Thursday 19 January 2012
January 19, 2012 by sks
Filed under News, Syrian Revolution
Syrian Uprising 2011 Information Centre: SUMMARY (19/01/2012): Today, at least 25 martyrs fell (21 civilians, 4 military) – through shelling, shootings, torture and executions. Following yesterday’s ceasefire in Zabadani, today the regime halted it’s attack on Kafar Takharim in Idlib province and both towns are currently under the control of the Free Syrian Army. In Hama defecting soldiers killed Brigadier General Adel al-Mustafa, who was one of those responsible for ordering the killing of protesters in the city. The Arab League observers have continued to “verify” the regime’s lack of compliance despite today marking the end of their initial mandate. Since the observers started work 1 month ago at least 700 martyrs have fallen (Avaaz says 746).KAFAR TAKHARIM (19/01/2012): This is a town in Idlib province, in the mountains very close to the Turkish border. After 2 days of fighting a 24 hour ceasefire has been agreed, Assad’s forces have withdrawn for now leaving the town in the hands of the Free Syrian Army.
UPDATE (19/01/2012): The video shows gunfire in Hama, Syria’s 4th city, where a major security operation seems to be underway – with security forces spreading out across the city and gunfire reported in several districts. At least 3 martyrs have fallen in the city so far today. Homs is still a war zone while security forces killed 4 men in Jabal al-Zawiyah (Idlib province) when they targeted their car. There is also fighting between defecting soldiers and security forces down south, in Dael (Daraa province) which has led to several casualties. In total at least 17 martyrs have fallen today – 4 military and 13 civilians.
Syria Live and local coordination committees in Syria name of the detainee, Ahmed Hussam Nabulsi his mother’s name Hiam Moses Nefoussa Tartous adventitia block 10, is married and has 7 children
Foreign Office Minister meets Syrian Kurdish opposition leader
18 January 2012
Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt met the Syrian Kurdish political leader Dr Abdul Hakeem Bashar on 18 January.
Speaking after the meeting the Foreign Office Minister said:
“I was delighted to meet the Head of the Syrian Kurdish National Council, Dr Abdul Hakeem Bashar today, as part of the UK’s intensive engagement with a wide range of Syrian oppositionists.
I reiterated the clear and growing need for the Syrian opposition to come together to help define a shared vision for a future Syria where the political system is inclusive, representative and adheres to international human rights standards. This will be a crucial part of the transition to a free and democratic Syria which must also be underpinned by securing the rights of minorities, including for the Kurds as the largest minority group.”
EU Foreign Ministers will meet in Europe next week to discuss further sanctions on the Syrian regime, in response to continuing repression.
…
NOW! Lebanon
[local time] 
19:27 Al-Jazeera television station is broadcasting live footage of a protest calling for overthrowing the Syrian regime in Homs’ Karm al-Zaytoun.
19:22 Anti-regime protests broke out on Thursday evening in Syria’s Baalba neighborhood in Homs, Al-Jazeera quoted the spokesperson of Homs’ rebels as saying.
19:07 Syria lost over $2 billion over oil sanctions, AFP reported on Thursday.
17:39 Syrian security forces have killed 24 people on Thursday, Al-Arabiya quoted activists as saying.
15:49 Dissident soldiers killed a general after refusing his order to fire on civilians in the Syrian city of Hama, a hotbed of opposition against President Bashar al-Assad, activists said on Thursday.
15:36 Australia urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down on Thursday and said he should be tried before the International Criminal Court for “atrocities” against his people.
15:14 Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin said on Thursday thatSyria’s regime as well as opposition are behind the acts of violence in Syria.
14:55 Alawite intellectuals denounced on Thursday what it said are efforts by the Syrian government and parts of the opposition to link their sect to the regime, warning against the consequences of casting a popular uprising for civil rights in a sectarian light.
13:39 Syrian security forces’ gunfire killed 18 people, Al-Arabiya reported on Thursday.
13:10 A Syrian security officer was killed in car bomb in Damascus’s neighborhood of Al-Tadamon, Al-Arabiya television reported.
12:16 Syrian security forces killed four leading pro-democracy activists in an ambush in northwestern Edleb province on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
12:01 Syrian security forces’ gunfire killed eight on Thursday, Al-Arabiya television quoted activists as saying.
11:13 The Arab League will report Thursday on its heavily criticized observer mission to Syria as Western frustration grows over Russia’s opposition to UN action on quelling a bloody crackdown on dissent.
8:52 Germany on Wednesday accused Russia of preventing the UN Security Council from taking decisive action over the deadly crackdown on anti-regime protests in Syria.
8:30 MORNING LEADER: The European Union prepared on Wednesday to tighten sanctions against Syria over its repression of anti-regime protests, as long-time Damascus ally Moscow warned against punitive measures.
…
CNN: The European Union is planning further sanctions against Syria, spokesman Michael Mann said Wednesday, as Syria continues its crackdown on protesters.
…
Reuters: Syria killings persist as Arab monitors’ mandate expires
Syrian forces have retreated from a rebel-held town under a local ceasefire, residents said on Thursday, but deadly violence raged on elsewhere as a month-long mandate for Arab League peace monitors in Syria was expiring.
The head of the monitoring team was still working on his report and would not arrive at the League’s Cairo headquarters until Saturday, the day before Arab foreign ministers are due to weigh their next move on Syria, a League source said.
Twenty people, including two army officers, were reported killed across Syria, adding to a death toll of more than 600 since the Arab League observers arrived.
An armed insurgency is taking hold in some areas, hardening what began 10 months ago as a mostly peaceful struggle against President Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian rule.
Residents of Zabadani said troops and tanks that had besieged the insurgent-controlled town had pulled back after a deal to end days of fighting, according to an opposition leader.
Dozens of armored vehicles that had encircled Zabadani, a hill resort near the Lebanese border, withdrew to garrisons 8 km (5 miles) away, Kamal al-Labwani told Reuters.
The Arab League monitoring mandate was expiring on Thursday night, with the foreign ministers at odds over how to respond to the turmoil in which thousands of people have been killed.
“They are in a big mess,” a source close to the League said. “They are running out of options.”
Another League source said the chief monitor, Mohammed al-Dabi, had yet to complete his findings for Sunday’s meeting of the foreign ministers.
“Dabi is still working on the report and has postponed his arrival to Cairo to Saturday evening so that the report includes the latest scenes and updates witnessed by Arab monitors there,”
the source told Reuters
The leader of Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood said world powers should pile diplomatic pressure on Assad and set up a no-fly zone and “safe zones” to help the opposition.
“ISOLATE SYRIA”
“The international community should take the right position … They should fully isolate this regime, pull out their ambassadors and expel the regime’s ambassadors,” Mohammad Shaqfa told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Assad, whose father crushed an armed Brotherhood revolt in 1982, says Syria is facing a foreign conspiracy that is using Islamist militants to destroy a bastion of Arab nationalism.
“The country is capable of overcoming the current conditions and building a strong Syria,” Assad told a delegation calling itself the Arab People’s Initiative for Fighting Foreign Intervention in Syria, the state news agency SANA reported.
The U.N. Security Council is split over Syria, with Russia declaring it will work with China to block any move to authorize military intervention.
Western powers have acknowledged that a Libya-style campaign in Syria would be fraught with danger, but want the council at least to condemn Assad’s repression and impose sanctions.
Reliable casualty figures are hard to come by in Syria, where media access has been limited and the outside world has had to piece together a picture from the conflicting accounts of the parties to an inchoate and increasingly bloody struggle.
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 454 civilians had been killed since the Arab observers deployed on December 26 to verify whether an Arab peace plan was working.
It said 146 members of the security forces, including 27 who had deserted to the opposition, had also been killed. The Observatory’s figures did not include 26 people who authorities said were killed by a suicide bomber in Damascus on January 6.
The British-based Observatory reported at least 18 more civilian deaths across Syria on Thursday and said an insurgent attack in Hama had killed an army brigadier and a lieutenant.
Asked if the Arab monitors had made a difference, Rami Abdul-Rahman, the name used by the Observatory’s director, said: “Yes, in the first week, the number of deaths fell sharply. After that, no, the numbers rose.”
The Avaaz advocacy group said 746 civilians had been killed over the past month, and it urged the Arab League to ask the Security Council to impose punitive measures against Assad.
“TREATED WITH CONTEMPT”
“Arab League observers have now observed Assad’s brutality first hand,” Avaaz director Ricken Patel said. “Their mission has been treated with contempt and failed on every objective.”
The United Nations said on December 13 that security forces had killed more than 5,000 people in Syria since March. A week later Damascus said insurgents had killed 2,000 security personnel.
The Arab League suspended Syria and announced sanctions for its failure to comply with a November peace plan which required that it halt the bloodshed, withdraw military forces from the streets, free detainees, provide access to Arab monitors and the media, and open a political dialogue with opposition groups.
The unrest, combined with Western sanctions, has driven the value of the Syrian pound down by 50 percent on the black market, exchange dealers said.
Assad’s foes say the Arab monitoring mission has only given him diplomatic cover to pursue a violent crackdown.
Some Arab countries, led by Qatar, which heads the League’s committee on Syria, say the mission has failed. Qatar has even proposed sending in Arab troops, an idea opposed by Damascus and not endorsed by any other country in the 22-member League.
Iraq and Lebanon have said they will not enforce Arab sanctions on Syria, offering a trade lifeline to a country whose other neighbors are Turkey, Jordan and Israel.
European Union governments are expected on Monday to expand the list of people and Syrian companies and institutions targeted by EU sanctions, diplomats said in Brussels.
Syria Kurd groups to try to unite against Assad
Syrian Kurdish groups opposed to Bashar al-Assad will try to unite this month to explain their autonomy demands to Arab groups trying to topple the Syrian leader, activists said on Thursday.
While security forces have clashed daily with protesters and insurgents demanding Assad’s downfall in mainly Sunni Arab towns, Syrian Kurdish areas have remained relatively calm, despite many Kurds’ long-standing opposition to the government.
Syrian Kurdish exile leaders say they do not trust the Arab opposition to heed their demands for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish northeast of the country.
Kurdish groups representing Syria’s largest ethnic minority are also divided among themselves, with some factions backed by Iraqi Kurds, and another by Turkish Kurd rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), independent analysts said.
“There will be a national conference of all the Kurdish parties to form one front,” said Mahmoud Mohammad Bave Sabir, a leading member of the Democratic Union Kurdish Party of Syria, one of the oldest Kurdish opposition groups.
“The aim of the conference is to press the demands of the Kurds in Syria and to open a dialogue with the Arab opposition,” he told Reuters.
A date for the meeting has not been set, but it will be held this month in Arbil, capital of the semi-autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan, the activists said. All the main Syrian Kurdish parties, plus intellectuals and independent organizations, have been invited.
“The Arab opposition does not care about the Kurdish cause,” said Sarbast Nabi, a Syrian Kurdish politics professor at Salahaddin University in Arbil. “All they have promised is to deal with us as Syrian citizens.”
Kurds say they have been sidelined from the opposition Syrian National Council, an exile group that was set up in Turkey to coordinate a 10-month-old uprising against Assad.
“The Arab opposition is made up of Islamists and Arab nationalists who do not accept Kurdish demands for a democratic, pluralist, secular state where the rights of all minorities are recognized,” Nabi said.
Syrian Kurdish groups are also wary of Turkey’s influence on Syrian Arab dissidents based in Istanbul, given Ankara’s historic hostility to demands for autonomy for its own large Kurdish minority.
In 2004, Syrian Kurds fought deadly clashes with security forces for days after an incident at a football stadium in the main Kurdish city of Qamishli. At the time, they said they received no support from Arabs now leading the opposition.
But student activists say they are still mobilizing support inside Syria in preparation for taking to the streets.
Many thousands of Kurds live in the capital Damascus, as well as in the northeast, and if they swung their weight behind the uprising, it would deal another powerful blow to Assad.
3.25pm: The Syrian state news agency, Sana, has confirmed the death of Brigadier General Adel Moustapha. According to the opposition Local Co-ordination Committees he was killed by soldiers who refused his orders to shoot at civilians in the Bab Qilbi area (see 1.33pm). Sana reports that he was killed, along with two other members of the security forces, when “an armed terrorist group opened fire on a police patrol in the district”.
In the same report, Sana, says that the former head of the city municipality of of Dera’a, Hassan Boushnaq, was killed as he left his house, again by “an armed terrorist group”.
