Syrian government forces renewed their attacks on the city of Homs Monday 6 June 2012 as part of their efforts to quell the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad .

According to BBC, Kofi Annan, international mediator, expressed his concern for the shelling in Homs and on the reported attack on the town al-Haffa in the Latakia province as civilians are trapped in both towns.  Annan demanded UN military observers be allowed entry to al-Haffa said spokesman Ahmad Fawzi in a statement.

A six point peace plan arranged by Annan went into effect two months ago for the UN and the Arab League, which included a ceasefire, has been abandoned.

A BBC correspondent reported a steady stream of mortar rounds falling to the ground as quick as one per minute.

It was said that the Syrian army appeared to be using a surveillance drone to select buildings as targets for shelling, according to the BBC Middle East bureau editor Paul Danahar. He says the UN has been trying to gain access to the city for two days with no success yet.

According to Fox News, the violence had killed at least 74 people Monday across the country even with the hundreds of UN observers in the country.

Image Courtesy of  FreedomHouse

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The international organization Human Rights Watch released a report on Thursday, December 15, concerning violations and abuses in Syria committed by security forces since the beginning of anti-government protests and demonstrations in March 2011.

The 94-pages report called “By All Means Necessary!” is the result of the investigations conducted independently by Human Rights Watch in Syria, and it is based on statements of hundreds of victims and witnesses. In particular, it focuses on the violence and killings that occurred between April and August 2011, in seven of Syria’s fourteen governorates: Damascus, Daraa, Homs, Idlib, Tartous, Deir al-Zor, and Hama.

Sixty-three defectors, both from the army and the intelligence agencies, were interviewed separately and accurately. They provided detailed information and reports on the violations, the abuses, and the orders they received from commanders of the Syrian army at any level for repressive actions, violence, and attacks on civilian protesters.

The orders were to stop the protests “by all means necessary”. The people who were interviewed had firsthand knowledge of the violations. Their statements provide accounts and evidence of the systematic abuse on civilians and of the responsibility of the government forces for these abuses.

Anna Neistat, an associate director for emergencies at Human Rights Watch who participated directly in the investigations for the report, said and wrote to CNN, “But responsibility for these crimes does not stop with the commanders on the ground.

Under international criminal law, al-Assad, as commander in chief of all forces in Syria, bears responsibility for the most serious crimes committed by his forces – even if he did not order them – to the extent that he knew, or should have known, about the abuses and failed to prevent them.”

A quote from the report reads, “Human Rights Watch’s findings show that military commanders and officials in the intelligence agencies gave both direct and standing orders to use lethal force against the protesters (at least 20 such cases are documented in detail in this report) as well as to unlawfully arrest, beat, and torture the detainees.

In addition, senior military commanders and high-ranking officials, including President Bashar al-Assad and the heads of the intelligence agencies, bear command responsibility for violations committed by their subordinates to the extent that they knew, or should have known, of the abuses, but failed to take action to stop them.

Given the widespread public and international criticism of the abuses, it would be incredible for al-Assad to argue that he did not know.” Hence, what comes out from this report is the commitment and the responsibility of the Syrian regime, and its president, in crimes against humanity during the crackdown of the anti-government protests.

The non-involvement and non-responsibility claims of President Bashar Al-Assad were demolished by the witnesses’ accounts and statements documented in the report of Human Rights Watch.

Moreover, the claims of Syrian authorities about the violations and the violence having been committed and organized by armed terrorist gangs that were “incited and sponsored from abroad” and by foreign countries, crumble in view of what has been reported and documented. During the nine-month crackdown, the number of victims is estimated around 5,000 people, of whom at least 300 were children.

Despite the sanctions imposed recently by the Arab League on Syria and the increasing isolation of the country, the violence and the abuses did not stop, and there seems to be no change in the regime’s police. Maybe the worst has yet to come.

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The Arab league has voted to suspend Syria from its meetings on November 16th if the regime in Damascus fails to implement a deal to put an end to the brutal crackdown against anti-government protesters. The Arab League decided last week to suspend Syria, but the decision was adopted at a meeting in Morocco on November 16th.

The league also decided to impose severe political and economic sanctions against Syria; making Syria more isolated from both economic and political orbit. Recently, the 22-member body agreed that it would withdraw its army and security forces, open dialogue with the opposition and invite press within two weeks.

Nevertheless, Syria reneged and lingered irreverently, killing more than 100 people. This stronger-than-expected move came amid worsening humanitarian conditions in Syria over the last eight months. Meanwhile, Jordan’s King Abdullah has become the first Arab Leader to explicitly call for President Basher-Al –Assad’s resignation.

Prince Turki al Faisal, former chief of Saudi intelligence, has also echoed his sentiments by saying that it is inevitable that he will have to step down one way or the other. The Arab League intervention in Syrian political unrest opens in a big way the possibilities of repairing the damaged system, especially in Syria and other Arab countries devastated by greed for authoritative power.

The United States hoped that the League would use meetings to send a clear and hard signal to Assad that he needs to allow for democratic change and end violence against its people. The year 2011 brought unrivaled changes at the political podium in the Arab world, ending decades of human oppression at the hands of both economic and political discourse.

Anti-government protest first abruptly erupted in Tunisia, paving a way forward as a mark of encouragement. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya; the three African nations witnessed a change that was overlooked as impossible a few years back.

In the Middle East, Yemen and Syria are still poised with reluctance to hear calls for installation of democracy, good governance and economic reforms that are inversely in the interest of their countries. Arab League General Nabil Araby suggested that the body had run out of patience with Assad. “The Arab League started exerting pressure on Syria to put an end to deathly battle with the protestors and to come to dialogue from the last four months, but Assad didn’t budge”

The Arab League intervened in the crisis and called for urgent measures to safeguard the Syrian people from violent and despotic repression by Assad’s regime, that during the last nine months killed nearly 3500 people.

Syria’s Baathist regime which has been in power for the last five decadesand even so doesn’t seem to soften its stance against its own people, shows that greed for power perhaps diminishes the substance to subsistence!

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Rarely do you find a person with an interest in Middle Eastern politics, or a citizen of the region who is not familiar with the renowned Al-Assad family of Syria. The Assads, originally from Al-Qurdaha in North West Syria, are members of the minority Al-Alawite sect (branch of Islam) that have ruled and controlled Syria’s foreign and domestic policies for over four decades with an iron fist.

In comparison with the region’s dictators, the Assad family has created an infamous reputation for being the Middle East’s most violent and brutal regime. Father of current President Bashar Al-Assad, Hafez Al-Assad’s rise to power took place throughout 1964-1971.

A member of the Syrian Ba’athist party that in practice was ruling Syria at that time, he jumped through military ranks which resulted in him moving from Major to General in less than one year. This was followed by an appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, Minister of Defense, and finally President after an intra-party coup which resulted in the 1970 Syrian Corrective Revolution.

Throughout his rule, Al Assad’s reign was marked with the use of extreme violence to sustain his rule. A famous landmark of his career was the 1982 Hama Massacre which was personally conducted by Rifaat Al Assad (Hafiz’s brother) and executed by the Syrian army. The target of the massacre was to brutally suppress a Sunni opposition against Al-Assad and ended with the death of some 40,000 citizens.

Ironically, Bashar al Assad reached power in a similar way to his father. Residing in London to finish his medical residency as an ophthalmologist, he was called back to Syria in 1994 after the sudden death of his brother Bassil, who was initially being groomed from birth to be his father’s successor.

All eyes turned to Bashar who made Colonel by 1999, and following his father death in 2000, he was voted as leader of the Ba’ath Party, President, and Commander in Chief through a public referendum.

The referendum that was voted on the day Hafiz died, lowered the minimum age for a Presidential candidate to 34, Bashar’s age at the time, and Bashar was made President with an astonishing 97.2% of the votes.

The horror of the regime today

The hand of the Syrian regime does not only reach its own territories, it extends and spreads fear across its border through several political allies that might do the unthinkable to please it. Despite that, one should not see the suffering of the brave Syrian people and remain silent anymore.

What you see on the news or internet of shooting or bombarding or physical abuse are only minor tricks of what the regime really has up its sleeves. The real horror presents itself in the inhumane torture that goes on in prisons and investigations rooms.

Bear in mind that the Syrian regime does not rely on physical torture only, its main objective is to achieve severe psychological damage to their victims via the latter. With the extensive use of force and violence, the Syrian Regime aims to break the will of all citizens that oppose it through degrading human value in ways you can’t imagine.

Through planning, training or “experimenting” on a handful of citizens, and execution of their means using large masses, the Syrian regime has displayed high professionalism in its ways and earned first place in comparison with other Arab governments as the Middle East’s most ruthless and vicious regime.

The methods of torture vary depending on the investigators sadistic ratio of pleasure or how bad they need information to unjustly charge someone with a crime, which makes what went on in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo a walk in the park.

Men, women, and children whipped with stinging electric wires. Spark plugs wired to car batteries being attached to victims’ toes, fingers, or even genitals with high current electricity running through them as their tormentor pleases.

Prisoners forced to drink a large quantity of liquids and then tying up genitals, thus forbidding the victims from using the bathroom and making them feel like their bladder will literally explode. The latest case was the holding down of prisoners’ faces towards the breach (rear) of an RPG launcher, followed by firing the RPG, and scorching the victims’ faces with the immense heat emitted from the launching.

One of course cannot forget the “usual” methods the various Syrian governmental personnel carry out. Beatings, blindfolding, handcuffing, deprivation from sleep, and being squeezed into tires are means of sending a message to all that oppose the Syrian regime.
Following China and Russia’s veto in the Security Council session to condemn Syria’s acts of violence on its own people, the regime freely continues to carry on all sorts of vicious methods to try and silence the voices calling for freedom.

What is more saddening is that the Syrian people have called for international interference and are being massacred on a daily basis without any official condemnation for merely political interests of super and regional powers. The apple does not fall far away from the tree, and Bashar Al Assad continues to carry his father’s legacy of brutality. How long can the Syrian people endure this, only time can tell.

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