A dramatic pic from the battle of #Aleppo. #FSA #Syria via @clairelarsson twitter.com/Ugariti_Homsi/…
— Ugariti Homsi (@Ugariti_Homsi) Août 9, 2012
Rafif Jouejati is the English spokeswoman for the Local Coordinating Committees in Syria, a network of activists. She is also the director of FREE-Syria, a nonprofit humanitarian organization that focuses on women’s empowerment, and a member of the Day After Project, which is developing a transition plan for the country. She is on Twitter.
AUGUST 8, 2012
The situation in Syria is deteriorating at lightning speed as regional and international actors enter the fray. Some are there out of a genuine desire to help, while others are capitalizing on the chaos. Meanwhile, more than 20,000 people have been killed, more than 2 million have been internally displaced; and incalculable damage has been inflicted on infrastructure and society. Syrians must avoid civil war to ensure that those who suffered did not do so in vain.
How can they do this?
By overthrowing the Assad regime. No attempts to stabilize the country can be successful unless the originator of the armed conflict – Assad and the single-party system he represents – is deposed.
The Free Syrian Army must adhere to a code of conduct, Syrians must agree on a transitional government plan, and Assad must go.
However, the Syrian opposition – inside the country and abroad – can take specific actions now. It can accelerate the development, dissemination and acceptance of a transitional framework assuring minorities – who have been in the country for thousands of years – that they play an instrumental role in building the new Syria.
The transitional framework, already in progress and known as the Day After Project, can leverage the recent high-level diplomatic defections to “keep the lights on” post-Assad. This transitional government – created by Syrians for Syrians – must immediately address the humanitarian crisis, rebuild infrastructure, revive the tattered economy and implement a system of transitional justice.
Meanwhile, the Free Syrian Army must develop and adhere to a code of conduct based on international law and the Geneva Conventions. This is already in progress, as several Free Syrian Army battalions have begun signing a code of conduct, which will be instrumental in differentiating between the Free Syrian Army and other armed elements that are creating further chaos.
Lastly, it’s not too early to create a new constitution that will protect the rights of all Syrians and establish a framework for free and fair elections.
Avoiding a civil war in Syria is no easy task, but it can be done – with a carefully planned transitional framework, an ethical code of conduct that is implemented, and a focus on the revolution’s original goals: freedom, democracy and dignity.
Join Room for Debate on Facebook and follow updates ontwitter.com/roomfordebate.
1530 GMT: Syria. The towns around Daraa have been fiercely attacked today. Yesterday, intense fighting and shelling occurred in the town of Busr al Harir. Today more shelling has occurred there, but the towns of El Taebeh and Dael have also been heavily shelled (map). A terrible video from Dael shows a severely wounded man, and yet another shows a severely injured teenager. There are videos of smoke rising above Dael, and another shows smoke rising near the border with Jordan. The video below claims to show people trying to rescue the injured after a shell hits in Dael. It is also disturbing:
1456 GMT: Syria. Not all the news is about insurgents and armies and death – the protest movement is still strong in many places, away from the heaviest fighting. What’s interesting is that now that the heaviest fighting in Damascus is over, we may be seeing a resurgence of protests there, protests that were growing larger and more bold before the fighting erupted several weeks ago.
An activist shares this video:
@HamaEcho Hijaz square (map) is at the very center of the city – the railway station is clearly visible in the video.
1445 GMT: Syria. With reports of anti-aircraft weapons and heavy machine guns in the hands of Syrian insurgents, videos like this add explanation for why the Syrian helicopters and fighters have been flying higher today than in the past:
1408 GMT: Syria. We’ve been reporting about the worsening conditions in Zabadani, northwest of Damascus (map). Today, as shelling renewed, the Local Coordination Committees have declared the city a disaster area:
For the past 60 days, the regime has continued its brutal siege and bombardment of the town. This has resulted in the destruction of more than half the area neighborhoods and infrastructure…
In addition, the remaining neighborhoods have sustained partial destruction, and approximatly 22,000 residents have fled to neighboring districts and towns. The regime’s shelling has continued into these areas, and therefore is threatening the lives of those who had fled. Thus far… 22 people have been martyred during the daily shelling…
In addition, hundreds of wounded have been reported, and they cannot be rescued due to the daily nonstop shelling and the increasingly choking siege on the town. The area is now surrounded by more than 56 military points, including Lebanse Hezbollah soldiers.
There is a total power outage and all humanitarian relief and basic supplies have been cut off.
In light of these dire humanitarian conditions, and given the extent of Assad crimes against civilians, we request that the international community and humanitarian organizations implement and secure humanitarian corridors to provide direct relief to save the lives of the more than 8,000 remaining civilians who are living under continuous, direct bombing.
1358 GMT: Syria. Global Post News has had a camera inside Aleppo, and has posted a collection of raw footage taken in the city between July 30th and August 6th. It is a must see, but many images are disturbing:
1352 GMT: Syria. The Local Coordinating Committees have published a “Code of Conduct” for Free Syrian Army fighters to follow. What’s striking is that some of the most important members of the FSA have already signed it.
We’ve published the complete text, as well as our snap analysis, in a separate feature.
See also Syria Analysis: The Local Coordination Committees Issue a “Code of Conduct” for Free Syrian Army
1334 GMT: Syria. It’s hard to get a feeling for how the fighting in Aleppo is going, but there are reports that the FSA has withdrawn from Saleh el Dine. Other reports suggest that this is not true. Hala Jaber suggests that the FSA has withdrawn, but that Saleh el Dine is not fully under regime control. Kurt Pelda suggests that FSA fighters are still moving to the front.
All we do know is that fighting there has been extremely intense – this video was reportedly taken earlier today:
1256 GMT: Syria. A colonel with the Free Syrian Army describes the significance of the Saleh el Dine district of Aleppo (map):
All the weapons we have to combat this onslaught are guns, Kalashnikovs, anti-tanks, RPGs and some anti-aircraft rockets.
Salahedin district is the western gateway for Aleppo and one of the first districts liberated in the city. It is close to the college of artillery and armament – all the regime’s forces are piled nearby in al-Hamadaniah district. That is why it is so important for the regime to get it back from the hands of the FSA.
The Saleh el Dine district is exposed to direct fire and Assad reinforcements from two major bases, an artillery college to the west (map) and a major military base to the south (map). Furthermore, Saleh el Dine is west of the Citadel, a massive fortress that still has many Assad soldiers inside it, the focus of the last few days of fighting (map). If Saleh el Dine does not fall to the Assad military, it would be a major blow, because the regime’s tactical advantage is much smaller in some of the other areas, and some of the narrow streets, to the west of Saleh el Dine.
1206 GMT: Syria. Another dramatic video from Kafranbel (map, see previous update) – a shell falls in the town, and the cameraman and fighters from the Free syrian Army rush to the scene. The result – devastation:
1152 GMT: Syria. The little Idlib town of Kafranbel (map) is well known to many of our readers, and to many across the globe. The town is known for its defiant protests and its witty signs, usually written in English, a clear demonstration of the Syrian opposition’s understanding of the power of new media.
But Kafranbel has been under sustained and intense attack for more than two days. This video shows some of the artillery, reportedly stations about 14 kilometers from the town, that is attacking the area. Another disturbing video shows the aftermath of some of the attacks:
1134 GMT: Syria. According to the Local Coordinating Committees, 65 people have been killed so far today,
“…including 11 women and 10 children: 22 martyrs in Hama most of whom were killed in Jerjisa, 17 martyrs in Aleppo, 9 martyrs in Deir Ezzor, 5 martyrs in Idlib, 4 martyrs in Homs, 4 martyrs in Damascus and its suburbs, 3 martyrs in Daraa and 1 martyr in Lattakia.”
Jarjeezah is nestled near a lake near al Rastan, between Hama and Homs (map). The LCC has released a list of 20 names – including children – of the people reportedly killed so far in that small town today.
We haven’t seen other information on JarJeezah, but Al Rastan has been absolutely pounded by shelling and air strikes today. The videos tell the tale, and here is one example:
Another video shows a group of well armed men, reportedly a fresh defection from the military.
1128 GMT: Syria. Yesterday’s video claiming to show Riad Hijab in Daraa (see previous update):
1122 GMT: Syria. One of the most curious claims yesterday were reports from the anti-Assad activists that Riad Hijab, the Syrian Prime Minister who defected this week, was not in Jordan, as had been reported, but was actually still in Syria – meeting with opposition activists and Free Syrian Army leaders in Daraa.
We didn’t cover those reports. They seemed too weird to be true.
Well, according to a Jordanian official, Riad Hijab and other members of his family have just arrived in Jordan today, adding credence to the original activist reports:
Sameeh Maaytah said Hijab “entered Jordan in the early hours of dawn today along with several members of his family.” Maaytah spoke to the state Petra News Agency. He did not elaborate.
Maaytah did not answer repeated calls by The Associated Press to comment on conflicting reports that Hijab was already in Jordan, having come there after he defected to the opposition on Monday.
On Monday, Maaytah denied that Hijab was in the country. But another Jordanian official and the rebel Free Syrian Army said he fled to Jordan that day along with his seven brothers, two sisters and their families. They said he was planning to travel onward to Qatar, but did not specify when.
1115 GMT: Syria. Two videos, both dated yesterday, show what this conflict looks like. The first shows one of the roads into Aleppo, littered with the results of an FSA attack on a military convoy:
The second, a MIG performing a strafing run over Saleh el Dine.
1055 GMT: Syria. The long anticipated military assault on Aleppo appears to have started. The Syrian army moved into the Saleh el Dine district of Aleppo (map) with force today. The Telegraph reports that the regime may have had some success, though there is confusion as to how much:
“The regime forces advanced into Al-Malaab Street with tanks and armoured vehicles and fierce fighting is now taking place in the area,” said Wassel Ayub, a commander in the rebel Free Syrian Army.
Syrian government security sources have said that the army is poised to take control of the Salaheddin district.
“The army is advancing from west to east to cut Salaheddin in half horizontally. It will not take a long time to control the district, even if there are some pockets of resistance remaining,” an official told AFP.
But Abu Firas, a member of the rebel Free Syrian Army, said the insurgents had left only one building in Salaheddin.
“We did not withdraw, our guys are still there and the situation is in our favour. We just left a building that we had in one of the streets, but it’s not like we are retreating”.
The Guardian’s Martin Chulov reports that there is also fighting is the suburbs. He also reports that the Free Syrian Army is holding ground in Saleh el Dine, though it has withdrawn from some buildings:
They say they have made a tactical withdrawal from a couple of streets … but they say the regime hasn’t yet advanced into those areas, but they are expecting that advance very soon. They insist they hold the vast majority of the district, and that the withdrawal they have made is only a matter of 15 or so metres and is tactical.
Salahedin was always going to be ground zero for the battle for Aleppo, and the only way to dislodge rebels was going to be a ground invasion. It is being led by tanks, from what we understand there are not too many infantry. But they could follow later in the day. There are no ground forces in the rest of the city, but in Salahedin some kind of a push in under way.
Rebels claimed to have hit some tanks in Salahedin, Martin said. “The way this battle is going to play out is more of a war of attrition rather than a quick decisive battle,” he said.
According to Chulov, the loss of tanks and the lack of infantry is the key point. The Free Syrian Army is fairing better than expected because of the last minute defections of generals that tipped them off about the attack. The lack of infantry guardian the tanks is a sign, according to Chulov who is inside Aleppo, that the regime is worried that too many forces would defect. But dead tanks in roads block advances, and jeopardize the other tanks in the line, so despite having a massive advantage in shear strength, the regime’s advance, thus far, has been slow.
James Miller takes over today’s live coverage. Thanks to Scott Lucas for getting us started.
0845 GMT: Syria. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has acknowledged that some of the 48 Iranians abducted near Damascus on Saturday are retired members of the Revolutionary Guards and Army and others “were from other ministries”; however, he denied any still had a military or official role and said they were on pilgrimage.
par لجان التنسيق المحلية في سوريا, mercredi 8 août 2012, 14:41 ·
New Battalions Sign the Code of Conduct
As the ranks of the Free Syrian Army expand and its brave fighters fight a national, multi-front battle, there has become a need for rules to govern their work. These rules must combine the spirit of the national duty they carry out today in facing the aggressor, Bashar Al-Assad and his regime, and moving towards the regime’s ouster and the interests of justice and military discipline.
The Local Coordination Committees presents this brief code of conduct to the fighters and to the public, so as to draw attention to and highlight the moral and political ethics of military action. These ethics are, in essence, the same as positions the Free Syrian Army has taken in recent days, as well as the principles they have announced. These ethics and principles represent the essence of our revolution and its moral and national foundation.
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The Syrian Revolution erupted in Mid-March 2011 against a corrupt and despotic regime that weakened a country and humiliated its people, raising a small group of elites above the Syrian general public. From the very beginning, the regime responded to popular protests with violence and hatred, and pitted the national army against the revolutionary citizens to protect the oppressive regime.
The Free Syrian Army was formed by honorable officers, junior officers, and soldiers who defected from the regime because they refused to kill their fellow citizens. They were joined by brave civilians whose families and homes were destroyed by Assad’s aggression.
Today, the Free Syrian Army plays a genuine military role in the glorious Syrian revolution. Therefore, the values and goals of the revolution (freedom, dignity, and justice for Syria and the Syrian people, and the protection and unity of the country), must serve as the military doctrine and governing principles for the Army’s actions and the behavior of its members.
The Free Syrian Army looks forward to the day when Syria will be free, so that it might be at the core of a new national army that protects the country’s independence, sovereignty, constitution, and democratic institutions. The Free Syrian Army is sacrificing its blood in order for that day to come.
Article I
In the Free Syrian Army, as an independent, defected soldier, or civilian volunteer, my first responsibilities are to:
Defend Syrian revolutionaries in the face of tyranny and ensure the continuation of the revolution to oust the regime. I will direct my weapons exclusively against Assad aggressors. I will serve my nation, Syria, and the freedom of the Syrian people. I am a fighter in the battle to defend my people.
I will use my weapons to overthrow the criminal regime that has been imposed upon us.
Article II
I pledge to my people and my revolution that I will refrain from any behavior or practice that would undermine the principles of our revolution: the principles of freedom, citizenship, and dignity. I will respect human rights in accordance with our legal principles, our tolerant religious principles, and the international laws governing human rights – the very human rights for which we struggle today and which we intend to implement in the future Syria.
Article III
Any person who takes up arms in the name of the regime, regardless of their rank, should be arrested and remain in the custody of the Free Syrian Army. In the event that an individual is arrested, and it is determined that the individual was working for the regime, voluntarily or for payment, to supply information about revolutionary activists, that individual shall be considered a prisoner and treated in accordance with laws governing prisoners of war.
Article IV
I pledge not to practice any form of torture, rape, mutilation, or degradation. I will preserve prisoners’ rights and will not exercise any of the above practices in order to obtain confessions.
Article V
I will not issue any executive orders, particularly with regard to death or corporal punishment. Only an appropriate legal authority, with relevant expertise, may conduct trials and find perpetrators guilty.
Article VI
I will not engage in any practice that leads to the physical torture or murder of prisoners or informants, and I will not participate in any public execution.
Article VII
I pledge not to engage in any form of theft or looting on the pretext that I am helping to finance the armed struggle. I pledge not to take any person hostage for ransom.
Article VIII
I pledge not to use my weapon against activists or civilians, whether or not I agree with them; and I pledge to not use my weapon against any other Syrian citizen. I pledge to limit my use of weapons to the defense of our people and myself in facing the criminal regime.
Article IX
I pledge not to exercise reprisals on the basis of ethnicity, sect, religion, or any other basis, and to refrain from any abusive practices, in word or in deed, against any component of the Syrian people.
Article X
I pledge to surrender my weapons to the Transitional Authority, which will manage the country’s affairs during the transitional period after the fall of the regime.
Article XI
If found guilty of violating any of these articles, I agree to submit to a fair trial undertaken by specialized committees formed under the supervision of the Free Syrian Army’s leadership and monitored by an independent judiciary body.
Initial Signatories:
Lieutenant Colonel Muhannad Ahmad Al-Talaa, Commander of the Military Council of Deir Ezzor
Colonel Qassim Saad Eddin, Commander of the Military Council in Homs
Sergeant Ismail Sheikh Saleh, Jisr Al-Shoghour, Idlib
Lieutenant Colonel Zahid Hourani, head of the Military Office in Homs
Major Ibrahim Moutawaa, Commander of the Al-Nour Battalion in Qosair
Colonel Radwan Ayyoush, Commander of the Military Office in Homs
Lieutenant Colonel Jamil Ra’adoun, Commander of the League of Battalions in the Hama Countryside
Colonel Khaled Alqatini of Khan Sheihoun and its countryside
First Lieutenant Hamza Qaziz, Al-Baraa Brigade in Douma
The Al-Baraa Brigade in Douma
Major Abou Mohammad Al-Homsi, the Soldiers of God Brigade in Damascus
The Falcons of the Land Brigade in Hama
The Martyrs of Latamna Battalion
The Martyrs of Asi Battalion in Hama
The Abi Al-Fidaa Battalion in Hama
The Special Operations Battalion in Hama
The Sunna Lions Battalion in Mayadeen
The Omar Al-Mukhtar Battalion in Deir Baalba, Homs
Abdul Baset Sarout
New Signatures
Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad al-Aboud Commander of the Revolutionary Military Council in Deir Ezzor
Captain Mostafa Shawardi/ Ansar Mohammad Battalion in Mawrak
Lieutenant Colonel Hafez Jad AlKaeem Faraj Commander of the Military Council in the Governorate of Sweida
Lieutenant Maher al-Tamer Commander of Shuhada al-Hurriya (Martyrs of Freedom) Battalion in Mawrak
Al-Haq (The Truth) Battalion in Mqeilbiya
Burkan al-Sham (Damascus Volcano) Battalion
New Signatures
Major Qassem Najem/ Tahrir alJanoob Battalion in Daraa
Captain Khaled Fatehallah Commander of the Free Syrian Army in Daeel
Captain Ali Shakerdi/ al-Amjad Battalion in Aleppo
Right Hand: Bashar (Al-Assad)
Source
August 7, 2012 § Leave a Comment
From the new season of Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines.
[youtube http://youtu.be/6FD9urcUWXw?]
In January 2012, two controversial pieces of legislation were making their way through the US Congress. SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA, the Protect Intellectual Property Act, were meant to crack down on the illegal sharing of digital media. The bills were drafted on request of the content industry, Hollywood studios and major record labels.
The online community rose up against the US government to speak out against SOPA, and the anti-online piracy bill was effectively killed off after the largest online protest in US history. But it was only one win in a long battle between US authorities and online users over internet regulation. SOPA and PIPA were just the latest in a long line of anti-piracy legislation US politicians have passed since the 1990s.
“One of the things we are seeing which is a by-product of the digital age is, frankly, it’s much easier to steal and to profit from the hard work of others,” says Michael O’Leary, the executive vice-president for global policy at the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
The US government says it must be able to fight against piracy and cyber attacks. And that means imposing more restrictions online. But proposed legislation could seriously curb freedom of speech and privacy, threatening the internet as we know it.
Can and should the internet be controlled? Who gets that power? How far will the US government go to gain power over the web? And will this mean the end of a free and global internet?
Fault Lines looks at the fight for control of the web, life in the digital age and the threat to cyber freedom, asking if US authorities are increasingly trying to regulate user freedoms in the name of national and economic security.
Nicole Tung
The brother of Abdul Latif Qureya, who was killed, mourns the loss of at least seven family members
War has come to Aleppo on full scale. In the southwestern neighborhoods of Bustan al-Qasr, Sikari and Salaheddine, explosions rock buildings on a daily basis, and on almost every street you look, glass, debris and rubble litter the place. It is a far cry from the Aleppo I visited almost three weeks ago, when nightly demonstrations filled the air with defiance and protesters slipped into the pink, blue and fluorescent lights of these working-class neighborhoods. Now, Salaheddine is emptied of its residents who have fled to schools, mosques and parks around the city. But Bustan al-Qasr is different. Most of its residents stayed, and in a densely populated area frequently hit hard by shells, airstrikes and helicopter attacks, it means a high casualty rate.
Civilians have tried to go about their daily business as Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters patrol the streets and head out for missions in nearby neighborhoods. Some afternoons are quiet in Bustan al-Qasr, but shells land consistently in the distance and then suddenly, the explosions visit this area. At about 2:30 p.m. today, a MiG-29 screamed overhead, flying extremely low, with the distinct sound of an impact a few seconds later. Out on the streets, civilians ran in all directions fleeing the scene. An apartment block had been hit, and the injured were being carried out. Two girls with paled, shocked faces came running out, unable to make sense of what had just happened. And then a man, covered in dust, dressed only in an undershirt and trousers, stumbled out after them, his face in disbelief. He was screaming over the telephone in the middle of the street, and on the shop shutter behind him graffiti was scrawled: “Zero hour has come, God, Syria, Freedom.”
The MiG returned, screamed overhead again, sending the man and the crowd nearby scrambling for cover. FSA fighters raised their AK-47s and tried to shoot at the plane in a futile attempt to do something. The second bomb dropped just half a block away, and the street instantly became filled with dust and debris, falling like confetti. FSA fighters joined the fray, and instantly more men, women and children were running. One man held a green telephone, clutching it in one hand and holding a girl in the other as they ran. Chaos. Men, armed and unarmed, ran toward the other damaged building to search for injured and then a third bomb dropped on a building across the street, sending more debris raining down. People came pouring out of the apartments screaming, their hands on their heads, all unable to understand. They looked at the cars on the street, flattened by falling concrete, turned their heads toward the sky and ran back inside as they heard the plane again. This time, there was no explosion.
On a bloodied mattress, the lifeless body of Abdul Latif Qureya was being hurried by five men toward a pickup truck that would take him to the secret field hospital. And then another mattress, this time with a man who miraculously survived, was carried out. More women and children came out, carrying few possessions and the clothes on their backs as they fled.
At the secret field hospital, the bodies began arriving. Qureya’s was already there, then his children and extended family began coming in. Lying near him was Bara’a, 8. Then came Hatem, 15, who was barely alive as he was plucked from the rubble of his apartment. But he didn’t make it, and he was dead on arrival. Qureya’s wife Wahiba was cut in half, and her body remained missing. Somewhere in the apartment was his other son Mahmoud. And then Qureya’s niece Takreet, 7, came in, her purple T-shirt and her face covered in dust. She too was lifeless, her mouth slightly ajar, probably as she took her last breath. A few minutes later, a man ran through the door holding a small blanketed body, Youssef, 1, Qureya’s nephew. He was limp in his underwear and undershirt.
In total, seven of the Qureya family were killed. Five of them were children under 15 years old. Two more bodies, of men, were brought in. One was Samer Bassar, 37, dressed in a beige djellaba and holding prayer beads, covered in blood. Another man was unidentified.
Horror visits Aleppo in many forms. Today, it was by way of a warplane.
Nicole Tung is a freelance photographer who previously documented the uprisings in Libya and Egypt. See more of her work here.
Aug 7, 2012
One day during my high school studies in Syria, over a decade ago, the school’s administration decided to replace a sport class with a science class to compensate for the absence of a teacher. About half of my classmates rejected the decision (they liked their sport), refused to enter the class and stood outside in protest.
I had never seen the school’s administration more nervous. That negligible act of rebellion compelled the headmaster to come and speak to us personally, armed with what I’d call the Baathist tools of coercion. “I know that most of you are good people,” he told us, “but I want you to point out to me the subversive student among you, who I know is an ikhwanji (a pejorative term that refers to a member of the banned Muslim Brotherhood organisation).
“If you do not, I will have to call the Political Security (a branch of the mukhabarat, with an office adjacent to the school)”. That sentence was powerful enough to make us return to class, without uttering a word.
I’m reminded of that defining day on the schoolyard as I watch the world try to make sense of the absurdity of the Assad regime today, and its answer to any form of dissent by calling Syrians “mundasseen” – infiltrators.
Syrians raised under this regime know that taking to the streets to call for the government’s downfall is the very definition of audacity. Syrians do not need to be told by media what the regime is capable of or how it behaves when it is confronted. They also do not need to be told to fight until the end because they know full well the regime kills and tortures in times of calm, as it does when it is embattled.
Yet outside Syria, a narrative taking root suggests that the Syrian uprising is somehow less worthy than the other Arab pro-democracy revolts that swept the region last year. The Syrian uprising, according to this narrative, is a foreign conspiracy promoted by biased media and instigated by extremists. The position is maintained largely by the Arab left, pan-Arabists and anti-imperialists, as if the only way to resist imperialism or an Israeli threat is for the Syrian people to endure living under Baathism.
Mohamed Hassanein Haykal, a veteran Egyptian journalist and a former adviser to the late Gamal Abdel Nasser, dismissed the Syrian uprising late last year as one spurred by foreign intelligence. He said the cities that revolted against the regime were border cities – proof, he said, it was not a real revolution. Only if Damascus and Aleppo rose up, he argued, could the uprising be considered a legitimate revolution. Since the two main cities rose up, however, he has remained deafeningly silent. (It’s worth reminding Haykal that all Syrian cities, except Hama and Suweida, are border cities).
Others have jumped from denying the existence of a popular uprising to labelling it a civil war. When Abdul Razzaq Tlass defected in June last year, for example, Asad Abu Khalil, an influential Lebanese-American pundit known for his criticism of Israel, posted this comment on his blog: “Western and Arab (Saudi and Qatari) media are so desperate for any news that is damaging to the Syrian regime that they play up the ‘news’ of YouTube-based defection of individual soldiers or officers. That is really not news worthy.”
Not long after that comment was made, the lieutenant became a nightmare for the regime, battling with a group of military defectors for 28 days in Baba Amr.
The Syrian opposition has undeniably committed several human rights violations. But it is one thing to highlight these violations, quite another to undermine the sacrifices of people who seek nothing but freedom from a brutal regime. Syrian activists, via social media, highlight and criticise abuses more often than any human rights organisation. In March, when Human Rights Watch issued an open letter to the Syrian opposition about human rights violations, Syrian activists issued a letter that unequivocally acknowledged the importance of constructive criticism and called on the organisation to continue to highlight violations.
Abu Khalil and others have tried to taint the Syrian uprising as a foreign plot, and save particular ire for Qatar. Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite behemoth based in Doha, has borne the brunt of this criticism.
Last week the astute Emirati commentator Sultan Al Qassemi wrote that both Al Jazeera and Al Arabia have “lowered their journalistic standards, abandoned rudimentary fact-checks, and relied on anonymous callers and unverified videos in place of solid reporting”.
I share some of Al Qassemi’s sentiments but disagree with the attempt to undermine the narrative of the activists, especially the suggestion that anonymous callers are paid “handsome amounts of money” to appear on these channels.
Qatar’s role in the Arab world was once hailed. In 2006, Abu Khalil called the arrival of Emir Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani in Lebanon a “PR coup for the Qatari government”. After the Hizbollah-Israel war in 2006, during a visit to Beirut, Qatar’s emir was symbolically handed keys to Lebanon by Lebanese officials, who called the emir the owner of the land rather than its guest.
But regardless of how the uprising is being portrayed by regional governments, or their affiliated media, the only narrative that matters for Syria is the fact on the ground. The regime is suffering everywhere in the country, from Idlib to Damascus to Deir Ezzor. Generals continue to defect, others are killed in battle and officials at the regime’s helm continue to defect.
These are all stories that must be told.
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