week a mission to implement an Arab League peace plan, to protect civilians from the regime’s wrath.

“We urge you to make a clear distinction between the assassin and the victim,” activists of the Syrian Revolution 2011 said in a statement posted on their Facebook page.

“Our revolution which was launched nine months ago is peaceful,” they said.

The death toll rose again Friday, with at least five civilians killed by gunfire as Syrian forces dispersed crowds of protesters around the country, while four people died in an ambush by government troops, a watchdog said.

Huge demonstrations rocked northwestern Idlib province and Douma, a Damascus suburb where protesters clashed with security forces who fired “nail bombs” to disperse them, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

At least 24 protesters were hurt when security forces fired “nail bombs to disperse tens of thousands of demonstrators in Douma,” the watchdog said, adding that the protesters “hurled stones” in retaliation.

“An activist in the city told the Observatory that he was hurt by shrapnel from those bombs,” the Britain-based group said in a statement received by AFP in Nicosia.

The reported use of nail bombs could not be independently verified.

In Douma, security forces also fired “stun grenades and tear gas” at protesters as 60,000-70,000 demonstrators headed to city hall, where Arab League observers visited the previous day.

It was the “biggest ever demonstration” in the restive suburb since March, it added.

Further north in Idlib province, which borders Turkey, more than 250,000 protesters took the streets in various locations, the Observatory reported.

In the southern province of Daraa, cradle of the pro-democracy protests, five civilians were shot dead when security forces opened fire on crowds of protesters.

Several people were shot and wounded in the Daraa town of Inkhil where, bracing for protests, authorities deployed security forces and posted snipers on high grounds from early in the morning, it said.

Protests also took place in Homs, which activists have dubbed the “martyr” city as hundreds have died there in a government crackdown on dissent over the past few months.

In the Damascus neighbourhood of Al-Kadam, security forces fired live rounds of ammunition at worshippers who emerged from midday prayers apparently to prevent them from joining the protests, said the Observatory.

Protests in Aleppo, Syria’s second city in the north and economic hub, was “brutally” crushed by regime loyalists, it added.

Two civilians and two mutinous soldiers were also killed Friday in the Homs province town of Tal Kalakh in an ambush by regular army troops, said the watchdog.

Internet activists had urged Syrians to “march to the squares of freedom, bare-chested” on Friday, saying they were ready to confront the regime’s “artillery and machinegun fire.”

The Observatory’s Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP activists are determined to make their voices heard to the monitors despite the bloody crackdown which activists say has killed more than 100 people since monitors arrived Monday.

“The Arab League’s initiative is the only ray of light that we now see,” said Abdel Rahman.

The mission has been tainted by some controversy, with some opposition members unhappy with the head of the observers General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi — a veteran Sudanese military intelligence officer.

Dabi this week ruffled feathers by saying Syrian authorities were so far cooperating with the mission and by describing his visit to Homs as “good.”

For some, Dabi is a controversial figure because he served under Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes committed in Darfur region.

“The observers must remain in the cities they visit to protect civilians,” said prominent human rights lawyer Haytham Maleh who is also a member of the main opposition Syrian National Council.

Speaking to Arab news channels, Maleh said the Arab League must increase the number of monitors to ensure they can verify Assad’s regime is implementing all the terms of the plan to end the violence.

Around 66 monitors are currently in Syria but there are plans to deploy between 150 and 200 observers.

“The presence of the observers in Homs broke the barrier of fear,” Abdel Rahman said in reference to some 70,000 demonstrators who flooded the streets of the central city Tuesday when the monitors kicked off their mission.

Western powers have urged Syrian to give them full access and Britain’s minister for the Middle East and North Africa Alistair Burt echoed those concern on Thursday.

Damascus must “meet fully its obligations to the Arab League,” including withdrawing security forces from cities, he said.

But Syria’s key ally Russia — which has resisted Western efforts to push through the UN Security Council tough resolutions against Damascus — said Friday it was happy with the mission so far.

Source: Yahoo!

#Syria: opposition prepares mass protests as Britain condemns unrelenting violence

Syria’s opposition has called mass protests for later on Friday as the movement tries to exploit the supposed safety provided by the presence of Arab League monitors.

By Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent, and David Blair

11:37AM GMT 30 Dec 2011

Rallies against President Bashar al-Assad have grown in size since the first observers arrived this week. Messages on social media websites urged people to “march to freedom squares” in the centre of major cities on Friday.

The Muslim day of prayer has become the setting for the biggest protests against the regime since the unrest began in February. But the regime has often responded with full force. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that soldiers, including snipers, had already been deployed to deal with the demonstrations expected on Friday.

Alistair Burt, the Foreign Office minister responsible for the Middle East, welcomed the arrival of the observer mission, but added: “Unfortunately, reports show that the violence has continued in Syria over the past few days. I urge the Syrian government to meet fully its obligations to the Arab League, including immediately ending the repression and withdrawing security forces from cities.”

In Damascus on Thursday, troops opened fire on a crowd of more than 20,000 people as they awaited the arrival of peace monitors outside a mosque in the suburb of Douma. Troops also opened fire in the city’s suburbs of Aarbin and Madamiya.

“They used tanks, they used machine guns,” Omar al-Khani, an activist in Damascus, told The Daily Telegraph last night. “They started shooting everywhere.

“We are now in a very bad situation. We can’t bring the injured outside the city, we can’t bring them to hospitals, we can’t move. Anyone who moves, they shoot at them.”

Douma, which has seen repeated protests, rang to the sound of machine gun fire. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, three people died instantly and more later, with many more critically injured.

One particularly chilling video posted online on Thursday night showed a protester being bundled into the back of a police van, his face bloodied. It then showed a soldier pointing his gun through a slat in the side, while others raised their guns at the back, before a shot is heard. Mr Khani said the man’s body was found several minutes later.

Other protesters died in cities around the country that were being visited by monitors, including Idlib in the north and Hama. There were direct clashes between the army and protesters in Deraa, where a number of soldiers have been killed in rebel ambushes this week.

One group said 40 people had been killed altogether on Thursday.

The unrelenting violence suggests that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime is growing concerned at the effect of the Arab League’s monitoring mission.

Although the opposition movement has been scathing of the mission’s credibility, especially since the peace deal it is supposed to be monitoring has long since fallen apart, it has encouraged hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to take to the streets. Many recognise it is their best chance of alerting the world to their plight.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, members including the group’s leader, Lt Gen Mohammed Ahmed Mustapha al-Dabi, visited Homs, and were forced to witness what would have been humiliating scenes for President Assad.

One delegate was led to the bloodstained spot where the son of his guide, a local woman, was shot. On Wednesday, the body of a five-year-old boy who had been shot dead by troops was taken to a mosque and shown to them by neighbours.

As the confrontations grow, the regime has been faced with the choice of whether to allow them to get out of hand or to try to subdue them, proving the demonstrators claims that they are facing a brutal regime.

“The Arab League’s initiative is the only ray of light that we now see,” the Observatory’s spokesman, Rami Abdel Rahman said. “The presence of the observers in Homs broke the barrier of fear.”

But Mr Khani said the mission should inform local activists of where they were going in advance. Protesters were coming out on the basis of where visits were rumoured to be taking place, thinking they would be safe from retribution, but finding only soldiers opening fire.

“In Maydan in the centre of Damascus there are 400 people hiding in a mosque and refusing to come out without the observers because the Shabiha (militia) are outside,” he said. He said activists were “angry and disappointed” at the mission’s failure to provide protection.

The mission, agreed eight weeks ago, is supposed to be overseeing a deal to withdraw troops from the streets, release political prisoners, open negotiations between the opposition and the government, and allow in independent journalists.

Arab commentators have begun openly questioning the role of the mission and its head, Lt Gen Dabi, a former intelligence chief to the Sudanese president Omar Bashir, who himself faces an international arrest warrant for war crimes and genocide.

“We are deluding ourselves, and the Syrian people, when our media repeats the expression ‘a delegation of Arab monitors’,” wrote Tariq al-Homayed, editor of Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, a Saudi-backed paper. This is nothing more than a delegation of Arab spectators.”

Source: telegraph.co.uk

Peace monitors want to see #Syria’s strife-torn Homs

CASUALTY: An injured protester is helped by others around him in a location provided as Homs.

Newly-arrived Arab League peace monitors will try to see for themselves the situation in the Syrian city of Homs, which opponents of President Bashar al-Assad say has been pulverised by government troops and tanks in recent days.

 

At least 31 people were killed in the city on Monday as tanks fired into districts where opposition has been strongest to Assad’s rule, activists said.

 

Assad’s opponents fear that the monitors will be used as a cloak of respectability for a government that will hide the extent of violence.

 

Assad, heir to a 41-year-old dynasty, says he is facing an attack by Islamist terrorists directed from abroad.

 

The launch of the monitoring mission marks the first international intervention on the ground in Syria since the revolt broke out nine months ago, when the government cracked down on protests inspired by uprisings across the Arab world.

 

The first 50 of an eventual 150 monitors arrived in the country on Monday after weeks of negotiations with Arab states. They will be split into five teams of 10, one of which is due to visit Homs Tuesday.

 

The teams will use government transport, according to their head, a Sudanese general. Delegates insist the mission will nevertheless maintain the “element of surprise” and be able to go wherever it chooses with no notice.

 

The monitors are meant to determine whether the government is abiding by a peace plan that requires it to withdraw troops from cities, free prisoners and open dialogue with its opponents. Assad has so far shown no sign implementing the deal.

 

Amateur video posted by activists on the Internet showed tanks in action in the streets next to apartment blocks in the Baba Amr district of Homs Monday. One fired its main gun and another appeared to launch mortar rounds.

 

Mangled bodies lay in pools of blood on a narrow street, the video showed. Power lines had collapsed and cars were burnt and blasted, as if shelled by tank or mortar rounds.

 

“What’s happening is a slaughter,” said Fadi, a resident living nearby.

 

Destruction inflicted by heavy weapons was evident.

 

AVERTING CIVIL WAR

 

An armed insurgency is eclipsing civilian protest in Syria. Many fear a slide to sectarian war between the Sunni Muslim majority, the driving force of the protest movement, and minorities that have mostly stayed loyal to the government, particularly the Alawite sect to which Assad belongs.

 

Analysts say the Arab League is anxious to avoid civil war. The West has shown no desire to intervene militarily and the United Nations Security Council is split.

 

Assad’s opponents appear divided on aims and tactics. The government still retains strong support in much of the country, which lies at a crucial nexus of Middle East political and strategic forces.

 

Fighting in Homs has intensified since a double suicide bombing in Damascus Friday that killed 44 people.

 

At least ten army defectors were killed in fighting with security forces in the suburb of Douma outside Damascus, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The group estimated the death toll may be higher, in the dozens, with casualties at a similar rate among security forces.

 

Homs resident Fadi told Reuters via Skype that residents and rebel fighters were trapped by trenches the army had dug around the Baba Amr neighbourhood in recent weeks.

 

“They are benefiting from trenches. Neither the people nor the gunmen or army defectors are able to flee. The army has been descending on the area for the past two days.”

 

TWO-WAY FIGHT

 

Others said the army was also taking a hit.

 

“The violence is definitely two-sided,” said a Homs resident who gave his name only as Mohammed to protect his safety.

“I’ve been seeing ambulances filled with wounded soldiers passing by my window in the past days. They’re getting shot somehow.”

 

Parts of Homs are defended by the Free Syrian Army, made up of defectors from the regular armed forces, who say they have tried to protect civilians.

 

“There are many casualties,” activist Yazen Homsi told the Avaaz opposition group from Homs. “It is very difficult to access them and provide treatment as a result of the heavy shelling throughout the neighborhood.”

 

The Observatory documented names of those reported killed in Monday’s clashes. It also reported four people killed on the outskirts of Hama, north of Homs, as security forces fired on protests.

 

The Syrian government has banned most access by independent media, making it difficult to verify accounts of events.

 

The head of the Arab League observer mission, Sudanese General Mustafa al-Dabi, arrived in Damascus Saturday.

 

“Our Syrian brothers are cooperating very well and without any restrictions so far,” he told Reuters.

 

But he added that Syrian forces would be providing transportation for the observers - a move likely to fuel charges by the anti-Assad opposition that the monitoring mission will be blinded from the outset.

 

Arab delegates said they would maintain the upper hand.

 

“The element of surprise will be present,” said monitor Mohamed Salem al-Kaaby from the United Arab Emirates.

 

“We will inform the Syrian side the areas we will visit on the same day so that there will be no room to direct monitors or change realities on the ground by either side.”

- Reuters

Source: stuff.co.nz