16/10/12

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry says a Ukrainian woman who worked as an interpreter for a Russian TV crew in Syria has been kidnapped by rebels in the country’s west.

Ankhar Kochneva was kidnapped in western Syria on Oct. 9 by the members of the Free Syrian Army, Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Dikusarov said Tuesday.

Dikusarov said Kochneva contacted her colleagues at a Russian television channel and said she was being held in “satisfactory conditions.”

Russian and Ukrainian embassies in Syria are working together on securing Kochneva’s release, Dikusarov said.

26/09/12

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Khalid, 15, said he was hung by his arms from the ceiling of his own school building in Syria and beaten senseless. Wael said he saw a 6-year-old starved and beaten to death, “tortured more than anyone else in the room”.

The first-person accounts come from interviews with refugees who have fled the Syrian conflict conducted by the British-based charity Save the Children and published on Tuesday.

The report did not say who had abused the children, but a spokesman for Save the Children said some had heard their parents blaming government forces for the attacks.

U.N. investigators say Syrian government forces have committed human rights violations “on an alarming scale”, but have also listed multiple killings and kidnappings by armed rebels trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

The children that Save the Children spoke to in refugee camps in neighboring countries said they had witnessed massacres and seen family members killed during the 18-month-old conflict.

“I knew a boy called Ala’a. He was only 6 years old. He didn’t understand what was happening. His dad was told that this child would die unless he gave himself up,” said Wael, 16, who like all the children interviewed was not identified by his full name or location.

“I’d say that 6-year-old boy was tortured more than anyone else in the room. He wasn’t given food or water for three days, and he was so weak he used to faint all the time,” Wael was quoted as saying. “He was beaten regularly. I watched him die. He only survived for three days and then he simply died.”

Opposition activists say 27,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria’s bloodshed. Many of the civilians died initially in attacks by security forces on peaceful protests. Others have been killed in government shelling or in crossfire during the ensuing civil war.

Khalid, 15, said he had been taken along with over a hundred others to his old school, which had been turned into a torture centre, and had his hands tied with plastic cord.

“They hung me up from the ceiling by my wrists, with my feet off the ground, then I was beaten. They wanted us to speak, to confess to something,” he said.

“I passed out from the severe pain of hanging like that, and from the beating. They took me down and threw cold water on my face to wake me up. Then they took turns stubbing out their cigarettes on me. Here, I have these scars.”

Omar, 11, described life under bombardment.

“One day I was playing with my brothers and my cousin. We were teasing her and she was upset. She left us and went to her house. That night, a shell destroyed my 9-year-old cousin’s house - the one we’d upset during the day. I regret that she died feeling sad,” he said.

Another interviewee, Munther, 11, said that he and several other children were standing outside his school when bullets started whizzing by.

“A boy called Amjad was standing next to me. He was shot in the head. I didn’t realize at first that he was dead. He fell forward on his knees, in a praying position,” Munther said.

“Then I felt a terrible pain. I’d been shot too - in my neck,” he added, pointing to two scars.

Save the Children chief executive Justin Forsyth, who heard the reports first-hand, said the stories “need to be heard and documented so those responsible for these appalling crimes against children can be held to account”.

The charity urged the United Nations to increase its presence on the ground to enable it to document every crime.

(Reporting by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

21/09/12

A Syrian opposition group tolerated by the government said on Friday that it had lost contact with two of its members who were returning from Damascus airport after a trip to China.

The two members of the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change—Dr Abdelaziz al-Khayer, head of its foreign relations office and Iyas Ayash, member of its executive committee member and leader of the Arab Socialist Movement—had been met at the airport by a third member, Maher Tahan.

“They left Damascus International Airport at 5 pm on Thursday in two cars, only one of which arrived at its intended destination. We have since lost communications with the other car,” a statement said.

Khayer, Ayash and three other NCC members had been in China from September 16 for talks on ending the 18-month conflict in Syria and moving towards a Syrian-led political transition.

“Any harm inflicted upon our colleagues, regardless of the party responsible, would be a wrongdoing inflicted upon Syria, its reputation and its unity. In this terrible time of crisis, Syria needs these leading figures more than ever,” the NCC said.

The group said it held whoever seized the pair “ethically, legally, and politically responsible for any physical or mental harm done” to them.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Khayer, Ayash and Tahan had all been kidnapped and said it held the Syrian authorities responsible for their well-being and release.

The Observatory noted that Khayer was imprisoned in February 1992 during the rule of Assad’s father and predecessor, Hafez, on charges of ties to the Communist Workers’ Party.

He was released at the end of 2005.

Last week, Syria’s main exiled opposition group, the Syrian National Council, agreed to expand to include more groups opposing Assad, but not the NCC, which favours a non-violent overthrow of the regime and opposes foreign military intervention.

Meanwhile, an activist group reported overnight that Dr Tarek Rajaa al-Nasser, the son of NCC secretary Rajaa al-Nasser, was killed in shelling in in the northern province of Aleppo.

The Local Coordination Committees, a network of opposition activists on the ground, said he had been treating people wounded by bombing in the town of Aazaz, near the Turkish border.

-AFP

06/09/12

BEIRUT: The two kidnapped brothers of a Syrian rebel commander were killed on Thursday, a monitoring group said, as battles raged between rebels and army forces in several districts of Damascus.

The men were kidnapped on Wednesday night at an army checkpoint, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

It said they were found dead in the southern district of Qadam in the capital amid a sharp increase in reports of abductions across the country.

Amateur video posted on YouTube by activists showed the bodies of the two men, identified as Mohammed and Ahmed al-Zakh, covered in blood. The bead of one of the victims had been partly blown off.

The Observatory also reported fierce battles and army shelling in the Qadam neighbourhood, where anti-regime sentiment is strong, as well as shelling in nearby Assali.

Clashes also broke out elsewhere in Damascus, including in the the Sayyida Zeinab area in the southeastern outskirts, home to an important Shiite Muslim shrine, said the Britain-based watchdog.

Kafr Zeita in the central province of Hama, one of the main arenas of the 17-month revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, also saw fierce shelling for the second consecutive day, activists reported.

“It is horrific that the towns that have seen the most consistent dissent by unarmed protesters should be subjected to such violence,” an activist who identified himself as Abu Ghazi told AFP via Skype.

A preliminary toll compiled by the Observatory said that at least 17 people were killed in violence across Syria on Thursday, a day after 176 people most of them civilians died.

At least 33 people were wounded in running clashes between pro- and anti-Damascus regime supporters in Lebanon’s second largest city of Tripoli, security and army officials said on Tuesday.

The fighting erupted days after a wave of kidnappings targeting Syrians in Lebanon, in a new sign that violence in neighbouring Syria is exacerbating tensions in the small Mediterranean country.

Lebanon lived under three decades of Syrian hegemony and remains deeply divided between supporters and opponents of Damascus.

Exchanges of gunfire erupted on Monday and continued through the night between Tripoli’s mainly Sunni district of Bab el-Tebbaneh and the largely Alawite area of Jabal Mohsen.

“Clashes are ongoing, and the army is currently intervening,” a military official told AFP.

Several houses caught fire and cars were damaged in the fighting, which has added to fears that the conflict in Syria is increasingly spilling over into Lebanon, destabilising the already fragile security situation.

Ten soldiers were wounded as were 23 civilians, both Sunni and Alawite, security and army officials said.

The violence was centred around the aptly named Syria Street, the symbolic “dividing line” between the rival Tripoli districts, and many civilians have fled the area.

The Sunni-majority port city has been the scene of intense and sometimes deadly clashes between Sunni supporters of the anti-Syrian opposition and Alawite Muslims loyal to a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Iran and Syria.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is fighting an increasingly bloody 17-month uprising against his regime, hails from the Alawite community, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

The fighting in Tripoli erupted after a wave of mass kidnappings of Syrians in Lebanon, with the opposition Syrian National Council accusing the authorities of failing to act over the attacks.

“Syrians in Lebanon have been abducted by political parties, and subject to arbitrary arrests by security agents, without the authorities so much as lifting a finger,” the SNC said in a statement, implicitly blaming Hezbollah.

Last week, an armed Shiite clan claimed it had kidnapped around 20 Syrians in retaliation for the abduction of a family member by a Syrian rebel group, which accused him of being a Hezbollah sniper.

Many more were reportedly seized as rioters went on the rampage in Beirut, attacking shops and cars belonging to Syrians.

Hezbollah, considered the most powerful military force in Lebanon, has denied any connection with the clan member or the kidnappings.

The SNC also said Lebanese army intelligence on Monday raided the home of a Syrian humanitarian activist and arrested two of his colleagues, and that they also arrested a Syrian lawyer.

President Michel Sleiman on Tuesday urged Lebanon’s judiciary to “issue immediate arrest warrants for the kidnappers” and called on security officials to “act to free those abducted.”

New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the Lebanese authorities to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the kidnappings.

“Lebanese authorities need to enforce the law and end impunity for kidnappings and other violent acts carried out against Syrian citizens in the name of reprisal,” said Nadim Houry, HRW’s deputy Middle East director.

18/08/12

#Syria intensifies air attacks on Aleppo

Assad’s regime has faced a string of high-level defections, including Prime Minister Riad Hijab and senior general Manaf Tlass. A bomb attack also killed four top security chiefs.

On Friday, reports emerged of the defection of Farouq al-Sharaa, Syria’s vice president, a claim Syrian state media denied.

Citing a statement from his office, Syrian TV said on Saturday: “Mr Sharaa has never thought about leaving the country or going anywhere.” Shara himself was not seen.

The rebel Free Syrian Army said in a statement that Sharaa, 73, who has been vice president since 2006, had tried to defect to the opposition.

“Initial reports show that there was an attempted defection, but that it failed,” the FSA’s military council said.

Lebanon kidnappings

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Lebanon, three Syrians who had been kidnapped by armed gunmen in the capital Beirut on Saturday were released , the state NNA news agency reported.

The abductions come days after the Miqdad clan kidnapped 20 Syrians in Lebanon in retaliation against what they say was the abduction of one of their family members by a Syrian rebel group last week.

Two Turks have also been abducted, at least one of them by the Miqdad clan.

The wave of kidnapping has ratcheted up tensions in Lebanon and caused several Gulf countries to tell their nationals to leave. The United States and Turkey have also warned their nationals against all but essential travel to the country

17/08/12

Lebanese masked gunmen from the al-Muqdad clan gather on a street in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Aug 15. AFP photo

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has issued a travel warning for Lebanon today, advising citizens to refrain from traveling to the country unless absolutely necessary.

The ministry also confirmed reports that a second Turkish national was kidnapped in Lebanon yesterday. A group, which included a Turkish citizen, was kidnapped earlier by a Lebanese clan in a retaliation action for an abduction that occurred in Syria. 

A statement by the ministry said the developments in Lebanon have created and atmosphere that risked the safety of Turkish citizens. 

“Our efforts are continuing to secure the release of Turkish citizens held captive. Meanwhile, it would be beneficial for our citizens to refrain from traveling to Lebanon unless absolutely necessary,” the ministry said in a statement.

Turks who were currently in Lebanon were advised to remain vigilant and keep abreast of announcements from the Turkish Foreign Ministry and the Turkish Embassy in Beirut. 

Contact information for the Turkish mission in Lebanon: 

Rabieh, Zone 2, 1st Street, No: 12
Metn, Lebanon

Phone: +961(4) 520929 - 528061

Urgent: +961(76)08 43 88

E-mail: ambassade.beyrouth@mfa.gov.tr - konsolosluk.beyrut@mfa.gov.tr

17/08/12

At least 60 bodies have been found in a suburb of Damascus, activists say, following what the opposition described as a “massacre” by government forces.

A poor-quality video posted online showed what appeared to be the charred remains of dozens of people, many with their hands tied behind their backs.

Activists said the bodies were found on Thursday at a rubbish dump outside Qatana, south-west of the capital.

The discovery came as the UN announced the formal end of its observer mission.

The current president of the UN Security Council, Gerard Araud, said the conditions required to extend the mission’s mandate beyond midnight on Sunday - a halt to the government’s use of heavy weapons and a significant reduction in violence - had not been met.

Kidnappings

Mr Araud also said the Security Council had agreed to back UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s proposal for a liaison office in Syria to support further efforts to end the conflict, which activists say has left at least 21,000 people dead since March 2011.

Russia’s permanent representative, Vitaly Churkin, said that in New York on Friday the five permanent members of the Security Council would meet key regional players and international organisations, who agreed on guidelines for a political transition in Geneva in June as part of the so-called Action Group for Syria.

He said he wanted them to make a “joint or parallel appeal to all the parties of the Syrian conflict that they end violence as soon as possible”.

Mr Churkin said the appeal should urge both sides to appoint representatives to “negotiate towards a political solution, and in particular towards the establishment of a transitional governing body as provided for in the Geneva document”.

As he spoke on Thursday, activists said an estimated 200 people were killed across Syria, as clashes between troops and rebels continued.

The death toll included the 60 reportedly found at Qatana. Activists said they were still trying to find out who the victims in Qatana were and what happened.

They believed government forces had executed the victims before setting their bodies alight, they said.

It is impossible to verify the activists’ reports of the alleged massacre, as international media cannot report freely in Syria.

Meanwhile, the wave of kidnappings in Lebanon related to the conflict has continued with reports that two more people have been abducted.

It comes the day after a Shia Muslim clan that had seized a number of Syrian Sunni Muslims and a Turkish citizen said that it would not kidnap any more people.

The Mekdads said they had nothing to do with the new kidnappings, but they are still holding several hostages to try to force the release of one of its family members captured by Syrian rebels in Damascus.

17/08/12

(CNN) — The Syrian government pounded the country’s largest city Thursday, using aerial forces to shell neighborhoods and intensifying the siege that has become a focal point of the country’s civil war.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Lebanon, another person was kidnapped in an incident believed to be linked to the violence in Syria.

And amid growing concerns about the scores of deaths daily in Syria, the U.N. observer mission in the country is coming to an end. It will expire on the weekend and will not be extended, France’s U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud said Thursday.

At least 238 new deaths were reported across Syria on Thursday, according to the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria. The deaths include 75 in Aleppo.

They also include 60 unidentified bodies found in Qatana, a Damascas suburb, the LCC said. The bodies, found in a landfill, “seem to have been executed in a massacre by the regime’s army,” the group said.

At least eight people were killed and more than 50 wounded when shells struck near an Aleppo bakery where people had lined up to buy bread, said Ahmad al-Zaeem, a commander in the rebel Free Syrian Army. At least 150 people have been wounded in the latest violence in Aleppo, he said.

A day earlier, Sayrian fighter jets launched rockets that hit a hospital in an opposition-controlled part of the metropolis. CNN witnessed the attack.

CNN Inside Syria: Nobody imagined it would turn into this

CNN’s Ben Wedeman, reporting from western Syria, said Aleppo residents are left with no good options. If they stay in their homes, “there’s a very good chance that they could be killed in an air raid, in this random shelling that goes on around the clock.” If they leave, they’re destitute and dependent on refugee agencies and relief groups. “So it’s really a horrific situation, regardless of where you go.”

The Syrian government, on state-run media, said Thursday that its forces had killed “terrorists” in Aleppo.

Syria also said its forces “dismantled an explosive device planted by an armed group near a mosque at the Meridian area in Aleppo.”

Human Rights Watch condemned the regime Thursday after a fighter jet bombed a residential neighborhood in Azaz, in northern Aleppo province.

The New York-based rights group said an investigation showed that at least two bombs destroyed an entire block of houses in the city near the Turkish border.

Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appointed a new governor of Aleppo province, Mohammed Wahid Aqaad, on Thursday, State TV said.

He also appointed Adnan Abdo al-Sukhni as minister of industry; Nijim hamad Al-Ahmad as minister of justice; and Saa’d al-Salam al Nayef as minister of health, state-run news agency SANA reported.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon estimated that more than 150,000 people have fled the nearly 18 months of fighting in Syria that has left 18,000 dead. Opposition groups report a death toll as high as 22,000.

CNN cannot independently confirm reports of casualties and violence by rebel and government forces. The Syrian government has severely restricted the access of international journalists.

Syria violence fuels kidnapping threats in Lebanon

“The Syrian people have suffered too much, too long. We cannot go on this way,” Ban said Wednesday.

“The international community must feel the sense of collective responsibility on this situation. How long do we have to endure this kind of a tragedy? This is not justice and this is not acceptable.”

Ban is searching for a successor to replace Kofi Annan, who resigned this month as the U.N. and Arab League joint special envoy for Syria amid what he called a lack of unity among members of the U.N. Security Council.

Russia and China, trade partners with Syria, have vetoed three Western-backed Security Council resolutions that called for al-Assad to end the violence and step down.

Even without a resolution, al-Assad’s government has been under enormous international pressure following a brutal crackdown on a popular uprising that devolved into an armed conflict. The United States, the European Union and a number of Arab nations have slapped sanctions on its top officials, its Central Bank and oil companies.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the group that attempts to offer a collective voice of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims, suspended Syria’s membership Wednesday. Iran, with its strong ties to Damascus, and Algeria were the sole opponents in the 57-nation body, which has a permanent delegation to the United Nations.

The OIC’s move sends a message to al-Assad that its members will not accept the regime killing its people, Ekemeleddin Ihsanoglu, the organization’s secretary-general, told CNN.

Ihsanoglu called on the Security Council to approve tougher resolutions against the Syrian regime.

The regime said Thursday its forces freed three journalists — Yara Salah, Abdallah Tabra and Houssam Imad — being held in El Tal, north of Damascus, according to Syrian State TV. The three, who work for the pro-regime station Al Ikhbariya, were taken by rebels while covering the fighting in a suburb north of Damascus, State TV said.

The claim by the government came as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group, said initial reports indicated “a number of people were killed and injured” in El Tal following heavy shelling during the raid by government forces.

The countering claims by Syrian forces and rebels followed news that a U.N. panel found that both sides have committed war crimes in the conflict. The U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry, though, singled out the scale of the government’s attacks as crimes against humanity.

The fighting has fueled protests and violence in neighboring Lebanon.

Mass protests and kidnappings reported in Lebanon between Syrians loyal to the Sunni-dominated rebels and those aligned with al-Assad, an Alawite Muslim with strong Shiite support, have raised concern that Syria’s conflict could undo the political balance that has managed to prevail since the end of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war in 1990.

A Syrian citizen, Houssam Khashroum was kidnapped Thursday in front of a hospital in the eastern Lebanese town of Zahle, a Lebanese security official said.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, called on their citizens to leave Lebanon late Wednesday, citing deteriorating security.

The latest unrest in Lebanon was triggered by the kidnapping in Damascus of a Lebanese man, Hassan Salim Meqdad, by Syrian rebels who accused him of being a Hezbollah member. The rebel Free Syrian Army distributed a “confession” by Meqdad in which he said he was one of 1,500 Hezbollah fighters operating in Syria.

In response, Meqdad’s brother, Hatem Meqdad, told Lebanon’s state news agency that his family kidnapped 26 Syrians living in Lebanon and warned that citizens of the Persian Gulf monarchies and Turkey would be next. Two of the captives were displayed for cameras, appearing beneath a black tribal banner.

Groups of young people protesting Meqdad’s abduction burned tires and blocked the road to Beirut’s international airport late Wednesday as soldiers in riot gear and armed with tear gas stood by.

On Thursday, Maher Meqdad, a family spokesman, told a televised news conference that his group had stopped all military operations.

He added that the group was not involved in Thursday’s kidnapping.

The violence in Syria has been spilling over into Lebanon since May, when a group of Shiite pilgrims were kidnapped in Syria. A series of gun battles, riots and angry protests that month left at least 11 people dead.

For Syria’s neighbors, impact is growing with each refugee

17/08/2012

Shi’ite masked gunmen from the Meqdad clan, gather at the Meqdad family’s association headquarters in the southern suburbs in Beirut, August 15, 2012. (REUTERS/Khalil Hassan)

BEIRUT: Despite repeated Arab and international warnings over a fallout of the 17-month uprising in Syria spreading to Lebanon, the Syrian turmoil has spilled over into the politically divided country, threatening to plunge it into total chaos, analysts and political sources said Thursday.

“The spillover of the Syrian uprising has reached Lebanon,” Hilal Khashan, professor of political sciences at the American University of Beirut, told The Daily Star. “Lebanon is poised for heightened insecurity that falls short of a civil war, mainly as a result of the spillover of the Syrian unrest, into the country.”

Wednesday’s mass kidnappings of over two dozen Syrians, a Turkish national and a Saudi citizen by a local Lebanese clan in retaliation for the abduction of one of its kinsmen by Syrian rebels as well as the blocking of Beirut airport road and the Beirut-Damascus highway at the Masnaa border crossing with burning tires by rival protesters have revived memories of the chaos and anarchy that reigned during the 1975-90 Civil War when rival militias held sway at the expense of state authority.

During the Civil War years, lawlessness and insecurity prevailed, especially in the capital Beirut, where foreign citizens of various nationalities were kidnapped by militant groups.

In response to security threats, five Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, have urged their citizens to leave Lebanon immediately after the Meqdad Shiite clan kidnapped more than 20 Syrians in Beirut and initially threatened to seize more Arab nationals in retaliation for the abduction of Hassan Meqdad by Syrian rebels.

The mass kidnappings of Syrians, directly linked to the turmoil in Syria, cast further doubts over Lebanon’s ability to weather the storm in its eastern neighbor Syria.

“What happened today is a clear indication that we are [on] the brink of major chaos in Lebanon,” a senior political source told The Daily Star Thursday.

“The storm in Syria has reached Lebanon now and there is no going back,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

However, Khashan said he did not believe that Lebanon was drifting into total chaos following the wave of kidnappings and the appearance of masked gunmen on TV.

“The kidnappings were a tension relief exercise. Hezbollah controlled the Shiites. There is no logical reason for them [Hezbollah] to allow the situation to go out of the control,” Khashan said. “Level headedness will prevail.”

“What happened yesterday was an expression of anger and frustration. The sight on TV of the Free Syrian Army displaying Hassan Meqdad, whom the FSA accused of being a Hezbollah member, with bruises on his face, angered many Hezbollah supporters. The kidnappings were [designed] to vent their spleen,” he added.

However, Future MP Ahmad Fatfat had a different opinion. “What happened was a total collapse of the state and a flagrant inability of the Army and security forces to do their job in repulsing any attack, even an internal attack, on Lebanese sovereignty,” Fatfat told the Voice of Lebanon radio station.

“The attack and kidnappings that took place in Beirut and a number of areas meant that the state was absent. This takes us to a civil war,” he added.

Khashan said that there was no regional or international decision to rekindle civil war in Lebanon. “Iran and Arab Gulf states do not want a civil war in Lebanon,” he said.

A similar view was echoed by political analyst Talal Atrissi.

“I don’t think Lebanon is facing the threat of a civil war following the wave of kidnappings,” Atrissi, an expert on Iran and Middle East affairs, told The Daily Star. “There is no internal, regional or international decision for the security situation to spin out of control. Priority is now for Syria. Therefore, no civil war in Lebanon,” he said. “Regional and international powers are still supporting Lebanon’s stability and security.”

Atrissi said the root cause of the current tension in Lebanon was the kidnapping by Syrian rebels of 11 Lebanese pilgrims in May and Meqdad last week.

“Before the spate of kidnappings, tension with Syria was confined to border incidents,” he said.

Politicians and analysts have long held the view that Lebanon’s security and stability are intertwined with Syria’s security and stability.

Violence in Syria has often spilled over into Lebanon, jolting the country’s already fragile security situation, with cross-border shootings, shelling by the Syrian army, tit-for-tat kidnappings and sectarian clashes. Several Lebanese have been killed and wounded by Syrian gunfire in a series of deadly incidents on the Lebanese-Syrian border in recent months.

But the latest spate of kidnappings has fueled fears that the unrest in Syria could further destabilize Lebanon, which has struggled for decades with wars, sectarian strife and a weak political system.

The split between the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance and the opposition March 14 coalition over the Syrian crisis has raised fears of the turmoil in Syria spilling over to Lebanon.

The U.S. has also expressed consternation. “Our concern in Lebanon, first and foremost, has been the spillover from the Syrian conflict and the fact that the sectarian tensions in Syria are potentially being replicated in Lebanon,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington.

The government of Prime Minister Najib Mikati has adopted a policy to dissociate Lebanon from the repercussions of the unrest in Syria.

Mikati condemned the kidnappings, but his government seemed largely powerless to act. “This brings us back to the days of the painful war, a page that Lebanese citizens have been trying to turn,” he said of the 1975-90 Civil War when Western hostages were seized by armed groups.

Implicitly admitting his government’s inability to act, Mikati called for the formation of an extraordinary government to cope with what he termed the “difficult and extraordinary” situation through which the country was passing.

“This is a battle for Lebanon’s survival. We have to protect Lebanon with all the strength we have.” Mikati told reporters before a Cabinet session at Beiteddine Palace. “We are living in the storm. Therefore, we have to close ranks to face problems and crises.”

Atrissi blamed the Mikati government for weakening state authority and preventing the Army from imposing law and order. “Political and sectarian interests inside the government are preventing the Army from imposing security and state authority,” he said.

Khashan, the AUB professor, said Lebanon is “a soft state.”

“Security has long been based on consensus. The state cannot impose security on the people. Security is achieved through negotiations and compromise,” he said. “The Lebanese state is not authoritative. Rather, it is a soft state.”

Khashan said that instability in Lebanon served the cause of both the Syrian regime and the rebel Free Syrian Army for different reasons and motives.

“The Syrian regime wants to destabilize Lebanon in order to export its problems to the region. Lebanon is the weakest link in the region,” Khashan said. “Likewise, the Free Syrian Army believes that instability in Lebanon will invite Western intervention in both Syria and Lebanon,” he added.

The Meqdad clan, which hails from east Lebanon’s Bekaa region, said Wednesday it kidnapped over 30 men it said were members or supporters of the FSA in retaliation for the abduction of one of its kinsmen.

Maher Meqdad, who said his family fields an armed wing, told The Daily Star Wednesday that his clan had taken matters into its own hands as the Lebanese government had taken no steps to free Hassan Meqdad.

“We will do it ourselves, and we have what you can call a regulated army to do the job,” he said. He added that his family was acting according to the “eye for an eye” principle, and no longer needs the government’s intervention.

15/08/12

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri. (The Daily Star)

BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Sunday the government’s silence in the face of the killing of two citizens by Syrian shells over the weekend is unacceptable, and accused it of having been appointed to facilitate such acts.

“The silence of the Lebanese Government is … unacceptable. It shows total disrespect for the lives of our citizens and our sovereignty,” Hariri said on his Twitter feed.

Two people, including an 8-year-old boy, were killed Saturday and 10 were wounded in north Lebanon in separate incidents as a result of shelling from the Syrian side of the border.

Earlier this week, Syrian forces briefly kidnapped two General Security personnel at the Bqayaa border crossing in the north of the country.

Hariri, who said yesterday’s shelling was unacceptable, added that the least Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government could do is to file a complaint against Syria via its ambassador, the Arab League or even the United Nations.

“However the Lebanese are not surprised their government doesn’t care if our citizens are killed and sovereignty violated by Syrian regime,” he said.

“In fact all Lebanese know this government was appointed to facilitate such crimes to begin with,” the head of the Future Movement added.

Hariri, who has been out of the country for over a year, has been a harsh critic of Mikati’s government since the collapse of his government in January of 2011 and its replacement by the current Cabinet.

Meanwhile, the Future Movement held a ceremony in Majdalyoun in the coastal city of Sidon Saturday commemorating the passage of one year since the formation of Mikati’s Cabinet.

During the ceremony, head of the Future Movement Parliamentary bloc MP Fouad Siniora slammed the government, describing it as incapable of overseeing the 2013 parliamentary elections and saying that it has a record of failures to its name.

“We cannot accept this government as it is incompetent, lax and turns a blind eye to killers; it is complicit with whoever is committing crimes and assassinations … We still see that the path is open for a salvation government before it’s too late,” he said.

Siniora added that the continual blocking of the transfer of telecoms data from the Telecommunications Ministry to security agencies is a decision “to kill all opposing” Hezbollah’s arms and the government.

MP Bahia Hariri also spoke during the ceremony and voiced fear “over whoever is in government,” saying: “They are our partners. They are strong and we want Lebanon to be victorious with them and not for them to be victorious over Lebanon.”

“We declare our fear for the nation, the state, national unity, coexistence and legitimate institutions,” she added.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Jul-08/179773-hariri-slams-government-silence-over-syria-border-killings.ashx?#ixzz201REFca9 
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb) 

We are a group of Syrian bloggers, writers, activists, and independent citizens. We would like to commend your efforts to bring to light violations of human rights whatever their nature or source may be. We have read your letter to the leaders of the Syrian opposition highlighting “increasing evidence…of kidnappings, the use of torture, and executions by armed Syrian opposition members”, and we would like to respond with the following:

All efforts to expose criminal actions and violations of human rights are commendable. The Syrian uprising began with human rights at the forefront of its values. “Freedom” was one of the first words uttered in the chants of this uprising. It was also accompanied, at least in the beginning, with the chants of “Selmiya, Selmiya” (peaceful, peaceful). In one of the most memorable scenes of this revolution captured on video, Mohamed Abd Al Wahab from the town of Baidah (near to Banias) exclaims: “I’m a human being, not an animal!”, referring to the dehumanizing treatment of citizens by the security forces. The essence of the Syrian uprising is the people’s struggle for their human rights: the right of every Syrian citizen to freedom and dignity. The Assad regime has denied and suppressed these basic human rights for decades, employing every fear tactic imaginable: systematic murder (including but not limited to the massacre of Hama, 1982); mass imprisonment; and torture. These tactics of brutality have paralyzed the Syrian people in silence and fear, until March 2011.

Hence, we believe that the violations outlined by this report do not, and cannot, represent the entire opposition movement. We reject any implication that taints the entire opposition with these actions. This report has already been put to political use by mouthpieces and propagandists of the Syrian regime in order to bolster the notion that there are two equal sides to this crisis and that violence is more or less equal. This proposition is a gross exaggeration and utterly untrue. Criminal actions by armed opposition members, while appalling, are minuscule compared to the systematic criminal repression of the regime.

Many Syrians, understandably, have reacted to your report with anger and frustration. There is simply no mechanism in place to investigate these allegations or bring the perpetrators to justice and put them through fair trials. We can only realistically expect human rights to be ingrained and firmly upheld by state laws when Syria is free and democratic. Our struggle is not only with the Assad regime, but with a legacy of thuggery and Mukhabarat torture that infiltrated every aspect of life in Syria.

Finally, we must stress a very significant point in the HRW letter: it’s not always easy to identify armed opposition. As mentioned in the letter:

“Some reports received by Human Rights Watch indicate that in addition to armed groups with political motivations, criminal gangs, sometimes operating in the name of the opposition, may be carrying out some of these crimes.”

Indeed. This has exactly been the case of many kidnappings according to frequent reports from inside Syria, especially the city of Aleppo. When calling family members to demand ransom, the kidnappers identify themselves as members of the Free Syrian Army. While the reality suggests that there are far more likely suspects of these kidnappings: the criminals released from jail at the beginning of the uprising with a presidential pardon. These individuals have often been involved in the thuggish repression of peaceful protesters, and they would not miss the opportunity to smear the Free Syrian Army as well.

In conclusion, while we appreciate Human Rights Watch’s efforts to shed light on the current Syrian crisis and we join HRW in condemning all violations of human rights in Syria, we strongly oppose tainting the Syrian opposition as a whole with these isolated cases. We strongly oppose an attempt to equalize the country-wide spread of atrocities by the Assad regime and the isolated cases by a few anti-regime operatives. As HRW knows from its own previous reports on Syria, there no comparison between the two in the number of dead and imprisoned, and the sheer, indiscriminate brutality directed towards innocent civilians.

The BBC’s Paul Wood has spent harrowing days under fire in the Baba Amr area of Homs, which has been subjected to a relentless artillery barrage by government troops.

He has seen evidence of vicious sectarian hatreds and killings by both government militias and the armed opposition.

Most of the people in the makeshift field hospital in Baba Amr did not want to be filmed.

They were too afraid of being arrested to show their faces. But not Abdel Nasr Zayed.

Of the 11 members of his extended family who had been killed - by shells or sniper fire - five were children under 14.

“I have lost 11 already and now I am willing to sacrifice everything for God,” he told me, a large, bearded man, his voice booming down the hospital corridor.

It was a typical story. Often people would tell you they had lost not one but many of their relatives

Abu Suleiman’s job at the hospital was to wrap bodies in their burial shrouds.

He had performed this service for his son, his son-in-law, his nephew, his neighbour and many of his friends.

Abu Sufyan, our host the last time we stayed in Baba Amr, had lost a brother, a nephew, an uncle and, most recently, his mother.

“Is this a civil war?” I was asked from London.

In Baba Amr, it certainly felt like one. But we were seeing a battle over one city. And Homs is not Syria. Not yet, perhaps.

Sectarian abductions

In Homs, the Sunni areas, such as Baba Amr, largely support the uprising. They were being shelled by the Syrian army, from the Alawite and Christian areas, which largely support the regime.

There are Sunnis in the security forces; Christians and Alawites have joined the revolution. It is not yet a purely sectarian conflict. But the pressures for it to become one are enormous.

Yousseff Hannah was a prisoner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) - the rebel fighters who have defected from government forces.

He was on a mattress, his thigh bandaged, in the basement of a house near the town of Qusayr, about 25 miles (40km) from Homs.

“Law and order,” he told me, groaning from his wound, in reply to my question about his job.

One of his captors angrily interrupted: “No. You are mukhabarat (secret police). Tell them you are mukhabarat.”

The FSA had snatched him a few days before from his home. He had been recovering there from the leg wound, received in Homs.

Aged 45, he was only a corporal, hardly a big fish. The rebels said they had taken him because his family had their own checkpoint in Qusayr that was harassing people.

 They wanted it to stop. For too long, they said, people like him - protected by the regime - had felt they were untouchable, able to act with impunity.

Cpl Yousseff was a Christian. After he was taken, his relatives kidnapped six Sunnis, killing one in the process. In return, around 20 Christians were abducted.

“Some hotheads have been kidnapping Christians,” one of the senior FSA commanders in the area told me. “We have got to calm this down.”

After several days of stalemate, everyone was released, unharmed, including Corporal Yousseff. This was done as part of a deal for him and his family to leave Qusayr permanently.

Failed attack

Discussing the past tense few days, one of the Christian residents told me that Qusayr still had Christians who supported the uprising.

About a dozen attended the big Friday protest. In solidarity with them, the entire demonstration walked off when some at the front grabbed the microphone and started shouting Salafi (Islamist) slogans.

 The official doctrine of the FSA is that it is there only to protect the unarmed demonstrators. In practice, the FSA is waging an escalating guerrilla war.

We followed Maj Yaya’s group of fighters as they attacked an army base near the town.

The attack was big, more than 60 men. In contrast to the fighters in Libya, they were trained, disciplined and followed a plan.

One man said his brother was still serving in the area.

“What if he was in the base? What if he was killed?” I asked.

“I feel very bitter about my brother but what happens is in God’s hands now. May God help me,” he replied.

Inevitably, they failed. After an hour of firing on the base they had to flee when the government troops started using heavy weapons, dropping mortar shells on the hill.

The official doctrine of the FSA is that it is there only to protect the unarmed demonstrators. In practice, the FSA is waging an escalating guerrilla war.

We followed Maj Yaya’s group of fighters as they attacked an army base near the town.

The attack was big, more than 60 men. In contrast to the fighters in Libya, they were trained, disciplined and followed a plan.

One man said his brother was still serving in the area.

“What if he was in the base? What if he was killed?” I asked.

“I feel very bitter about my brother but what happens is in God’s hands now. May God help me,” he replied.

Inevitably, they failed. After an hour of firing on the base they had to flee when the government troops started using heavy weapons, dropping mortar shells on the hill.

Shabiha executions

Afterwards, one of the FSA fighters showed me a video he had filmed in December.

They had ambushed a convoy of armoured vehicles. Eight of the security forces were killed, 11 captured. The video showed the prisoners, in camouflage uniform, lined up facing a wall.

Some were still bleeding after the battle. Their arms were raised.

One turned to the camera, looking petrified. The man who’d taken the pictures said that despite their army uniforms, their ID cards showed they were Shabiha (or ghosts) - the hated government paramilitary force.

“We killed them,” he told me.

“You killed your prisoners?”

“Yes, of course. They were executed later. That is the policy for Shabiha.”

These were Sunni Shabiha, he added; the only Alawite had escaped.

I checked with an officer. While soldiers were released, he said, members of the Shabiha were “executed” after a hearing before a panel of FSA military judges.

To explain, they showed me a film taken from the mobile phone of a captured Shabiha. Prisoners lay face down on the ground, hands tied behind their backs. One-by-one, their heads were cut off.

The man wielding the knife said, tauntingly, to the first: “This is for freedom.”

As his victim’s neck opened, he went on: “This is for our martyrs. And this is for collaborating with Israel.”

Western dilemma

In Homs, after we left, there were reports from human rights activists that the Shabiha, going house-to-house, had murdered three families, men, women and children.

To most FSA fighters, “executing” the Shabiha seems only just.

Such things will give Western governments pause as they decide whether, or, increasingly, how to help the FSA.

Washington and London say they will not arm the rebels but they are thinking about how to assist in other ways. That might include giving advice and sending supplies, perhaps including flak jackets.

If they help the rebels, will they fuel a civil war, or worse, a sectarian civil war? If they do not, how can the killings in Homs, and elsewhere, be stopped?

The longer this continues, the more bodies pile up, the greater the desire for revenge on both sides. Civil war is not inevitable. But Homs today could be Syria tomorrow.