Syrian forces have laid mines near the borders of Lebanon and Turkey along routes used to escape the conflict in Syria, advocacy group Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.
Its report documented multiple accounts from witnesses in Turkey, Lebanon and inside Syria who had either seen Syrian troops laying mines or been injured by mines.
Opposition activists who have waged a year-long revolt against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule use Lebanon and Turkey to bring food, medicine and weapons into Syria. Thousands of Syrians have also fled the violence into Turkey and Lebanon.
“Any use of anti-personnel landmines is unconscionable,” Steve Goose, Arms Division director at HRW, said. “There is absolutely no justification for the use of these indiscriminate weapons by any country, anywhere, for any purpose.”
Syria last used anti-personnel mines during the 1982 conflict with Israel in Lebanon, the report said. Syria’s stockpile is believed to consist mainly of Soviet/Russian-manufactured mines, it added.
The report quoted a 15-year-old boy from Tal Kalakh in Syria who lost a leg in a landmine explosion in February while trying to transport a wounded person to Lebanon for medical treatment.
Opposition activists in Syria say they fear arrest, torture and death at the hands of Syrian security forces if they seek treatment in Syrian state hospitals when they are wounded in protests or clashes with police and security forces.
Turkey acceded to the international Mine Ban Treaty on September 25, 2003. Syria and Lebanon have refused to sign the treaty, which would require all landmines in their countries to be cleared.
Nadim Houry, HRW’s researcher for Syria and Lebanon, told Reuters that is was very hard to get the exact figure for the number of wounded by Syrian-placed landmines because most casualties occur on the Syrian side of the border.
The Syrian government has repeatedly denied access into the country to rights groups and journalists.
The United Nations says more than 7,500 people have been killed in unrest against Assad’s government. Syria said in December that “terrorists” had killed more than 2,000 soldiers and police.
Reacting to the Russian and Chinese veto to a United Nations Security Council resolution to stop the killings of civilians by Syrian security sources, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Turkey’s doors were “open to all Syrians who want to flee from oppression.”
“We are ready to host them in our homes if necessary,” Davutoğlu added as part of a new stage to step up pressure on the Bashar al-Assad regime.
The move is interesting since Turkey has announced that there could be only two conditions for Turkish involvement in military action in the Syrian situation; a U.N. Security Council decision based on humanitarian reasoning or a massive flood of refugees into Turkey.Yet the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a written statement yesterday categorically denying media reports that Turkey and the United States had agreed on a military action plan on Syria in Feb. 4’s meeting in Munich between Davutoğlu and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Davutoğlu made no comment on U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman’s statement after he said that his country might consider providing weapons to a Free Syrian Army consisting of defectors from Syrian army and forming the military wing of the Istanbul-based Syrian National Council.
With this move of welcoming Syrian regime opponents in need, Turkey wants to trigger a new balance, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has planned a visit to Damascus to convince al-Assad to stop the violence against his own people. “We don’t want to lose our hopes and we don’t want to let the Syrian people down,” Davutoğlu said, “But Lavrov should have done this months ago.”
The Turkish top diplomat explains the latest move as follows: “Syrian people should not be victimized by a power game between the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. The U.N. resolution, which was proposed by the Arab League and Turkey who are affected by the Syrian crisis, were vetoed by those who are not directly related with it; it’s an ethical and legalistic weakness regarding international politics. But [even] if the international community prefers to remain silent before this human tragedy, Turkey continues to do whatever is necessary.”
(via verbalresistance)
By OnIslam & News Agencies
Monday, January 30, 2012
DAMASCUS - The world’s largest Islamic body urged the international community on Monday, January 30, to take “necessary measures” to stop bloodshed in Syria, as street battles raged on the doorstep of the capital Damascus between President Bashar al-Assad’s troops and rebel fighters.
“I renew my calls to the international community, especially the UN Security Council, to take up its responsibilities in protecting civilians and taking all measures to end bloodshed in Syria,” Ekmeledin Ihsanoglu, the secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), said, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.
The OIC chief slammed the “continuous killing of dozens of innocent civilians every day.”
“This is unacceptable and it is impossible to remain silent on it.”
He appealed to world countries to find “a solution that would ensure security and stability and prevent foreign intervention” in Syria.
Syria has been hit by popular protests in March, inspired by uprising in the Arab world, for an end to Assad’s 11-year rule.
More than 6,000 people have been killed in the crackdown on protestors, according to the United Nations.
Syrian authorities blame foreign-backed armed groups for the violence, saying they have killed 2,000 soldiers and police.
Ihsanoglu’s call followed earlier comments by UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Sunday that Assad must end the killings in his country.
“First and foremost, he must stop immediately the bloodshed,” Ban told reporters.
“The Syrian leadership should take a decisive action at this time to stop this violence. All the violence must stop.”
Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby arrived in New York Monday where he will brief representatives of the UN Security Council on the Syrian on Tuesday to seek support for an Arab peace plan to end bloodshed in the country.
He will be joined by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, whose country heads the League’s committee charged with overseeing the Syrian crisis.
Street Battles
Meanwhile, street battles raged on Monday on the doorstep of Damascus as Assad’s troops tried to consolidate their grip on suburbs taken from opposition fighters.
“Street fighting has been raging since dawn,” a Syrian activist told Reuters.
“The sound of gunfire is everywhere.”
At least 15 people had been killed as opposition fighters pulled back in Saqba and Kfar Batna, while other activist groups estimated the death toll at several dozen in three days of fighting in the districts.
The escalating bloodshed prompted the Arab League to suspend the work of its monitors on Saturday.
Arab foreign ministers, who have urged Assad to step down and make way for a government of national unity, will discuss the crisis on February 5.
Yet, Russia seemed determined on supporting Assad as its Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov Moscow expressed will to hear directly from the Arab League; a move likely to delay any vote.
“It would be logical, considering the complexity of this issue, for Security Council members to be able to study the recommendations and conclusions of the observer mission in detail,” the Interfax news agency quoted Gatilov as saying on Monday.
“Only after that would it be possible to count on a substantive discussion of this issue in the Security Council.”
The Syrian regime was also supported by Syria’s key ally, Iran, saying Assad must be given time to implement reforms.
“They have to have a free election, they have to have the right constitution, they have to allow different political parties to have their activities freely in the country. And this is what he has promised,” Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said.
“We think that Syria has to be given the choice of time so that by (that) time they can do the reforms.”
Copyright © 2012 OnIslam.net. All rights reserved.
US officials: Iran is helping Syria’s Assad put down protests
Iran is providing Syria with gear to disperse the country’s pro-democracy protests and is helping Syrian security forces block and track Internet and cellphone use among protesters, according to unnamed US officials quoted by The Wall Street Journal.
Iran’s involvement, which could expand to other countries such as Bahrain, could challenge US and Saudi influence in the region, destabilize US allies, and heighten sectarian tensions, the Journal reported…
Syrian Army and security forces have brutally quashed most of the demonstrations, which call for an end to the country’s state of emergency and for other political reforms. While Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has promised reforms and launched a committee to study lifting the country’s decades-long state of emergency, little change has materialized so far.
The US has long been concerned about Iranian influence in Syria, which serves as the main conduit through which Iran sends weapons to Hezbollah and Hamas, and the Obama administration has unsuccessfully attempted to woo Damascus away from Tehran.
US officials’ decision to disclose that they have been tracking Iran’s efforts in Syria was made partially to reassure its Arab allies and Israel, who worry that the US is supporting the popular uprisings without thinking about the political consequences. The power vacuums created by the fall of strongmen could give Iran a tremendous opportunity to expand its influence, the Journal reported.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that if Assad’s regime falls, Iran will work to install a leader even more hostile to Israel and the West, Saudi Arabia will try to sever all ties between Iran and Syria and bring Syria back into the mainstream Arab community, and the US and Israel will try to prevent the country’s leadership from falling into the hands of an Islamist group or anyone hostile to Israel.
The US is also concerned that overt Iranian assistance to Assad could escalate the Shiite-Sunni tensions in the region.
The complexities of the behind-the-scene relations of the uprisings are astounding if you analyse them… it’s all very cold war-esque, with multiple factions, Saudi Arabia, Israel/USA, Iran and the EU/NATO enabling and fighting proxy wars to meet their own wider political agendas and interests in the region; all pitted against the average man and woman on the street, the people who are actually doing the fighting and giving their lives, with the sole agenda of freedom.
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In the Woods at Giverny, Blanche Hoschedé at Her Easel with Suzanne Hoschedé Reading, 1887, Claude Monet.
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Félix Edouard Vallotton, Femme assise dans un fauteuil
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GPOY I’M GLAD MONDAY IS ALMOST OVER
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Julia Gukova. Illustration from The Legendary Unicorn, 2004
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Wingate Paine
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6in:
Ushio Amagatsu
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Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, The Uninvited Guest