This man – Mousab Azzawi DOES NOT represent the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights:
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: A Clarification by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stresses that since the start of the Syrian Revolution the Syrian regime and some of its loyalists, who live in Britain, are trying the discredit the Observatory and distort its image by launching websites using the name of the organisation, speaking to the foreign media on behalf of the Observatory, making statements that are not related to the reports and data issued by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights regarding human rights violations inside Syria.
Moreover, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stresses that its Director and Founder Mr Rami Abdurrahman is the only official spokesperson of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and there are no other members of the organisation outside Syria apart from Mr Abdurrahman himself and the English spokesperson for the Observatory Miss Hivin Kako.
All the official statements and stands of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights are published on the only official website of the organization (www.syriahr.com) and through its email address (syriahr@hotmail.com).
12/12/2011
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
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BBC: http://supportkurds.org/reports/profile-syrian-observatory-for-human-rights/
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3.31pm: Prominent Syria experts have given their backing to human rights campaigner Rami Abdulrahman in a dispute over control of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Advancement of Arab Understanding, said:
I have seen nothing from his organisation that brings into question the credibility and professionalism of what he does.He said there was no evidence that Abdulrahman had an association with Rifaat al-Assad, the uncle of Bashar al-Assad, as a rival member of the Observatory claimed.
Sheila Mosley, co-chair of Support Kurds in Syria, said:
Rami Abdulrahman’s credibility and integrity are in tact. He is reporting on human rights issues whether in the opposition or people in the Syrian army. He has reported deaths among the army, which is not a popular move among a lot of activists.
If you look at the things that have been thrown up against Rami, one by one they are not true. They are just coming up with other stories to bash his credibility because they want to shut him up.
Mousab Azzawi, who claims to speak for the genuine Observatory, said Abdulrahman does not provide names of people he claims have been killed in Syria. Azzawi who has set up a rival website (syriahr.org as opposoed to Abdulrahman’s sryriahr.com) claimed to be the official Observatory, said: “Our updates about the revolution are clear and transparent.”
He claimed Abdulrahman inflated the death toll of an alleged sectarian incident in Homs last year, when he claimed 39 people were killed. “That number was not correct. The actual number was six.”
Azzawi admitted that it was incorrect to claim that Abdulrahman could not communicate in English. He could also provide no evidence for his claim that Abdulrahman had links to Rifaat al-Assad.
On the Facebook page of Abdulrahman’s organisation “a clarification” has been published, which implies that the Syrian regime is behind the attacks on his credibility. It reads:
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stresses that since the start of the Syrian Revolution the Syrian regime and some of its loyalists, who live in Britain, are trying the discredit the Observatory and distort its image by launching websites using the name of the organisation, speaking to the foreign media on behalf of the Observatory, and making statements which are not related to the reports and the data issued by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights regarding human rights violations inside Syria.