Saturday 7 December 2013

Syrian girls in Ramtha, Jordan

Syrian society breaks as women & girls face hardship crisis“What very few people know is that the health system has been targeted by the Syrian government,” she added. “Doctors, nurses and hospitals have been specifically targeted and (it is) using healthcare as a weapon of war in Syria. Over 60 percent of our hospitals have been destroyed, most of the doctors have left the country.”
When she says, "Women and minors in Syria are being raped by government and paramilitary forces," she is referring to the government militias.“With the beginning of the revolution thousands and thousands of women found their voice. And for the first time in a very male-dominated society they were being included as equals with their men, encouraged to protest, to be activists …”

Friday 6 December 2013

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Dynamics and Prospects for
the Syrian revolutionary process
'The message written on this wall represents very much the determination of the Syrian people to continue their struggle until victory:
“I am not concerned with when or where I die; All I care about is for the revolutionaries and their chants to continue filling the earth until there is no more injustice, built on the bodies of the poor and the helpless.” '

The Observer

ARCHIVE


To give a human face to the conflict
'Rahmani said the true problem in Syria is that the conflict has taken away the dignity of many Syrians.
“You have half the population living like natural disaster victims,” Rahmani said. “It’s not just about a civil war, it’s not just about a humanitarian crisis, it’s about people who want to live in dignity.” '

People walk from the rebel-held suburb of Muadhamiya to government-held territory, helped by aid workers
Growing suffering of Syria's besieged civilians"The townspeople say that what has allowed them to hold out for so long is of course the Free Syrian Army, who manage to steal ammunition and weapons from the army to replenish their supplies.
But it's also the teamwork of the community, sharing food, wood for fuel and encouragement. It's this new spirit which means that even though the price has been so high, they insist they don't regret the revolution."

Thursday 5 December 2013

When Will This End?


 # Syria, # LccSy, Damascus Suburbs: Nabik: Many wounded were reported due to regime forces shelling the neighborhoods with toxic substances

 [http://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/…/syria-lccsy-damascus-s…/]

Wednesday 4 December 2013


Desperate Syrian rebels turn
homes into weapons factories
'FSA Captain Ammar al-Aswad, one of the first officers who defected from Assad's army, said he had "lost hope in the Western countries."
Al-Aswad added that he had participated in some of the early meetings with foreign officials assessing how to help the FSA obtain arms and ammunition.
"Let me tell you something. They were just lying to us. They didn't even have the intention to help," he said. "But we don't need their help anymore." '
Not so desperate.

Football becomes mother to Syria's traumatised child refugees

Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan


"We couldn't take it in Syria anymore because our lives were threatened on a daily basis," Bassam said. "We, the Syrian people, are living under a very oppressive regime and asking for freedom. There was no differentiation for elderly people, children and women. They were targeting everybody. They were bombing homes, villages … it just became unliveable. So we fled to Jordan, fled the persecution."


On questions of disillusion among Syrian revolutionaries
Michael Karadjis"This is not a socialist revolution, at least not at this stage. Revolutions in the real world don’t usually start this way either. The Russian revolution of November 1917 was the culmination of a broken 12-year revolutionary process began by a preacher. At this stage a revolution to overthrow a vicious family dictatorship involves not just workers in the narrow sense (and considering that Assad sacked 85,000 workers and closed down a huge percentage of Syrian industry when workers began to move in late 2011, we are not seeing a big narrowly defined “workers’ movement”), but peasants, urban poor in the informal economy, small urban and rural petty bourgeoisie excluded by the “secular” Baathist mega-bourgeoisie etc. Many of the leaderships of the rural and urban poor will come from the more educated or connected urban and rural petty-bourgeoisie, and will express themselves in religious terms.
Thus if we exclude the actually reactionary jihadist fringe (al-Nusra and especially ISIS), these mainstream Islamist movements based among the poor will be a major part of the revolution. Building solidarity with the left, secular and working class forces that fight alongside them in the quest to vanquish the tyranny is the best the western left can do to help such forces balance the more traditionalist forces in the make-up of this stage of the revolution."


Syrian revolution to be examined at CSUF'VanDyke is neither Muslim nor Syrian, but wanted to shed light on what is happening in Syria and among Syrian people.
MSA hopes to give new insight to students from different perspectives about the Syrian conflict and how they can help through this event.
“It is not only a Syrian issue but a humanity issue and all humans should know about it.” '

Tuesday 3 December 2013

‘I hope that I’m supporting them’

‘I hope that I’m supporting them’“When you are a Syrian, you know your country more than anybody else, so for me, a Syrian born and growing up there, I know that what’s happening in Syria is a revolution; it is not a civil war,” he argues passionately. “What I’m doing is nothing compared with what children there [are living through], but this is what I can do. I don’t have the solution, but I can support my people this way, and that’s it.”

Monday 2 December 2013

Roll Out The Barrel


 I couldn't think of an appropriate video to displace the one of the barrel bomb from the preview, so here is an inappropriate one.

 "This is a video of the barrel being tossed out the back of the helicopter. As you can see, it takes several long moments for it to reach the ground. This is why this weapon of choice from Assad is the most dreaded by people in Syria. The length of time it takes to fall is too short to run since the blast radius is so huge, yet it is more than enough time to contemplate your impending death."

 Matthew Aslett was pointing out that another reason for loading TNT into dumpsters and chucking them out of helicopters is that it is cheaper than proper bombs. That is useful for a state that is running out of money.

 [http://www.therevoltingsyrian.com/…/this-is-what-the-afterm…]
Free Syrian Army soldier in Aleppo

The Civilian Administration of
the Insurgency in Aleppo, Syria
"Despite limited human capacity and financial means, civilian institutions have nevertheless emerged this year in the zones conquered by the insurrection movement in northern Syria. Reconstructing an administrative system from the bottom-up has enabled the public service system to restart, and it constitutes the basis for an alternative to the Damascus regime. The management of eastern Aleppo by the armed opposition thus constitutes both a strategic and a political challenge.The skyrocketing increase in power of the ISIL these last months has profoundly transformed the political dynamics in northern Syria. The pragmatic collaboration between groups with sometimes opposed ideologies, but united against the regime, has led to a direct confrontation that could hinder the vulnerable and fragile civilian institutions. The way that, in Raqqa, Azaz, Manbij or Tall Abiad, the ISIL eliminated the members of local administrations and now rule over the cities of Al-Dana or Saluq demonstrates the risks weighing over Aleppo’s administration. Since last summer, the United States and the European Union started to provide support for Aleppo’s police force, but many more resources are necessary to the survival of the functioning civilian institutions in the rebel-held territories."

Frontline: The Bombing Of al-Bara

Devastating documentary revealing the reality of Assad's bombing.
When you see a story like, "Syrian aerial strikes kill at least 50 people in town near Aleppo"*, this is what happened. 
*[http://www.dailystar.com.lb/…/239596-syrian-aerial-strikes-…]

Sunday 1 December 2013

Ala' al-Hawrani
Syria. Testimony of one of the
first deserters of the Syrian army

In French."The crowd of protesters was stirred and officers positioned immediately behind us - we were all conscripts - gave us the order to fire. I refused to do so. I loaded my gun. I turned to the officer positioned behind me and I threatened to screen bullets. Thirty other soldiers were like me. The officers took fright and explained that they had nothing to do. They also do not want to shoot their own people. We lowered our weapons."