The dithering is beginning
to have an impact on neighboring countries. Pandemonium paves way to spillover,
and spillover to regional chaos.
Monday May 14, 2012
Death toll: 22, including 10 in Homs City, 5 in Daraa, and
1 in each of Hama, Damascus, Rural Damascus and Deir Ezzor. In Rastan, Homs
Province, 9 locals and 23 troops loyal to Assad were killed in clashes
following an attempt by loyalist troops to retake the restive town that has
been under rebel control for months.
50 Syrian refugees who took
part in a hunger strike in Jordan’s city of Ramtha were expelled by Jordanian
authorities who drove them to the borders with Syria and left them there after
confiscating their papers. Local recruits of the FSA saved the 50 refugees,
however, and escorted them back safely to Daraa City. The hungers strike was
staged to protest living conditions in local refugee camps and restrictions on
their movements imposed by Jordanian authorities, which made seeking medical
treatment difficult.
News
Op-Eds & Special Reports
Our recent visit to
Kosovo continues to generate controversy. Good.
Recent media reports of
contacts between the representatives of the Syrian opposition and the
authorities of the so-called "Republic of Kosovo" have attracted a
lot of attention. This does not only include "sharing experience" in
organizing separatist movements aimed at overthrowing existing regimes, but
also preparation of Syrian fighters in Kosovo with the use of areas that are
similar to Syria in terms of landscape. It is not ruled out that training centers
at the former bases of the “Kosovo Liberation Army” will be established. Such
intentions cannot but cause concern. They run counter to the efforts of the
UN/LAS Special Envoy Kofi Annan, backed by the international community. In
addition, the transformation of Kosovo into an international training ground
for militants of various armed groups could become a serious destabilizing
factor that goes beyond the Balkan region.We call on the international
presences acting in Kosovo to take all necessary measures to prevent such
plans.
And here’s
Kosovo’s Foreign Minister’s response to the allegations by the Russian Foreign
Ministry. Minister Enver Hoxhaj is one of the officials we met during our visit
to Kosovo and his offer of political support was as clear then as it is now.
"We were among the first governments in
Europe who was supporting the opposition in Libya and in other Arab countries
last year, because we were fighting for the same aspirations, for the same
values," he said. "We have the same approach to Syria and have some
diplomatic contacts between my government and (the) Syrian opposition,"
Hoxhaj said. "We are supporting very much their cause." Asked if
Kosovo had established training centers for Syrian rebels, Hoxhaj said:
"Not at all."
Some of my comments at a
recent panel discussion at Woodrow Wilson Center on May 9 are quoted here. The
Entire panel discussion is available in audio here.
Nonviolence & the Syrian State Current
As Deborah
Amos noted
in her NPR report yesterday, there is indeed a wide-scale arrest campaign
targeting local activists, especially those leading the nonviolent movement.
The problem with her report is that the main figures that were interviewed in
this regard, that is, to represent these nonviolent activists, are those who
belong to the Building the Syrian State Current, AKA Syrian State Current or
occasionally Binaa Syria.
Founders
and leaders of the SSC are coming more and more under the spotlight of late,
getting invited to attend conferences and meetings with officials abroad,
basking in the glow of being domestic opposition, hence, legitimate. But that’s
a very troubling assessment, and reflects a continuing misunderstanding of the
nature of the protest movement. The movement is too indigenous and grassroots
to be represented by the urban elites of Damascus and Aleppo, and the founders
of SSC are mostly from there or have been living there for last few years or
decades.
Despite
the fact that some of them have long histories in nonviolence advocacy, they
have never developed any major popular bases and have never managed to engender
more than a vague awareness of the literature of nonviolence. Their goal was
more evolution than revolution. In this, they were no different than traditional
opposition figures and movements: they failed to see that the momentum building
around them was more revolutionary than evolutionary.
By
comparison to traditional opposition figures and parties, they were to some
extant more connected to the grassroots, but not by much. They exhibited the
same elitist tendencies. Their minds belonged to Ghandi but their hearts and
souls to Marx. And no serious attempt was ever made at indigenization of the
thoughts of either men, despite occasional individual endeavors in this regard
that failed to generate much interest. Ghandi’s philosophy was meant as a way
of life, a model to be put into practice, but they sought to teach it as
doctrine, hence they made it and kept it as an elitist exercise. And Marx’s
input lent itself to countless interpretations, but there was little debate of
that.
Since the
beginning of the revolution, most attempts at reaching out made by SSC leaders
were aimed at an international audience rather than local communities, where
they have little influence. For all their talk about nonviolence and basic
rights, they had nothing but indignation to the “average” Syrian. They had the
mentality to stewards and trustees, rather than public servants.
For this,
and despite occasional harassment and arrests, SSC founders and leaders are
often allowed to meet and travel freely. Why? They oppose international
intervention and the increasing militarization of the revolution, and that
suits the Assads rather well.
The fact
that people are demanding intervention and have chosen the course of armed
insurrection after many months of violent crackdown by the Assads, does not
matter. After all, the flock needs a shepherd, and the ignorant masses are
being exploited by all those external opposition members who have their own
agendas. So, the mentality of SSC leaders is not that different than their
“enemies” represented by the SNC: they all claim what is rightfully not
theirs, and will never be: ownership of the revolution, and the right to
represent a populace that they all at heart fear and disdain.
The
likeability and western temperament of some of the founders of SSC should not
blind international policymakers and journalists to the realities of who they
are. After all, westrn veneers and likeability were the main reasons why so
many in the international community thought of Assad and Asma as the
reform-minded couple.
The
international community should be on a search not for the likeable and the
westernized, for the relevant and pragmatic. Some likeable westernized figures
will emerge and need to be engaged and empowered, but only inasmuch as they are
or can be made to be relevant. Irrelevant figures cannot keep a country
together, no matter how well-intentioned they are.
Until
members of our intellectual elite learn to view themselves as public servants,
and the people as being worthy of service, not entities to be controlled, for
all their shortcomings, they will remain part of the problem not the solution.
You have to be truly “of the people” to serve the people, and that’s a
reference to state of mind, not social class.
Video Highlights
And towns
and neighborhoods across the country continue to come under fire at night: Sabouniyeh
Neighborhood, Hama City http://youtu.be/2p2Tx9Ulh-I
Elsewhere in Hama City http://youtu.be/eVUzmB5wcvE
Habeet, Idlib http://youtu.be/43ly3e_jB2M
Kafar Batna, Rural Damascus http://youtu.be/8R1R8uL9J9w
Aqrabah, Rural Damascus http://youtu.be/I5zrbAp5AV8
Kafrenboudeh, Hama http://youtu.be/8iRwuk74zV8
Rastan, Homs Province: local
FSA commander declares their success in destroying a loyalist checkpoint at the
outskirts of the town including a number of BMPs and tanks that were taking
part in pounding the town over the last few days http://youtu.be/j3iTAMOouFI This is how
the FSA members carried out the attack http://youtu.be/aNf34LOx8Eo
, http://youtu.be/79k6ZdKIOaE A local
FSA commander is martyred http://youtu.be/tbZQukUR1PY
An injured child cries and asks for his father http://youtu.be/uvRJVkmrvmY An injured
little girl who cannot be saved http://youtu.be/vnXU5xm1mVY
As result of the previous pounding, 4 martyrs http://youtu.be/SETKVsG5vRg
In Deir
Baalbah Neighborhood, pro-Assad militias discard bodies of locals that they
have tortured and killed http://youtu.be/xCRsK_K3yQc
In Jouret Al-Shayah, local have to drive fast to dodge snipers http://youtu.be/cEZ2g9K5zkQ Gunfire and
burning house in Bayadah http://youtu.be/QVI57_fC35o
In Qoussour, locals say the presence of UN monitors was too brief to
allow them to pull out the dead bodies from the rubble and the streets http://youtu.be/KnxUGn7A-HE
Qourieyh, Deir Ezzor: the town
gets pounded by pro-Assad militias http://youtu.be/E-TGlz4IafE
Kafar
Zeiteh,
Hama Province, loyalist troops shoot their way in http://youtu.be/h0ZimSEfNVg , http://youtu.be/ysPIcgYiww8
In the
town of Corine, Idlib, locals bemoan their martyred children in the
presence of UN monitors http://youtu.be/fGChCuL9gmk
In the
town of Elbab, Aleppo Province, UN monitors were at hand when locals were
fired upon by security forces. We don’t see the actual shooting here, but we
here people talking with UN monitors, still in their case, about the incident http://youtu.be/vfnmOWVXplk
Syrian Cartoonist’s Ali Ferzat’s take on
the Syrian opposition and international support
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