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SYRIA 2012
- Thread starter Idris16
- Start date
(Reuters) - Syrian rebels are ready to stop fighting the moment the army withdraws its tanks, artillery and heavy weapons from opposition areas, a spokesman for Free Syrian Army commanders inside Syria said on Saturday.
Rebels taking part in the year-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule say they are still sceptical the government will commit to a meaningful ceasefire.
But the statement from Lieutenant Colonel Qassim Saad al-Din was the first time any rebel commander has signalled a willingness to go along with a ceasefire plan proposed by United Nations-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.
Annan has said the army should make the first move to withdraw from populated centres, but Syria says it must be allowed to maintain security.
"We cannot accept the presence of tanks and troops in armoured vehicles among the people. We don't have a problem with the ceasefire. As soon as they remove their armoured vehicles, the Free Syrian Army will not fire a single shot," Saad al-Din told Reuters by telephone from Homs.
Homs has been the centre of armed rebellion against Assad, whose forces have cracked down fiercely on the unrest, including a heavy shelling campaign in the central city that killed hundreds.
It is unclear how much authority Saad al-Din, described as a spokesman for rebel commanders inside Syria, has over rebel units. The FSA chain of command is weak and mostly localised. Top exiled leaders General Mustafa al-Sheikh and Lieutenant Colonel Riad al-Asaad were unavailable for comment.
"BATTLE OVER"
A rebel officer in Damascus said he agreed in principle with Saad al-Din's view on the rebel response to the ceasefire plan.
"We don't really believe this is going to work, but in the unlikely case that Assad was to actually show good will by stopping this heavy siege of hotspots with tanks and shelling ... then our leaders can issue an order to stop operations and we will commit to it to show our good intentions," the officer with Saif al-Haq Brigade said.
More than 9,000 people have been killed in the security forces' crackdown on an uprising that began as peaceful protests but turned increasingly bloody when armed rebels began to bring the fight to Assad's forces.
The government blames the unrest on foreign-backed militants and says around 3,000 security force members have been killed.
Syria has claimed victory over the opposition in recent days, saying "the battle to topple" Assad was over. Days of heavy shelling have driven rebels from key positions in main cities, but they still launch hit and run attacks on the army.
Saad al-Din said opposition fighters were disappointed that the international community had not forced Assad to step down. But he said the rebels' willingness to follow the UN-backed ceasefire plan did not mean they had given up trying to end Assad's rule.
"When the army withdraws from the cities, the rebels will go back to their normal lives. But the world should know this means that the peaceful protests will return," he said. "Regimes eventually disappear but the people always remain."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/31/syria-rebels-idUSL6E8EV08V20120331
Rebels taking part in the year-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule say they are still sceptical the government will commit to a meaningful ceasefire.
But the statement from Lieutenant Colonel Qassim Saad al-Din was the first time any rebel commander has signalled a willingness to go along with a ceasefire plan proposed by United Nations-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.
Annan has said the army should make the first move to withdraw from populated centres, but Syria says it must be allowed to maintain security.
"We cannot accept the presence of tanks and troops in armoured vehicles among the people. We don't have a problem with the ceasefire. As soon as they remove their armoured vehicles, the Free Syrian Army will not fire a single shot," Saad al-Din told Reuters by telephone from Homs.
Homs has been the centre of armed rebellion against Assad, whose forces have cracked down fiercely on the unrest, including a heavy shelling campaign in the central city that killed hundreds.
It is unclear how much authority Saad al-Din, described as a spokesman for rebel commanders inside Syria, has over rebel units. The FSA chain of command is weak and mostly localised. Top exiled leaders General Mustafa al-Sheikh and Lieutenant Colonel Riad al-Asaad were unavailable for comment.
"BATTLE OVER"
A rebel officer in Damascus said he agreed in principle with Saad al-Din's view on the rebel response to the ceasefire plan.
"We don't really believe this is going to work, but in the unlikely case that Assad was to actually show good will by stopping this heavy siege of hotspots with tanks and shelling ... then our leaders can issue an order to stop operations and we will commit to it to show our good intentions," the officer with Saif al-Haq Brigade said.
More than 9,000 people have been killed in the security forces' crackdown on an uprising that began as peaceful protests but turned increasingly bloody when armed rebels began to bring the fight to Assad's forces.
The government blames the unrest on foreign-backed militants and says around 3,000 security force members have been killed.
Syria has claimed victory over the opposition in recent days, saying "the battle to topple" Assad was over. Days of heavy shelling have driven rebels from key positions in main cities, but they still launch hit and run attacks on the army.
Saad al-Din said opposition fighters were disappointed that the international community had not forced Assad to step down. But he said the rebels' willingness to follow the UN-backed ceasefire plan did not mean they had given up trying to end Assad's rule.
"When the army withdraws from the cities, the rebels will go back to their normal lives. But the world should know this means that the peaceful protests will return," he said. "Regimes eventually disappear but the people always remain."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/31/syria-rebels-idUSL6E8EV08V20120331
Rebels fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria will be paid salaries, the opposition Syrian National Council has announced.
Money will also be given to soldiers who defect from the government's army, the SNC added, after a "Friends of the Syrian people" summit in Turkey.
Conference delegates said wealthy Gulf Arab states would supply millions of dollars a month for the SNC fund.
The meeting recognised the SNC as the "legitimate representative" of Syrians.
Damascus dubbed the gathering of some 70 Western and Arab foreign ministers in Istanbul as the "enemies of Syria", and key players remained absent, including Russia, China and Iran.
At a news conference, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned Syria that Kofi Annan's six-point peace plan - which Damascus has agreed to in principle - was "not open-ended".
His comments were echoed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who said there was "no more time for excuses and delays" by the Assad government. "This is a moment of truth," she said.
Compromise
"The SNC will take charge of the payment of fixed salaries of all officers, soldiers, and others who are members of the Free Syrian Army," SNC President Burhan Ghalioun told the conference.
The BBC's Jonathan Head, in Istanbul, says the decision to pay rebel fighters is a significant step by the SNC in recognising the central role the armed insurgency is now playing in their campaign to oust President Assad.
An SNC leader told the BBC that she hoped more substantial funding would help bind the disparate units of the Free Syrian Army into a more coherent fighting force, and encourage other soldiers to defect from the government side.
Some countries at the conference - notably Saudi Arabia - have been openly calling for insurgents in Syria to be given weapons. But others - including the US and Turkey - oppose the move, fearing it could fuel an all-out civil war.
The decision to increase non-lethal aid to the rebels by paying salaries to the fighters is a compromise, our correspondent says.
Not all opposition groups will be happy at the summit's decision to channel the funds through the SNC - as well as recognising it as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, he adds.
There are many activists who believe the SNC's leadership has been too ineffective, and should be replaced, he points out.
The united front displayed by the gathering was undermined by the pointed absence of Russia and China, which have repeatedly balked at any international resolutions that would require President Assad to stand down.
Iraq attended, having earlier suggested it might not. However, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made it clear beforehand that he opposed arming the opposition and believed the Syrian government would survive.
The Syrian government says it is close to ending the uprising.
Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad al-Makdissi told Syrian TV "the battle to topple the state is over".
Violence continued on Sunday, with more than 10 people reported killed, a day after more than 60 people died across the country.
In the latest violence, activists reported attacks by security forces in areas near the Iraqi border to the east, and the Jordanian frontier to the south.
The UN believes at least 9,000 people have died in the year-long revolt against Mr Assad's rule.
Money will also be given to soldiers who defect from the government's army, the SNC added, after a "Friends of the Syrian people" summit in Turkey.
Conference delegates said wealthy Gulf Arab states would supply millions of dollars a month for the SNC fund.
The meeting recognised the SNC as the "legitimate representative" of Syrians.
Damascus dubbed the gathering of some 70 Western and Arab foreign ministers in Istanbul as the "enemies of Syria", and key players remained absent, including Russia, China and Iran.
At a news conference, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned Syria that Kofi Annan's six-point peace plan - which Damascus has agreed to in principle - was "not open-ended".
His comments were echoed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who said there was "no more time for excuses and delays" by the Assad government. "This is a moment of truth," she said.
Compromise
"The SNC will take charge of the payment of fixed salaries of all officers, soldiers, and others who are members of the Free Syrian Army," SNC President Burhan Ghalioun told the conference.
The BBC's Jonathan Head, in Istanbul, says the decision to pay rebel fighters is a significant step by the SNC in recognising the central role the armed insurgency is now playing in their campaign to oust President Assad.
An SNC leader told the BBC that she hoped more substantial funding would help bind the disparate units of the Free Syrian Army into a more coherent fighting force, and encourage other soldiers to defect from the government side.
Some countries at the conference - notably Saudi Arabia - have been openly calling for insurgents in Syria to be given weapons. But others - including the US and Turkey - oppose the move, fearing it could fuel an all-out civil war.
The decision to increase non-lethal aid to the rebels by paying salaries to the fighters is a compromise, our correspondent says.
Not all opposition groups will be happy at the summit's decision to channel the funds through the SNC - as well as recognising it as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, he adds.
There are many activists who believe the SNC's leadership has been too ineffective, and should be replaced, he points out.
The united front displayed by the gathering was undermined by the pointed absence of Russia and China, which have repeatedly balked at any international resolutions that would require President Assad to stand down.
Iraq attended, having earlier suggested it might not. However, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made it clear beforehand that he opposed arming the opposition and believed the Syrian government would survive.
The Syrian government says it is close to ending the uprising.
Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad al-Makdissi told Syrian TV "the battle to topple the state is over".
Violence continued on Sunday, with more than 10 people reported killed, a day after more than 60 people died across the country.
In the latest violence, activists reported attacks by security forces in areas near the Iraqi border to the east, and the Jordanian frontier to the south.
The UN believes at least 9,000 people have died in the year-long revolt against Mr Assad's rule.
Defectors: Torture of children, rape by Syrian army 'routine'
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/02/143893/defectors-torture-of-children.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/02/143893/defectors-torture-of-children.html#storylink=cpy
By David Blair, Yayladagi, Turkey
10:00PM BST 06 Apr 2012
Ayman Karnebo spent a week in prison in Idlib province when the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began spreading across the country last May.
His account sheds more light on the depravity of a prison system in which an entire family can be locked up and subjected to brutal torment.
Mr Karnebo spent a day in the same cell as the captive family, who were of Somali origin. As the revolt took hold, all outsiders were viewed with deep suspicion, apparently explaining their arrest.
The father, whose name was Ahmed and who looked to be in his twenties, was in the cell alongside his pregnant wife, who was about the same age. The couple's two boys - aged about three and five - were also with them. So was Ahmed's mother, a woman in her fifties.
"The security men wanted them to confess to destroying buildings. They wanted them to admit they had come from outside the country to cause trouble in Syria," said Mr Karnebo. "But they were just people who had come to Syria to look for a better life."
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All three adults, including the grandmother and the pregnant mother, were tortured with electric shocks in front of the terrified children. Shocks were systematically applied to the most vulnerable parts of the body, concentrating on elbows, hands and toes.
"I know the Somali man's name because they were shouting at him 'Ahmed confess, Ahmed you must confess'," remembered Mr Karnebo.
"When they went to torture the wife, the husband was shouting 'she is pregnant, she has a baby inside her'. But they had no problem with doing this to her. They had no mercy."
After suffering this torment for a day, the family was bundled out of the cell, located in the prison in the town of Jisr al-Shugur, and transferred to another jail. Mr Karnebo believes they went to Idlib central prison, but their fate is unknown.
He bears the scars inflicted by the same treatment: gashes in his elbows and hands show where electric shocks were applied. "They accused me of destroying the office of [Mr Assad's] Ba'ath party," said Mr Karnebo, 37. "They found I had a Turkish SIM card for my mobile, so they accused me of communicating with the opposition in Turkey. They said I was raising money for guns for the rebels."
When he refused to confess, he was pushed into the same cell as the Somalis, where his torture took place. Mr Karnebo still refused to sign an admission of guilt, so an official known as Abdul Majid simply forged a signature on a written confession.
But one of Mr Karnebo's relatives is a local Ba'ath party official. This man paid a bribe to secure his release. Thanks to the influence of this relative, Mr Karnebo considers his own treatment to have been relatively lenient. "He paid bribes to make sure I wasn't tortured so badly," said Mr Karnebo, who later fled to neighbouring Turkey and now lives in a refugee camp in the border town of Yayladagi.
Many of the fugitives, who inhabit blue and white tents pitched in the grounds of a hospital, have suffered at the hands of Mr Assad's security forces. But one man, known as Mukhtar, was part of the machine that inflicted the torment.
He worked as a guard in the "investigations" wing of Idlib central prison, where security officials would routinely torture inmates. Mukhtar, 32, did not take part himself, but he witnessed the various methods used to extract information and confessions.
Some prisoners were forced into the "cross" position: spread-eagled against a wall and compelled to stand on tiptoe, with wrists and ankles bound. They were then subjected to electric shocks, with special attention being paid to the toes.
Others were tied to a table, exposing the soles of the feet to being whipped with an electric flex. Some male prisoners were subjected to sexual assaults, with one named official being particularly notorious for violating his charges.
After witnessing this treatment for seven months, Mukhtar fled to Turkey last November. "For me, all the prisoners were my people. I never wanted to see them harmed," he said.
The treatment meted out to political prisoners has often been effective in breaking their will to resist. Yusuf Dandash spent 23 days in jail last year, blindfolded, handcuffed and enduring constant beatings. The soles of his feet were excoriated with an electric flex, before shocks were applied to his toes.
"After they did this to me, I gave them everything," he said. "I accepted what they wanted."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/919...-electric-shocks-in-front-of-infant-sons.html
10:00PM BST 06 Apr 2012
Ayman Karnebo spent a week in prison in Idlib province when the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began spreading across the country last May.
His account sheds more light on the depravity of a prison system in which an entire family can be locked up and subjected to brutal torment.
Mr Karnebo spent a day in the same cell as the captive family, who were of Somali origin. As the revolt took hold, all outsiders were viewed with deep suspicion, apparently explaining their arrest.
The father, whose name was Ahmed and who looked to be in his twenties, was in the cell alongside his pregnant wife, who was about the same age. The couple's two boys - aged about three and five - were also with them. So was Ahmed's mother, a woman in her fifties.
"The security men wanted them to confess to destroying buildings. They wanted them to admit they had come from outside the country to cause trouble in Syria," said Mr Karnebo. "But they were just people who had come to Syria to look for a better life."
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05 Apr 2012
All three adults, including the grandmother and the pregnant mother, were tortured with electric shocks in front of the terrified children. Shocks were systematically applied to the most vulnerable parts of the body, concentrating on elbows, hands and toes.
"I know the Somali man's name because they were shouting at him 'Ahmed confess, Ahmed you must confess'," remembered Mr Karnebo.
"When they went to torture the wife, the husband was shouting 'she is pregnant, she has a baby inside her'. But they had no problem with doing this to her. They had no mercy."
After suffering this torment for a day, the family was bundled out of the cell, located in the prison in the town of Jisr al-Shugur, and transferred to another jail. Mr Karnebo believes they went to Idlib central prison, but their fate is unknown.
He bears the scars inflicted by the same treatment: gashes in his elbows and hands show where electric shocks were applied. "They accused me of destroying the office of [Mr Assad's] Ba'ath party," said Mr Karnebo, 37. "They found I had a Turkish SIM card for my mobile, so they accused me of communicating with the opposition in Turkey. They said I was raising money for guns for the rebels."
When he refused to confess, he was pushed into the same cell as the Somalis, where his torture took place. Mr Karnebo still refused to sign an admission of guilt, so an official known as Abdul Majid simply forged a signature on a written confession.
But one of Mr Karnebo's relatives is a local Ba'ath party official. This man paid a bribe to secure his release. Thanks to the influence of this relative, Mr Karnebo considers his own treatment to have been relatively lenient. "He paid bribes to make sure I wasn't tortured so badly," said Mr Karnebo, who later fled to neighbouring Turkey and now lives in a refugee camp in the border town of Yayladagi.
Many of the fugitives, who inhabit blue and white tents pitched in the grounds of a hospital, have suffered at the hands of Mr Assad's security forces. But one man, known as Mukhtar, was part of the machine that inflicted the torment.
He worked as a guard in the "investigations" wing of Idlib central prison, where security officials would routinely torture inmates. Mukhtar, 32, did not take part himself, but he witnessed the various methods used to extract information and confessions.
Some prisoners were forced into the "cross" position: spread-eagled against a wall and compelled to stand on tiptoe, with wrists and ankles bound. They were then subjected to electric shocks, with special attention being paid to the toes.
Others were tied to a table, exposing the soles of the feet to being whipped with an electric flex. Some male prisoners were subjected to sexual assaults, with one named official being particularly notorious for violating his charges.
After witnessing this treatment for seven months, Mukhtar fled to Turkey last November. "For me, all the prisoners were my people. I never wanted to see them harmed," he said.
The treatment meted out to political prisoners has often been effective in breaking their will to resist. Yusuf Dandash spent 23 days in jail last year, blindfolded, handcuffed and enduring constant beatings. The soles of his feet were excoriated with an electric flex, before shocks were applied to his toes.
"After they did this to me, I gave them everything," he said. "I accepted what they wanted."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/919...-electric-shocks-in-front-of-infant-sons.html