Discovery Of Pro-Democracy Mass Grave

Bodies in an alleged collective grave in Daraa, the town at the heart of protests roiling the country for two months. 

Mass grave in Syria protest hub

 

DAMASCUS, May 16, (Agencies): Syria’s brutal crackdown against pro-democracy protests took a chilling turn Monday with the discovery of a mass grave in Daraa, the town at the heart of protests roiling the country for two months, an activist said.


A witness, meanwhile, said corpses and wounded people were lying on the streets of Tall Kalakh, a besieged western town.


Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria, told AFP by telephone that the grim find in Daraa, which has been sealed off for nearly a month, was made after the army allowed residents to venture outside their homes for two hours daily.


“They discovered a mass grave in the old part of town but authorities immediately cordoned off the area to prevent residents from recovering the bodies, some of which they promised would be handed over later,” Qurabi said on the phone from Cairo.


He was unable to say how many bodies were found in the mass grave.
His account could not be independently verified as Syrian authorities have prevented journalists from traveling to cities and towns across the country to report on the unprecedented protests threatening the authoritarian rule of President Bashar al-Assad.


Qurabi said that 34 people had also been killed in the past five days in the towns of Jassem and Inkhil, near Daraa.


“I fear that dozens more casualties may be lying in nearby wheat fields and orchards because families have not been able to access the region which is encircled by security troops and snipers,” he said.
In Tall Kalakh, the western town besieged by the army, a witness told AFP of corpses and wounded people left lying in the streets, with local residents unable to recover them because of shelling and heavy gunfire.


He said many corpses were also being kept in refrigerated trucks at the local hospital pending burial.
“I can see six tanks from where I am right now,” said the man, who wished to remain anonymous.
“There are many more parked in front of the main bakery and the Othman ibn Affan mosque in the center of town,” he added, as gunfire rattled in the background.


Another witness earlier said that at least 10 people had been killed on Sunday in Tall Kalakh with hundreds of local residents fleeing, many of them to nearby Lebanon.
Shelling and shooting was also reported in the nearby town of Arida, an activist told AFP.
Syrian television, meanwhile, reported that two soldiers had been killed and 11 injured by “gangsters” in Tall Kalakh at the weekend.


Security forces have sought to prevent the unrest from spreading across the country by systematically laying siege to towns and cities where anti-regime protests have been held.
More than 850 people, including women and children, have been killed in the unrest and at least 8,000 arrested, according to rights groups.


Syria has blamed the violence on “armed terrorist gangs” backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.
Hundreds of those arrested were released on Sunday after signing pledges not to take part in further protests, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“Several of them said they had been tortured,” he said, adding that thousands of people remained jailed and more arrests were taking place.


The United States and European Union have responded to the unrest in Syria by imposing sanctions on members of Assad’s inner circle but stopped short of targeting him personally.
There are fears that should Assad’s regime fall, that would have serious ramifications for the region and could lead to civil war.


At least 15 Syrian tanks pushed overnight into a rural area near the Lebanese border, where security forces have concentrated their latest crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrations, human rights activists said.


The activists, who were in contact with residents, said the tanks deployed around Arida, near the Jisr al-Qomar border crossing point with northern Lebanon. Witnesses on the Lebanese side of the border told Reuters they could hear the sound of gunfire throughout the night.
Syrians fleeing their homeland described a “catastrophic” scene Monday in a besieged border town that has been largely sealed off as the army tries to crush a two-month uprising.
At least eight people were killed Sunday in Talkalakh — the most recent casualties from a government crackdown that already has killed 850 people nationwide since mid-March, according to the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria. A town of about 70,000 residents, Talkalakh has been under a military siege since last week.


“The situation in the city is catastrophic,” said Ahmad, 55, who crossed the border into Lebanon overnight Monday and asked to be identified only by his first name.
“If you walk in the streets of Talkalakh you can smell the dead bodies,” he said.
A human rights activist says eight people have been killed because of violence in a Syrian border town where witnesses reported hearing crackling gunfire and explosions.
Mustafa Osso said Monday that six people were killed in Talkalakh on Sunday and two others — including a soldier — died in Lebanon after crossing the border for treatment.
He said military operations were continuing in the town on Monday.
Hundreds of people have been fleeing into Lebanon to escape a harsh crackdown against anti-government protests. Human rights groups say more than 800 people have been killed since mid-March.
Few reports were leaking out of Talkalakh because Syrian troops have isolated the city and cut telephone lines.


A British official says Syrian President Bashar Assad could eventually be referred to the International Criminal Court alongside Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.
The court’s prosecutor said Monday he had asked judges to issue arrest warrants for Gaddafi, his son and the country’s intelligence chief for deliberately targeting civilians during the crackdown on rebels.
A British defense minister, Nick Harvey, told British legislators he believed it was likely the court would in the future seek to charge Assad over Syria’s violent crackdown on protests.
He said the court was “highly likely to arrive at a similar conclusion” in the case of Assad as it had over Gaddafi.
Britain has so far not called for Assad to step down, but has demanded his regime halts its violence.


Source: Arab Times Online - May 16, 2011

A Pondering Moment (2)

I am touched by the photo here, that I shared with readers, of a woman returning donated blankets with her father to an evacuation centre since they move out to another shelter.

As I read online papers today, here is the writing that pricked My inner soul. 
I can only observe and praise from far, all the concerned Japanese authorities, preparing the nation with strong mentality towards dealing with disaster.
A resilient Japanese society is thus nurtured, a strong character and mentality thus built. The nurturing process had contributed significantly to their resilience attitude towards natural disasters.

******

Disaster Resilient Society
Yansen, Bengkulu

The intensity of natural disasters and weather anomalies across the globe seems to be increasing. We saw unusual winter in Europe which was caused by snow storm at the end of 2010. This event created massive chaos in the transportation sector across the continent.

The La Nina phenomenon in early 2011 had created more rain across the Pacific and the southern hemisphere. Flooding has been widespread from Brazil in South America to Australia.

In Brazil, the recent floods claimed more than 500 casualties. Australia also experienced widespread flooding from the state of Queensland to Victoria. Brisbane suffered huge losses after the Brisbane River was filled by mega tons of rainwater. In Indonesia, flooding occurred in many places on all major islands, from Sumatra to Papua, killing many people.

Then we came the mega disaster in Japan when a powerful 9.0 magnitude earthquake, followed by a tsunami, struck the northern part of the country. Thousands of people were killed by the giant wave. We saw from the video footage how Sendai Prefecture was washed away by the massive water stream. That was not the end of the story, as Japanese people are shadowed by the possibility of nuclear disaster.

However, the world has been impressed by the positive reaction showed by Japanese people toward the disasters. Their attitude toward disaster has been magnificent. As described by Ika Inggas (The Jakarta Post, March 22), in the time of disasters, the Japanese people continued showing their discipline, solidarity and the spirit of ‘gambaru’, which means “do the best until the end.”

The Japanese have shown strong resilience in facing disasters. They have a great capacity to prepare themselves and to recover from the disasters with minimum help from external assistance. Japan has set a fine example of disaster preparedness, mitigation and recovery programs, especially from earthquakes and tsunamis. By observing the current situation and how people respond to natural disasters, the important thing is what we can learn from other experiences in dealing with disasters.

According to Siambabala Manyena (2006), there has been increasing attention paid to focusing on how disaster-affected communities prepare for and recover from disasters with minimal help from external
assistance. Therefore, there is a need to highlight the importance of resilience rather than just vulnerability. But, where does the resilience come from?

Many believe that the Japanese character and mentality contribute significantly to their attitude toward natural disasters. However, I believe that most societies have their own strong mentality to face hardships and difficulties. Radar Panca Dahana (Kompas, March 23) asked a rhetorical question: “Are we as strong as Japanese people?” He then said we Indonesians have more than enough character and the mentality to be strong in facing calamities.

In terms of natural disasters, Kathleen Tierney and Michel Bruneau (2007) said that there were two important terms: disaster resistance and disaster resilience. Disaster resistance is the ability to provide pre-disaster mitigation measures, including structures, infrastructure elements and institutions that could minimize losses from a disaster. The next level is disaster resilience, which is more about “a concern for improving the capacity of physical and human systems to respond to and recover from extreme events.”

So, disaster resilience is actually not only about strong character or a certain mentality, but also the readiness and the preparedness to mitigate losses caused by disasters. As a country with frequent natural disasters, Japan has built massive mitigation programs. Buildings have to comply with earthquake mitigation structural standards.

They also continue to educate their people about natural disasters. The combination of what the authorities have done to prepare themselves and a strong mentality toward dealing with disaster generate a resilient society.

The question of disaster resilience is actually not only relevant for less developed communities, but also developed nations. We may still remember the US authorities’ lack of preparation when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, when in fact, the activity of a hurricane is more predictable than an earthquake or a tsunami.

I’ve ironically been lucky enough to be directly affected by natural disasters in Australia. The last Category Five tropical cyclone Yasi, which struck north Queensland, was terrifying. My experience with tropical cyclones really showed that community resilience in the face of disaster is not just a matter of a mentality. “Queenslanders are tough,” said Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.

However, the disaster mitigation and evacuation schemes provided by the government contributed significantly to easing the peoples’ feelings of uncertainty. People were kept informed about what was going to happen and they were directed to prepare for the worst scenario. The society is also continually educated about the natural disasters they may face in future.

Therefore, we can’t expect to build disaster resilient societies in our country without preparing the appropriate structures and infrastructure elements needed to face natural disasters. With an increase in the occurrence of disasters, our tasks are much more significant.

Our lack of preparation will only create more pessimism and desperation. The authorities need to guide the people by taking appropriate actions and avoiding desperate reactions every time a disaster hits.

Desperate reactions will only deteriorate a society’s strong mentality, which could then lead to communal pessimism.

We have to decide our own destiny by applying positive values and measurable actions to face natural calamities.

As Mahatma Gandhi said, “keep my words positive, because my words become behaviors. Keep my behavior positive, because my behaviors become habits. Keep my habits positive, because my habits become values. Keep my values positive, because they become my destiny.”

The writer is an ecologist at the University of Bengkulu and an Australian Leadership Awards fellow.

Source: The Jakarta Post - Saturday, April 23, 2011