As the UNmonitoring
of Assad’s mass atrocities proceeds as UNplanned, and President Obama’s Atrocities
Prevention Board convenes, the Assads continue to lovingly amass atrocities, as
Russia’s arms-peddling Oligarchs sing and Iran’s rageaholics Mullas dance.
Monday April 23, 2012
Death Toll: 80, including
37people in Hama City, 17 in the town of Jarjanaz (Idlib Province), 5 in Daraa,
2 in Deir Ezzor, 1 in Rural Damascus and 1 in Hassakeh.
News
Op-Eds & Special Reports
Assad’s Plan A
Nuancing
my take on Assad’s Plan A (Plan B, namely, the creation of an Alawite state,
remains as the fallback plan), it seems that Assad is trying to retake major urban
centers by driving away the restive population through ethnic cleansing carried
out by indiscriminate pounding of residential neighborhoods. The rational seems to be that Guerilla warfare
in the countryside will not acquire too much domestic or international notice, and
that in due course of time, it could be snuffed out by attrition. Meanwhile, leaderless
displaced population will be too busy fighting for the basics to cause too much
problems.
What
is aiding the Assad in implementing his plan is the lack of any international
support to the local resistance networks.
In Homs City,
most of the plan has already been accomplished as Al-Jazzerah reports highlights
below. The plan has long been carried out in Jisr Ashoughour in Idlib Province
as well.
Al-Jazeerah report on
ethnic cleansing in Homs City: the pounding affected more than 54% of the city
and drove away over 700,000 residents and allowed neighborhoods that remain
loyal to the regime, inhabited mostly by Alawites, to become geographically
connected http://youtu.be/26LkNICdtkg
Now, Assad’s
attention seems to have shifted back to Hama City, one day following the
visit of UN monitors.
Arba’een Neighborhood, Hama
City: the pounding http://youtu.be/sIfzcytVlRU
Some of the victims of the new massacre http://youtu.be/wBtBIBWD4Tg
, http://youtu.be/7z-9YYe0huo , http://youtu.be/M5IR3-MHDfI , http://youtu.be/2CdGXWXTSxk , http://youtu.be/wD1M7KS8ezg Local
activist describes how the neighborhood was pounded and how Arab League and now
UN monitors proven to be ineffectual http://youtu.be/lEggTW11I6w Thirteen
bodies were buried http://youtu.be/5RSZgO7mOTs
, http://youtu.be/T5XRofZTJJI In Al-Mrabit
neighborhood, protesters play the usual deadly cat-an-mouse game with snipers http://youtu.be/L4yw5cx2l6I
In this
light, the recent “liberation” of most of Rural Deir Ezzor, may not mean as much
to the Assads as their inability to control the city of Deir Ezzor itself.
Deir Ezzor Province: Jafaar Brigade holds a
victory parade on April 22 celebrating the liberation of a number of
communities http://youtu.be/uq4Wy-GfYRI
Monitoring the UN Monitors
The UN
monitors who visited the town of Zabadani, Damascus Province, do not
seem to be “impressed” with the signs of damage wrought by pounding that they locals
showed them. At least, this is what the activist who prepared this report says.
In it, we hear the UN monitor says that the damage he inspected looks more like
normal degradation than impact of pounding http://youtu.be/nCuZKDd5WvE
Pro-regime networks escorted the monitors
on their visit, we can one of them in the report trying to hide the logo on his
microphone. The visit, we are told, lasted for less than an hour. The monitors refused to take the reports
prepared by local activists on loyalist checkpoints and crimes, so they burnt
tem in protest after their departure.
In Douma,
Damascus Province, locals stage mass rally to celebrate the arrival of the UN
monitors as they chant “the people want to topple the regime” and “Death over
Humiliation” http://youtu.be/xR-szNIhmFE
The monitors arrive http://youtu.be/JqwyTal5vRs
“The people want to arm the FSA” http://youtu.be/7E0aWsHjQhU
Other video Highlights
In
Damascus City, protesters in Naher Eisheh block the nearby highway with
burning tires and come under fire http://youtu.be/te0xX5hxhAM
This has become a usually nightly routine in many neighborhoods across the city.
In Homs
City, locals are forced to use the old wire trick to help rescue the
injured from sniper attacks http://youtu.be/YmthOEV70Cc
In the town
of Jarjanaz, Idlib Province, a tank shell landed on a house killing 17 locals
http://youtu.be/nYR2xsqC7rc , http://youtu.be/8EXMm-7QmQ0
The people at the
Foreign Policy Initiative ask “Does
the President Have the Will to End Assad’s Atrocities in Syria?” They
then remind President Obama of his words in March 2011 explaining the decision
to intervene in Libya:
“To brush aside
America’s responsibility as a leader and-–more profoundly-–our responsibilities
to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal
of who we are. Some nations may be able to
turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is
different. And as President, I refused
to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.”
“What the President said
in March 2011 of the Qaddafi regime’s imminent mass atrocities in Libya,” the concluded,
“applies equally today to the Assad regime’s continuing mass atrocities in Syria.”
Indeed. And yet… the policies
are not on par, despite the fact that our senses have been assaulted by a
barrage of images of slaughter and mass graves. Whatever happened to the Responsibility
to Protect? I wonder what the “first Atrocities Prevention Board, chaired by
Ms. Samantha Power, Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights,
National Security Council, and which had its first meeting
earlier today, plan to do about the atrocities in Syria!
The Board, we are told
is meant to “discuss ways to increase the U.S. efforts in protecting innocent
men, women and children from genocide across the world – an effort President
Obama called “a core national security interest and a moral responsibility of
the United States.”
Well, let’s see.
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