People & Power - Syria: Songs of Defiance

The following documentary was shown around a month ago on the Al Jazeera English channel, which is a first hand account of what Syria's currently been going through since the start of the uprising. It provides an insight into the protests that Syria has experienced every day for the past 13 months.

Google Doodle in honour of Hamza al Khatib

There's a petition that's recently started up, asking Google to change its Doodle on 25th May 2012 in honour of Hamza and all children who are under threat of arrest and torture. It's an easy way for Google to show solidarity with Syrians as well as spreading awareness of the crimes against humanity taking place across Syria. 

Hamza al Khatib, a 13 year old boy, was arrested at a protest in Daraa, a city in southern Syria, on the 29th April 2011. On the 25th May 2011, Hamza's burned and disfigured body was returned to his family, and he was instantly made a symbol of the Syrian revolution.

In the past year the Syrian government has murdered more than 13,000 civilians, including 800+ children, many of whom were tortured to death while in government custody, just like Hamza.

50,000 signatures so are needed so please sign and share. 

Shelling of Juret al-Shayah

The neighbourhood of Juret al-Shayah in Homs has been under shelling for a week now. The following videos shows the shelling, gunfire and the resulting destruction and damage that ensued over the past week (the most recent videos first). It's particularly obvious how heavy the shelling has gotten.

The conditions seen in the following videos are still on-going; the regime hasn't ended its operations in the neighbourhood. It's not just this neighbourhood of Homs which has seen the regime's brutality, but other neighbourhoods too, such as Bab Amru, Khalidiyeh, Qusoor, Qarabees and it's still on-going in some of those areas. Yesterday I highlighted the massacre in Deir Ba'alba, which is another district of Homs. All of this is showing how the regime is undergoing a full scale war against its own people to silence them in order to crush the Syrian uprising. 

Deir Ba'alba Massacre

A massacre emerged yesterday (07/04/2012) in the district of Deir Ba'alba in Homs province where 13 bodies were found dumped on a street with gunshots to their heads and blood drenching the pavement. The news broke out with the release of this video on Youtube.

The following video is an eyewitness account of the Deir Ba'alba massacre by the only survivor known to have come out of it (subtitled into English).

15th March 2011

The following post which I copied and pasted from Anonymous Syria’s blog refers to the events that happened in Damascus, Syria on 15th March 2011; the start of the Syrian uprising.

What I witnessed 2day:5 of us were heading 2 Marjeh square, from Victoria bridge 2 Marjeh there were securityforces in disguise w/ cellphones 

As we're getting closer 2 Marje square the number of the security forces were getting bigger.then we heard a chant: Traitor who hits his ppl 

The protesters were being hit and attacked by those agents and that's why the protesters were chanting: traitor who hits his people. #Syria 

I thought there were 1000 security agents but a journalist I met later said there were 2000 of them, the protesters were almost 150 #Syria 

After the protesters were hit and attacked those agents started chanting something like: Long live our president. #Syria 

They started arresting ppl randomly, those who were watching, standing, shop keepers who were defending female protesters while being hit. 

I saw six men got arrested in front of me and one of them was a shop keeper defending a female protester who was under attack. #Syria 

While the security forces were hitting protersters I was taking a video and five of them captured me and took my mobile. #Syria  

My friend Nart Abd Al-kareem was arrested and he was not even among the protesters. #Syria

People gathered to see what's going on, I saw a little girl and a woman passing by and they were crying. #Syria 

They stopped one of my friends and he ran away before getting arrested. #Syria 

They called a veiled woman protesting "a whore" #Syria 

They kept arresting people randomly, they took them with vans, we heard they took the detainees to Samiramis hotel first. #Syria

I saw security forces hitting protesters with police sticks. #Syria 

Something dirty and disgusting was played today: many of those who were arresting ppl were wearing Jallabiya as in from Syrian Jazeera 

The previous updates has been copied from @razaniyat, I thank Razan for her courage.

Possibility of civil war?

Someone I know made a comment on the possibility of civil war in Syria, which I thought I'd share since it's quite interesting.

Many people are saying that whatever comes after Assad is going to be worse and that fundamentalists will take over the country and oppress minorities. For those unaware here are some interesting facts: 

* Syria has never had a civil war, before being ruled by this regime, which means that the makeup of the society is a harmonious / non-violent one.
* Syria has existed with its diverse population for thousands of years and has only come to witness sectarianism under the hands of the current regime.
* If its Sunni Muslim majority was sectarian/fundamentalist, it would not have been ruled by a minority for over 40 years. 

Yes the possible outcomes of this uprising are many and yes nobody can really predict what is going to happen. But when things become so bad… rolling the dice may not be as bad an idea as some may think.

Noura Aljizawi

Noura Aljizawi, a 24 year old Syrian activist, was abducted by the Syrian regime on Wednesday 28th March 2012 in Damascus. Her whereabouts still remain unknown and she's at great risk of severe torture. Noura's one of the first female activists of the Syrian revolution and is a writer for the Syrian revolution paper, Hurriyat as well as a member of the Syrian Revolution General Commission. She's also a humanitarian aid worker, a citizen journalist and has helped in field hospitals after medical training, working with the refugees due to the crisis and she went into war-zone areas to aid the hungry and needy. 

Noura was abducted with 6 cameras that contained many clips of protests, images and names of activists who now are under extreme threat of abduction and random detention, as well as possible torture.

Please join and share the Facebook page set up calling for her release, where more information can be found, as well as signing this petition.

Citizen Journalism

Last year, I came across something called TED/TEDx (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conferences which are a global set of talks formed in order to disseminate "ideas worth spreading." Topics include but are not limited to science, arts, politics, global issues, architecture and music. It began in 1984 in California and is owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation.

There is one particular talk that I found today that was taken in May of last year by Paul Lewis which covers citizen journalism. I'm sharing this particular talk since it's relevant to the Syrian revolution, as many Syrians are having to become citizen journalists in order to highlight abuses by the Syrian regime and raise awareness of what's really happening in Syria.

I'd encourage readers to watch in order to realise the importance of citizen journalism in the world. The talk uses examples in the UK of how the official version/narrative of events is never the same as to what really happens as well as highlighting the importance and power of citizen journalism to bring transparency, accountability and verifiability. All nations have the capability to commit and hide abuses as well as portray themselves in a good light but its imperative that, as citizens across the world, we highlight such abuses, make people aware worldwide that this is happening and is unacceptable so that accountability can follow.

People often feel that they are far from powerful but from the examples given, one video taken by a bystander can hold people in power accountable for their abuses and make sure that such acts are not overlooked and brushed away. Such journalism is needed all over the world, not just across the Middle East, but certainly worldwide.