Defector Testimony provided further evidence that attacks on Syrian protestors Explicitly State-Ordered

The author with a sign

8 soldiers and 4 security agency members were interviewed

The people said they participated in the government crackdown

Those interviewed were in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan

Recent reports from five Syrian defectors told Human Rights Watch that they received explicit orders to shoot at protesters.

One member of Syria’s security agencies, referred to locally as mukhabarat, was deployed in Homs, Syria’s third largest city, on April 19, when Syria’s security forces violently dispersed one of the biggest gatherings of protesters attempting to stage a sit-in in the central Clock Tower Square. He told Human Rights Watch that Colonel Abdel Hameed Ibrahim ordered the soldiers to fire on unarmed protesters and that the soldiers complied, killing dozens of people:

The protesters had sat down in the square. We were told to disperse them with violence if needed. We were there with air force security, army, and shabbiha [armed supporters of the government who do not belong to security forces]. At around 3:30 a.m., we got an order from Colonel Abdel Hameed Ibrahim from air force security to shoot at the protesters. We were shooting for more than half an hour. There were dozens and dozens of people killed and wounded. Thirty minutes later, earth diggers and fire trucks arrived. The diggers lifted the bodies and put them in a truck. I don’t know where they took them. The wounded ended up at the military hospital in Homs. And then the fire trucks started cleaning the square.

A conscript who was a member of the Presidential Guard recounted how he was deployed on April 18 to Harasta, a suburb of Damascus, to quell a protest:

They gave each one of us a Kalashnikov [rifle] with two magazines, and there was more ammunition in the vehicles. They also gave us electric tasers. They told us we were being sent to fight the gangs because security services needed reinforcement. We were surprised [when we got to Harasta] because we couldn’t see any gangs, just civilians, including some women and children, in the street, and members of the mukhabarat firing at them. I was in a group with five other soldiers from my unit. We received clear orders to shoot at civilians from the Presidential Guard officers and from the 4th military battalion, although normally we don’t get orders from other units. One of the officers who gave orders was Major Mujahed Ali Hassan from 4th battalion; his military vehicle license plate is 410. The exact orders were “load and shoot.” There were no conditions, no prerequisites. We got closer to the demonstrators, and when we were some five meters away, the officers shouted “fire!” At that moment, the five of us defected and ran over to the demonstrators’ side throwing our weapons to them while running away.

The interviewed defectors reported that they were generally deployed in mixed teams of army personnel and often plainclothes mukhabarat and shabeeha. Two soldiers reported incidents where their units had opened fire on armed mukhabarat and shabeeha wearing civilian clothes after mistaking them for anti-government gangs. A first sergeant (Raqeeb Awwal) said the army opened fire in the coastal town of Bayda on members of security services wearing civilian clothes because they mistook their identity. Other defectors reported that security services later dressed in army clothes to avoid such shootings.

A conscript trained as a sniper was deployed in Izraa, a town of 40,000 near Daraa, on April 25, three days after security forces had shot 28 protesters over a 48-hour period; he told Human Rights Watch:

I was in Squad 14 (Firqa 14) of the 4th Regiment. We were around 300 soldiers deployed to Izraa. I had heard so much about foreign armed groups that I was eager to fight them. But then General Nasr Tawfiq gave us the following orders: “Don’t shoot at the armed civilians. They are with us. Shoot at the people whom they shoot at.” We were all shocked after hearing his words, as we had imagined that the people were killed by foreign armed groups, not by the security forces. We realized that our orders were to shoot at our own people.

A soldier who was deployed for a month in Daraa before defecting on June 1 said:

“We received orders to kill protesters. Some military refused the orders and were shot with a handgun. Two were killed in front of me, by someone in the rank of lieutenant (muqaddam). I don’t know his name. He said they were traitors.”

A sergeant  posted in the southern town of al-Hara, near Daraa, described the orders his squad received when the army circled the town:

 

“Snipers were on rooftops. Their orders were, ‘If anyone goes out on the street, detain or shoot.’ I recall watching a guy go out to smoke outside and then being shot and killed by a sniper.”

All defectors told Human Rights Watch they were led to believe that they were fighting armed gangs paid by outside actors.

“We were told that there are terrorist groups coming into the country with funding from Bandar Bin Sultan [a prominent Saudi prince who served until 2009 as Saudi’s national security chief], Saad al-Hariri [a former Lebanese prime minister], and Jeffrey Feltman [US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs].”

Military commanders often communicated this information during daily briefings to soldiers, referred to as “nasharat tawjeeh.”

“Each morning we had guidance briefings. They would tell us there are gangs and infiltrators. They would show us pictures of dead soldiers and security forces.”

A member of the mukhabarat posted in Homs reported that he and his colleagues “received leaflets that there are infiltrators and salafists in the country and that they needed to stop them. In the flyers, they said Bandar Bin Sultan and Saad Hariri had paid those infiltrators.”

Regular soldiers were not allowed to watch television in private to avoid any of them watching TV channels that aired anti-government information.

Officers could watch television but only Syrian state television and Dunya TV, a pro-government channel owned by Rami Makhlouf, a cousin and close ally of President Bashar al-Asad.

Every night they used to summon us in a stadium-like place in the military barrack and make us watch Dunya TV from a big TV screen. It was all scenes from Daraa showing people killed by what they reported as foreign armed groups. Officers would repeatedly tell us that there is a “foreign plot” going on in Daraa.

Watching Dunya TV every night between 20:00 and 22:00, we had the firm belief that there is a foreign conspiracy against which we need to fight and protect our people.

Libya to charge 21 rebel leaders in special court

Libya to charge 21 rebel leaders in special court.

UN urges probe into reports of refugees left to drown off North Africa

17 June 2011 – The United Nations Human Rights Council today called for a comprehensive inquiry into allegations that sinking boats carrying migrants and asylum-seekers fleeing unrest in North Africa were abandoned to their fate at sea despite the alleged ability of ships in the vicinity to rescue them.

There have been several reports in recent months of refugees fleeing from Libya in overloaded or mechanically unsound boats drowning in the Mediterranean Sea. Early last month the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that nearly 600 people may have drowned when a boat broke up off the coast of Libya.

In a resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the body expressed sadness over the death at sea of hundreds of people, mostly Africans, and cited accounts of survivors and family members who have stated that more than 1,200 others remain unaccounted for.

The Council voiced alarm that after having been compelled to make dangerous journeys, including in crowded and unsafe boats, the would-be migrants are subjected to life-threatening exclusion, detention, rejection and xenophobia.

It noted that despite efforts by countries of destination on the northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea to host migrants and asylum-seekers fleeing from North Africa, the burden of problem fell disproportionately on neighbouring North African countries.

The Council “reaffirms the need to respect the humanitarian principle of non-refoulement from territorial waters and lands for the thousands of people fleeing the events in the North African region,” according to the resolution, sponsored by Nigeria.

It stressed that, “in a spirit of solidarity and burden-sharing, countries of destination should deal with the arrival of thousands of migrants and asylum-seekers in non-seaworthy boats in a humane way and in compliance with their international obligations.”

The Council requested the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to pay particular attention to the problem.

It also urged the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants and other bodies with related mandates to look into the plight of those fleeing by sea, including from North Africa, and who are denied assistance or rescue when approaching the countries of destination, and to report regularly to the Human Rights Council.

Unjustly imprisoned journalists in Iran– worldwide, already 19 Dead in ’11–the CPJ

 19 Journalists Killed in 2011/Motive Confirmed

864  since 1992

New York, June 7, 2011--Iranian authorities continue to punish unjustly imprisoned journalists when they demand basic rights. They also retaliate when these journalists speak out about their mistreatment and the substandard conditions in prison, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. “Apparently, it is not sufficient for the authorities in Iran to be the world’s leading jailer of journalists,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Mohamed Abdel Dayem. “Prison, security, and judicial officials regularly harm and punish journalists who demand their rights or shed light on rampant prison abuse. These journalists should not be in prison in the first place but while they are there the authorities have a duty to ensure their safety and well-being.”

More 

A Message

“Anonymous” is so adept at putting succinctly, in youtube vids, the demands of people who have no voice–I recall responding very emotionally to the first Message I saw to the people of Iran.

I’m not going to give anyone the chills. The demands are reasonable and basic. Will someone with more immodulation in their voice/clout in their ultimatum relay them?

As Follows Demands on behalf of foreign nationals.

op asylum

And when I feel, fair creature of an hour, That I shall never look upon thee more, Never have relish in the faery power Of unreflecting love! -then on the shore Of the wide world I stand alone, and think, Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink. ~Keats

First, if anyone reading this is in contact with foreign nationals, living especially in areas of questionable guarantees of international law, but anywhere in the world outside of the country of their citizenship with a non-immigrant visa status, you will want your friends to be informed.

found this pic here http://flipsideflorida.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/chiaroscuro-redux/

“There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don’t come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.”

— Isaac Asimov

7000 thousand plus Libyans are now facing potential deportation upon expiration of student visas, as funding lapsed for those on home funded assistance with the freezing of Gaddafi’s assets. Many face threats to their freedom and physical threats from both official and  more auxiliary aggressors on Gaddafi’s long list of payed thugs. In countries where this is happening, we demand that reports made to authorities be absolutely guaranteed reprisal free.

some thoughts

It’s relatively easy for me to distill the relevant information from the webchat we had this evening—I can s simply locate my contributions and blue pencil them into oblivion. Not only was I privileged to be preempted by the very gracious and much more knowledgeable Joanne Michele in answering queries and/or responding to useful information, but additionally attended by a dozen or so conscientious friends who donated their time to the very noble task of checking their own awareness.

Not only did I in fact go into the meeting already greatly improved of mood and countenance for the new resources which Mrs. Michele has contributed (in addition to her effective assurance that, at least provided certain prerequisites, with any luck the Libyan college students abroad won’t be subject to return to a war shattered home and the threat of incarceration harm or death. I’ll say here that I consider forced conscription attempted murder, depraved indifference to the very basest non-derogable rights of the human.

A lot of good advice was given, and I am optimistic now for the fates of not just the limited number of Libyan students I had originally envisioned assisting, but for the prospect of a possible positive effect on the lives and futures of more than 7000 thousand Libyan students attending post-secondary institutions abroad. They all face a dubious fate. Their matriculation is the least compelling of the looming hurdles to an un abated pursuit of personal enrichment.

These are of the kind we need to concern ourselves in encouraging the individual facets, the modalities of “praxis” within a society.

While I think that to attempt to omnipotently  manipulate  global  events or wholly undo the consequences of past mistakes has as much promise as unscrambling an omelette back to yoke and whites with a pair of wooden spoons—descriptively it is not hard to recognize the expurgating  character of “types” of influence.

I think this may be unclear, I just mean to distinguish it from particular political or cultural agendas as anything like essential or even consistent (cultural norms become less and less normative for shorter and for shorter periods of time).

Excellent advice foreign nationals: don’t give up passport. Don’t guard it with your life, show it on request, but demand return

Demand documentation, signatures, and explanations of rights.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Case Postale 2500
CH-1211 Genève 2 Dépôt
Suisse.
Our telephone number:
+41 22 739 8111 (automatic switchboard).
Working hours are from 8:30 to 17:30 (7:30 GMT to 16:30 GMT) Monday to Friday

For partnership inquiries:
Fundraising Appeals Officer
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Telephone: (41) 22.739.8782
Fax: (41) 22.739.7395
E-mail: tremblay@unhcr.org

For press inquiries:
Associate Officer
Private Sector and Public Affairs Service
UNHCR Geneva
Telephone: (41) 22.739.7637
Fax: (41) 22.739.7395
Email: pouilly@unhcr.org

“A human being is a part of the whole that we call the universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical illusion of his consciousness. This illusion is a prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for only the few people nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living beings and all of nature.”

— Albert Einstein