Just when you think things can’t get any worse, the Syrian government finds ways to escalate its killing tactics.At least 141 people, half of them children, were killed when the Syrian military fired at least four missiles into the northern province of Aleppo last week, Human Rights Watch has said. (via newsflick)
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One year ago, legendary correspondent Marie Colvin and photojournalist Remi Ochlik were killed in Homs, Syria. Evidence from eye witnesses suggests that the journalists were targeted by the Syrian regime in an attempt to limit exposure of the war’s atrocities. Their deaths struck an industry still reeling from a string of tragic losses, including the deaths of photojournalists Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington in Misrata, Libya, in April 2011.
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“It is unacceptable that those looking to report objectively from conflict zones around the world are deliberately singled out, targeted and murdered with impunity, with those responsible for their deaths not facing any repercussions. Without these journalists bearing witness, atrocities committed in war would go unremarked and it is an equal cruelty that their deaths go without justice. This is a situation that has to change. We are heading towards a day when it will be too dangerous for journalists to enter into or report from war zones.” - Aidan Sullivan, Vice President, Photo Assignments, Editorial Partnerships and Development for Getty Images and founder of A Day Without News?
A Day Without News?, launching today, will raise awareness of the risks faced by journalists and photojournalists in war zones, and lobby governments and tribunals to pursue and prosecute those who harm members of the news media. Many media professionals find themselves deliberately targeted when attempting to cover conflicts, and, while it is considered a war crime to do so, there has been little to no enforcement of this international humanitarianlaw. Over the past decade, 945 photojournalists and correspondents have been killed while covering conflict zones, 583 of these without any resulting prosecutions as war crimes. Ninety journalists were killed in 2012 alone, the deadliest year on record.
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(Source: Guardian)
Syrian leaders should be brought before the International Criminal Court (ICC) to face justice for murder and torture, UN investigators urged on Monday as the EU renewed its blanket arms embargo on both sides in Syria’s bloody conflict.
Britain, however, secured the agreement of its partners to make it easier to supply “non-lethal” equipment and training to maintain security in rebel-held areas, which was not previously possible. But it had not sought agreement to send weapons, Whitehall officials insisted, rejecting claims from Brussels that it had.
Unfortunately, efforts to bring justice to the Syrian leadership loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are unlikely to go anywhere, because they requires the full support of the UN Security Council’s five permanent members. Considering Russia and China’s previous reluctance to support Western intervention in Syria, it’s unlikely that either will suddenly be supportive of charging the Assad regime with war crimes.
The Iranian embassy in Lebanon said the dead man, Hessam Khoshnevis, was in charge of Tehran’s reconstruction assistance in Lebanon. It said he was killed by “armed terrorist groups”, a label used by the Syrian government to describe Assad’s foes, on the road to Lebanon as he returned from Damascus.
A Syrian opposition commander said the attack was carried out by rebel fighters near the Syrian town of Zabadani close to the Lebanese border.
Iran has strongly backed Assad during the uprising in which the United Nations says nearly 70,000 people have been killed. In September Iran’s Revolutionary Guards commander-in-chief said the force was providing non-military support in Syria and may get involved militarily if there is foreign intervention.
Iran’s state-run media claims Khoshnevis was only passing through Syria, not stationed there as some believe, on his way to a civil engineering position in Lebanon where he was allegedly aiding in national reconstruction efforts. Iran is currently blaming the “Zionist enemy” for the death of Khoshnevis’ on Tuesday; however, there has yet to be an individual or group of Syrian rebels to claim credit for the attack. Regardless, the death is almost sure to complicate regional politics, with Iran having previously offered military support to President Bashar al-Assad should any foreign nation attempt to intervene in the country’s approximately two-year-old civil war.
Why it didn’t go down: ”The White House stalled the proposal because of lingering questions about which rebels could be trusted with the arms, whether the transfers would make a difference in the campaign to remove Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and whether the weapons would add to the suffering,” according to the WSJ’s sources. The proposal’s existence was made public yesterday for the first time at John Brennan’s Senate confirmation hearing. source [paywall]
Syria warned on Thursday of a possible “surprise” response to Israel’s attack on its territory and Russia condemned the air strike as an unprovoked violation of international law.
Damascus could take “a surprise decision to respond to the aggression of the Israeli warplanes”, Syrian ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul-Karim Ali said a day after Israel struck against Syria.
“Syria is engaged in defending its sovereignty and its land,” Ali told a website of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Syria and Israel have fought several wars and in 2007 Israeli jets bombed a suspected Syrian nuclear site, without a military response from Damascus.
Russia and Iran have strongly condemned the airstrike, though many of the most Western nations publicly opposed to the Assad regime have remained largely silent on the matter. It’s unclear what exactly Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is/isn’t planning in response to the attack, though the involvement of Hezbollah certainly increases fears that the “surprise” in question could be a bombing.
The New York Times has some further reporting on the terrible massacre that took place in the Syrian city of Aleppo, the full extent of which is still unclear, as slain bodies have been found along a river in the Bustan al-Kaser neighborhood. Be fore warned, the article features a photo showing some of these bodies, which is upsetting, needless to say.
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We are fighting an external aggression that is more dangerous than any others, because they use us to kill each other. It is a war between the nation and its enemies, between the people and the murderous criminals.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad • Suggesting to the country’s people, during a major speech, that people still loyal to his regime continue to fight against the extremist forces he claims are disrupting the country. Meanwhile, he pitched an idea for settling the civil war, but said he would only work with parties ”who have not betrayed Syria.” The approach, which includes a new constitution and a reconciliation conference, was dismissed by Syrian opposition figures, who will settle for nothing less than Assad’s departure. Syria’s neighbors (see: Turkey) and Western officials also criticized the proposal.
swagandpassion asks: Hey SFB. Are there fundamental differences with Libya and Syria as far as Western powers intervening? Logistically I can assume Europe had more interest in a stable Libya & Obama leading behind scenes, but is intervention not a good idea for Syria?
Scott had a really long answer to this, so we’re gonna jump it, so we don’t just give you a long block of text. Here’s the tl;dr version: The biggest challenge raised is from Russia and China, and it’s making it difficult for western forces to get involved.
Anyway, click on to read. — Ernie @ SFB
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