SYRIA: DREAMS SHATTERED

            A man after getting married and having children has his family’s best interest in mind. Giving them a good life, good support, food on the table and a house to call their own. Like any man, my uncle always thought of his family first. He was a soldier in the Syrian Army and worked with the income he was getting it. Finally in 2007, he was able to buy a house in Damascus, suburb of Ein Terma. We were all very excited for him and his family.

            My uncle is Ismail and his wife a scarf wearing Sunni. Their relationship was one that everyone thought was extraordinary. They prayed next to each other, fasted together, and went to Holy Shrines together. They would also raise their children together in complete tolerance and knowledge of both faiths.

            Ein Terma is a mainly conservative Sunni suburb of Damascus. My uncle became very good friends with the people living in his building and those in the neighborhood. After some time he was able to gain their respect.

            When the problems started in Syria last year, I would call to check up on them from time to time. They would fill me in how their neighborhood and area is fine and nothing has happened there at all. Last August I went to Syria and stayed at their house while I stayed in Damascus. My aunt and cousins told me how a few weeks earlier a group of young men came to burn down a government building down the street from them. My cousin said he went out to see what was happening and saw people from the area standing in front of the building telling those guys (who were apparently not known to anyone in the area) to leave as soon as possible and not to come back. The people of the neighborhood stood as one and did not allow anyone to try and terrorize the area. They left with no incident.

            The third day I was there, after Iftar dinner (it was Ramadan) we were sitting on the balcony and saw a group of guys down the street start clapping and yelling for “freedom” I could see many of them had phones out (videotaping I am assuming) and then when they got to the end of the street they stopped and just ran off. No one stopped them, they just tapped. It was my first witness of what people were saying about this revolution, that people were videotaping then running off and posting it. They did not return the next day or any other time I was still in Syria.

            After I left Syria, months later I started to hear stories about Ein Terma, how rebel forces came in and took over for a day and then Army retook it the next day.  Then I heard there were a lot of problems rising there late winter. Families get out of there and moving into Damascus. Many but not my uncle.

            Then at the end of May, I was speaking to my fiancé and he told me that he went to one of my cousin’s homes in Damascus and my uncle was there. Apparently he had been staying there for over a week.

            One night in mid-May, at 1am in the morning, my uncle was sleeping with this family in their house when a loud knocking woke him up. He ran to door yelling for who it is, it was his neighbor that lived a floor below him. My uncle opened the door and asked quickly what was wrong.

            “Pack up your family and a few things and lets go. There is a taxi waiting for you downstairs,” he said to my uncle.

            “What? Why?” my uncle responded.

            His neighbor then explained to him, he met up with some of his friend in town earlier and they were talking about how the rebels (FSA) have started to threaten they were going to go around killing soldiers living in the area. One of the guys had turned to my uncles neighbor and said, “Don’t you have a soldier living in your building?” The friend then continued to asked awkward questions then left. Another guy sitting with them then followed the neighbor and quickly told him, “Tell your neighbor to get out that friend of yours is part of the rebels.”

            The neighbor had called a relative that drove a taxi and told him to be at his house at 1am to get the family out. He rushed my uncle, his wife, and children out of the house. They were taken to the taxi driver’s home for the night inside Damascus. Then the next day my uncle sent his family to our village and he went to stay at his niece’s house.  

            Cannot go back to it and now up for sale. I cry when I think about the great man that is my uncle and how he has served Syria in the army for over twenty years. And now he is a target for doing that, his dreams shattered, his family split, and his future unknown.

            A beautiful country filled with hospitality, promise, and love is now filled with unrest, death, and little hope. When will this end? And if it ends will WE SYRIANS be able to forgive each other? Will we be able to forget the blood spilled and live with each other in peace?

            I hope so, though it will take many, many years.  

My Response to Paul Danahar from BBC news report to Syria

My Response to Paul Danahar from BBC news report to Syria.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18420858

            I was not very optimistic when opening up your article about the point-of-view that you would be reporting from after reading many of your tweets. In your tweets you stated that that Diplomats or opposition told you statements but in your article you stated them things that happened.

“They [Syrian Government] told the Alawite community, from which most of the leadership is drawn: "This is not a Syrian revolution, it is a Sunni revolution, so get on the right side." They gave militias guns and they told them to protect themselves.”

            Sure I believe you were told this, but did you investigate this statement? Did you go into Alawite communities and look for these militias? Did you see a lack of male presence in these communities to conclude they were off fighting? From the lack of this information in your article shows me you did not.

            A “Sunni Revolution?” I beg to differ that the government would say that to any group of people in Syria. This statement is meant to build fear and hatred against the Alawite sect and to build an image that the government exerts influence and control over the Alawite community. As if this community cannot draw their own conclusion about what is happening around them.

            Let us look logically at this “Syrian/Sunni revolution.” Alawites are said to make up of 12% of the Syrian population and Sunnis estimated to be around 75% of the population. Syrian Army is estimated to be above 300,000 soldiers. So one could reasonably conclude the majority of the Syrian Army (and even Police and Security Forces) is Sunni. Correct?

So going off of this notion, a Sunni revolution would mean the Syrian Army against the “Shabihas” or Alawite Militias or the supposed Syrian Army Generals, who are said to be all Alawites. But this scenario is not what is happening in Syria is it? There is not a mass defection of the Syrian Army to the rebel “FSA” fighters?

            But the Alawites are not smart enough to see that the Army is protecting them and country so they have to believe these supposed statements by the government? Hold that thought, lets look at something else…

            Let us look at Syrian Government; all Prime Ministers have been Sunni Muslims, no defection. Both of the Vice-Presidents are Sunni Muslims Najah al-Attar and Farouk al-Sharaa. With one of them being from Daraa and the other being a FEMALE. No defection from either. To top it all off Al-Attar’s brother is an exiled leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.

            But the Alawite community took the supposed statement from government and began pre-emptive attacks on their Sunni neighbors?

            If true, pre-emptive? Lets go back almost a year to last summer to Homs, when young Alawite men were slaughtered and thrown on the side of the road, eyes ripped out. You may have missed this since there was no International condemnation of this event.

            During my interview with BBC Radio, I choose not to make the following statement: Sectarianism flows through the armed opposition and the exiled opposition. From the beginning they have wronged the Alawites and belittled them by sectarian statements.

            1. We have been ruled by the minority for 40 years and oppressed by them.

What oppression of religion has this minority given them? There has been no religious oppression on any group in Syria. They were not barred from political positions or influence because of they were Sunni as VPs and Prime Ministers as prime examples of this.

            2. Christians to Lebanon, Alawites to the Grave. Allahu Akbar.

A phrase repeated at many videotaped “peaceful” protests in Syria. Democratic much?

            3. Alawites are the only ones that benefited from the Assad Government.

False. As I stated in my interview, all sect have benefited from this government. Alawites has the rich and the poor, as do Sunnis and Christians and Shias. The number one thing the Alawites have benefited from this government is the same thing that all sects have benefited from. Protections from extremists and religious protection and freedom.

            Average citizens of Syria do not think this way not before the crisis and not now. Pro-reform or Pro-government citizens do not feel or think this way. Have you thought to publish their statements or even ask them? Have you thought to publish sectarian statements from opposition?

Sir, you were on ground, you had an opportunity go investigate statements said to you. You had the opportunity to go visit Alawite poor communities and rich communities. You could have sat and talked to “pro-reform” people about the situation, their hopes and fears (and I hope if you are still in Syria or going back that you go visit these communities, especially the poor Alawite areas.)

Nir Rosen said when accused of being “pro-regime,” that he was not embedded with only opposition or “FSA” to only see one point-of-view, he was able to get the full 360 image in Syria. You had that chance but you choose to show the 180 image of situation. Nothing worth-wild since that’s the route majority of reporters have decided to take. Only reason this upsets me, is you are helping the fueling of anti-Alawite images and are wronging them. As a human being and Sunni-Syrian I feel wronged by your published words.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18378904

Qubair Massacre, just like the Houla Massacre, is a horrifying event for Syria and Syrians. I have no doubt that the scene you saw will always stay in your mind.  Whoever committed these crimes should be held responsible and I am sure we agree on that point. With that said, your analysis of what happened in Qubair is one-tracked agenda abiding.

“But the army's account deserves attention because they were clearly at the village - the tarmac on the road leading to it had been chewed up by the tracks of their military vehicles.

So what was their role? The timing of this attack, as Kofi Annan went to the UN to report on his findings so far, could not have been worse for the regime.

That suggests that some of the militia the government has been accused of creating have spiralled beyond their day-to-day command and control, leaving the army to try to clean up their mess in Qubair before it was met by the world's gaze.”

To talk about this we have to bring up the Houla Massacre that took place not too long before Qubair. We cannot be so blind to say that no one benefits from these killings and “massacres.” Syria and the Syrian government definitely do not benefit since every massacre gets more rhetoric from the West for foreign intervention. The Syrian government is condemned before any investigation and the United Nation meets. We cannot be blind to say that the armed opposition, external/exiled opposition does not benefit from these events politically. (One may think this is inhumane to state but it is what it is and needs to be said.)

The Houla Massacre did wonders for the opposition, videos of the dead, international headlines, expelling of diplomats from majority of Western nations. There were calls for an investigation that never happened. Why? Maybe because as facts started to roll out, those who died by knives and close-ranged gunshot wounds and were videotaped were mainly Alawite. That some of those kids were of the family of two MPs in the Syrian government.

But the Syrian government is guilty until proven innocent but when innocence is on the horizon the story is dropped. Then comes a planned United Nations meeting on Syria. In comes the Massacre of Qubair. A town of around than 130 people. All killed, burnt, with their houses and their livestock.

You state that military tracks confirm army was at the sight, I do not doubt that, but that the army is being forced to clean up the mess and murders of the militia they are losing control of. These militias are supposedly mainly Alawites that are working for/with the government against anti-government opposition, whether armed or not. So the logic is that they have no sense of right or wrong, that they do not know what actions “benefit” their image or the image of the Syrian government? This group is so out of control that they would enter into a small village and kill a whole village because they are Sunni, the day before a United Nations meeting on Syria?

Excuse me if I find this hard to wrap my head around this.

“The men the UN met at Qubair blamed a neighbouring village of Alawites, a sect from which the ruling elite of Syria are drawn.

One man claimed those villagers had coveted the land we stood on and, with the help of the Syrian army, had launched a scorched earth attack on the hamlet.”

By chance did YOU or the UN monitors go visit these neighboring Alawite villages? Did you try? I mean if I was there and was told such information, first thing I would want to do is go visit the villages that are being accused of killing their fellow countrymen. At least go make sure that such “Alawite villages” exist in close-range to this village.

In one of your tweets you wrote that a man that was battered approached you and said he saw the whole thing but the UN monitors said that his story is questionable and they think he followed the convey to village. What was his “side” of the story? Would you not like to share some of the lies being shared with you or did you put him into your story keeping out what the UN monitors said to you.

Lets look at the other side; the West and media condemned the Syrian government quickly and harshly after the Houla Massacre. The only thing that was wrong with the storyline of militia or army killing them was those who were killed. Story of the ethnicity and affiliation of those killed started to come out even though it was never publicized. But the armed opposition and those who want foreign intervention truly benefited from this horrific event. So another United Nations meeting was scheduled and the day before, a small Sunni village was massacred.

Why would you not question that those who politically benefited from the first massacred would want this second one to occurred or would have done this themselves? Just this time they decided to not go for the Alawites but to go for Sunni to make it look sectarian. Picking a small town that they could handle and destroy with no true witnesses.

This town has, as far as I am concerned, has never been on You Tube for having opposition or protests. There was no knowledge if they were pro-government either. I conclude this town was possibly the “silent majority” that just wanted to live their life and make their living. For random “Alawite Militia” to attack them and kill them all raises many flags for me. But for armed terrorists to attack them for their benefit does not.

A lot of people have stated that this massacre is different on one factor that the activists were not there first to videotape and post the videos on You Tube as quickly. In fact the first people I, myself, heard about this massacre was from pro-news. That this logically means that the government or pro-government militia committed this crime. However, if we are going to run off that logic that means that EVERY OTHER massacre happened by opposition armed groups since they were ALWAYS the first there to videotape and post. EVERY OTHER!

Cause it has been interesting to me the way logic works in these massacres, army shells, then gets into city kills civilians with knives and close-range shootings, then leaves for the “activists” to come in and videotape it. Why shell if you have access to the city? Why kill then leave bodies behind? Apparently common-logic has escaped all when it comes to the Syrian situation.

“"Terrorists" is the word they use for the armed elements of the opposition.”

No, sir, that is the term we use for all armed elements in Syria that are not part of the Syrian Armed forces.

What else to do you call those who have been bombing natural resources of Syria (i.e. gas and oil pipelines), planning and executing suicide bombings in major cities in Syria, throwing sound bombs in neighborhoods, burning factories, threatening shops that are open during strike periods, and shooting at army, police, and security forces?

Dictionary.com defines “terrorist” as:

ter·ror·ist noun

1. A person, usually a member of a group, who uses or advocates terrorism.

2. A person who terrorizes or frightens others.

I think that settles that, these people are terrorist to the Syrian people and the Syrian government.

FINAL NOTE:

            I wait to see you write and article that refers to Alawites but does not in the same sentence refer to them as “Assad’s sect” or “a sect from which the ruling elite of Syria are drawn.” As I have stated before in this blog and in my interview with BBC Radio, I invited you to go to the poor areas of the Alawites in Syria but at the same time I invited you to the rich areas of the Sunnis. They both exist, as do the rich of the Alawites and the poor of the Sunni. I would love to see you write about that experience.

            Sectarian fueling and one-sided storyline is how you write. The uninformed are now bias and misinformed from your published work.

            Cheers. 

Salamieh: A City Just like the Country Living in Fear

            Back in November of 2011 my cousin’s wife was driving her car with her teenage son just outside the city of Salamieh. They were stopped by armed men that told them to get out of the car hand over keys, purse, and phones. They had guns pointed at her and her son. My cousin’s wife then said to them, “I am just like you, opposition.” The men then laughed at her took the car and belongings and left her and her son behind.

            A few weeks back, my friend here in the States was talking to her mom to find out her neighbor who was in her twenties was driving her car in Salamieh and was stopped by armed men. They told her to get out of the car. She told them the same thing as my cousin’s wife, “I am like you against this government.” They replied to her, “We are not opposition or pro-government.”

            Syrian News Agency reported a few weeks ago, that armed men came into a restaurant just outside of Salamieh, kidnapped two people, killed two people, and stole money from everyone.  I later found out that the people that were killed that day were twenty-something boys from Salamieh.

            Many people have not heard about Salamieh but it’s a growing city that is in the governance of Hama. The city and the villages surrounding it are religiously diverse of different Islamic sects that inter-marry and live in peace just like the majority of Syria.

            After March of 2011, Salamieh was split in half, the Communist protested and the pro-government rallied. Blood in Salamieh was not split though there were cars getting broken into by rival sides and threats. The first Salamieh blood that was split was my friend’s cousin back in September. The man drove a truck for the Government oil company; the truck was stopped by armed men and shot and killed. His funeral turn out was both pros and antis trying to blame other side.

            Since last March, I personally know three kidnap victims from Salamieh; including the current victim who’s ransom is at three million Syrian pounds right now. This does not mean there has only been three, just that I know three personally.

            Salamieh is now an overcrowded city, with refugees from Homs and Hama, and no real security yet. A city that hardly ever saw any crime is now overrun by thefts, kidnappings, break-ins. There are two Alawite villages next to Salamieh who have been threatened to be shot up by opposition-armed gangs. Police and security force presence is finally noticeable in the city and surrounding areas. But it does not seem to be enough. Syrian army tanks have been reported to be at the Castle just outside Salamieh on the road to Hama this week. When I spoke to my family in Salamieh they told me it was mainly a precaution. Hama and Homs are no longer safe havens for armed men and with Salamieh strategically in the middle the army is watching the roads.

            But one this is clear, this city just like many other cities in Syria have been experience a crime trend. This truly has nothing to do with the reforms or the “revolution.” This is all about getting money, causing chaos, and gaining power. Yet with all of this right in front of the eyes of the citizens, they still cannot seem to unite and despite their views on the government work together to save their city or their nation.

            Salamieh, just like Aleppo and Damascus, was a city that one could walk around at 3am and not worry about a thing. Now police are on their guard trying to help out the city. But the city is divided which makes keeping the city safe even more difficult.

            Even if external parties were to stop their war against Syria, it will take a long time for Syria to be fixed internally. Armed men are not just going to disappear; thieves and kidnappers are not just going to stop. Citizens will continue to hate each other and blame the other side. But this selfishness needs to stop. This Arab tribal rivalry intuition needs to end. The country again needs to unite not for a government but for a nation for their lives and the lives of their future. 

The New Deal

     The United Nations has now implemented a plan to send former Secretary General Kofi Annan to Syria to help stop the violence and try and implement a 6 point plan. However there is no indication what the repercussions of not implementing the 6 point plan would be or by when does it have to be fulfilled. One things for sure: this was a big win for Syria, for Russia and for China.
     Talk is easy, United States Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice knows this. She with her friends from France and United Kingdom know this, they talked up a good game for the past year. But as they and their administrations failed to sway Russia and China from their positions and the armed opposition started to lose major ground within Syria, they needs some kind of effort to look like they still cared: enter Kofi.
     Significant event that shows this is what Russia wanted, Kofi is visiting Russia before his peacekeeping trip to Damascus.
     As this shift happens those who wanted Assad gone no matter what have choosen not to hide their disapproval of this plan.
     Qatar, which seems to be the leading nation against Assad, publicly denounced the original draft of this plan that was put together by the Arab League and Russia. Partnered with Saudi Arabia, they have both said they would like to help arm the armed opposition in Syria. (As if they have not already done so.) Moscow has denounced such calls saying these (Saudi and Qatar) statements will not help end crisis or help the people of Syria. And personally since then I have not seen much news or statements from either governments after the United Nations took on the idea of this plan.
     But what about the Syrian National Council? What is their response? They were upset and "disappointed" with Kofi's statements about not allowing external military interference to be involved in Syria. And for those that are still part of SNC, they have reject the UN plan just as many members of SNC have defected. Not very smart of SNC since SNC's ally, the United States, is for this plan, what are they suppose to do with no major international support since SNC lacks credible internal Syrian support? Most likely in the near future: the exit of SNC.
     As this has moved forward and as the "FSA" armed opposition continue to tactically withdraw from each area in Syria, my thoughts head to one direction... Is a diplomatic solution gonna happen? Are we going to stop fearing external military operation? Only time will tell. But I and many others inside and outside others truly hope so. Allowing reforms and the Parliamentary election to move forward is what is needed for Syria and the people in Syria right now.
     Only question now is, when will sanctions are to be lifted? Will it be done publicly or quietly? What significant event needs to happen for it to change? Parliamentary Elections? Presidential Election of 2014? When will the people of Syria be allowed to live again? The crisis within the borders of armed terrorist is not near over, it will take years to have complete safety in Syria again; but when they can start to prosper economically again the situation will not feel so dire.
     So now we wait and hope that whatever new deal that just happens works and that this shift will save the people of Syria and their future.