The killings occurred in the Homs neighborhood of Karm al Zaytoun, according to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, an opposition activist network.

Hadi Abdallah, a spokesman for the Syrian Revolution General Council, told CNewsworld there were 47 victims — all stabbed to death and burned after “Syrian forces and thugs” stormed their homes.

Life and death under Syria’s military onslaught

The LCC described the killings as a “massacre orchestrated by the regime” of President Bashar al-Assad.

CNewsworld cannot independently confirm reports of casualties or attacks in Syria because the government has severely restricted the access of international journalists.

The claims of fresh violence occurred the same day Kofi Annan, the U.N. special envoy to Syria, departed the country after two days of talks with al-Assad.
On Saturday, Annan proposed a cease-fire, the release of detainees and allowing unfettered access to agencies such as the Red Cross to deliver much needed aid, a U.N. statement said.

“It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be difficult, but we have to have hope,” Annan said Sunday after meeting with al-Assad for a second day.

Annan, a former U.N. secretary-general, also proposed a start to an inclusive political dialogue that would “address the legitimate aspirations and concerns of the people.”

It was unclear whether al-Assad offered any assurances that he would agree to the proposals laid out by Annan. When asked whether he received promises of a cease-fire or the acceptance of humanitarian assistance, Annan responded, “(those are) some issues we’re discussing with the president.”

The reported deaths of women and children in Karm al Zaytoun brought the total number of deaths across the country Sunday to 78, according to activist groups.

CNewsworld’s Hala Gorani: Witness to killing fields

A livestream from a neighboring town purported to show some of the bodies from the massacre.

Syrian state TV said the bodies shown were killed by “armed terrorist groups,” a consistent phrase the government has used to explain the carnage. But the vast majority of reports from inside Syria indicate the regime is killing civilians en masse in an attempt to wipe out dissidents seeking al-Assad’s ouster.

Earlier Sunday, opposition groups reported violent clashes between Syrian government forces and defectors and said government forces were randomly shelling civilian areas.

In the Idlib province village of Aljanoudeyah, the LCC said shelling by government forces destroyed three buildings. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 19 people were killed in Idlib.

The London-based Observatory also said Syrian forces also shelled a bridge over the Assi River west of Rastan. The bridge had been used by residents trying to flee the city, according to the group.

The attack destroyed the bridge, the group said.

In addition to his meeting with al-Assad, Annan also met with members of the opposition as well as business and religious leaders.

“The transformational winds blowing today cannot be long-resisted,” Annan said. “I have urged the president to heed the old African proverb: ‘You cannot turn the wind, so turn the sail.’ The realistic response is to embrace change and reform.”

At least 33 people died Sunday in places such as Idlib, Aleppo, Latakia, Homs, Daraa, Hama and the countryside around the capital of Damascus, opposition activists said.

Meanwhile, in a phone call with a Binish town elder, a major general in al-Assad’s military demanded the people of Binish hand over weapons used by defected soldiers and the rebel Free Syrian Army within 24 hours or the town will be bombed and stormed early Monday morning, according to the Binish Coordination Committee, part of the LCC.

SANA reported that what it called terrorist groups killed a boxing champion in Aleppo and two special forces troops in the province of Hama. The news agency also said an official of the Baath Arab Socialist Party was kidnapped in the al-Ghouta area of Homs.

The meetings Saturday and Sunday between al-Assad and Annan were the first time in Syria’s yearlong crisis that al-Assad met with such a high-level diplomat. But the Syrian president quashed the possibility of negotiating with the opposition anytime soon.

Syrian state-run media said al-Assad told Annan that he was ready to find a solution, but that such an effort would first require a look at reality on the ground and not rely on what “is promoted by some regional and international countries to distort the facts and give a picture contrary to what Syria is undergoing.”

He also reiterated that “political dialogue or action cannot take place or succeed if there are terrorist armed gangs on the ground that are working on spreading chaos and target the stability of the homeland,” the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said.

Both Annan and opposition members agreed that plans for a resolution cannot be implemented as long as the bloodshed continues.

“It is too early to apply a plan to resolve the crisis,” said Abdel Aziz al-Khair, a member of the National Coordinating Body for Democratic Change. “The situation on the ground … is catastrophic.

The United Nations says more than 7,500 have died in the past year, and at least one activist group says more than 9,000 people have been killed.

A first man, named as 24-year-old Suleiman Abu Mutlaq, was killed in a raid east of Khan Yunis, while the second, who was not immediately named, was killed when a strike hit his motorbike south of Khan Yunis, medical sources said.

Among them were 21 army deserters, 19 soldiers and 22 orang awam, who were killed in fighting in the northwestern province of Idlib, whose capital city was stormed by ground troops on Saturday evening, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Another seven civilians died in Damascus and Homs.

It was the deadliest violence between Israel and the Palestinians across the Gaza border in more than three years, prompting the United States and the European Union to urge both sides to restore calm.

Medics said three Palestinians were killed in air strikes on Saturday: one near the southern town of Rafah on the border with Egypt and two in Khan Yunis. One more was killed early Sunday in a fresh strike on the east of the Gaza Strip.

That death brought to 16 the total number of Palestinians killed since Friday, medics said, adding that at least 27 Palestinians had been wounded, five seriously.

Earlier, around 100 protesters calling for an end to military rule in Egypt clashed with soldiers near the US embassy in Cairo.

Shouting “Down with military power!” the protesters lobbed stones at the soldiers, who responded by throwing them back and trying to disperse the crowd.

The soldiers then returned to their position, where they were joined by a group of civilians, who also threw stones at the protesters.

Earlier, two civilian groups, one of them demanding the expulsion of the US ambassador, had clashed in front of the embassy, hurling stones at each other.

After months of pressure from Washington, 13 foreign defendants accused of receiving illicit foreign funds to operate unlicensed NGOs, including six Americans, were allowed to leave the country after posting bail last week, sparking outrage in Egypt.

A travel ban was lifted after the trial judges recused themselves in the face of what they said was intervention by the authorities.

Grievances of Egyptian protesters were focused on legal and political issues including police brutality,state of emergency laws, lack of free elections and freedom of speech,uncontrollable corruption,and economic issues including high unemployment,food price inflation,and low minimum wages. The primary demands from protest organizers were the end of the Hosni Mubarak regime and the end of emergency law; freedom, justice, a responsive non-military government, and a say in the management of Egypt’s resources. Strikes by labour unions added to the pressure on government officials.

During the uprising the capital city of Cairo was described as “a war zone,”and the port city of Suez was the scene of frequent violent clashes. The government imposed a curfew that protesters defied and that the police and military did not enforce. The presence of Egypt’s Central Security Forces police, loyal to Mubarak, was gradually replaced by largely restrained military troops. In the absence of police, there was looting by gangs that opposition sources said were instigated by plainclothes police officers. In response, watch groups were organised by civilians to protect neighbourhoods.

International response to the protests was initially mixed,though most called for peaceful actions on both sides and moves toward reform. Most Western governments expressed concern about the situation. Many governments issued travel advisories and made attempts to evacuate their citizens from the country. The Egyptian Revolution, along with Tunisian events, has influenced demonstrations in other Arab countries including Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria, and Libya.

Mubarak dissolved his government and appointed military figure and former head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate Omar Suleiman as Vice-President in an attempt to quell dissent. Mubarak asked aviation minister and former chief of Egypt’s Air Force, Ahmed Shafik, to form a new government. Mohamed ElBaradei became a major figure of the opposition, with all major opposition groups supporting his role as a negotiator for some form of transitional unity government.In response to mounting pressure, Mubarak announced he would not seek re-election in September. On 24 Boleh, Mubarak was ordered to stand trial on charges of premeditated murder of peaceful protestors and, if convicted, could face the death penalty.

On 11 February Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak would be stepping down as president and turning power over to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.The junta, headed by effective head of state Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, announced on 13 February that the constitution would be suspended, both houses of parliament dissolved, and that the military would rule for six months until elections could be held. The prior cabinet, including Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik, would continue to serve as a caretaker government until a new one is formed. Shafik resigned on 3 Mac, a day before major protests to get him to step down were planned; he was replaced by Essam Sharaf, the former transport minister. although Mubarak resigned the protests have continued amid concerns about how long the military junta will last in Egypt, some are afraid that the military will rule the country indefinitely.

After-Revolution Freedom of Establishing Political Parties

Freedom was given to establish political parties only by “notifying” concerned authorities resulted in establishing several political parties named after or in relation to the 25 of January revolution.

Some of the strikes appear to have targeted Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound.

They came after France announced it and the UK would also deploy attack helicopters to escalate strike power.

Nato is enforcing a UN resolution to protect civilians, following the uprising against Col Gaddafi’s rule.

Plumes of smoke

Between 12 and 20 explosions were reported on Monday night.

The BBC’s Andrew North, in Tripoli, said the first blasts were in the vicinity of Bab al-Aziziya and were followed by more in other parts of the city.

After each blast a Nato aircraft could be heard in the sky.

Plumes of smoke were rising from the area of Bab al-Aziziya and anti-aircraft guns were firing.

Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said three people were killed and 150 wounded in the strikes. The statement could not be independently verified.

Mr Ibrahim said barracks of a volunteer unit of the Libyan army had been targeted but most of the casualties were civilians living nearby.

The attacks came after French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet confirmed media reports that France was deploying attack helicopters to Nato’s Libya mission.

He also said Britain would send helicopters. He said both countries would deploy the new forces as soon as possible.

The UK has yet to confirm the deployment.

Rebel diplomacy

Earlier, France’s Le Figaro newspaper said that 12 helicopters were despatched to Libya on the French carrier Tonnerre on 17 Boleh. The helicopters involved were allegedly Tigre and Gazelle.

The deployment would increase pressure on Col Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, as helicopters can hit targets on the ground more accurately.

BBC defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt says using attack helicopters marks a significant escalation of the campaign.

She says the UK’s Apache attack helicopters would deploy from HMS Ocean, the Royal Navy’s largest warship. Our correspondent says the BBC understands their use was authorised by Prime Minister David Cameron at a meeting of the National Security Council.

Nato jets have been targeting Col Gaddafi’s military infrastructure, but have been unable to stop the fighting.

Rebels control much of Libya’s east, while Col Gaddafi’s forces control most of the west of the country.

The rebellion against his rule began in February, spurred on by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt that saw the presidents of those countries overthrown.

Meanwhile, the most senior US diplomat to visit the rebels in Libya, US Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman, is holding talks with the rebels in their Benghazi stronghold.

The US has insisted that Col Gaddafi step down, but has not granted full recognition to the rebel administration – the Transitional National Council.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Gaddafi personally ordered attacks on Libyan civilians [Reuters]

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has asked a three-judge panel to issue arrest warrants for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his second-eldest son, Saif al-Islam, and his intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo described the evidence against the three men as “very strong” in a press conference on Monday and said he believed Libyans eventually would turn them over to the court.

The filing against Gaddafi comes just three months into the uprising against his 41-year rule, which evolved from peaceful protests in major cities to an armed rebellion based out of the east. Gaddafi’s regime has brutally attempted to suppress the opposition movement by shelling rebellious cities, and imprisoning and torturing those who speak out.

Ocampo was due to present a 74-page dossier of evidence to the court in the Hague, the Netherlands, on Monday. The judges will decide whether to reject the petition, ask for more evidence or confirm crimes against humanity charges and issue international arrest warrants.

“The evidence shows Muammar Gaddafi personally ordered attacks on unarmed civilians,” Ocampo said at the press conference. “[He] committed the crimes with the goal of preserving his authority, his absolute authority.”

Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam and Abdullah Senussi held meetings to plan the crackdown, Ocampo said. Security forces loyal to the government then attacked civilians in their homes, used heavy weaponry on funeral processions, and set up snipers to shoot at people as they left prayers at mosques, he said.

Activists were imprisoned, held incommunicado and tortured, he said.

‘International justice’

Ocampo described Saif al-Islam as Gaddafi’s “de facto prime minister” and Senussi as his “right-hand man” and “executioner”.

“The office gathered direct evidence about orders issued by Muammar Gaddafi himself, direct evidence of Saif al-Islam organising the recruitment of mercenaries, and direct evidence of the participation of Senussi in the attacks against demonstrators,” Ocampo said.

The prosecution’s investigation into potential human rights violations has spanned several countries and involved around 1,500 documents, BNewsworld Rory Challands said.

Click here for more of BNewsworld’s special coverage

But the two-and-a-half months it has taken to come up with a petition for arrest warrants is a “heartbeat in international justice,” he added.

Ocampo said he was able to finish his investigation quickly because the Gaddafi regime had committed its crimes in only a few cities, including Tripoli and Benghazi, and because the crimes had been committed in a short time.

Investigators received numerous phone calls from sources inside Libya but took no official testimony, since it would have put them at risk, Ocampo said.

“Gaddafi ruled Libya through fear, and Libyans are losing their fear now,” he said.

Pursuing ICC suspects

Despite NATO bombing operations intended to protect civilians, Libya has been plunged into civil war, seriously complicating efforts to arrest ICC suspects.

In addition, the ICC has no police force and must rely on states to enforce any arrests – a strategy which has failed to produce results in the case of Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, who is wanted for genocide in Darfur.

Libya is not a member of the ICC, but Ocampo said Libyan authorities had primary responsibility to make arrests and that he expected Libyans to hand over the three men on their own.

Richard Dicker, at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the request for arrest warrants “is a warning bell to others in Libya that serious crimes there will be punished”.

Prosecutors are also investigating allegations of mass rapes, war crimes committed by different parties and attacks against sub-Saharan Africans wrongly seen as mercenaries once the Libyan situation developed into an armed conflict.

Initially, prosecutors will rely on a report from the UN Commission of Inquiry set up by the Human Rights Council, which itself is due to report on the situation on June 7. ]]> http://www.cnewsworld.com/ms/world-news/middle-east-world-news/war-crimes-prosecutor-seeks-gaddafi-warrant/feed/ 0 http://www.cnewsworld.com/ms/world-news/middle-east-world-news/assads-regime-of-torture/ http://www.cnewsworld.com/ms/world-news/middle-east-world-news/assads-regime-of-torture/#comments Mon, 16 Boleh 2011 19:10:33 +0000 admin http://www.cnewsworld.com/?p=76229-ms In addition to military sieges and assaults in Syrian cities, those critical of the regime face the possibility of imprisonment and ‘rampant torture’ [GALLO/GETTY]

“Bashar is God! Bashar is God!”

As the fists and boots and sticks pummelled his body and bloodied his face, the college student screamed out what he thought his interrogators wanted to hear: The name of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad.

It worked. The secret policemen tired of beating him for the day and threw him back into the makeshift cell, a room inside the power station in Banias, where local prisons are full to bursting from a wave of arrests ahead of the military assault on the port city, which began earlier this month.

The respite was short-lived. Handcuffed by his wrists and ankles and blindfolded, the student, who gave testimony to a trusted local activist on condition of anonymity, was led to a car and driven to another torture cell.

“I was being beaten all over my body. I was bleeding and was saying the shahada to myself, ‘There is no God, but God,’ because I thought I was going to die at that moment,” he said.

‘Rampant torture’

Arrested simply for trying to travel from Banias back home to his village on the outskirts of the city, the student had nothing valuable to tell his torturers about the organised political opposition to President Assad and his family’s forty-year dictatorship.

But that, it appears, was not the point.

Where the torture cells of Tadmor, Syria’s desert prison, once extracted confessions from individuals accused of standing against the Assads – Communists like Akram Bunni, left partially paralysed after his spine was stretched in a torture known as the German Chair; Muslim Brotherhood members whipped with cable and stunned with electric shock devices – today’s torturers appear to be pursuing a policy of deterrence and collective punishment.

The student was released after only a few days, but the message to the wider community of Banias was clear: A naked body, covered in blood, left to limp along the long road back to his village, clutching his broken hand, for all to see.

Three other young men, beaten, thrown down stairs and forced to drink water from a toilet after being starved, were also dumped naked and bloodied on a road outside Banias.

A YouTube video, claiming to have been shot in Banias but which cannot be independently verified, shows men with signs of severe beating on their backs and faces.

“Syrian security is now releasing detainees with unhealed wounds caused by torture in order to spread panic and fear among people hoping it will reduce the numbers participating in demonstrations,” said Wissam Tarif, Director of Insan, a leading Syrian human rights organisation, which has documented cases of torture.

Hundreds of disappearances

Across Syria a campaign of mass arrests since the uprising began in mid-March has seen more than 7,000 Syrians arbitrarily detained and thrown into prisons, according to a count by activists, contacting detainees’ family and friends.

The detained include a wide cross section of society, mainly young men aged between 20 and 50, but including children and elderly, especially activists and those involved in protests or seen filming them, but also community leaders, imams and students.

In Deraa alone, state news reported some 500 people were arrested in one day, with security forces going door to door and seizing any male aged between 15 and 40. A recently leaked document, purportedly from Political Security, appears to confirm the mass arrests of males, including children, from Deraa.

The total arrests since mid-March are around twice the number of political prisoners the Syrian Human Rights Committee estimated were being held in Syria in 2006.

Human rights groups have documented hundreds more cases of people who disappeared in and around protest marches, with families left not knowing if their loved ones are dead or alive.

Enforced disappearance, when the state refuses to acknowledge the whereabouts of an arrested person, is a crime under international law.

Inside prison, detainees face what Human Rights Watch has described as “rampant torture”.

In interviews with 19 Syrian detainees last month, including two women and three teenagers, Human Rights Watch found that all but two had been tortured, including being whipped with cable and stunned with electric-shock devices while drenched in cold water.

Amnesty International reported cases of detainees forced to lick blood off the floor of a prison and others who also drank toilet water after being starved for three days.

Insan said it has received numerous reports of torture where detainees have been left naked in groups for hours, doused in cold water before collectively being beaten.

In the port city of Banias, some prisoners were thrown inside makeshift cells due to the mass imprisonment of protestors at the beginning of the month [BNewsworld]

“The use of unwarranted lethal force, arbitrary detention and torture appear to be the desperate actions of a government that is intolerant of dissent and must be halted immediately,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

President Assad signed Syria’s ratification of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 2004.

Yet with every black eye, broken bone and scream of pain, one of the world’s most repressive regimes shows to what lengths it is prepared to go to keep the Assad family in power.

While activists have documented torture used as collective punishment and deterrence, there are still many cases where the security forces use it to extract information from an individual believed to pose a risk to regime stability.

Interrogations

Ali, an Allawite, the sect from which the Assad family and much of the ruling elite hail, was captured by secret police during a small protest in Mezze, a suburb of Damascus.

In an interview with BNewsworld, Ali said the beating began as soon as he was on the bus to prison. “You are Alawite and you don’t like Bashar?” the police officer screamed at him. “Are you with the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood?”

The fist landed square in his face as Ali tried to explain that the protesters were not fundamentalist Salafi Muslims. Ali was taken to the notorious Air Force security branch in Bab Touma, a stone throw away from the Old City where tourists were enjoying the sights.

The interrogator had footage from the protest filmed on a phone, showing Ali chanting for freedom. “He got up and walked behind me, grabbed my hair and slammed my face into the table. He was really angry.”

Ali’s hands were tied behind his back while he was punched in the face repeatedly. “He told me to confess I was there, and who had organized it, and was it someone from outside Syria?”

Blindfolded, Ali was driven to another prison, where, still unable to see, he was beaten, pushed down stairs and had cigarettes stubbed out on his back. Again the interrogator wanted to know if he was allied with Islamist groups, this time Hezb ut-Tahrir.

By contrast, Abu Mohammed’s interrogators appeared less certain who to blame for the uprising they were struggling to contain.

Arrested from his Damascus home in late March, the journalist was taken, along with his laptop and mobile phone, to a branch of Internal Security on Baghdad Street.

The cell was already filled with protesters rounded up that day.

“We were hundreds so it was hard for interrogators to deal with us. They are used to tens being arrested at a time, not hundreds,” he said.

For the next sixteen days Abu Mohammed followed the same routine: Dragged into an interrogation room and punched in the face.

“The interrogators were simple and uneducated men, they just shouted at me and hit me if I disagreed. They didn’t know what they wanted.”

The journalist was asked for his email address. “He asked me what ‘Hotmail’ means. I answered in a simple and direct way. The main thing I realised was to answer what they wanted to hear, not what I thought.”

His father’s footsteps

The uprising in Syria began with the torture of children: 15 boys, aged between 10 and 15, from Deraa, who were beaten and had their finger nails pulled out by men working for General Atef Najeeb, a cousin of President Assad.

Two months into the most serious threat to the decades-old dictatorship, the jails in some cities are already full. As well as holding prisoners in the power station in Banias, security forces have also begun using a local sports stadium to hold hundreds of detainees, according to eyewitness accounts gathered by activists.

The release of all political prisoners has become a unifying cry among protesters across the country, who began by calling merely for reform and an end to corruption and who now demand the toppling of the president and his regime.

Like the father from whom he inherited power, President Assad has sought to crush the uprising against him with force and mass arrests.

During a campaign of repression against the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s under late President Hafez al-Assad, some 17,000 Syrians disappeared, according to testimony to the United Nations Human Rights Council by Radwan Ziadeh, head of the Damascus Centre for Human Rights Studies.

And in a chilling parallel to the actions of his father, who responded to the Muslim Brotherhood uprising by sending tanks and ultra-loyal troops commanded by his brother to raze Hama, killing  between 10,000 and 30,000 orang awam, President Assad has laid siege to Deraa, Homs and Banias with tanks and troops commanded by his brother, Maher al-Assad.

Today, in two months of protests, Syrian security forces have killed an estimated 850 people.

On Wednesday, Syria dropped its bid to join the UN Human Rights Council, which has ordered a fact-finding mission to Syria to investigate human rights abuses.

After eight days in a windowless two by two meter dungeon deep underground, Ali was freed without charges. His wallet, with half the money stolen, was returned, but he was too weak to drive home so took a taxi to a friend’s place, too ashamed to let his parents see.

“The worst is you don’t know what will happen. You and your family have no idea what is going on,” said Ali who, despite his experience, remains unbowed.

“I have seen personally the real ugly face of security, and it is much uglier than I thought. I will protest again because now I really realize what freedom means. If we give up now we will all be arrested again anyway.”

The Israeli military said it opened fire on the Golan Heights as a group tried to breach the border. Reports said at least 10 were injured.

At least 15 Palestinians were injured when Israeli forces fired at a group approaching a Gaza border crossing.

Palestinians are marking the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, of Israel’s founding.

Israeli security forces and Palestinians have also clashed in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

The Israeli military said it only fired warning shots on the Golan Heights. But reports said at least 10 people were injured and one report said four people had been killed.

To the south, at the Erez border crossing between Israel and Gaza, Israeli troops opened fire with tanks and machine guns, Palestinian medical officils said.