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Monday, August 1, 2011

Amnesty International Urges UN to Take Urgent Action on Syrian Bloodshed

1500 Dead Since March

Following the deadliest assault to date on Syrian protesters Sunday and more casualties reported Monday in the shelling of the city of Hama, Amnesty International repeated its demand that the UN Security Council urgently respond to the bloodshed.

“It is long past time for the UN Security Council to take concrete steps to end the bloody crackdown in Syria that continues to claim countless lives amid peaceful protests,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Since the start of the Arab Spring, many people have lost their lives in their quest for dignity and freedom in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain and Libya. But the scale of bloodshed in Syria is unprecedented, with more than 1500 people dead in the past five months. The Syrian leaders are indeed committing crimes against humanity and should be brought to justice.

24 comments:

  1. Doesn't Syria understand that only the west is allowed to use military force to suppress dissent? So when jets are bombing the hell out of Libyans who only want to preserve their sovreignty that's fine, but when Syria uses tanks to suppress rebels that's an outrage. The hypocricy is laughable. If you're going to criticize this then criticize it no matter what country is doing it.

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  2. Anon 3:25 PM,

    Thanks for your comment. If you had followed this blog, you would know that we have always defended the people across the Middle East in their struggles against tyrannies and in their quest for dignity and freedom, from Tunisia to Egypt, from Yemen to Bahrain and yes, from Libya to Syria. The level of killings and bloodshed in Syria, however, sets it apart. Assad and his lieutenants are committing crimes against humanity. How else do you account for killing of 1,500 of their citizens in five months? The protests in Syria have been generally peaceful and there hasn’t been a bloody civil war underway in that country. Under such circumstances, 1,500 killed in 5 months is simply unacceptable and you too should not accept it.

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  3. It's important to bear in mind that these casulaty figures are provided by so-called activists in and outside of Syria.

    It's also important to compare the claims made in the West of those actions taken in Lebanon when a militant Jihadi group took up arms against the Lebanese army a few years ago, with Syria's current struggle to contain similar activities inside its border regions within a more general protest movement.

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  4. Take a look at these videos:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC7BMTdDB4Y

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5hK_PYnG2g&feature=related

    Evidence of prepared positions by armed elements overrun by the Syrian army, as well as level two firing positions by armed elements being hit by Syrian Army fire.

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  5. To all IRGC,BASIJ and other affiliated members of Islamic regime.Syrian fascist government will fall its a matter of time so get use to it. Start thinking about your own lives it will be your turn next.Good Luck!

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  6. Dear Anon 3:25 PM

    Perhaps you could name the western nation's government that is suppressing dissent from the citizenry by having the military and the secret police killing more than a 1,000 of those citizens in a campaign lasting months?

    Just you that you don't sound like one of those hypocrites that you think laughable

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  7. Syrian tanks are again shelling civilians in Hama




    "Syrian tanks continued pounding residential neighborhoods across the city of Hama Monday, in the heaviest barrage of a two-day assault to crush street demonstrations against President Bashar Assad, witnesses said.

    Intense shelling began again after Ramadan evening prayers, concentrating on districts near the Al-Bilal roundabout in the northwest of the city, the Jarajmeh district in the east and northern neighborhoods near the Omar bin al-Khattab Mosque."-----

    Turkey, one of Assad’s main allies until the revolt, said it was shocked by the use of tanks to quell civilian protests.

    “The footage from yesterday’s events has horrified us,” Turkish President Abdullah Gul said. “The use of heavy weapons in Hama against civilians has given me a deep shock.”



    http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/Aug-02/Hama-under-heavy-barrage.ashx#axzz1TpLc3JtK

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  8. Wish they would do the same with KSA and Bahrain.

    Same level of bloodshed but not reported for obvious reasons

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  9. I don't think that there's been even a fraction of the number of people killed in Syria in Bahrain.

    Last I read there were not even 50 protesters confirmed dead...compared to the 1500 in Syria.

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  10. "Last I read there were not even 50 protesters confirmed dead...compared to the 1500 in Syria."..

    anon 1:04 AM, So 50 killed is not a problem because it's not the same as 1500?? Some warped logic you have!!

    I wish all 50 dead in Bahrain were your close relatives then you know how it feels. Selective justice at its finest.

    Isn't it ironic that some Iranian opposition(opportunists) support Islamists outside Iran but hate Islam in Iran? What's happening in Syria is a Salafi Muslim brotherhood inspired rebellion. Believe me, most in Syria hate them to the bone. The plan was to cause enough chaos to get global attention like the Libyan scenario.Fortunately that didn't/hasn't happened and are now paying the price.They've done it before in the 70s with deadly result. Assad WILL stay because he has broader support. At least he still has the support of the military.

    Of course 1500 people have been killed according to "activists". Who can verify?

    And who says Iran will fall into chaos if Assad falls?? It's more the other way round. Syria depends on Iran more than Iran depends on Syria.

    The propaganda that Iran sends weapons to Hezbollah through Syria is spurious at best. There're hundreds of flights between Tehran and Beirut everyday. It doesn't take much if Iran wants to send weapons to Lebanon.

    If this drags on any longer, expect a civil war that will have catastrophic effect for all of Syria's neighbors, even Turkey won't be spared. And those with the big guns in Syria will be left standing.

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  11. yes there has last anon, you don't hear it so you think there is nothing happening.
    You know about sysria because everybody is screaming about it.
    I doubt Syria would fall. If Syria falls some salaafist (Saudi) Govt would come and secterian violence would start and that would not even be to your Israels benefit.

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  12. No for obvious reasons Syria is a huge bloodbath with the people demanding the downfall of regime.And Bahrain being infiltrated by Islamic regime agents so that Bahrain will be another Islamic Republic with the dear leader The Great Rozeh Khoon at its helm.

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  13. BAHRAIN 30 DEAD SYRIA 2000 DEAD NO MORE SAID

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  14. --"anon 1:04 AM, So 50 killed is not a problem because it's not the same as 1500?? Some warped logic you have!! "--

    I didn't say it was not a problem or a horror.

    I was responding to a previous comment that said the the levels of bloodshed were the same in Bahrain as in Syria.

    Obviously that's not true a that's the reason for the comparison I offered.

    For your wonderful wish that 50 of my relatives had been killed, I can only thank you and reply that I've never had more than three dozen or so killed in a short span.

    I wish long life for your family.

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  15. --"
    The propaganda that Iran sends weapons to Hezbollah through Syria is spurious at best"---

    It's not propaganda. It's flat fact.

    Several shipments have been intercepted, the last one seized was by Turkey this past March.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/31/us-iran-sanctions-un-idUSTRE72U6GJ20110331

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  16. anoan 6:47

    you seem bitter.

    been waiting too long for any changes in Iran.

    I know a couple of good therapists for you !

    lol

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  17. anon 2:09 PM, It's interesting you quote Reuters as credible news source for your evidence..

    Name one reporting by Reuters on Iran that's positive..A news website with an anti-Iranian bias is now source of facts..Who knew...

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  18. Wonder why "Amnesty International" never speaks out against the Zionist OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE or the US genocide in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen and daily drone murders of Pakistani civilians, not to mention Indian human rights abuses in Kashmir? How about condemning the Al-Khalifa criminals in Bahrain or the Saudi occupation of Bahrain?

    The "international community" of global thugs and hypocrites led by US sure does have some temerity to condemn nations that do not tow the puppet line. Amnesty International should look closer at the US police state.

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  19. Anon 7:23 PM,

    The easiest way out of an argument is to blame the messenger, and ignore the message. The issue here is Syrian brutality in killing hundreds of its own citizens who are demonstrating to gain their dignity and freedom, like other peoples in the region. What’s your opinion about these killings? Is the government justified, or is it committing crimes against humanity?

    On Amnesty International: It is very interesting when pro-Iranian government crowd and other leftists attack it when it comes to Syria. During the years of oppression in Iran under the shah’s regime, AI was one of the few organizations who exposed the regime brutality in dealing with political descent. Khomeini and his close associates, as well as other opposition groups, routinely quoted AI to justify their opposition to the shah. Now if AI does same thing in exposing brutality in Syria, it becomes a tool of the US government. I guess you only want it expose brutalities committed by governments you consider non-friendly.

    Same is true with Amnesty’s work in other parts of the globe, including many places you have mentioned above. But here the subject is not AI, it is Assad’s regime and its handling of the movement in his country.

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  20. Anon 3:12 PM...No I am not bitter just a realist every dog has its day.Did you post this from a madhouse?

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  21. ---"Name one reporting by Reuters on Iran that's positive."---

    Positive?

    Reuters is a news service and is supposed to report facts...not spin the facts either positively or negatively.
    Reuters has no reputation for bias and because you fail to see that they publish "positive" reports about Iran is no basis for concluding that Reuters has an anti_Iran bias.

    The "everyone hates us" defense used without attempts to disprove the substance of the report sounds just as childish, if not more so, coming from defenders of the Iranian regime as it does coming from blind defenders of the Israelis.

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  22. what about Bahrain and Saudi Arabia ?

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  23. What about Chad
    and
    Jeremy?

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