An objective report into the Syrian uprisings
Report from “League of Arab States Observer Mission to Syria”.
From December 24 2011 to January 18 2012, a group of “observers” from the Arab nations were in Syria to write a report on the activities of the Syrian army, and its behavior against protestors. Doubts were raised about its objectivity in regard to their connections with Arab nations hostile to the Syrian regime. The irony of authoritarian monarchies demonstrating interest in the human rights of Syrian civilians was an obvious dilemma impacting the legitimacy of the Mission. The report provides an objective glimpse into the situation in Syria where both the military and the armed opposition groups have been participating in violent acts. The report accuses the opposition armed groups of committing terrorist acts and deliberately targeting civilians during the time the Mission was in Syria. In the end, it reveals what I long suspected: an armed uprising where both the Syrian government and opposition forces have participated in violent acts. However, the report clearly places the blame on the opposition for targeting civilians and makes no mention of government forces following in that path.
The report provides a list of media outlets inside Syria that range from the BBC to Arab television networks. According to the report, only two channels have been denied entry into Syria, Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, because “the government believes to be targeting Syria and its system of government”. The foreign media did criticize the regime for providing them only with four days in the country which they deemed insufficient although the government later increased this number to ten days.
The Mission noted that some of its members returned home after it became obvious that they had personal or nationalistic bias against an objective report. The Mission did criticize the Syrian regime by trying to restrict access to areas they wished to hide but also the opposition groups from refusing to allow hired drivers to enter their controlled areas because “they believed the drivers were members of the security services”. Both sides exaggerated accounts of cruelty and numbers of detained and killed were hard to verify with the Mission reporting that some names were repeated.
The main area that the Mission was located was at Homs where opposition and government forces have been fighting and where most crimes against humanity have been thought to have occurred. Concerning Homs, the mission noted that approximately 3,000 armed opposition members had imposed a blockade on parts of pro-government residential areas and had participated in “kidnapping and sabotage of Government and civilian facilities” while the Syrian army had also imposed a blockade in residential areas that were known to support these armed groups. The mission visited these opposition areas and had conversations with opposition citizens who complained about the “the state of fear, blockade and acts of violence to which they had been subjected by Government forces”. It becomes obvious that this is not peaceful demonstrators being targeted by the military but armed groups and can only be described as an armed insurrection or rebellion. This is supported by the Mission’s own experience in which they “witnessed an intense exchange of gunfire between the Army and opposition in Baba Amr”.
When the Head of the Mission met with the Government, he insisted that “it withdraw military vehicles from the city, put an end to acts of violence, protect civilians, lift the blockade and provide food. He further called for the two sides to exchange the bodies of those killed.” The government accepted these conditions except for three army vehicles that “were not working and had been surrounded, and one that had been taken from the Army by armed groups.” While the Mission held pressure onto the Syrian government, it did not have any pressure on the rebel forces.
The Acts of Violence and Crimes:
The observers witnessed acts of violence by government forces and “an exchange of fire with armed elements in Homs and Hama”. They reported that in “Homs and Dera’a, the Mission observed armed groups committing acts of violence against Government forces, resulting in death and injury among their ranks. In certain situations, Government forces responded to attacks against their personnel with force. The observers noted that some of the armed groups were using flares and armour-piercing projectiles.”
The Mission did not experience any deliberate targeting of civilians by the Syrian military during their stay and it may have been because of their presence. However, it did see armed opposition groups employing terrorist acts. “In Homs, Idlib and Hama; the Observer Mission witnessed acts of violence being committed against Government forces and civilians that resulted in several deaths and injuries. Examples of those acts include bombing of a civilian bus, killing eight persons and injuring others, including women and children, and bombing of a train carrying diesel oil. In another incident in Homs, a police bus was blown up, killing two police officers. A fuel pipeline and some small bridges were also bombed.” However, the Mission admits that the government was caught exaggerating some incidents and others which never happened.
One incident which received foreign coverage was the death of a French journalist in Homs. The French journalist, Gilles Jacquier, was working with others in a Pro Assad area and was interviewing pro Assad demonstrators when shells began to fall into the demonstrators. The U.S. government was quick to point the finger at Assad but the claim that Assad had ordered the killing of his own supporters remained suspicious. The mission could not fully verify who was responsible but “noted that Mission reports from Homs indicate that the French journalist was killed by opposition mortar shells.”
Concerning protests, the Mission wrote that “group team leaders witnessed peaceful demonstrations by both Government supporters and the opposition in several places. None of those demonstrations were disrupted, except for some minor clashes with the Mission and between loyalists and opposition.” No military interference occurred though it could be argued that the military was restrained because of the Mission’s whereabouts.
Although the western media continues to claim that Assad is pursuing a "brutal crackdown" there has been no credible evidence for such claims and rare objective analysis such as the Mission from the GCC has not recorded any civilian targeting from the Syrian military. The West is keen in placing a no fly zone over Syrian airspace with the excuse of protecting civilians, but if objective reports such as this cannot find any pro Assad criminal act, how can it justify such a resolution?
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about their govt. being objective is just saying that all they do its wrong but we will not criticizer them since the Russians and the Chinese told us so (phew we just had two big customers in our footsteps)
Originally Posted by The excited one
