Syrian Freedom

Analysis: #Syria options dwindling

Analysis: Syria options dwindling

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius listen during a meeting of the “Friends of the Syrian People” at the MFA Conference Center July 6, 2012 in Paris, France.

By Elise Labott

When the Friends of Syria group began meeting this year, first in Tunis and again in Istanbul, there was a sense of possibility. Perhaps the group would endorse military action against Syria. Maybe they would recognize the Syrian National Council as the legitimate opposition group.

Six months in, the allure has worn off. At their third meeting in Paris, there were no expectations any decisions would be made, except for who would host the next meeting.

Calls were made for tougher sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, even though most countries which had any business with Syria have already imposed tough measures to no avail.

The group did endorse a transition plan hatched last week in Geneva. The document endorses a Syrian-led transition as part of the peace plan designed by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan. The fact that the plan, which provides for an interim government, has no relation to the current reality on the ground or that it had no input from either the Syrian regime or the opposition - the two parties which would have to implement it - didn’t seem to be nearly as important as the fact that Russia and China went along with it.

In lieu of an agenda, there was plenty of blame in Paris to heap on Russia and China. Offering her harshest rebuke of Moscow and Beijing to date, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on each leader present at the meeting to demand that Syria “get off the sidelines.”

“I don’t believe Russia and China believe they are paying any price at all, nothing at all for standing up on behalf of the Assad regime,” Clinton said.

The longer the conflict drags on, the tougher Clinton’s rhetoric on Russia becomes.

By placing the blame squarely on Russia and China, Clinton and others are able to delude themselves that diplomatic efforts can end the conflict with the main goal of getting Assad out. But in their heart of hearts they know even the most detailed roadmap of a post-Assad Syria has no hope of changing the military balance on the ground enough so that the Syrian military, Assad’s inner circle, and Moscow see Assad as a sinking ship and abandon him.

Diplomats in New York are already at work on a new U.N. Security Council resolution endorsing the Annan plan and imposing sanctions on the regime if it fails to implement it. The resolution would be under Chapter 7, which has the implied threat of military action.

But this, too, is a mirage. Privately, U.S. and other western officials recognize they are spinning their wheels. They know there is no chance the Assad regime would implement the Annan plan without a credible military threat and they also know that the appetite for international military action is, well, nonexistent.

Since the conflict in Syria began, the international community has had many excuses for inaction: the lack of a credible opposition, Russian intransigence and the fear of further militarizing the conflict. The need to give Annan’s peace plan time to work was just the latest justification.

Riad Seif, a prominent businessman and former member of parliament who recently left Syria and is now a member of the opposition, gave voice to what many Syrians are feeling about the futility of the “Friends of Syria” exercise when he asked the group to make its friendship actually mean something.

“After so many conferences, we fail to see how we have so many friends and people are dying every day,” he told the group during a fiery address. “Help us put an end to this massacre.”

Nothing settled: Talk on #Syria fighting is not matched by action

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Representatives of some 60 countries and organizations met in Tunis Friday to discuss what to do about Syria against a background of continued bitter fighting in Syria itself between opponents of the regime of President Bashar al-Asad and government security forces.

The government continues to dominate the fighting but also remains unable to put the resistance out of business, which means that the warfare and horrible casualties — including many civilians — continue. The total dead is hard to ascertain but it is estimated to be above 5,000 since the struggle began months ago.

The Tunis meeting itself settled nothing. Al-Asad regime supporters China and Russia did not attend. The senior U.S. representative present, Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton, rose to new heights of rhetoric in excoriating them for their support of the Syrian regime, but there is no question that the measures the world has adopted against it, including heightened sanctions by European Union countries, are weakened by the fact that China and particularly Russia, which has even sent arms to the government, have not joined them.

The Arab League itself is divided on the subject betweeen Algeria, Iraq and Lebanon which have stayed with the al-Asad regime, and Persian Gulf and other states, led by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which favor military action to bring the al-Asad regime either into line or down. Algeria sees the international anti-Asad movement as a Western plot; Lebanon’s government is subject to influence by Damascus, directly or through Hezbollah, which plays an important role in its government. Iraq, which in principle should still be under heavy U.S. influence, sees Syria as a fellow country resisting U.S. hegemony.

So the United States and the world are left with the appalling spectacle of the Syrian regime and its security forces continuing to slaughter its own people in defense of an unpopular, religious minority regime while the world stands by, staying its hand, more or less helpless.

No one wants to wade into the Syrian maelstrom with their own national forces. It would mean fighting Syrian government forces, estimated at 220,000, fairly well armed, and probably united in resisting a foreign invasion, particularly by Americans.

Second, it is not clear what, if anything, would succeed an al-Asad regime in Syria. At present the opposition to the current government is divided, disorganized and shadowy in its composition. There is the Syrian National Council, the Free Syrian Army, the Syrian National Coordination Committee, and a new body, the Syrian Patriotic Group. Al-Qaida does not appear to be in the picture, but no one is sure that it wouldn’t be an element in a successor regime. The current chaos in post-Gadhafi Libya and the growing disorder in Iraq are cases in point for not tipping over one government — even a bad one — without knowing what comes next.

First published on February 28, 2012 at 12:00 am

Rift develops in Syrian opposition group #Syria

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN | Sun Feb 26, 2012 7:24pm EST

(Reuters) - Prominent members of the main Syrian National Council formed a splinter organisation on Sunday, exposing the most serious rift among President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents since a popular uprising against his repressive rule erupted in March.

At least 20 secular and Islamist members of the 270-strong council, which was set up in Istanbul last year, announced the formation of the Syrian Patriotic Group.

The new group is headed by Haitham al-Maleh, a lawyer and former judge who has resisted dynastic family rule by Assad and his father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, since its inception in 1970.

He is joined by Kamal al-Labwani, an opposition leader who was jailed for six years and released in December; human rights lawyer Catherine al-Talli; Fawaz al-Tello, an opposition operative with links to Free Syrian Army rebels and Walid al-Bunni, who was among the most outspoken figures on the council responsible for foreign policy.

“Syria has experienced long and difficult months since the Syrian National Council was formed without it achieving satisfactory results or being able to activate its executive offices or adopt the demands of the rebels inside Syria,” a statement by the Syrian Patriotic Group said.

“The previous mode of operation has been useless. We decided to form a patriotic action group to back the national effort to bring down the regime with all available resistance means including supporting the Free Syrian Army,” the statement, which was sent to Reuters, said.

The statement was issued in Tunis, where members of the Syrian National Council, including those who have effectively split, attended the 50-nation “Friends of Syria” conference last week to try to push Assad to end the military crackdown.

The Syrian National Council has been under mounting pressure from within Syria for not overtly backing armed resistance against Assad, which is being led by the Free Syrian Army.

Assad, from Syria’s Alawite minority, has sent tanks across the country to crush the uprising. The sustained attack on the central city of Homs has pushed the council toward calling more forcefully for international intervention.

The council is headed by Burhan Ghalioun, a respected secular professor who has been advocating democracy in Syria since the 1970s. His term as president has been renewed on a monthly basis with key support from Muslim Brotherhood members of the Council.

Several ‘neo-Islamists’, who are seen as somewhat more liberal than the Brotherhood, have joined the Syrian Patriotic Group, including Imadeldin Rashid, a preacher who was jailed early in the uprising.

(Editing by Michael Roddy)

Paul Conroy, Photographer Wounded In #Syria, Feared Leaving Homs

Paul Conroy was injured on Wednesday during the attack which killed war correspondent Marie Colvin but refused to leave the city with the Syrian Red Crescent.

A wounded British photographer would not leave the Syrian besieged city of Homs with a humanitarian organisation for fear it was “not to be trusted”, his wife said.

Sunday Times photographer Paul Conroy was injured on Wednesday during the attack which killed war correspondent Marie Colvin but refused to leave the city with the Syrian Red Crescent.

His wife Kate Conroy told BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House programme her husband had been advised the organisation was “not to be trusted”.

“They refused to leave with them unless they had somebody from the British or French Embassy with them as an escort,” she said.

She spoke as the Government today said “all the necessary work is being done” to secure the return of Mr Conroy and to repatriate Colvin’s body.

She continued: “I can understand his rationale for it but having had various conversations with MPs, the Foreign Office and so on, I know they are not going to provide an Embassy official to go with them.

“Now he needs to realise that they have an international profile and that is sufficient protection in its own right to get them out safely.”

The Syrian Red Crescent is working with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to negotiate with the Syrian authorities about the retrieval of wounded and others trapped in the city.

On Friday, teams from the ICRC were deployed to Homs to evacuate seven wounded and 20 women and children.

They have since been trying to re-enter the embattled neighbourhood of Baba Amr which has been devastated by a month of shelling by government forces.

An ICRC spokesman said: “We are attempting to go in the affected area again today. Needs are very urgent and it is absolutely crucial that we are able to enter in order to evacuate people in need of help and to bring in vital assistance.”

Mrs Conroy, from Totnes, Devon, said she could “reluctantly appreciate” the position adopted by the Foreign Office.

She added: “They can’t sanction that but, for me, my husband has put his life at risk and the others have.

“I would like it if somebody in that embassy was to say ‘forget the protocol, I’m going in and I’m going to help to get them out’.
“But I know that is not going to happen.

“I have asked and I’ve had quite a heated conversation with an MP and he’s been absolute categoric with me that it’s not going to happen.”

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell told BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show: “We are doing everything we possibly can.

“The Foreign Office have been seeking to negotiate with the Syrian authorities. Our ambassador in Damascus is engaged in trying to do just that.

“It is extremely difficult and the conversations are patchy.”

It is understood that Foreign Office officials are working alongside the French embassy to try to retrieve the journalists. They are said to be pressing the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and working with humanitarian organisations.

Mr Mitchell also called on the Syrian regime of President Bashar al Assad to allow international aid agencies into the city and Baba Amr.

“We are demanding unfettered access for the humanitarian agencies who are there on the ground. We continue to push in every way we possibly can for this unfettered access,” he said.

He indicated Britain would oppose any moves by countries in the region to supply arms to the Syrian rebels, as they demanded at Friday’s meeting in Tunis of the international Friends of Syria group.

“We need to stop the fighting, not boost it in any way at all,” he said.

He warned, however, that the regime would be held to account for its actions.

“This is an evil regime that has turned its guns on its own people. It is despicable what’s happening and we will hold them to account in every way that we can for the human rights abuses that are going on,” said Mr Mitchell.

Mr Mitchell said there was evidence of people on the ground “infiltrating the Syrian Red Crescent” and “posing an additional danger” to anyone seeking to leave the city.

#Syria: Britain and West should arm rebels, say Arabs

BRITAIN and its Western allies came under intense pressure last night to drop their opposition to military intervention in the crisis in Syria, as Saudi Arabia called directly for the arming of the opposition.

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) greets Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (L), United Arab Emirates’ Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan (2nd L) and British Foreign Minister William Hague, in Tunis Photo: (AFP)

By Richard Spencer, Tunis

7:50PM GMT 24 Feb 2012

Foreign ministers of more than 60 nations met in Tunis to thrash out the next steps in applying pressure on the Assad regime, with William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, and his French counterpart Alain Juppe leading the way in calling for more economic sanctions.

Mr Juppe announced that the European Union will freeze the assets of Syria’s central bank at a meeting on Monday. Britain also pushed greater humanitarian access, and said the United Nations should set up relief stations on the Syrian borders prior to the emergency provision of aid.

But Saudi Arabia left the first Friends of Syria conference halfway through the afternoon demanding that it go further. The foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said he supported supplying weapons.

“I think it’s an excellent idea,” he said. “They have to protect themselves.”

Qatar and Tunisia called for an Arab force to be sent in to help end the killings and open humanitarian corridors in Syria, while the hosts said Mr Assad should be granted immunity to persuade him to stand down.

The forthright Arab approach was backed by the Syrian National Council, the opposition umbrella group newly strengthened by a draft communique in which it was recognised as “a legitimate representative of Syrians seeking peaceful democratic change”. Its leader, Burhan Ghalioun, said the conference “did not meet the aspirations of the Syrian people”.

The conference was called after the veto by Russia and China of a United Nations resolution calling on President Bashar al-Assad to step aside.

The Western allies, led by the United States, Britain and France, want to stick to their long-term plan of uniting the Syrian opposition and using diplomatic and economic pressure to force Mr Assad to step down before trying more drastic methods.

Western diplomats say that military intervention, even the supply of more light and medium arms to the Free Syrian Army, will see the conflict worsen and possibly descend into a chaotic civil war, while accepting that the provision of arms, perhaps by their Gulf allies, might be an option later.

Bassma Kodmani, a member of the SNC executive, claimed that some Western countries had already begun sending military support in the form of communications, body armour and night-vision goggles.

However Mr Hague said: “There may well be people who say that, and it reflects the intense frustration that we all feel,” he said.

Clinton blunt with Russia, China over #Syria

By Wyatt Andrews

(CBS News)

Rebels there say government forces killed at least 50 more people Friday.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in North Africa, where she used her strongest language yet to condemn Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at a conference in Tunis at a conference of world leaders known as “The Friends of Syria.”

The conference was a global gathering of outrage. The result was a new set of demands, the first one being that Assad permit immediate shipments of food water and medicine, or face a world much more angry than it already is.

“If the Assad regime refuses to allow this life-saving aid to reach people in need,” Clinton told the conference, “it will have even more blood on its hands. And so, too, will those nations that continue to protect and arm the regime.”

She was unusually harsh on the Russians and Chinese, blaming them for a share of the violence for their veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have condemned Assad. The secretary called that veto “despicable,” and asked rhetorically, “Whose side are they on”?

Clinton predicted the conference would put new pressure on Assad, but the Saudi foreign minister seemed to issue a pointblank threat. Asked if it was time to arm the Syrian rebels, he replied, “I think it is an excellent (idea) … because they have to protect themselves.”

The conference also marked the debut of the Syrian National Council, a dissident group of exiles asked to form a transitional government. The leader of the group, Burhan Ghalioun, also warned Assad to give up power peacefully — or else, saying in Arabic, “The defenders of the people getting more and more arms. … We are trying to negotiate a solutions, but if that fails, syria will fall into an armed struggle.”

‘We are not afraid of Assad any longer. But why must more people die?’ #Syria

The bodies were in a field, dumped during the night. They were men who had been arrested and taken away for interrogation after the forces of the Syrian regime began a vicious and vengeful sweep through this region.

The families in the village of Kurin have not been able to collect and bury their dead because they would be walking into a trap; any approach so far, they say, has been met with sniper fire. A force of rebel fighters who went to carry out the task twice had to retreat under fire from mortars.

Their commander, Abdul Haq, spread his hands in apology. “If we went any further there would be more killed, more for us to try and bring back. We feel we are failing our people, but we cannot match the weapons of the enemy.”

Yesterday, as the savage strife continued, the Friends of Syria – America, Western Europe and the Arab countries – meeting in Tunis issued yet another ultimatum to Bashar al-Assad and announced that the opposition group, the Syrian National Council, would be recognised as the legitimate government by a number of states, including the UK.

None of this brings much relief in these killing grounds. The estimate of fatalities varies: according to the United Nations it is around 5,400, while activists say it is around 7,300. But it is a figure rising daily and, to those who have borne the losses, it seems little is being done to stop the murderous campaign.

Nor is there much enthusiasm for the Syrian National Council. Few in the rural areas have heard of it and many among those who have, including rebel fighters, view them as preaching revolution from a comfortable exile.

Here in Idlib province, in north-western Syria, The Independent found the reality is of troops and armour backed by the Alawite militia, the Shabiha, systematically going through the area, killing more people in the last four days than have fallen victim even in the terrible bombardment of Homs.

Almost every village and township has tales of being visited by organised violence. On the day that the eight bodies were found at Kurin, activists were being held at Azmarin, Idita, Iblin and Bashon, on occasions after being identified by informers.

Six were arrested at Darkush, including a 13-year-old boy and a schoolteacher. There “they had a list, they knew the ones they wanted” said Issa Mohammed, 22. “No one could go to help them because there were so many roadblocks. If anyone said anything they would be captured as well.”

One needs to be cautious of these accounts in such a bloody conflict in which hurt and anger, as well as political expediency, can lead to embellished tales.

But here residents would come forward with names of those killed and detained, albeit with requests that the names of those still thought to be alive should not be made public because this may expedite their deaths and put relations and friends in harm’s way.

Abd Jibilawe, from al-Janoudiyah, described how three friends have lost their lives so far, before adding quietly “and there was Ahmed Jibilawe who was my cousin and my best friend”.

At a hamlet near Darkush, Hasina Um Samin was mourning her brother, Abu Khalid. “We are just poor people, we have not done anything bad,” she said, huddled under a thin blanket at her home, unheated because of a lack of fuel. “Still they came and took him. We thought it must be a mistake, but we don’t know where he is. We fear will not see him again.”

There is little defence in Idlib against a state which is clearly waging a war on its own people. The revolutionaries here are mainly local men, with courage but no military training and woefully short of anything like adequate arms and ammunition. Witnessing their plight, one had wry memories of rebels in Libya firing thousands of rounds into the air, often in celebration of imaginary victories.

The Libyan revolution was, of course, facilitated by months of Nato bombing. The constant question here is why no military action has followed grandiose statements by the West. For the time being, however, the rebels would be grateful for supplies which would go some way towards enabling them to take on the regime.

Commander Haq, a 34-year-old mechanic, has around 50 fighters under his command, but not even one semi-automatic rifle between them. Instead they pass around 20 hunting rifles, shotguns and handguns and one set of body armour brought over by a soldier who defected.

As we sat at his base, a farm building in the hills above Darkush, pinned down by a burst of machine-gun fire flying overhead, he opened a rucksack containing cartridges. “This is what I’ve been sent. Perhaps the Syrian National Council can send us some proper guns and ammunition from all the international money they are getting. Look at these, how old they are. Some of these are rusting. Some of these are not even the right type for the guns we have.”

At this point a Remington pump-action shotgun one of his men was using simply fell apart, possibly due to metal fatigue. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the men were keen to show other examples of their antiquated armoury – a Soviet Star pistol proudly bearing the place of manufacture, CCCP, and the date, 1948. Britain, too had provided a little help for the Syrian revolution – a Webley revolver, circa the 1930s.

Later in the afternoon, during a break in the shooting, another commander, Abu Staif, came in proudly bearing the favoured tool of revolutionaries the world over, a Kalashnikov AK-47.

This one, the first for the group, was a regime-issue weapon. It had not been captured but bought from a member of the Shabiha. “It cost us $2,000 – even then we had to wait for almost two months,” said Commander Staif. “The man who sold it to us stole it from another person from the Shabiha so the registration would not get back to him if Bashar’s people capture it back.

“The Shabiha and the army are both corrupt, just like the rotten regime they serve. The soldiers are more corrupt. One officer offered to sell us his entire checkpoint with tanks, but he wanted more money than we could ever have. The Shabiha are more difficult because they are Alawites and they hate us.”

The price of a Kalashnikov of similar vintage would probably be around $300 in places like Afghanistan. The Syrian rebels insist paying so much is not an illustration of being flush with Qatari or Saudi largesse, but rather of having to turn to wherever they can.

Most of their funding, they claimed, came from donations raised by local communities. This, however, has suffered a setback because one of their main fund-raisers had been killed that morning at Jisr al-Shughour.

“They used an agent. He was sent to find out who were the organisers, and they came and shot him in front of his family,” said Izzedin Hihano, a revolutionary from the town.

“For years, the Assads controlled us by fear. We are not afraid any longer. People would rather die than go back to that. But why must that happen? Why must more die? We need help quickly – we are desperate.”

Sources: Arab nations arming Syrian opposition #Syria

By the CNN Wire Staff

February 24, 2012 — Updated 0305 GMT (1105 HKT)

(CNN) — The outlook for the underequipped members of the Syrian opposition appeared to brighten Thursday on the eve of a Friends of Syria meeting in Tunisia.

Diplomatic sources told CNN that a number of Arab nations are supplying arms to the Syrian opposition. The sources wouldn’t identify which countries.

In London, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton predicted the opposition will find willing sources to supply them with munitions to counter the Syrian government onslaught blamed for thousands of deaths since last March.

“There will be increasingly capable opposition forces,” she said Thursday. “They will find somewhere, somehow the means to defend themselves, as well as begin offensive measures and the pressure will build on Russia and China. World opinion is not going to stand idly by.”

Russia and China both vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have condemned the Syrian government for attacking its people.

Also Thursday, U.S. officials told CNN they are considering providing the opposition with nonlethal aid — such as secure radio communications and training.

That is a step beyond what the Obama administration was saying Tuesday, when it was still clinging to the hope that political solutions would end the bloodshed. “We don’t believe that it makes sense to contribute now to the further militarization of Syria, what we don’t want to see is the spiral of violence increase,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. “That said, if we can’t get Assad to yield to the pressure that we are all bringing to bear, we may have to consider additional measures.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has recently suggested that, beyond humanitarian aid and diplomatic solutions, “we need to think about contingencies as well.”

Both the U.S. military and intelligence community have expressed concern about providing arms to an opposition whose composition is unclear.

The 70-plus countries and international organizations gathering Friday in Tunis are expected to unveil a plan for delivering emergency aid to the Syrian people and issue a stern warning to President Bashar al-Assad. They want him to agree to an immediate cease-fire and provide access to humanitarian groups to deliver the aid or face a yet-to-be mentioned response from the world community.

A draft of the document, shared with CNN, calls on “the Syrian government to implement an immediate cease-fire and to allow free and unimpeded access by the United Nations and humanitarian agencies to carry out a full assessment of needs in Homs and other areas.”

Diplomats cautioned the draft was subject to change.

What’s more, the communiqué will recognize the opposition Syrian National Council, members of which will be at the session, as a credible representative of the Syrian people.

The United States insists it will not provide weapons to the Syrian opposition, and will leave it to others who have expressed an interest in doing so. Nobody told Washington they armed the Libyans and officials said they expect the same nod-wink in Syria.

Neither Russia, which is a Soviet-era ally and arms dealer to Syria, nor China is participating.

Preparations for the Tunis meeting coincided with the release Thursday of a U.N. report that identifies Syrian commanders and high-ranking officials who may be responsible for “widespread, systematic and gross human rights violations” and apparent crimes against humanity.

The violations have been conducted with the “apparent knowledge and consent” of the country’s “highest levels,” the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic says.

Thousands have died in Syria since mid-March of 2011, when the government launched a crackdown against protesters.

At least 101 deaths were reported Thursday, including 14 children and a soldier killed when he refused to open fire on people, the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said. Seventeen unidentified corpses were found in a military prison in the Zawiya Mountain area of Idlib province, the group said. Residents told the LCC they believe it’s likely most of these unidentified bodies were of soldiers who had defected.

Opposition forces reported more shelling of Homs, the 20th consecutive day of attacks on the besieged city at the center of resistance.

On Thursday, the United Nations announced the appointment of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan as joint special envoy of the United Nations and Arab League on the Syrian crisis.

Annan will be tackling an environment described by the U.N. commission report as one in which most of the citizenry is “in a state of disarray.”

“The government has manifestly failed in its responsibility to protect the population,” the report says. “Anti-government armed groups have also committed abuses, although not comparable in scale and organization with those carried out by the state.”

Meanwhile, Britain and France demanded Syrian President Bashar al-Assad cease attacks against Homs so three journalists can receive medical care, even as reports emerged Thursday of renewed shelling in the flashpoint city.

The journalists were in Homs to document attacks by al-Assad’s forces when they were wounded in shelling, which also killed American reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik.

Al-Assad has denied targeting civilians, saying his forces are after “terrorists” and foreign fighters bent on destabilizing Syria.

Evidence that civilians are being killed by government forces has been documented by citizen journalists who post their work on social media websites and YouTube. The opposition reports the death toll exceeds 9,000.

CNN and other media outlets often cannot independently verify opposition or government reports because the Syrian regime has severely limited access to the country by foreign journalists.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry denied Syria was responsible for the deaths on Wednesday of two journalists “who infiltrated its territory on their own,” according to a banner on Syrian state TV.

The British Foreign Office summoned Sami Khiyami, the Syrian ambassador to the United Kingdom, and Political Director Sir Geoffrey Adams said Syria was expected to facilitate the return of the bodies of the two journalists and to provide medical treatment to British photographer Paul Conroy.

Conroy and French reporter Edith Bouvier of Le Figaro were wounded in the shelling in the Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr.

Bouvier said in a YouTube video that she needed immediate medical treatment.

“My leg is broken, the length of my femur. I need to be operated on as quickly as possible, the doctors have treated me as best as they can except they cannot perform any surgical operations, so I need as quickly as possible, during a cease-fire, a car with medical equipment or at least in good condition to take me to Lebanon to be treated as quickly as possible,” she said.

Dr. Mohammed Al-Mohammed, who has been treating the wounded journalists in Baba Amr, said Bouvier was in critical condition and Conroy had been moved to a “safe house,” which the physician said was a misnomer. “The problem is that we don’t have a safe place, anywhere secure, in Baba Amr,” Al-Mohammed told CNN Thursday in an telephone interview.

He bemoaned the lack of medical supplies. “We just have the basics,” he said. “I have to admit, all very primitive.”

CNN’s Elise Labott, Hamdi Alkhshali, Brian Walker, Arwa Damon, Hala Gorani, Tom Watkins and Joe Sterling contributed to this report.

Turkey offers to host follow-up meeting on #Syria

LONDON | Thu Feb 23, 2012 3:09pm EST

Feb 23 (Reuters) - Turkey is ready to host an international meeting on Syria to follow up one being held in Tunis on Friday to raise pressure on Damascus to end a violent crackdown, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a conference on Somalia in London, he said at the talks in Tunis, “the international community will say with a loud voice that this oppression has to stop…”

“Our aim is for the international community to raise its voice against the violence in Syria which is now not only directed against the innocent people but the Syrians have turned their guns against journalists.”

He said there was general agreement that a follow-up meeting should be held in Istanbul but that this would be decided for sure in Tunis. He gave no date.

Western and Arab countries meeting in Tunis are expected to demand that Syrian forces implement an immediate ceasefire to allow relief supplies to reach desperate civilians in bombarded cities such as Homs. (Reporting by Jon Hemming; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

UN accuses #Syria regime of crimes against humanity

United Nations investigators have accused the Syrian regime of crimes against humanity, indicating President Bashar al-Assad himself should face prosecution.

By Richard Spencer, in Tunis and Adrian Blomfield

8:16PM GMT 23 Feb 2012

A commission of inquiry answering to the UN Human Rights Council said it had compiled a confidential list of those “up to the highest levels” who had ordered the shooting dead of unarmed women and children, shelling of residential areas and torturing of wounded protesters in hospital.

It released its findings on Thursday as Western and Arab League diplomats and Syrian opposition figures gathered in Tunis to hammer out proposals to put pressure on President Bashar al-Assad to quit.

One option reportedly under consideration by the “Friends of Syria” was presenting a 72-hour ultimatum to Mr Assad that diplomats said would include as yet unspecified punitive measures, likely to include toughened sanctions.

According to a leaked draft declaration, the meeting will call on Syria to implement an immediate ceasefire to allow aid groups to deliver relief supplies to areas worst hit by the violence.

It also “recognised the Syrian National Council as a legitimate representative of Syrians seeking peaceful democratic change”, a phrase which appeared to fall short of full endorsement of the most prominent group opposed to Mr Assad.

Tunisia’s presidential spokesman meanwhile said the host country would propose a political solution to the crisis involving a peacekeeping force.

Adnan Mancer, a presidential spokesman, said Tunisia would propose to the “Friends of Syria” conference for a Yemen-style transition, where the president stepped down.

He said Tunisia was ready to take part in the peacekeeping force to back “a political solution because we totally oppose a foreign military intervention.”

Urgent discussions on precisely what challenge to present to Damascus continued throughout the day on the sidelines of the London Conference on Somalia between William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, and officials from about a dozen of the more than 70 nations and international organizations expected at the Tunis meeting.

Although more than 7,000 people are believed to have been killed since the uprising against Mr Assad 11 months ago, Britain and the US continue to insist that military intervention is not on the agenda, despite the pleas of Syrian opposition exiles.

Mr Hague said he would be arguing for more specific measures to be taken, without providing details, adding to speculation that the provison of arms or logistical assistance to the rebels was beginning to be discussed.

“I think part of that has to be tightening a diplomatic and economic stranglehold on the Assad regime,” Mr Hague told the BBC.

At least 52 people were killed yesterday in Syria, the youngest being a four-year-old girl. Tanks were seen advancing into Baba Amr, the district where Marie Colvin, the Sunday Times journalist, and Remi Ochlik, a French photographer, were killed on Wednesday, signalling the possible beginning of a ground offensive to reclaim the district from the lightly-armed rebels holding it.

The international outrage caused by the mounting death toll has so far failed to persuade Mr Assad to call a halt to the offensive which appears aimed to crush the opposition into submission.

He cannot be referred to the International Criminal Court so long as he has the backing of Russia and China, who can use their veto in the UN Security Council.

But the UN inquiry’s findings, handed to the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Navi Pillay, will put more pressure on those countries to come up with their own solution to the crisis.

It said four intelligence and security agencies which report to Mr Assad personally “were at the heart of almost all operations” in putting down the uprising.

“A reliable body of evidence exists … to believe that particular individuals, including commanding officers and officials at the highest levels of government, bear responsibility for crimes against humanity and other gross human rights violations,” it concluded.

Western ministers will be eager to hear the proposals of the Arab League on how to increase pressure on Syria. The League has threatened sanctions against the regime, and set out its own proposals for a transition of power which Damascus has rejected.

As with Libya, the US, Britain and France, the three leading voices, will be reluctant to go further on recognising the opposition or supplying weapons without Arab League support.

The most likely scenario, should that come about, is for the Nato powers to provide logistical and humanitarian assistance to the rebels, while Arab League powers such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar supply arms.

A US State Department official was asked on the question of arms supplies: “Are you guys going to talk about it with the door closed and just not tell anybody?”

He replied: “What has brought together so many countries and organizations is sending a unified message to Bashar al-Assad that he’s on the wrong path, is this desire for a political solution and to respond to the immediate [needs] of the Syrian people.”

Activists demand ceasefire, aid access in #Syria

By msnbc.com staff and news services

Warnings from Syrian activists of a humanitarian catastrophe in Homs grew more desperate Thursday as government forces resumed shelling an opposition stronghold in the central city, where hundreds have died in a weekslong siege.

The toll mounted a day after two Western journalists were killed in shelling in Homs, and there more international calls for a cease-fire to allow assistance to reach areas hardest hit by the regime’s crackdown on opponents.

U.N. investigators accused Assad’s security apparatus of crimes against humanity as world outrage mounted over violence that has cost thousands of lives during an almost year-long popular uprising against his 11-year rule.

A “Friends of Syria” meeting in Tunis on Friday will call on Syrian forces to stop firing to give international aid groups access to areas worst hit by the violence which are running out of medicine and food, according to a draft declaration obtained by Reuters.

Russia, however, said Moscow and Beijing — staunch allies of President Assad — remained opposed to any foreign interference in Syria.

Across the country, activists reported between 16 and 40 people killed in attacks by security forces in rebellious areas that included the Hama countryside in central Syria and the mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya region in the north. There has been no way to confirm independently the specific death tolls provided by the activists or by the Syrian government.

In London, diplomats from United States, Europe and Arab nations prepared to demand that Assad call a ceasefire and allow humanitarian aid in hard-hit areas.

The ultimatum, outlined by participants to the London talks, is likely to be presented Friday in Tunisia at a major international conference on the Syrian crisis. Further defiance by Assad could bring even tougher sanctions and isolation.

In a statement released Thursday, British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said the U.N. Human Rights Council report on Syria is “damning.”

“I am appalled by the evidence that young children are being targeted by snipers, and that security forces continue to arrest and torture wounded patients in State hospitals,” Burt’s statement read.

The minister added that those responsible for these “terrible atrocities” will be held accountable. British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a news conference in London the Syrian government was guilty of butchery and murder.

Homshas been under a fierce government attack for nearly three weeks. The International Committee for the Red Cross said it was trying to negotiate daily two-hour ceasefires in Homs to provide aid to civilians in violence-hit areas.

Homs-based activist Omar Shaker said intense barrages hit residential districts in Baba Amr again Thursday, but there was no immediate word on casualties. He said food, water and medical supplies are running dangerously low in Baba Amr.

“Every minute counts. People will soon start to collapse from lack of sleep and shortages in food,” he said.

On Wednesday, shelling of Baba Amr killed American-born war correspondent Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik.

They were among a group of journalists who had crossed into Syria illegally and were sharing accommodations with activists, raising speculation that government forces targeted the makeshift media center where they were staying. But opposition groups had previously described the shelling as indiscriminate.

At least two other Western journalists were wounded Wednesday — French reporter Edith Bouvier of Le Figaro and British photographer Paul Conroy of the Sunday Times. Bouvier, was shown in a video posted on YouTube Thursday pleading to be evacuated so she can have an operation. She said her leg is broken in two places.

Bouvier, propped up with pillows and covered in blankets, said field hospital doctors had treated her as well as they could but did not have the equipment to operate.

“I need to be operated on as soon as possible,” she said.

Bouvier, whose thigh was tightly wrapped in bandages and seemed very calm, said her femur was shattered.

A Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman offered condolences to the families of Colvin and Ochlik but rejected any responsibility for their deaths. The spokesman urged foreign journalists to respect Syrian laws and not to sneak into the country.

Some Syrians held protests and vigils Wednesday night in several parts of Homs in commemoration of Colvin and Ochlik.

“Remi Ochlik, Marie Colvin, we will not forget you,” read one banner held by protesters in the town of Qsour in Homs province.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 16 people were killed in attacks by security forces in rebellious areas that included the Hama countryside in central Syria and the mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya region in the north. Another group, the Local Coordination Committees activist network, said the overall number of Syrians killed was 40. The reason for the differing tolls was not immediately clear.

In Geneva, a panel of U.N. human rights experts said Thursday that the United Nations has a secret list of top Syrian officials who could face investigation for crimes against humanity carried out by security forces in their crackdown against the anti-government uprising.

The U.N. experts indicated that the list goes as high as Assad.

Experts say the list is initially likely to be more of a deterrent against further abuses than a direct threat to the Assad regime. Syria isn’t a member of the International Criminal Court so its jurisdiction doesn’t apply there, and Russia would likely block any moves in the U.N. Security Council to refer the country to the Hague-based tribunal.

Thousands of Syrians have died in the violence since March and the panel, citing what it called a reliable source, said at least 500 children are among the dead.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague told BBC radio that military intervention was very unlikely, as “the consequences of any outside intervention are much harder to foresee.”

A senior EU official said foreign ministers meeting in Brussels next week will add seven Syrian government ministers to those already sanctioned. Sanctions include asset freezes and visa bans for officials, commanders of the security forces and others considered responsible for human rights abuses.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of EU rules, said additional restrictions may be imposed on Syria’s central bank, on imports of precious metals from the country, and on cargo flights.

The EU had already sanctioned more than 70 Syrians and 19 organizations and has banned imports of Syrian crude oil.

In Amman, Jordan, several dozen Syrians, mainly from Homs, staged a protest outside the U.S. Embassy asking for Western military intervention. “Almighty God, destroy Bashar,” they chanted.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Russia refuses to attend #Syria meeting

* Russia says Tunis meeting will be one-sided

* Proposes U.N. send special envoy to Syria

MOSCOW Feb 21 (Reuters) - Russia will not attend an international meeting on the conflict in Syria this week because the Syrian government will not be represented, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

The Friends of Syria, backed by Western powers and the Arab League, will meet in Tunis on Friday to seek an internatonal agreement on how to end the violence in Syria and is expected to put pressure on President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

The Russian Foreign Ministry regretted that the only Syrian representatives would be from the opposition, and suggested that the United Nations Security Council should send a special humanitarian envoy to Syria.

“Thus, the meeting can hardly help start all-Syrian national dialogue in a search for ways to combat the internal crisis,” ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.

“We don’t see a possibility for us to take part in the meeting,” he said.

Russia and China vetoed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution this month that would have backed an Arab plan calling for Assad to step down. The two countries also voted against a non-binding resolution in the General Assembly last week that backed the Arab plan.

The Foreign Ministry made a new call for Europe, the United States and the Arab region to join forces and bring together the Syrian opposition and government without preconditions to help them agree on reforms.

Once reforms are implemented and violence ends, it will be possible to send humanitarian aid to Syria, Lukashevich said.

“We suggest that the Security Council members tell the U.N. General Secretary to send a special envoy to Syria to reconcile the issues of providing safe delivery of humanitarian shipments,” he said.

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin had said on Monday that Moscow was preparing to make proposals on humanitarian relief for Syria. (Reporting by Nastassia Astrasheuskaya, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Janet Lawrence)

#Syria must not turn into ‘Iraqi scenario’

Syria’s territorial integrity must be preserved in order to avoid an “Iraqi scenario”, according to Rafik Abdessalem, the Tunisian foreign minister.

Mr Abdessalem said participants at the Rome meeting of the so-called ‘5+5’ states had agreed on the need to defend Syria’s territorial unity Photo: AFP

Syrian opposition groups will take part in an international conference on the crisis in Syria on Friday, he said.

“The Syrian National Council and other opposition groups will be represented at the Tunis meeting,” Mr Abdessalem said on Monday following a meeting of foreign ministers from Mediterranean region states in Rome.

“There has been enough killing. There must be radical political change,” Mr Abdessalem said after meeting with his counterparts from Algeria, France, Italy, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Portugal and Spain.

Mr Abdessalem said participants at the Rome meeting of the so-called “5+5” states had agreed on the need to defend Syria’s territorial unity: “We don’t want an Iraqi scenario … We have to preserve the integrity of Syria.”

“I don’t think any Arab country is going to ask for military intervention (in Syria). European countries don’t want it either,” he said.

Referring to the “Friends of Syria” conference on Friday, he added: “We believe that on the 24th of this month, we shall send a strong message to the Syrian government.”

Giulio Terzi, the Italian foreign minister, said of the meeting: “It has to be inclusive. Of course the opposition has to be present.”

Mr Abdessalem had said in Tunis on Friday that the SNC, the largest opposition group in strife-ridden Syria, would not be officially represented at the conference.

Source: AFP

Tunisia "to withdraw recognition" of Syria government | Reuters »

sharquaouia:

Tunisia has started the procedure for withdrawing its recognition of the Syrian leadership under President Bashar al-Assad and for expelling the Syrian ambassador, the Tunisian president said on Saturday.

Soon after the decision was announced, staff at Syria’s embassy in the Tunisian capital lowered their national flag over the building, prompting a cheer from about 200 people protesting outside over the Syrian government’s crackdown on opponents.

Tunisia’s decision to sever ties with Damascus carries moral weight because the north African country’s revolution last year started off the “Arab Spring” upheavals which later spread throughout the Middle East, including to Syria.

A message posted on the Facebook page of President Moncef Marzouki said: “Tunisia has announced the launch of procedures for the expulsion of the Syrian ambassador in Tunisia and the withdrawal of all recognition of the regime in power in Damascus.”

“The only solution (to the violence in Syria) is the withdrawal of Bashar al-Asssad from power, and the launch of a democratic transition,” the message said.

Syria’s government says it is fighting a violent, foreign-backed insurgency and that most of the victims are its own troops.

The crowd outside the Syrian embassy in Tunis scrawled slogans on the wall of the building including: “Bashar is an assassin!” and “Get out, Bashar!.”

When the flag was lowered, the protesters chanted: “The people want liberty for Syria,” adapting a phrase coined during the revolutions last year which ousted entrenched rulers in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

“Since it was Tunisia which sparked the Arab Spring, the country is once again igniting a campaign against another assassin,” said one of the protesters, Hanen Sadaoui. “It’s time for Bashar to step down.”

[Read More]

Post-revolution foreign policy, you’re doing it right.

#Syria via mohandasgandhi

#Syria:

A Protesters holds a sign reading ‘Bashar, Game over’ as she takes part in a demonstration in front of the Syrian embassy in Tunis, Tunisia, 4 February 2012.