Syria

Syria: Scores Dead as Arab League Expands Mission
By Richard Spencer
The Telegraph, December 29, 2011
"Syrian security forces shot dead dozens of protesters on Thursday, including at least 11 in the capital Damascus, as the presence of Arab League peace monitors encouraged hundreds of thousands to take to the streets against Bashar al-Assad's rule. As many as 40 demonstrators were said to have been killed in total by government troops after the Arab League's observers fanned out across four restive cities on only the third day of their mission to enforce a peace deal. In Damascus, regime troops opened fire on a crowd of more than 20,000 people as they awaited the arrival of peace monitors outside a mosque in the suburb of Douma. Troops also opened fire in the city's suburbs of Aarbin and Madamiya. 'They used tanks, they used machine guns,' Omar al-Khani, an activist in Damascus, told The Daily Telegraph last night. 'They started shooting everywhere. We are now in a very bad situation. We can't bring the injured outside the city, we can't bring them to hospitals, we can't mova. Anyone who moves, they shoot at them.' Douma, which has seen repeated protests, rang to the sound of machine gun fire. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, three people died instantly and more later, with many more critically injured. One particularly chilling video posted online on Thursday night showed a protester being bundled into the back of a police van, his face bloodied. It then showed a soldier pointing his gun through a slat in the side, while others raised their guns at the back, before a shot is heard. Mr. Khani said the man's body was found several minutes later.
Other protesters died in cities around the country that were being visited by monitors, including Idlib in the north and Hama. There were direct clashes between the army and protesters in Deraa, where a number of soldiers have beej killed in rebel ambushes this week. One group said 40 people had been killed altogether on Thursday. The unrelenting violence suggests that President Bashar al-Assad's regime is growing concerned at the effect of the Arab League's monitoring mission. Although the opposition movement has been scathing of the mission's credibility, especially since the peace deal it is supposed to be monitoring has long since fallen apart, it has encouraged hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to take to the streets. Many recognise it is their best chance of alerting the world to their plight. On Tuesday and Wednesday, members including the group's leader, Lt. Gen. Mohammed Ahmed Mustapha al-Dabi, visited Homs, and were forced to witness what would have been humiliating scenes for President Assad. One delegate was led to the bloodstained spot where the son of his guide, a local woman, was shot. On Wednesday, the body of a five-year-old boy who had been shot dead by troops was taken to a mosque and shown to them by neighbours. As the confrontations grow, the regime has been faced with the choice of whether to allow them to get out of hand or to try to subdue them, proving the demonstrators claims that they are facing a brutal regime. 'The Arab League's initiative is the only ray of light that we now see,' the Observatory's spokesman, Rami Abdel Rahman said. 'The presence of the observers in Homs broke the barrier of fear.' But Mr. Khani said the mission should inform local activists of where they were going in advance. Protesters were coming out on the basis of where visits were rumoured to be taking place, thinking they would be safe from retribution, but finding only soldiers opening fire. 'In Maydan in the centre of Damascus there are 400 people hiding in a mosque and refusing to come out without the observers because the Shabiha (militia) are outside,' he said. He said activists were 'angry and disappointed' at the mission's failure to provide protection. The mission, agreed eight weeks ago, is supposed to be overseeing a deal to withdraw troops from the streets, release political prisoners, open negotiations between the opposition and the government, and allow in independent journalists. Arab commentators have begun openly questioning the role of the mission and its head, Lt.. Gen Dabi, a former intelligence chief to the Sudanese president Omar Bashir, who himself faces an international arrest warrant for war crimes and genocide. 'We are deluding ourselves, and the Syrian people, when our media repeats the expression "a delegation of Arab monitors",' wrote Tariq al-Homayed, editor of Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, a Saudi-backed paper. This is nothing more than a delegation of Arab spectators.'"
[n.b. This is the complete text of the dispatch.]