Satellite images reveal the scale of devastation in Syria
As the international community remains paralysed by politics, the Assad regime has continued to rain down a campaign of destruction on the people of Syria.
Torture, disappearances and assaults have become common occurrences as Assad’s regime marauds against the civilian population with impunity.
The city of Homs in western Syria has borne the brunt of a brutal four week assault by the Assad regime. It is the families of Bab 'Amr - a residential neighbourhood in Homs - that have been the worse hit.
The UN humanitarian chief and the Syrian Red Crescent team have had the first look inside the devastated Syrian district of Bab 'Amr.
What has been reported back is a suburb devastated by fighting and devoid of inhabitants.
Artillery fire has levelled whole neighbourhoods. Satellite imagery shot for Amnesty shows the extent of the devastation in Bab 'Amr. The small black marks are the scars left from Assad's field artillery.
Artillery impact craters within the neighbourhood of Bab 'Amr.
© DigitalGlobe False Color Imagery, Feb. 20, 2012, Homs, Syria, 34 42 43N 36 40 58E.
During the onslaught President Bashar al-Assad forces had stopped humanitarian agencies evacuating civilians or delivering vital medical aid. Those that had survived have since fled to the suburbs of Homs.
Humanitarian aid had started to trickle into Homs this week - a likely product of Russia and China's support last week for sending aid into the worst affected areas. However, at the time of writing it has been reported that Syrian authorities have again cut-off humanitarian aid to the residents of Homs.
For the people of Syria this brutality from the Syrian military is an all too familiar story.
Maha Mousa lived through the massacre of Hama in 1982. He knows that what is happening now to the people of Homs has happened before.
Maha recalled to Amnesty International that after the shelling of Hama stopped the soldiers came. What followed was two weeks of house-to-house searches and mass arrests amidst conflicting reports of collective killing of innocent residents.
The final death toll in Hama is thought to have reached up to 25,000 people.
In 1982 the massacre of Hama came under the regime of Hafez al-Assad. In 2012 it his son, Bashar al-Assad, that is leading the onslaught.
We are still uncovering what has happened in Homs during the bloodiest part of this now yearlong crackdown by the Syrian regime. Estimates of the dead continue to rise with the UN now saying over 7,500 people have died. Amnesty International is processing 6,000 names of the dead.
Splits in the international community are emerging over solutions to end this senseless slaughter, with some in favour of military action and some calling for non-interference.
Amnesty International is not advocating military intervention for one simple reason: further militarising Syria is fraught with risk and will lead to the deaths of more civilians. Our experience in the region and in conflicts tells us this.
That is why we are calling on the international community to unite and hold Assad accountable for the alleged crimes against humanity committed in Syria. We are also asking the international community to stop the flow of arms into Syria and to place pressure on the Assad regime to submit to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court by freezing its assets.
PS: Check out the recent BBC report on torture in hospitals in Homs. Although we cannot independently verify this footage, the Channel 4 piece seems to corroborate our October report and includes cases from the same hospital.
Comments
Susan Dirgham | Posted on 21 March 2012, 05:20PM | Report comment
AI would have noted the recent Human Rights Watch “Open letter to the Leaders of the Syrian Opposition”.
http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/03/20/open-letter-leaders-syrian-opposition
I have problems with the letter. For example, it doesn’t acknowledge the violence of armed men since almost the beginning of the “Arab Spring” in Syria, nor does it condemn extremist clerics who have encouraged the terror faced by the Syrian people since March or April 2011. However, it does make clear there is the most brutal violence and torture being committed by people who are fighting the Syrian army, and their violence and torture is pretty indiscriminate, being directed against soldiers, security personnel and civilians.
Because AI took a partisan position from the beginning and turned a blind eye to atrocities of anti-govt forces, it has to some degree enabled the violence of the ‘opposition forces’ to continue unchecked and emboldened people who hold extremist views, which include a belief in the need for acts of terror to achieve the overthrow of a secular, ‘heretical’ state.
Note, the term ‘opposition’ has to be used with care in regard to Syria. There are registered ‘opposition’ parties preparing for the up-coming elections, as well as individuals or groups who would consider themselves in opposition to the Baath Party or even the president, but who still do not support violence or outside interference. With regard to the welfare of the nation and the population as a whole, peaceful reform would be the focus of at least 95% of Syrians, I believe.
It is understandable why AI, an organization which has remained stubbornly committed to one skewed view, has not been welcome in Syria.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE24/023/2012/en
http://www.amnesty.org.au/news/comm
Fiona Hill | Posted on 21 March 2012, 01:56PM | Report comment
Thanks for the response Michael.
The AI report you sent the link for is very informative. The specifics of the report would be greatly served by having an AI reporter/informant in Syria (why a report from the border when it is possible to enter Syria?) and by reference to the Arab League Observer Mission Report that has been freely available in the public domain since January 2012.
The entirety of my experience in January 2012 - in Syria - and the testimony of every Syrian with whom I spoke from all walks of life and political aspirations is that the Syrians are deeply disturbed by the Western alliance punishing Syria for seeking to bring under control the very same militant Islamist movements that the West purports to be at ‘war’ with elsewhere in the world. The Syrians are terrified of these armed militias and gangsters, but not of the Syrian army. But don’t take my word for it. Ask them yourself. I did, and I have several verifiable reports from people whom I know very well of kidnapping, destruction of infrastructure, and summary killing of those who get in the way of the Free Army, including women and children.
Fiona
Susan Dirgham | Posted on 19 March 2012, 06:54PM | Report comment
Michael, I’ve scanned the report. AI could possibly write a similar report about torture in many countries in the world.
However, in regard to Syria, it remains a great pity AI has not referred to the specific cases which have been reported to it of the killings of people by armed men. Two cases I know that were reported to AI three months ago involved (1) the killing of three children and an adult in Homs on 17 April 2011, and (2) the murder of three young farmers by ‘militia’ in the same month. These are verifiable. Amnesty condemns in general terns the crimes of armed groups, a pretty ‘safe’ thing to do, but it has a chance to be specific and it isn’t. There is also the case of Sari Saoud which has been very public. Sari’s story throws in doubt claims that children have been killed by soldiers or security personnel. If AI is a fair and objective player in regard to Syria, Sari’s story must be told.
What was also reported to Amnesty were the calls of extremist clerics to their followers to overthrow the Syrian government. One very prominent cleric, Sheik Qaradawi, issued a fatwa against the Syrian government in March 2011, and has been on Al-Jazeera (so it’s very public) to declare that if it is necessary to kill a third of the population of Syria in order to achieve the overthrow of the government, that’s OK. Surely Amnesty has to condemn directly such calls? Adnan Arour, another person who presents himself as a cleric, is even more barbaric in his demands of his followers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwz8i3osHww&feature=related
(My report of killings after a visit to Syria in April 2011: Ref: http://pool.abc.net.au/media/syria-questions-must-be-asked-and-answered )
On Syrian TV in the last few days, Syrians in the street have been interviewed after the bombings in Damascus and Aleppo. (NB: many Christian Syrians were affected by the bombs.) Their blame and anger is pointed in a different direction to AI’s.
Michael Hayworth | Posted on 19 March 2012, 06:01PM | Report comment
Hi Fiona
Apologies in the delay on coming back to you. When I refer to ‘our experience’ I refer to the collective Amnesty International experience including our campaigners and researchers.
I am Australia’s crisis campaigner and as such have experience campaigning on various crisis situations.
Our researcher have just released a report from their latest mission on the Syria/Jordanian border, you can find it here: http://amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE24/016/2012/en/708c3f40-538e-46a9-9798-ebae27f56946/mde240162012en.pdf
Thanks
Michael Hayworth
AI Australia
Susan Dirgham | Posted on 12 March 2012, 04:05PM | Report comment
I hope Amnesty members are able to access other sources which challenge the simple narrative regarding Syria. Amnesty London and US have taken a very partisan stand in regard to Syria, one which corresponds with that of the US, UK, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and extremist clerics as well as Salafi jihadists and Al-Qaeda. I find this extraordinary.
I hope you don’t mind if I direct members attention to the blog of Australians for Syria:
http://australiansforsyria.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/march-2012-updates/
I am grateful to Amnesty Australia for this forum on your page.
Regards,
Susan
Fiona Hill | Posted on 12 March 2012, 02:15PM | Report comment
Michael, the emotional wording of your blog is most striking to me as a long-term (25 years) visitor, researcher, and friend to Syria who was there in March and April last year and again in January this year. When you write ‘Our experience in the region’ to what experience do you refer precisely? I am intrigued because your experience is so at variance with my own. Perhaps I could learn something useful from you.
Best,
Fiona