SIRIJA:
Lettre ouverte aux membres du conseil de sécurité des nations unies sur la Syrie
A l'occasion de l'anniversaire du soulèvement syrien, nous rendons hommage à la mémoire des milliers de civils qui ont perdu la vie au cours de leur quête pacifique pour un avenir plus juste et prometteur. Aujourd'hui nous incombe la responsabilité d'agir sans délai pour éviter la mort prochaine de milliers d'autres hommes, femmes et enfants.
En lire plus...
SyrianStories.org : le soulèvement en Syrie raconté en vidéo
Pour marquer le premier anniversaire du début de la contestation en Syrie, la FIDH, Telecomix et le collectif uprisingstories.org ont lancé hier SyrianStories.org. Disponible en arabe, anglais et français, cette plateforme propose de rassembler des fragments d'information recueillis et diffusés sur Internet par les témoins de la répression violente qui s'abat sur les manifestants pacifiques. SyrianStories.org rend hommage à ces citoyens anonymes qui prennent des risques immenses pour témoigner de la violence quotidienne qui dévaste leur pays.
En savoir plus...
Unite for Syria: Stop one year of bloodshed
On the anniversary of Syria's uprising, we remember the thousands of lives lost in their pursuit of a more just and hopeful future. It is the responsibility of us all to prevent the potential deaths of thousands more men, women and children who so desperately need our help.
Read more...
New Satellite Images Show Homs Shelling
Local sources have reported that approximately 700 civilians have been killed and thousands wounded in Homs since the Syrian military began its current assault on the city on February 3, 2012. Indiscriminate shelling and sniper fire has caused most of the casualties in Baba Amr, which is a residential area where elements of the armed opposition have sought refuge. ... The presence or activity of armed opposition forces in Baba Amr, however, in no way justifies the scale and nature of the attack on the residential area that is reflected by the satellite imagery and the accounts from witnesses obtained by Human Rights Watch. It also does not excuse the Syrian government's refusal to coordinate safe passage for civilians in Baba Amr seeking to leave the area. According to Western journalists and local residents who recently escaped Baba Amr to neighboring countries, a few thousand residents remain trapped in the neighborhood, which has had no running water or electricity for two weeks. All witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch described shelling that would start every day at around 6:30 a.m. and that did not begin to let up until sunset. The shelling would continue during the night, but with less frequency, the witnesses reported. One foreign journalist told Human Rights Watch that she counted 200 explosions in two hours on February 6. Another journalist counted 55 explosions in 15 minutes on February 16. A local resident who volunteered to help collect and transport the wounded said that shells would often hit the same spot twice, three to five minutes apart.
Read more...
SYRIAN rights defenders and others still held
Amnesty International has obtained the names of more than 6,200 people reported to have died during the violence. Most have been killed during or in connection with the protests since mid-March. Many are believed to have been shot by security forces using live ammunition while participating in peaceful protests or attending funerals of people killed in earlier protests. Members of the security forces have also been killed, some by defecting members of the army who have taken up arms against the government. Thousands of people have been arrested, with many held incommunicado at unknown locations at which torture and other ill-treatment are reported to be rife. Over 270 people are reported to have died in custody in highly suspicious circumstances since 1 April 2011. The Syrian state has multiple security and intelligence agencies in addition to even more opaque groups, often armed but not necessarily uniformed, who also carry out abductions, killings and other abuses in apparent coordination with, or at least approval of, state officials. Amnesty International has also received reports of armed individuals threatening, abusing and, in some cases, killing people perceived to be linked to or supportive of the state.
Read more...
30 years on, Hama survivors recount the horror
Three decades ago, Syrian troops under the government of Hafez al-Assad – father of current President Bashar al-Assad – unleashed a bloody 27-day assault on Hama. It followed an ambush of soldiers by members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and attacks on officials and alleged “collaborators”. The final death toll may have reached 25,000, from both sides. ... Following the 1982 attack, Maha Mousa's uncle was accused of being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and arrested. Despite denying the accusations, he was tortured and killed in detention. When his body was returned to the family, his eyes and fingernails were missing, says Mousa. She also recounted how in one attack on the city's Mas'oud Mosque, some 60 men were killed before the security forces cut off their fingers and placed them along the mosque's walls. “For around two years after the massacre, no one dared remove the fingers. They were so frightened,” she said.
Read more...
'Friends of Syria': Push to End Indiscriminate Shelling, Humanitarian Aid, Safe Passage for Civilians Essential
Since February 3, Syrian army shelling of Homs has killed at least 373 people, according to Syrian monitoring groups, and wounded hundreds of others, including women and children. Local residents who spoke to Human Rights Watch estimate that at least 20,000 residents remain in the Baba Amr neighborhood – the hardest hit area. Video footage from Homs reviewed by Human Rights Watch indicates that the army has used Russian-made 240mm mortar systems against Homs. These systems fire the world's largest high explosive mortar bomb, designed to "demolish fortifications and fieldworks" according to a Russian arms merchandizing catalogue.
Read more...
Syria: Stop Shelling of Residential Areas
Since February 3, 2012, the attacks have killed more than 300 persons in the city, according to Syrian monitoring groups, and wounded hundreds others, including women and children. No adequate medical assistance is available to the victims due to a blockade of the city by government forces and fear of arrest if treated at government-controlled hospitals, Human Rights Watch said. ... The exact casualty numbers are impossible to verify: due to heavy shelling, residents are not able to move around and most lines of communication are cut. According to the Violations Documentation Center (VDC), a Syrian monitoring group, 288 people were killed from February 3 to 8 in Homs. One witness, who had been collecting the names of the victims, provided Human Rights Watch with lists containing the names of 95 people reportedly killed on February 6 alone, 61 of them in Bab `Amro. The VDC's list contains only 14 names of victims from Bab 'Amro. The witness said that out of the 95 victims, 11 were children, seven were women, and one was a military defector. According to witnesses, several makeshift hospitals set up in the neighborhoods were overflowing with dead and wounded after the shelling. Medical staff in the areas quickly ran out of medical supplies, and at least three field hospitals were hit by the shelling, which contributed to the rising death toll. ... "Mahmud", a resident of Bab 'Amro neighborhood, told Human Rights Watch: "There is no escape or safe passage from the area and there is no safe shelter inside the area from the rockets and shells. There is no bread, no medication and no nutritional supplies, and after a field hospital was targeted, we lost several of our medical staff. There is no form of communication inside the area and any moving object is targeted by snipers surrounding the area. Many of the wounded have very serious injuries – they lost their limbs, or eyes, had serious wounds to the body. They are in critical condition and are likely to die because there are no medical supplies to treat them properly."
Read more...
EUROPA:
Poziv za organizaciju alternativnog europskog summita
Ti razvoji predstavljaju najozbiljnije negiranje demokracije koje je Europa doživjela od kraja Drugog svjetskog rata. Europski građani podređeni su kaznenim politikama iako svi znaju da ova kriza proizlazi uglavnom iz pohlepe banaka, tržišnog sustava, kao i ortaštva ili popustljivosti političkih vođa koji su ih trebali kontrolirati, i iz dva desetljeća tržišnog natjecanja koje se snažno odražava na plaće i poreze. Taj kažnjenički neoliberalizam na dva načina ugrožava demokraciju: direktnim autoritarnim manevrima (kada je Jean-Claude Trichet, bivši predsjednik Europske centralne banke, poslao pismo talijanskim vlastima da ubrzaju rezove i sugerirao da promjene kolektivne ugovore, ili kada su, uz pristanak Trojke, tehnokrati preuzeli vlast u Grčkoj i Italiji...) i, indirektno, ohrabrivanjem rasta ksenofobnog nacionalizma i antieuropskih i antidemokratskih političkih pokreta (Francuska, Mađarska, Finska, itd.). Kažemo „Dosta“! Mi više ne prihvaćamo te politike. Oni se podruguju demokraciji; oni su Europu već bacili u posebno tešku ekonomsku krizu. Oni su probudili ksenofobne demone koje je upravo ta Europa trebala izbrisati. Želimo poboljšati europski socijalni model i obraniti narod, ne banke, korporacije i njihove najveće dioničare.
Pročitajte više...
