THE TWO PLAGUES OF SYRIA

For the last 50 fifty years, Syrians have endured two plagues, both by the name Assad; first the by father, Hafez from 1971-2000 and then by his son to the present day, Bashar, referred to as the lion and the lion’s son. 

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, the end of the Cold War, Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, and Syria’s joining of the coalition forces in the Gulf War in 1991 with the start of the peace process, Western countries have pressured the Syrian government to release the Syrian detainees as a prerequisite for the West’s openness to the isolationist regime in an attempt to reverse the behavior of the oppression that was infamous for its massacres. 

In the city of Hama and the notorious Palmyra prison, Rifaat al-Assad, the brother of Hafez al-Assad, committed seven terrible massacres, in addition to the rest of the prisons and detention centers inside the rest of the security branches. The foundations of these prisons and detention centers and the methods of torture were taken from a “play book” by a Nazi officer who was responsible for many mass graves during World War II.  From here begins the story of this oppressive regime that has turned Syria not only into detention centers and prisons, but into human slaughterhouses, as described by Amnesty International in its recent reports.

During the Assad son era, the brutality of this criminal regime on the majority of the Sunni population increased with the recruitment of followers from the Iranian, Iraqi, Lebanese, Afghan and sectarian Shiite militias to begin the bureaucracy of death, torture and field executions of all forms on the Syrian people in an attempt to curb the popular movement against this criminal regime.

Then, with the help of the Russian bear, Bashar Al Assad instituted a whole new phase for killing innocent Syrians by target bombing cities, towns, villages, hospitals, schools and vital community buildings and has 

not stopped. The Syrian hell inside prisons includes rape, killing by starvation and torture, not to mention the pandemic Covid 19 Corona, which occupies most countries of the world.  And thus, it is the responsibility of the international community to pursue the perpetrators of these violations against humanity.

Observers believe that Bashar Al-Assad will get away with impunity just as his father, Hafez Al-Assad escaped punishment during the Hama massacres, thanks to the efforts and favor of Moscow, which obstructed the efforts of the international community through the Russian-Chinese veto against any project presented by member states or others. Thereby, overriding the need to negotiate with the Red Cross to reveal the fate of the missing. 

Within the last couple of years, the horrific massacres exposed through the leaked “Caesar” photos, have given proof beyond doubt of Assad’s atrocities, which include over 11,000 victims of torture and field executions practiced by the Syrian regime since the start of the Syrian revolution since 2011. 

Today, there is still no end in sight to the Syrian violence that has killed or displaced over 12 million of its citizens. Detention is a weapon of war against humanity that the Syrian regime uses to complete its plans. Among them is the process of demographic change that has pushed the country into internal displacement of its citizens and asylum in foreign countries.  

There is mounting pressure for the Syrian repressive authorities to reveal the fate of thousands of Syrian detainees after years of denial. But, so far, their has only been a deafening silence from the regime. 

There must be a clear signal from the world leaders confirming the end of the most important obstacle to the Syrian tragedy,  its “torture prisons”…It is a ‘responsibility of the international community’.

Bridge of Peace Syria does not publish the authors of articles in order to protect their identities.

AS U.S. SANCTIONS CALLED THE ‘CAESAR ACT’ WENT INTO EFFECT IN JUNE, HERE IS WHAT’S HAPPENING.

In the year 2014, a photographer, code named “Caesar”, fled Syria armed with a thumb drive of over 55,000 images of war crime atrocities being perpetrated in Syrian prisons by the Bashar al Assad Regime. These images found their way to the floor of the U.S. Congress and Senate that eventually, in a bipartisan vote, passed a bill of sanctions against Assad and his government called, the ‘Caesar Act’.

Earlier this year, U.S. President Trump signed The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, also known as the Caesar Act into law. This legislation places sanctions on the Syrian government, including Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, for war crimes against the Syrian population.

A number of Syrian operated industries, including those related to infrastructure, military maintenance and energy production, are targeted. The bill also targets individuals and businesses who provide funding or assistance to the president of Syria. Iranian and Russian entities are addressed for their governments’ support of Assad in the Syrian Civil War. The legislation imposes fresh sanctions on entities conducting business with the Syrian government and its military and intelligence agencies. It also aims to encourage negotiations by allowing the President of the United States to waive sanctions if the parties are engaged in meaningful negotiations and the violence against civilians has ceased.

When the law came into effect in mid-June, 2020 the regime and their Iranian and Russian allies were ready to deal with it; not to accept the limitations it would have on them and their continued criminal operations but to pass the effects of the sanctions on to the already unbearable suffering of the Syrian people.

The regime took every paragraph of this law and used it as a crushing rational to further starve and displace more Syrian citizens. They devised a campaign to try and convince the average citizen that the U.S. and this law is the cause their hunger, torment and pain. They try to portray this act as a Siege upon the Syrian people while all the while Assad and his cronies try to remain untouched and unaffected by the restrictions the act is intended to place upon them.

The Assad government is calling on the people’s patience and endurance as they pass the hardships of currency devaluations and skyrocketing prices onto their backs. The regime cares nothing about the cause or reason for these sanctions mentions nothing about Caesar and his pictures that show proof of the atrocities and war crimes that exist in the regime prisons / concentration camps and that ignited interest in the U.S. Congress and Senate to pass this law. Quite the opposite actually. Assad and his minions continue to deny the existence of torture, beatings, rape and starvation in his prisons calling the 55,000+ Caesar images fabricated while all the while these images stand as a testament to the horrors that the Syrian people have endured for over eight years.

No one knows how much longer the Syrian regime under Assad will remain in power but millions of Syrians dream of the day that he and his holocaust accomplices will leave, lifting the pain, suffering and fear off their backs.

 

If the Dead Could Speak is a Photographic Display of evidence that includes many of Caesar’s images that can be viewed at the United States Holocaust Museum and at the United Nations.

The author’s name of this article remains anonymous to protect the identity.

THE OCCUPATION ENTERS A NEW PHASE as Putin makes his move to ‘annex’ Syria

By Author Anonymous

Loyal Russian and Syrian websites report that Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a presidential decree about Syria, which Syrians described as a continuation of the country’s occupation.

Russia Today reported that Putin signed a decree authorizing the Defense and Foreign Ministries to conduct negotiations with what he called the “Syrian Government” in order to hand over military installations and additional marine areas in Syria.

The Russian-speaking website stated that Putin agreed in the decree, published on the official portal of legal information, to the Russian Government’s proposal of Protocol No. 1 on the “Delivery of immovable property and additional marine areas” consummating the agreement concluded in August 2015 between Moscow  And Damascus regarding the deployment of the Russian Air Force in Syria, in the words of the site.

Opposition Syrians were quick to denounce the decision as a surprise that many described as a continuation of the occupation in that the Russians have become the owners of the country.

The opposition doctor, Dr. Yahya Al-Aridi, wrote on his Twitter page commenting on the news, that the first fruits of the Russian occupation in Syria is that they will have a real presence in the Middle East with a new naval base on the Mediterranean.

He added, “Were it not for this criminal client regime, the Syrians would not have seen the occupation.”

A few weeks ago, Russia changed the name of its ambassador to the Assad regime and gave it a new title, the “Special Envoy of the Russian President to Syria”. This was the same title which Syrians considered as “High Commissioner” given to the leader of the French occupier in Syria before independence in 1946.

Since 2015, Russia began to expand its military influence in Syria, establishing a number of huge land and sea bases, the most prominent of which is the famous Khmeimim base in Latakia, from which they run the Assad Regime in addition to the Port of Tartus, and many bases in Homs and Hasaka.

And, as the Syrian economy is rapidly tanking for the average Syrian citizen where the monthly per capita income, currently is at an all-time low of around $25 USD, Assad and his regime do nothing to help alleviate the suffering.  Instead their focus now appears to begin repayment of their debt to Putin by giving away some of Syria’s  assets.

The name authors name of this article remains anonymous to protect the identity.

 

 

CHAOS IN WEST DARAA

Author Anonymous:

A week ago, the West Daraa region witnessed a bloody day, where the bodies of two of the people of the region were found, on the pretext that nine police officers had been killed in the town of Al-Mazyreeb. Following in Horan, was a pursuit of those being accused of killing and the burning of some properties. This all taking place within a region that the Syrian government has announced its control over since 2018.  As a result, government forces mobilized at the 15th Division and Silo checkpoint between the city of Daraa and the town of Al-Yadouda, with the aim of storming the area. 
What prevented them from entering the region was the presence of Russian forces that tried to negotiate and find solutions to what happened, as well as conducting meetings between activists from the region; members of the “Central Committee” on the one hand, and between government agencies on the other. The government agents insisted on extraditing “Muhammad Qasim al-Subaihi, “who is accused of killing police officers after finding the body of his son and one of his relatives killed after being previously kidnapped.

It is also to be noted that armed groups from the settlement and reconciliation factions pursued “Al-Subaihi” the other night, stormed his house in the town of Al-Mazyreeb, burned some properties and are holding him responsible for the killing of the police officers.

While the official media rushed through the pages of his Facebook correspondents, to praise the prosecution of the accused for the killings, the other community forces were touting “Al-Subaihi” as being honorable, noting that his house was burned and blown up.

A “Syrian lawyer”, who refused to give his name, said that the storming of “Al-Subaihi” and the storming of homes by settlement groups, which are currently considered to be affiliated with government forces are acting illegally and the only ones who have the right to enter homes are the judicial police, and only by order of the judiciary. That it is stated in Article 36 of the Constitution: “Homes are protected. It is not permissible to enter or search them except by order of the competent judicial authority.” Likewise, it is not permissible to hold wanted persons and hand them over to the judiciary except by the Public Prosecution, according to Article 17 of the same constitution.

It is noteworthy that the West Daraa region and most parts of the surrounding area have witnessed security tension for years, the assassinations do not stop and never end. Clashes, kidnappings and theft are all in the absence of a government willing to address these issues or uphold the law in accordance with the constitution. Government officials and agencies allow issues to be resolved outside the law despite the government’s claim to impose its control on all parts of Daraa since mid-2018.
It is important here to mention that now in Daraa there is the arrival of very large military reinforcements and, a large number of soldiers in southern Syria are getting ready to storm several villages. However, negotiations continue between the committees representing the Syrian revolution with the Russian military police.

This article was penned by a Syrian correspondent whose name shall remain anonymous in order to protect the identity.

SYRIA: RAMADAN PAST – RAMADAN PRESENT

The blessed month of Ramadan is a religious and spiritual occasion that focuses on purifying and refining oneself and that extends to solidarity and compassion with other members of the community and beyond.

In the past, the members of a tribe were in solidarity with each other for better and for worse, attending both marriages and funerals. However, as religion emerged, this solidarity with others became codified in a more positive way establishing rules of conduct with ethics that emphasize good social interactions.

On the importance of customs, people of the Muslim world unite during the Holy month of Ramadan, sharing
stories told by adults to their children and grandchildren in evening sessions held in the public squares and in neighborhoods, passing down their traditions and the love of their country. They describe their wonderful experiences of past Ramadans and they exchange food dishes, sweets, work and activities with compassion and worship. And, this worship is not complete without first visiting family members and offering food and some money; all parents do this especially with their married daughters, as this is the relationship of the womb in Islam.

The blessed month of Ramadan is also distinguished with special food and drink for the entire month. And, in order to help the poor, one buys holiday clothes for needy children. In Syria, this ‘Zakat’ is currently equal to approximately $2.00 U.S. Each recipient of this giving is then able to purchase items they need or want, especially the IDPs (Internally Displaced People) in all regions. Due to the Corona Virus pandemic this year, the prices of most items have become obscenely expensive. This has driven many in Syria to purchase food and beverages that are of poor quality.

Everyone needs approximately $100 throughout the month in order to purchase medium-quality food that includes some meat on several occasions, not everyday of the month. In short, the economy during this years’ Ramadan in Syria is the worst it has been in the memory of most of us. The Syrian regime does not offer any subsidy at all. On the contrary, they impose heavier taxes and fees on citizens. At the same time, prices for essential items soar; a loaf of bread costs over $1,000 Syrian Pounds, the price of a gas cylinder for cooking has skyrocketed so much that almost no one can afford it. Instead, most everyone cooks their food with firewood.

But, regardless of the hardships most Syrians face during this Holy month, they make due….and hope and pray that next year’s Ramadan will be better times for all.

The author of this article wishes to remain anonymous in order to protect identity.

CORONA VIRUS IN SYRIA, ASSAD and MORE

In Syria, the regime exploits everything and now, with the new Corona Virus at our doorstep, Assad is exploiting that too while at the same time denying the existence of infected cases in Syria.

Assad said that he was issuing a general amnesty in order to remove the detainees from prisons but It was not true. The amnesty decision was a media lie to try and polish the regime’s image to the outside world.

Another example of exploiting the pandemic using lies was when the Syrian Minister of Health, Al-Yaziji, stated that the Syrian army has cleared the country of germs and viruses in most Syrian cities.  What??!!

Fortunately, the response most everywhere has been to rely on science and to take proper precautions.

Despite the presence of large numbers of injured people in the suburbs of Damascus and the countryside of Sayyida Zeinab and Jaramana with large spreading of the virus being discovered, the Syrian regime continues to deny everything related to this horrific epidemic. Interestingly, these infected areas are largely inhabited by the Shiite Iranian militias and the Lebanese Hezbollah.

These areas have been completely quarantined and people are prevented from entering and leaving altogether. This indicates the significant presence of the virus and the widening spread of it.

A doctor, whose name I cannot mention, has said that there is an order from the Syrian regime not to authorize any death due to the Corona Virus and to simply list the causes of deaths under the name of other diseases.

At the same time all this is going on there is news from here and there that indicates an isolating of Assad inside Syria.  In certain political circles there is a fear of his lack of credibility with the International Community. There is no confidence in anything at all.  Everyone is waiting and watching silently for radical changes in State agencies and sensitive positions in the Assad regime.  Most of the officers and officials of the Alawite sect show exclusive loyalty to their President but in the streets, towns and villages across Syria the average citizen no longer has any confidence in Assad or his survival as the government leader.

Everyday people witness the economy tanking, out of control inflation with the value of the Syrian pound sinking and it becoming harder and harder to purchase basic necessities, with bread, fuel and staple foodstuffs being the biggest concerns.

If a Syrian citizen wants to buy a kilo of sugar, he must stand for several hours in front of the sale halls. It is impossible to object to anything and all the while there almost complete lawlessness in areas under regime control. Armed robbery incidents, banditry, looting and killing is all met with the Syrian regime  turning a blind eye.  Criminals are running free to do as they please and it is criminals who rule the country.

The Syrian author of this article wishes to remain anonymous to protect his identity

FOR JUSTICE Without ACCOUNTABILITY

Documenting the assault and massacre of Al-Rifai and Karm Al-Zaitoun. Here is what happened in Homs, September 3, 2012:

On this Monday morning, the Asheerah neighborhood was cordoned off by the Syrian army, accompanied by elements of the Shabiha, who came from the surrounding neighborhoods loyal to the Syrian regime.  The first stage was an attack by violent shelling that lasted for about 18 hours, leaving dozens of dead and countless wounded; the bombing then spread to Al-Rifai and Adawiya.

According to eye witnesses who survived and recovered from the attack after receiving severe wounds, these relentless assaults lasted for weeks.
Parents, most of them women with children, attempted to flee and escape, but the bombing by the Syrian army forces followed their failed attempt to seek safety, killing 22 women and 13 children.

Following the bombing, the second phase of the air assault was the storming of the neighborhoods with tanks, armored vehicles and machine guns. Hundreds of shabeeha entered the neighborhoods performing field executions, house raids and arrests of dozens of remaining residents and the rape of girls who they then the slaughtered with their knives.  Those who were still alive were shot in the head and chest at close range.

Documentation of all this was difficult as, when activists were finally able to enter these neighborhoods after the withdrawl of the army and the shahiba, they could only ascertain about 10% of the horror that had ensued.  Most of the houses had been broken into by demolishing the separation walls between them. Rubble was everywhere.  Many of the bodies  of the raped and slaughtered were left to rot and so an exact reportage of the atrocities committed will never be known.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights, was only able to somewhat piece together what actually happened after a long period of time and through extensive testimonies of remaining survivors. 

This article was penned by a correspondent who wishes to remain anonymous in order to protect his identity.

THE YEARS OF MY LIFE IN ASSAD’S TORTURE PRISONS

BY L.K.A. (Full name not disclosed to protect her identity)

“I was picked up and detained in Aleppo prisons for about a year. After which, I was transferred to Adra prison where I languished for more than another year. It was at Adra where I learned that my husband was also brought to this same prison. When they allowed me to see him I was horrified….his situation was so bad that I could hardly recognize the person who was before my very eyes…I realized from his looks that he would die that day, and the next day I was told that my husband was dead.

The next day, the guards of the prison gathered us in one place, and there were men, children and women detainees, and they forced the men to undress and then torture them, some of them were dying during torture, and after they finished with the men it was our turn.

They tortured us and children under the age of 12 in order to extract confessions from their mothers, and torturing elders to force them to provide information about the whereabouts of their children who were under suspicion by the regime.

After living in constant fear and torture for three years, I was finally taken to the court for a trial….I was sentenced to six more years in prison. In regime controlled Syria, everything is so completely corrupt. Being imprisoned is all about extorting as much money as possible from a prisoner’s family. So, my family offered a large sum of money to these criminals in the regime to arrange for my release.

They finally let me leave the prison but, after a short while, they asked for more money with the threat of taking me back to prison for another 6 years.
When I heard that they had come to my house looking for me it was then I knew that this nightmare would never end and that immediately I had to do whatever I could to leave Syria. So, I quickly collected my three children and whatever possessions I could carry and managed to successfully leave the country”

L.K.A. is the heroine of this story, and it is just one of tens of thousands of similar tragic stories, too many without positive endings.

This narrative was told to a correspondent who still resides in Syria and whose name must also be withheld to protect his identity.

SUGAR FACTORY – TORTURE PRISON AT THE START OF THE SYRIAN REVOLUTION

In the year 2011, at the beginning of the Syrian Revolution, it was reported that dissidents were chopped alive in the Al-Shamandar Sugar Factory at Jisr al-Shughour.  The following is testimony from a defector photographer:
“We received news that the sugar factory at Jisr Al-Shughour served as a detention and torture as well.  This was reported on ‘Al-Jazeera’ and ‘Arabic’ News and it was partly our job to deny bad news that came out is Syria to these two stations.

When we arrived at the entrance to the factory we found dozens of women sitting on the ground, some of them weeping, some of whom were praying to God, praying against the health of Bashar and the health of his children
Some of these women were carrying babies, and the detainees were either a mother or activist brother, father or sister who had been picked up by the regime and taken into custody.
On the other side of the factory we saw, dozens of men and youth in tragic conditions, with bloody faces and bodies, with some trying to hide the wounds of their head and face ..

I went out of the factory after taking many photographs for documentation purposes, and stood by the front door to breathe fresh air after almost suffocating from the lying, hypocrisy, silence and falsifying facts about what was going on here with all the torture behind this sugar factory facade.

At the door, I met the factory guard who looked at me angrily and said in a threatening voice, ‘Do you not fear God, do you not have a mother, sister, or brother who fears the regime?  Yesterday the Shabiha and soldiers came to rape women and forced them to remain naked’.

And what was most shocking of all was what he told me next:

‘Why did you not come yesterday to photograph as the men were being thrown in the grill that turns their bodies into small pieces as well as sugar … and all of them go to the mills to melt in with the sugar’.  Assad and his gang of criminals was chopping the bodies alive of dissident men and boys to mix with the sugar.
I did not dare answer, I took my bag with my camera and went home to my house.  The next day I went back to the factory and asked about the guard and was told that he had fled”.

This account was told by a Syrian defector photographer and reported here by a correspondent who must remain anonymous in order to protect his identity.

THE DEATH OF SOLEIMANI – PART TWO

At the beginning of the Syrian revolution, Qassem Soleimani’s periodic visits were directed to Damascus to himself lead the battle of his soldiers, according to US intelligence reports.  According to US officials, Soleimani was “leading the fight for Assad’s survival from his headquarters in Damascus,” and to emphasize the importance of Syria to Iran, Soleimani says in one of his speeches in 2013 that “Syria is the first line of defense for the resistance and this fact is beyond doubt.”
A report published in the same year, The New Yorker, said that Qassem Soleimani was fighting a battle to take control of the city of Qusayr in Homs countryside from a heavily fortified building, and was forming an operations room that included leaders of the Assad Army, Hezbollah forces and the multinational militia from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The magazine notes that Soleimani coordinated attacks and trained attacking militias that were also able to eavesdrop on opposition communications.  Soleimani cooperated in the Qusair battle with Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese militia “Hezbollah”, to send in thousands of fighters.  The battle started with the siege imposed on the Syrian city which rose up against Assad and formed an early climate of revolution for freedom.  But Soleimani, with his coalition of foreign and domestic fighters, managed to defeat the uprising.  This victory was pivotal as it gave the Iranian General kudos from the Assad regime necessary to solidify himself as a military powerhouse in Syria.
It is noteworthy that the battle to control the city of Qusair took place after the militia had already killed hundreds of civilians and destroyed 90% of the city after massive and continuous bombing coupled with a suffocating siege.  Reports indicate that Soleimani’s Iranian forces and Lebanese militias, in addition to regime soldiers, killed a total of about three thousand people from the region.  In addition, this battle displaced thousands of Qusair civilians who were never able to return to their homes. Only a few hundred regime loyalists remained in the city.

ON TO ALEPPO

Between 2014 and 2016, the Iranian leader became involved in the battle for Aleppo and was leading militia fighters who managed to blockade the city.  The blockade alone was responsible for countless deaths that included women and children.
A similar military campaign against the city of Zabadani in 2015 forced most of its population to the neighboring city of Madaya and then the regime forces bombed Madaya with explosive barrels and imposed a tight siege.  It was reported that those who were trapped resorted to eating cats, dogs, weeds and foliage just to stay alive.
After seizing Aleppo in late 2016, Qassem Soleimani came to see the ruins of this defeated city and rejoiced at the victory that he, along with his ally, Assad and the Russians, had accomplished.  Together, they managed to kill tens of thousands of people that also resulted in Syria’s largest displacement of civilians.
Syrian activists and journalists accuse Soleimani of being primarily responsible for the damage caused to the city of Aleppo, its destruction, deaths and the displacement of its residents.  And so, The National Alliance of the Syrian Revolution and the opposition forces welcomed the killing of Qassem Soleimani because of his pivotal role in helping the Assad regime brutally crush the revolution in Syria.  He was the engineer of demographic displacement in most of the Syrian provinces and regions, especially around Damascus.
Qassem Soleimani’s death, justifies joys by Syrians who have been so deeply affected by his heinous crimes.  Those joys were mixed with tears of sorrow for lost cities and the lives lost under his command.  But Syrian blood is still on the hands of an empty and silent world  that has turned a blind eye on all of the atrocities that Soleimani and his militias were allowed to carry out with impunity.  And in Idlib, the last stronghold of resistance to Assad and his allies, chants could be heard on the day of Soleimani’s death, hoping that Assad will meet a similar fate.

This article was penned by a correspondent who’s name remains anonymous to protect his identity.