Stories from the Syrian revolution
Ellie Violet Bramley, August 16, 2012
he Fear of Breathing is nothing if not daring. Staged recently at London’s Finborough Theatre, it takes verbatim reports from Syria and turns them into an urgent, artistic, thoughtful play.It is the product of reports garnered by the BBC’s Paul Wood, The Daily Telegraph’s Ruth Sherlock, and theatre director, Zoe Lafferty.
The material is cut and merged into a narrative that plots both the characters’ journeys, and that of the revolutionary movement in Syria, along with its descent into chaos. Lafferty has handled the material sensitively, for example deftly introducing the concept that protestors are being shot before mentioning the Free Syrian Army (FSA), and introducing characters as peaceful individuals who gradually begin to talk of arming.
Lafferty, speaking to NOW Extra, admitted being daunted by the task, but felt “if you’re going to take a risk on anything, this is the kind of material to do it on.” Having personally gathered at least part of the material – spending seven weeks traveling to Syria covertly – she felt a profound responsibility to take back to Britain what had been confided in her.
To read more: http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=428306#ixzz24sXAMKU3
Only 25% of a given NOW Lebanon article can be republished. For information on republishing rights from NOW Lebanon: http://www.nowlebanon.com/Sub.aspx?ID=125478
Only 25% of a given NOW Lebanon article can be republished. For information on republishing rights from NOW Lebanon: http://www.nowlebanon.com/Sub.aspx?ID=125478
The shrouded bodies of Syrians, including children, during a funeral in Daraya, near Damascus.
AFP
Aug 27, 2012
DAMASCUS // For a rather non-descript town of drab cement block buildings on the southern outskirts of Damascus, Daraya in two short months acquired a significance far exceeding its size or the apparent ordinariness of its neighbourhoods.
Until the start of last week’s all-out assault by regime loyalists, which culminated with the alleged massacre of at least 300 people, the community took up the task of governing themselves – a highly emblematic piece of defiance against a regime that has long warned chaos and Islamic extremism would engulf areas outside of its strict control.
Rather than sliding into anarchy after security forces withdrew entirely from the town this summer, Daraya had instead been run with a certain quiet efficiency by opposition activists and volunteers drawn from the town’s 200,000 or so population.
There was no state police in the area, but traffic flowed freely and residents reported little crime. Modest rebuilding projects to repair damage from previous army operations had been carried out, paid for by local donations.
Stores and wood workshops were open, an independent community newspaper was being published and volunteer street cleaners swept and washed down roads. People even queued politely at the local petrol station.
With no security forces on hand to make arrests, activists would stand at major intersections and hand out leaflets designed to educate residents on the key principles of the revolution, as drawn up by committees of local men and women.
The leaflets said there must be equality between all religious and ethnic groups in the new Syria and stressed the importance of ensuring justice and rejecting revenge in dealing with regime officials. They also spelt out that with new freedoms would come enormous responsibilities and duties for every citizen, including caring for the environment and conserving scarce water resources.
Daraya was one of a growing number of places living on the fraying edge of central authority in Syria, but its slide out of the government’s grasp was made all the more remarkable by its proximity to the very centre of power.
Rather than being some outlying village far from Damascus, the town is little more than 5 kilometres away from the capital’s upmarket Mezze embassy district.
The rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) sought to keep a low profile in the area. It did not set up checkpoints, fearing it would only bring about a quick, violent response from regime forces. Still, it grew in strength, boasting hundreds of fighters and according to one local activist, perhaps up to 3,000.
That force had proven capable of pushing out police and more lightly armed regime security units earlier this year. Afterwards, the Daraya police station lay ransacked and abandoned, the municipal offices shut.
Without government security forces present in Daraya, the town was poised to become a key staging ground for a renewed assault on Damascus by rebel groups after their attempt last month was beaten down.
Free to move inside Daraya’s urban centre and through the farmland at its edges – Daraya was once famed for its grapes – the insurgents established ties with the residents of the densely populated, working class sprawl that forms southern Damascus and reaches in to the very heart of the capital.
That range enabled Daraya’s rebels to coordinate their activities with militants in other key urban battlegrounds such as Nahar Aisha, Kafa Susa and Qadam. If FSA units are to replicate in Damascus the assault their fellow fighters have mounted in the northern city of Aleppo for the last month, these districts will have a major role to play.
Crucially, the northern edge of Daraya borders the Damascus military airport, where the regime detains thousands of prisoners, deploys combat helicopters and, in nearby fortified compounds, houses members of the loyalist officer corps.
Given the strategic and political significance of rebel-controlled Dayara, it was then probably just a matter of time before government units moved against it in force. Even activists and residents of the town understood that, saying days before the start of last week’s assault that it was a matter of when, not if, the regime would try to retake control of the town.
They even acknowledged that the lightly armed FSA would not be able to repel a much more powerful force of army units loyal to the regime. And indeed, their prediction came true.
It started last Tuesday night, when the town was sealed off and then battered by shellfire from a safe distance for three days, the explosions echoing throughout Damascus. Then hundreds of soldiers backed by heavy artillery, helicopter gunships and tanks moved in.
State-run media said that government forces had been successful in “eliminating” terrorists – its term for armed rebel groups such as the FSA and their supporters. It gave no figure for the dead, saying only that it was “large”.
“Our heroic armed forces cleansed Daraya from remnants of armed terrorist groups who committed crimes against the sons of the town and scared them, and sabotaged and destroyed public and private property,” declared Sana, the official state news agency.
Activists gave a stark account of the military operation, saying more than 300 bodies had been found on Saturday and yesterday, many of them apparently victims of execution-style killings by gunshot at close range.
Videos posted online yesterday showed bodies lined up for burial in a mass grave, and spread out in pools of blood in dark basements. The Local Coordination Committees (LCCs), a network of grassroots opposition activists, issued a statement saying Daraya has been subjected to the worst massacre since the start of the uprising 17 months ago. Neither the government’s account or that of activists could be independently verified.
Regardless of exactly how the blood was shed, activists who lived inside the town insisted even before last week that their revolution would not be crushed by military power.”What we are saying to the regime is, ‘you destroy, we build, you destroy again, we will build again’,” a prominent female dissident from the town had said.
“That is our revolution and that is why it will succeed in the end.”
BEIRUT—Iran is sending commanders from its elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and hundreds of foot soldiers to Syria, according to current and former members of the corps.
The personnel moves come on top of what these people say are Tehran’s stepped-up efforts to aid the military of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with cash and arms. That would indicate that regional capitals are being drawn deeper into Syria’s conflict—and undergird a growing perception among Mr. Assad’s opponents that the regime’s military is increasingly strained.
A commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, appeared to offer Iran’s first open acknowledgment of its military involvement in Syria.
ReutersSyrian Speaker Mohammed Jihad al-Laham, left, and Alaeddin Boroujerdi of the Iran parliament’s national security committee Saturday in Damascus.
“Today we are involved in fighting every aspect of a war, a military one in Syria and a cultural one as well,” Gen. Salar Abnoush, commander of IRGC’s Saheb al-Amr unit, told volunteer trainees in a speech Monday. The comments, reported by the Daneshjoo news agency, which is run by regime-aligned students, couldn’t be independently verified. Top Iranian officials had previously said the country isn’t involved in the conflict.
[youtube http://youtu.be/O3JI-axaRF4?]
Footage from Rachel’s interview conducted by Middle East Broadcasting Company on March 14th, 2003, two days before she was murdered by the Israeli Defense Forces.
@ SC 59. KDD
Mr. Aldendeshe –
I don’t receive my information from Moscow like you. I receive it from Damascus. I have family in Kafr Sousa, Midan, Jobar, and Harasta. The family on Kafr Sousa are now with me here in the US. If you wish to speak with them, you are welcome. They left after their building was rocketed by a Helicopter and large bullets from the gunships penetrated into their living room and bedrooms. They were sleeping in the corridor. Many people died there from shelling.
My family in Harasta has escaped to Beirut in the last month. There testimony is not good for your side, I am sorry. It spans almost a year of actions. Many people have gone missing.
My family in Midan was the one to bear the full brunt of the regime onslaught. They stuck it out and almost lost their lives when the building they were in came under tank fire. Also mortar fire. They have now relocated.
By far the most information I have been able to get were from those fortunate to be able to leave the country. People inside wont speak as freely as those right next to me here in US. Those in Lebanon now after having escaped also are Also provinding me with information. These are my family members, not some Soviet intelligence reports.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/watch-israel-bars-100-international-activists-from-crossing-into-west-bank.premium-1.460854#
By Amira Hass
“Israel prevented some 100 pro-Palestinian activists from entering the West
Bank on Sunday evening from Jordan at the Allenby Bridge crossing. The
demonstrators, from France, Belgium and other European countries, bore an
official invitation from the governor of Bethlehem, a senior Fatah official
named Abdel-Fattah Hamaiel. The activists were carrying gifts including
writing implements for the children of Bethlehem in honor of the beginning
of the school year on Monday.
The demonstrators arrived at the Allenby Bridge over the Jordan River in
two buses, but when they reached the Israeli side they were not allowed to
disembark.
At the crossing, an Israeli official in civilian clothes collected all the
passports from the passengers on the first bus and returned them after 10
minutes – all with a “denied entry” stamp.
The second bus was not even allowed to approach the Israeli side of the
crossing, and the passports of its passengers were not even collected. The
passengers got off the bus and demanded that Israeli officials explain why
they were being denied entry, but they were ordered back on the bus; the
driver was told to turn around.
Many of the activists had previously participated in such events as the
annual Welcome to Palestine “flytilla.” Their goal is to stress the
Palestinian people’s right to host visitors from other countries that have
diplomatic relations with Israel as they see fit – the same right accorded
to Israeli citizens.
The Jordanian official in charge of the Allenby crossing met with the
activists in his office before they attempted to enter Israel, and said he
knew of their arrival and of the invitation. But he advised them that
Israel might prevent their entry, noting that Jordan played no part in that
refusal whatsoever.”
===============
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
http://qumsiyeh.org
band annie's Weblog 