La "Dichiarazione" di condanna e il massimo oggi possibile
Esisteva, ai tempi dell’Unione Sovietica la "solidarietà internazionalista", tante volte abbiamo sentito evocare negli ultimi vent’anni quella tra le democrazie e ancora più abusata è stata la solidarietà araba. Ma tra dittatori l’amicizia e l’appoggio fraterno hanno sempre avuto un corso molto limitato e, soprattutto, una validità che veniva immediatamente meno nei confronti di chi avesse avuto la sventura di cadere in disgrazia. Così non ci ha pensato su due volte, il presidente siriano Bachar el Assad, quando ha contato un po’ ingenuamente sul fatto che l’avvio del processo a Mubarak avrebbe distratto i media dal massacro che le forze armate siriane vanno compiendo per tutto il Paese. Proprio mentre le sue truppe stavano sottoponendo la città di Hama a un durissimo bombardamento, l’Onu pare essersi svegliata e aver adottato una "Dichiarazione" in cui si condannano "la violazione generalizzata dei diritti dell’uomo e l’uso della forza contro i civili da parte delle autorità siriane", ammonendo che "i responsabili delle violenze dovranno rispondere del loro operato".
È forse questa la parte più dura della Dichiarazione (cioè qualcosa di meno di una Risoluzione) che il Consiglio di Sicurezza delle Nazioni Unite (CdS) ha con estrema fatica adottato mercoledì scorso, la prima da quando in Siria hanno avuto inizio le proteste tanto sanguinosamente represse dal regime. In altri fondamentali passaggi, la Dichiarazione invita tutte le parti cessare le violenze e ad evitare ogni rappresaglia anche nei confronti delle istituzioni statali (leggasi i funzionari del Baath e gli appartenenti alle forze di sicurezza) e chiarisce che la ricerca della via di uscita ovrà essere politica e tutta interna alla Siria (ovvero esclude che essa possa preludere a una Risoluzione che autorizzi un intervento militare). "La montagna ha partorito il topolino", si potrebbe dire, visto gli oltre 1600 civili ammazzati (cui si aggiungono quasi 400 tra militari e poliziotti) in questi pochi mesi. Ma era impossibile andare realisticamente oltre, considerata l’opposizione ferrea di Cina e Russia (ma anche di Paesi come l’India) a un’ingerenza "eccessiva" negli affari interni di uno Stato sovrano. Comunque un passo che va nella direzione chiesta dagli insorti.
Le Nazioni Unite, una volta di più, si ritrovano ostaggio delle logiche dei "grandi". Quelli tradizionali (i cinque membri permanenti del CdS) e quelli nuovi, come l’India appunto. Per questi e per molti altri Paesi, la protezione dei diritti umani invocata a gran voce dagli occidentali, cozza con la più gelosa tutela della propria indipendenza, spesso riconquistata a durissimo prezzo proprio contro le potenze coloniali occidentali. L’Occidente peraltro non si sta mostrando eccessivamente proclive a mettere più pressione al regime di Assad, nei cui confronti le sanzioni fin qui adottate dalla Ue o dagli Usa sono estremamente blande e, quel che è peggio, "inasprite" con la cautela e la lentezza tipiche dei bradipi. Come abbiamo ricordato tante volte anche in passato, la vera carta che Assad ha in mano è la consapevolezza del ruolo regionale giocato dalla Siria, all’interno del mondo arabo e nel conflitto con Israele.
Tutti temono, in particolare, le conseguenze che un tracollo della Siria, per non parlare di un suo possibile frazionamento, potrebbe avere per gli equilibri del Medio Oriente. Di questi timori si è fatto interprete il governo del piccolo e tormentato Libano (oggi espressione di una coalizione guidata da Hezbollah), che non arrivando a bloccare l’adozione della Dichiarazione del CdS (che richiede un’approvazione all’unanimità) si è però dissociato immediatamente dopo. Nel frattempo Assad ha deciso di porre fine, per decreto, al monopolio quasi cinquantennale del partito Baath. Forse nel suo delirio di onnipotenza il dittatore si crede un novello Harry Potter, capace di mutare la realtà con un colpo della sua bacchetta magica. O forse, la sua era solo una "inaccettabile provocazione", come con il forbito linguaggio diplomatico il ministro degli Esteri francese Alain Juppé, ha dovuto rassegnarsi a chiamare quella che, a tutti gli effetti, è una "presa per i fondelli".
Ne vedremo ancora e non delle belle. Basta che tutti questi minuetti non ci distraggano dal fatto che in Siria alcuni uccidono senza scrupoli e altri muoiono senza colpa, ogni giorno, ormai da mesi.
Vittorio E. Parsi
http://www.avvenire.it/Commenti/Siria+il+massacro+quotidiano_201108050737260930000.htm
Visualizzazione post con etichetta Bashar al Assad. Mostra tutti i post
Visualizzazione post con etichetta Bashar al Assad. Mostra tutti i post
venerdì 5 agosto 2011
venerdì 1 aprile 2011
Syria’s ‘reformer’
By Charles Krauthammer
Many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he’s a reformer.
— Hillary Clinton on Bashar al-Assad, March 27
Few things said by this administration in its two years can match this one for moral bankruptcy and strategic incomprehensibility.
First, it’s demonstrably false. It was hoped that President Assad would be a reformer when he inherited his father’s dictatorship a decade ago. Being a London-educated eye doctor, he received the full Yuri Andropov treatment — the assumption that having been exposed to Western ways, he’d been Westernized. Wrong. Assad has run the same iron-fisted Alawite police state as did his father.
Bashar made promises of reform during the short-lived Arab Spring of 2005. The promises were broken. During the current brutally suppressed protests, his spokeswoman made renewed promises of reform. Then Wednesday, appearing before parliament, Assad was shockingly defiant. He offered no concessions. None.
Second, Clinton’s statement is morally obtuse. Here are people demonstrating against a dictatorship that repeatedly uses live fire on its own people, a regime that in 1982 killed 20,000 in Hama and then paved the dead over. Here are insanely courageous people demanding reform — and the U.S. secretary of state tells the world that the thug ordering the shooting of innocents already is a reformer, thus effectively endorsing the Baath party line — “We are all reformers,” Assad told parliament — and undermining the demonstrators’ cause.
Third, it’s strategically incomprehensible. Sometimes you cover for a repressive ally because you need it for U.S. national security. Hence our muted words about Bahrain. Hence our slow response on Egypt. But there are rare times when strategic interest and moral imperative coincide completely. Syria is one such — a monstrous police state whose regime consistently works to thwart U.S. interests in the region.
During the worst days of the Iraq war, this regime funneled terrorists into Iraq to fight U.S. troops and Iraqi allies. It is dripping with Lebanese blood as well, being behind the murder of independent journalists and democrats, including former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. This year, it helped topple the pro-Western government of Hariri’s son, Saad, and put Lebanon under the thumb of the virulently anti-Western Hezbollah. Syria is a partner in nuclear proliferation with North Korea. It is Iran’s agent and closest Arab ally, granting it an outlet on the Mediterranean. Those two Iranian warships that went through the Suez Canal in February docked at the Syrian port of Latakia, a long-sought Iranian penetration of the Mediterranean.
Yet here was the secretary of state covering for the Syrian dictator against his own opposition. And it doesn’t help that Clinton tried to walk it back two days later by saying she was simply quoting others. Rubbish. Of the myriad opinions of Assad, she chose to cite precisely one: reformer. That’s an endorsement, no matter how much she later pretends otherwise.
And it’s not just the words; it’s the policy behind it. This delicacy toward Assad is dismayingly reminiscent of President Obama’s response to the 2009 Iranian uprising during which he was scandalously reluctant to support the demonstrators, while repeatedly reaffirming the legitimacy of the brutal theocracy suppressing them.
Why? Because Obama wanted to remain “engaged” with the mullahs — so that he could talk them out of their nuclear weapons. We know how that went.
The same conceit animates his Syria policy — keep good relations with the regime so that Obama can sweet-talk it out of its alliance with Iran and sponsorship of Hezbollah.
Another abject failure. Syria has contemptuously rejected Obama’s blandishments — obsequious visits from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry and the return of the first U.S. ambassador to Damascus since the killing of Hariri. Assad’s response? An even tighter and more ostentatious alliance with Hezbollah and Iran.
Our ambassador in Damascus should demand to meet the demonstrators and visit the wounded. If refused, he should be recalled to Washington. And rather than “deplore the crackdown,” as did Clinton in her walk-back, we should be denouncing it in forceful language and every available forum, including the U.N. Security Council.
No one is asking for a Libya-style rescue. Just simple truth-telling. If Kerry wants to make a fool of himself by continuing to insist that Assad is an agent of change, well, it’s a free country. But Clinton speaks for the nation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/syrias-reformer/2011/03/31/AFy4JFCC_story.html?hpid=z3
Many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he’s a reformer.
— Hillary Clinton on Bashar al-Assad, March 27
Few things said by this administration in its two years can match this one for moral bankruptcy and strategic incomprehensibility.
First, it’s demonstrably false. It was hoped that President Assad would be a reformer when he inherited his father’s dictatorship a decade ago. Being a London-educated eye doctor, he received the full Yuri Andropov treatment — the assumption that having been exposed to Western ways, he’d been Westernized. Wrong. Assad has run the same iron-fisted Alawite police state as did his father.
Bashar made promises of reform during the short-lived Arab Spring of 2005. The promises were broken. During the current brutally suppressed protests, his spokeswoman made renewed promises of reform. Then Wednesday, appearing before parliament, Assad was shockingly defiant. He offered no concessions. None.
Second, Clinton’s statement is morally obtuse. Here are people demonstrating against a dictatorship that repeatedly uses live fire on its own people, a regime that in 1982 killed 20,000 in Hama and then paved the dead over. Here are insanely courageous people demanding reform — and the U.S. secretary of state tells the world that the thug ordering the shooting of innocents already is a reformer, thus effectively endorsing the Baath party line — “We are all reformers,” Assad told parliament — and undermining the demonstrators’ cause.
Third, it’s strategically incomprehensible. Sometimes you cover for a repressive ally because you need it for U.S. national security. Hence our muted words about Bahrain. Hence our slow response on Egypt. But there are rare times when strategic interest and moral imperative coincide completely. Syria is one such — a monstrous police state whose regime consistently works to thwart U.S. interests in the region.
During the worst days of the Iraq war, this regime funneled terrorists into Iraq to fight U.S. troops and Iraqi allies. It is dripping with Lebanese blood as well, being behind the murder of independent journalists and democrats, including former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. This year, it helped topple the pro-Western government of Hariri’s son, Saad, and put Lebanon under the thumb of the virulently anti-Western Hezbollah. Syria is a partner in nuclear proliferation with North Korea. It is Iran’s agent and closest Arab ally, granting it an outlet on the Mediterranean. Those two Iranian warships that went through the Suez Canal in February docked at the Syrian port of Latakia, a long-sought Iranian penetration of the Mediterranean.
Yet here was the secretary of state covering for the Syrian dictator against his own opposition. And it doesn’t help that Clinton tried to walk it back two days later by saying she was simply quoting others. Rubbish. Of the myriad opinions of Assad, she chose to cite precisely one: reformer. That’s an endorsement, no matter how much she later pretends otherwise.
And it’s not just the words; it’s the policy behind it. This delicacy toward Assad is dismayingly reminiscent of President Obama’s response to the 2009 Iranian uprising during which he was scandalously reluctant to support the demonstrators, while repeatedly reaffirming the legitimacy of the brutal theocracy suppressing them.
Why? Because Obama wanted to remain “engaged” with the mullahs — so that he could talk them out of their nuclear weapons. We know how that went.
The same conceit animates his Syria policy — keep good relations with the regime so that Obama can sweet-talk it out of its alliance with Iran and sponsorship of Hezbollah.
Another abject failure. Syria has contemptuously rejected Obama’s blandishments — obsequious visits from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry and the return of the first U.S. ambassador to Damascus since the killing of Hariri. Assad’s response? An even tighter and more ostentatious alliance with Hezbollah and Iran.
Our ambassador in Damascus should demand to meet the demonstrators and visit the wounded. If refused, he should be recalled to Washington. And rather than “deplore the crackdown,” as did Clinton in her walk-back, we should be denouncing it in forceful language and every available forum, including the U.N. Security Council.
No one is asking for a Libya-style rescue. Just simple truth-telling. If Kerry wants to make a fool of himself by continuing to insist that Assad is an agent of change, well, it’s a free country. But Clinton speaks for the nation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/syrias-reformer/2011/03/31/AFy4JFCC_story.html?hpid=z3
sabato 26 marzo 2011
Protesters shot as demonstrations expand across Syria
By Leila Fadel, Friday, March 25,
CAIRO — Syrian security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas rounds at protesters Friday, killing an undetermined number of people, as unrest that had been mostly contained in a small southwestern city erupted across the country, including the capital, Damascus.
Activists rejected a government promise Thursday to consider political reforms, calling it inadequate. They said significant changes, including the lifting of a 48-year-old emergency law, must be implemented immediately or their goals could expand to include President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster.
“They are ignoring all of our demands. They’re trying to bribe the Syrian people,” said Maltham Aumran, a Syrian cyber-activist who uses a pseudonym. “The people are not courageous enough yet” to demand regime change, he said. But he added, “It will come.”
In a country with one of the most repressive governments in the Arab world, the spreading protests appeared to break a long-standing taboo on dissent. The outcome matters not just for Syria — a majority-Sunni country of 22 million people — but for the region: The Damascus government wields enormous sway in neighboring Lebanon, has a decades-long history of conflict with Israel and is Shiite Iran’s most important Arab ally.
Anti-government demonstrations flared elsewhere in the Middle East on Friday. In Bahrain, security forces fired tear gas and pellets at thousands of people defying a ban on public gatherings, leading to the death of one protester, activists said. In Jordan, at least 120 people were injured as protesters demanding reforms clashed with government supporters and security forces in the capital, Amman. And in Yemen, protesters again took to the streets to demand President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s ouster as other crowds rallied in support of the status quo.
In Syria, the call for nationwide demonstrations went out Thursday after it became clear that dozens of people had been killed the day before in a raid by security forces in the southwestern city of Daraa, the center of Syria’s burgeoning unrest.
Tens of thousands responded, in Daraa, Damascus and the cities of Homs, Latakia, Hama and Sanamein, according to witnesses and news service reports. Many demonstrators were seen on video footage calling for freedom and peace and chanting, “With our soul, with our blood, we’ll sacrifice for you, Daraa.”
The protests were met with beatings, detentions and, in some cases, live ammunition, witness and video reports indicated. But with journalists’ access to Syria restricted and most people afraid to speak on phones tapped by security services, it was unclear how many people were killed Friday. Human Rights Watch said it had no reliable figure, despite news agency reports citing witness accounts of at least 20 people being killed in just one town, Sanamein.
In Daraa, according to a witness reached by phone, security forces fired live ammunition and tear-gas rounds at crowds in the city center after protesters tried to destroy a statue of the Assad’s late father, President Hafez al-Assad, and tear down a portrait of the son.
“We met the intensive fire with our chests, without throwing any stones,” said the witness, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
The injured were taken to a local hospital and nearby mosques, he said.
The protester said the crowds in the city included many who had streamed in from neighboring villages and towns. They called for Assad’s ouster, a demand that has been rare, even in the protests on Friday. They also denounced the president’s brother and head of the Republican Guard, Maher al-Assad, who has been blamed for authorizing security forces to attack protesters.
A video from Homs shows a protester tearing apart a billboard portrait of Hafez al-Assad, a public act likely without precedent in Syria. A YouTube video reportedly filmed in Sanamein, near Daraa, shows bullets being emptied into crowds of fleeing protesters and at least four men, unconscious or dead, being carried away bleeding.
A video from Daraa includes footage of people weeping over bodies and a woman chanting, “Down! Down! Down Bashar al-Assad,” her voice twisted with grief.
In the capital, which until Friday had been largely isolated from the unrest, protests broke out in several areas but were mostly dispersed quickly by security forces, who beat some of the demonstrators and detained dozens of others, said two activists reached by phone and Skype who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In the suburb of Duma, electricity was cut off at a protesters’ encampment and security forces beat the occupants with sticks and cables late Friday night, the activists said.
Also Friday, pro-government demonstrators took to the streets in Damascus, waving Assad’s picture and chanting slogans of support.
Reem Haddad, an Information Ministry spokeswoman, told al-Jazeera English on Friday that security forces were told “not to shoot.” She added that some of the protests included groups of armed people and that security forces were forced to retaliate. The government has also accused protesters of being supported by Israel and described them as violent Muslim extremists.
Protesters and activists deny that they were armed.
In a briefing Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney condemned what he described as “attempts to repress and intimidate demonstrators.” U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Assad in a telephone call to exercise “maximum restraint,” the Reuters news service reported.
Many people in Syria see the 45-year-old, Western-educated Assad as a youthful leader capable of bringing about a more free and open society, despite being the unelected head of an unapologetically autocratic government. But the violent reaction to Friday’s protests may change that, some analysts said, emboldening the opposition rather than quelling it. Brutal reactions by security forces in Tunisia and Egypt brought more people into the streets to voice their anger, they noted, ultimately ending the rule of their autocratic leaders.
“There are two dynamics competing: the dynamic of violent repression of protests, which leads to more protests,” said Nadim Houry, a Human Rights Watch researcher responsible for Syria and Lebanon. “The other possibility is the authorities manage to convince people that the package of reforms is serious. . . . The window of opportunity for reforms is narrowing as violence against protesters continues.”
In Daraa, according to a witness reached by phone, security forces fired live ammunition and tear-gas rounds at crowds in the city center after protesters tried to destroy a statue of the Assad’s late father, President Hafez al-Assad, and tear down a portrait of the son.
“We met the intensive fire with our chests, without throwing any stones,” said the witness, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
The injured were taken to a local hospital and nearby mosques, he said.
The protester said the crowds in the city included many who had streamed in from neighboring villages and towns. They called for Assad’s ouster, a demand that has been rare, even in the protests on Friday. They also denounced the president’s brother and head of the Republican Guard, Maher al-Assad, who has been blamed for authorizing security forces to attack protesters.
A video from Homs shows a protester tearing apart a billboard portrait of Hafez al-Assad, a public act likely without precedent in Syria. A YouTube video reportedly filmed in Sanamein, near Daraa, shows bullets being emptied into crowds of fleeing protesters and at least four men, unconscious or dead, being carried away bleeding.
A video from Daraa includes footage of people weeping over bodies and a woman chanting, “Down! Down! Down Bashar al-Assad,” her voice twisted with grief.
In the capital, which until Friday had been largely isolated from the unrest, protests broke out in several areas but were mostly dispersed quickly by security forces, who beat some of the demonstrators and detained dozens of others, said two activists reached by phone and Skype who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In the suburb of Duma, electricity was cut off at a protesters’ encampment and security forces beat the occupants with sticks and cables late Friday night, the activists said.
Also Friday, pro-government demonstrators took to the streets in Damascus, waving Assad’s picture and chanting slogans of support.
Reem Haddad, an Information Ministry spokeswoman, told al-Jazeera English on Friday that security forces were told “not to shoot.” She added that some of the protests included groups of armed people and that security forces were forced to retaliate. The government has also accused protesters of being supported by Israel and described them as violent Muslim extremists.
Protesters and activists deny that they were armed.
In a briefing Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney condemned what he described as “attempts to repress and intimidate demonstrators.” U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Assad in a telephone call to exercise “maximum restraint,” the Reuters news service reported.
Many people in Syria see the 45-year-old, Western-educated Assad as a youthful leader capable of bringing about a more free and open society, despite being the unelected head of an unapologetically autocratic government. But the violent reaction to Friday’s protests may change that, some analysts said, emboldening the opposition rather than quelling it. Brutal reactions by security forces in Tunisia and Egypt brought more people into the streets to voice their anger, they noted, ultimately ending the rule of their autocratic leaders.
“There are two dynamics competing: the dynamic of violent repression of protests, which leads to more protests,” said Nadim Houry, a Human Rights Watch researcher responsible for Syria and Lebanon. “The other possibility is the authorities manage to convince people that the package of reforms is serious. . . . The window of opportunity for reforms is narrowing as violence against protesters continues.”
CAIRO — Syrian security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas rounds at protesters Friday, killing an undetermined number of people, as unrest that had been mostly contained in a small southwestern city erupted across the country, including the capital, Damascus.
Activists rejected a government promise Thursday to consider political reforms, calling it inadequate. They said significant changes, including the lifting of a 48-year-old emergency law, must be implemented immediately or their goals could expand to include President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster.
“They are ignoring all of our demands. They’re trying to bribe the Syrian people,” said Maltham Aumran, a Syrian cyber-activist who uses a pseudonym. “The people are not courageous enough yet” to demand regime change, he said. But he added, “It will come.”
In a country with one of the most repressive governments in the Arab world, the spreading protests appeared to break a long-standing taboo on dissent. The outcome matters not just for Syria — a majority-Sunni country of 22 million people — but for the region: The Damascus government wields enormous sway in neighboring Lebanon, has a decades-long history of conflict with Israel and is Shiite Iran’s most important Arab ally.
Anti-government demonstrations flared elsewhere in the Middle East on Friday. In Bahrain, security forces fired tear gas and pellets at thousands of people defying a ban on public gatherings, leading to the death of one protester, activists said. In Jordan, at least 120 people were injured as protesters demanding reforms clashed with government supporters and security forces in the capital, Amman. And in Yemen, protesters again took to the streets to demand President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s ouster as other crowds rallied in support of the status quo.
In Syria, the call for nationwide demonstrations went out Thursday after it became clear that dozens of people had been killed the day before in a raid by security forces in the southwestern city of Daraa, the center of Syria’s burgeoning unrest.
Tens of thousands responded, in Daraa, Damascus and the cities of Homs, Latakia, Hama and Sanamein, according to witnesses and news service reports. Many demonstrators were seen on video footage calling for freedom and peace and chanting, “With our soul, with our blood, we’ll sacrifice for you, Daraa.”
The protests were met with beatings, detentions and, in some cases, live ammunition, witness and video reports indicated. But with journalists’ access to Syria restricted and most people afraid to speak on phones tapped by security services, it was unclear how many people were killed Friday. Human Rights Watch said it had no reliable figure, despite news agency reports citing witness accounts of at least 20 people being killed in just one town, Sanamein.
In Daraa, according to a witness reached by phone, security forces fired live ammunition and tear-gas rounds at crowds in the city center after protesters tried to destroy a statue of the Assad’s late father, President Hafez al-Assad, and tear down a portrait of the son.
“We met the intensive fire with our chests, without throwing any stones,” said the witness, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
The injured were taken to a local hospital and nearby mosques, he said.
The protester said the crowds in the city included many who had streamed in from neighboring villages and towns. They called for Assad’s ouster, a demand that has been rare, even in the protests on Friday. They also denounced the president’s brother and head of the Republican Guard, Maher al-Assad, who has been blamed for authorizing security forces to attack protesters.
A video from Homs shows a protester tearing apart a billboard portrait of Hafez al-Assad, a public act likely without precedent in Syria. A YouTube video reportedly filmed in Sanamein, near Daraa, shows bullets being emptied into crowds of fleeing protesters and at least four men, unconscious or dead, being carried away bleeding.
A video from Daraa includes footage of people weeping over bodies and a woman chanting, “Down! Down! Down Bashar al-Assad,” her voice twisted with grief.
In the capital, which until Friday had been largely isolated from the unrest, protests broke out in several areas but were mostly dispersed quickly by security forces, who beat some of the demonstrators and detained dozens of others, said two activists reached by phone and Skype who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In the suburb of Duma, electricity was cut off at a protesters’ encampment and security forces beat the occupants with sticks and cables late Friday night, the activists said.
Also Friday, pro-government demonstrators took to the streets in Damascus, waving Assad’s picture and chanting slogans of support.
Reem Haddad, an Information Ministry spokeswoman, told al-Jazeera English on Friday that security forces were told “not to shoot.” She added that some of the protests included groups of armed people and that security forces were forced to retaliate. The government has also accused protesters of being supported by Israel and described them as violent Muslim extremists.
Protesters and activists deny that they were armed.
In a briefing Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney condemned what he described as “attempts to repress and intimidate demonstrators.” U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Assad in a telephone call to exercise “maximum restraint,” the Reuters news service reported.
Many people in Syria see the 45-year-old, Western-educated Assad as a youthful leader capable of bringing about a more free and open society, despite being the unelected head of an unapologetically autocratic government. But the violent reaction to Friday’s protests may change that, some analysts said, emboldening the opposition rather than quelling it. Brutal reactions by security forces in Tunisia and Egypt brought more people into the streets to voice their anger, they noted, ultimately ending the rule of their autocratic leaders.
“There are two dynamics competing: the dynamic of violent repression of protests, which leads to more protests,” said Nadim Houry, a Human Rights Watch researcher responsible for Syria and Lebanon. “The other possibility is the authorities manage to convince people that the package of reforms is serious. . . . The window of opportunity for reforms is narrowing as violence against protesters continues.”
In Daraa, according to a witness reached by phone, security forces fired live ammunition and tear-gas rounds at crowds in the city center after protesters tried to destroy a statue of the Assad’s late father, President Hafez al-Assad, and tear down a portrait of the son.
“We met the intensive fire with our chests, without throwing any stones,” said the witness, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
The injured were taken to a local hospital and nearby mosques, he said.
The protester said the crowds in the city included many who had streamed in from neighboring villages and towns. They called for Assad’s ouster, a demand that has been rare, even in the protests on Friday. They also denounced the president’s brother and head of the Republican Guard, Maher al-Assad, who has been blamed for authorizing security forces to attack protesters.
A video from Homs shows a protester tearing apart a billboard portrait of Hafez al-Assad, a public act likely without precedent in Syria. A YouTube video reportedly filmed in Sanamein, near Daraa, shows bullets being emptied into crowds of fleeing protesters and at least four men, unconscious or dead, being carried away bleeding.
A video from Daraa includes footage of people weeping over bodies and a woman chanting, “Down! Down! Down Bashar al-Assad,” her voice twisted with grief.
In the capital, which until Friday had been largely isolated from the unrest, protests broke out in several areas but were mostly dispersed quickly by security forces, who beat some of the demonstrators and detained dozens of others, said two activists reached by phone and Skype who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In the suburb of Duma, electricity was cut off at a protesters’ encampment and security forces beat the occupants with sticks and cables late Friday night, the activists said.
Also Friday, pro-government demonstrators took to the streets in Damascus, waving Assad’s picture and chanting slogans of support.
Reem Haddad, an Information Ministry spokeswoman, told al-Jazeera English on Friday that security forces were told “not to shoot.” She added that some of the protests included groups of armed people and that security forces were forced to retaliate. The government has also accused protesters of being supported by Israel and described them as violent Muslim extremists.
Protesters and activists deny that they were armed.
In a briefing Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney condemned what he described as “attempts to repress and intimidate demonstrators.” U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Assad in a telephone call to exercise “maximum restraint,” the Reuters news service reported.
Many people in Syria see the 45-year-old, Western-educated Assad as a youthful leader capable of bringing about a more free and open society, despite being the unelected head of an unapologetically autocratic government. But the violent reaction to Friday’s protests may change that, some analysts said, emboldening the opposition rather than quelling it. Brutal reactions by security forces in Tunisia and Egypt brought more people into the streets to voice their anger, they noted, ultimately ending the rule of their autocratic leaders.
“There are two dynamics competing: the dynamic of violent repression of protests, which leads to more protests,” said Nadim Houry, a Human Rights Watch researcher responsible for Syria and Lebanon. “The other possibility is the authorities manage to convince people that the package of reforms is serious. . . . The window of opportunity for reforms is narrowing as violence against protesters continues.”
sabato 4 luglio 2009
SIRIA - USA: LA SVOLTA?
La Siria è un importante Stato nello scacchiere mediorientale, ai tempi dell’Amministrazione Bush i siriani erano stati indicati come i reggenti di uno “Stato canaglia”. Il presidente siriano, Bashar al Assad , subentrato dopo la morte del padre, ha ereditato un paese dove necessitavano importanti riforme. Inizialmente, il presidente, aveva lanciato segnali in tal senso, basti pensare ad una stampa non più costretta a celebrare i fasti del regime o all’apertura di dibattiti politici e culturali nel proprio paese. Ben presto, però, il partito/Stato Baath con una nomenclatura ingessata in chiusure ideologiche fece sentire tutto il suo peso e la sua potente forza. In poco tempo dalla “Primavera di Damasco” si era passati ad un periodo molto buio.
Lo stesso Assad riferisce, nel corso di un’intervista al settimanale l’Espresso del 15 maggio 08, che “E’ inevitabile che sorgono contrasti quando si inizia un processo di rinnovamento a ritmi incalzanti. Questo conflitto all’interno del Baath è però già stato risolto nel congresso del 2005,[…] Ammetto che non tutto è stato ancora realizzato. Sul fronte della corruzione, per esempio, abbiamo ottenuto buoni risultati al vertice della piramide. Ma molto rimane da fare alla base, a causa di uno sviluppo amministrativo troppo lento”.
Con la nuova amministrazione USA, grazie ai primi interventi di Barack Obama: disimpegno dall’Iraq, chiusura del carcere di Guantanamo e discorso al Cairo, l’America si è presentata con una nuova credibilità e come una forza politica quindi non più come solo una forza militare. Un nuovo clima di speranza si è instaurato, tanto che Assad ha invitato Obama a recarsi per una visita in Siria. Assad non fissa paletti, dice di voler “parlare della pace nella regione” e sottolinea che “ogni vertice tra capi di stato è positivo anche se non si è d’accordo su tutto, si possono accorciare le distanze”.
E’ evidente che il presidente siriano cerca nella mediazione americana un aiuto concreto per far uscire dall’impasse il groviglio mediorientale. Un groviglio che vede la questione siro-israeliana e la questione israelo–palestinese ancora da risolvere.
Dal ’91 in poi, la questione siro-israeliana è stata, al centro di vari tentativi di dialogo e negoziazioni da parte dei rispettivi governi. I territori delle Alture del Golan e delle Fattorie di Shebaa sono stati al centro di negoziazioni, ma ancora ad oggi restano delle divergenze territoriali e sulla sicurezza dei due gli attori. Sulla questione palestinese, ancora oggi restano problemi ma è chiaro che la formazione di uno Stato di Palestina (Gaza e Cisgiordania) con il giusto riconoscimento è la soluzione. Il principio dei due popoli per due Stati con i diritti riconosciuti deve essere irreversibile.
La storia dei negoziati ha mostrato che scegliere solo di affrontare una sola questione senza concentrarsi nella sua globalità, e di conseguenza accantonare l’altra seppur temporaneamente, ha degli effetti molto negativi sia sull’approccio diplomatico che sulla disposizione dell’opinione pubblica verso gli inevitabili compromessi.
Con l’invito di Assad ad Obama, ed una eventuale visita di quest’ultimo, il presidente americano potrebbe dare attraverso la sua credibilità quella forza necessaria per riuscire ad infrangere i tabù, nei quali solo i falchi di tutte le parti interessate hanno da guadagnare, per far decollare la pace che l’intera regione merita.
Lo stesso Assad riferisce, nel corso di un’intervista al settimanale l’Espresso del 15 maggio 08, che “E’ inevitabile che sorgono contrasti quando si inizia un processo di rinnovamento a ritmi incalzanti. Questo conflitto all’interno del Baath è però già stato risolto nel congresso del 2005,[…] Ammetto che non tutto è stato ancora realizzato. Sul fronte della corruzione, per esempio, abbiamo ottenuto buoni risultati al vertice della piramide. Ma molto rimane da fare alla base, a causa di uno sviluppo amministrativo troppo lento”.
Con la nuova amministrazione USA, grazie ai primi interventi di Barack Obama: disimpegno dall’Iraq, chiusura del carcere di Guantanamo e discorso al Cairo, l’America si è presentata con una nuova credibilità e come una forza politica quindi non più come solo una forza militare. Un nuovo clima di speranza si è instaurato, tanto che Assad ha invitato Obama a recarsi per una visita in Siria. Assad non fissa paletti, dice di voler “parlare della pace nella regione” e sottolinea che “ogni vertice tra capi di stato è positivo anche se non si è d’accordo su tutto, si possono accorciare le distanze”.
E’ evidente che il presidente siriano cerca nella mediazione americana un aiuto concreto per far uscire dall’impasse il groviglio mediorientale. Un groviglio che vede la questione siro-israeliana e la questione israelo–palestinese ancora da risolvere.
Dal ’91 in poi, la questione siro-israeliana è stata, al centro di vari tentativi di dialogo e negoziazioni da parte dei rispettivi governi. I territori delle Alture del Golan e delle Fattorie di Shebaa sono stati al centro di negoziazioni, ma ancora ad oggi restano delle divergenze territoriali e sulla sicurezza dei due gli attori. Sulla questione palestinese, ancora oggi restano problemi ma è chiaro che la formazione di uno Stato di Palestina (Gaza e Cisgiordania) con il giusto riconoscimento è la soluzione. Il principio dei due popoli per due Stati con i diritti riconosciuti deve essere irreversibile.
La storia dei negoziati ha mostrato che scegliere solo di affrontare una sola questione senza concentrarsi nella sua globalità, e di conseguenza accantonare l’altra seppur temporaneamente, ha degli effetti molto negativi sia sull’approccio diplomatico che sulla disposizione dell’opinione pubblica verso gli inevitabili compromessi.
Con l’invito di Assad ad Obama, ed una eventuale visita di quest’ultimo, il presidente americano potrebbe dare attraverso la sua credibilità quella forza necessaria per riuscire ad infrangere i tabù, nei quali solo i falchi di tutte le parti interessate hanno da guadagnare, per far decollare la pace che l’intera regione merita.
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