Last News - 11.07.12

Petition - Stop sending arms to the Assad regime : here

Douma

Testimony of rape after the slaughter on June 29th, videos of bodyparts in the garbage...

Ibtissam Sardast :

"Do you want freedom ?"... "Ok." Laughters. "We're gonna show you what real freedom is."

We were all tied on the main Square near our houses. Children were there, crying out of fear. Men had been taken to an unkown place.

Terrified, we were shouting, calling for help, begging them.

Children shouting, screaming, crying.

I was shaking out of dread.

What do they want, what are they looking for ?... Thirty persons, no, monsters... muscled, hefty, scary... Their looks too were scary.

They look like they're going out of a myth where the blue Genie says to his master : "I'm at your service." But they were not this good Genie... they were saying "We're going to show you what freedom is as we're supposed to." They were heavily armed with knives and rifles.

They took the women and tied them with the children, they understood what was going to happen and called for help.

They let us, the girls (the young women), on the Square, women were screaming, children were crying.

They started with me. A monster untied me. I resisted : "Leave me alone !" He pulled my hair and threw me on the ground. My head hit the ground. I screamed and heard my mom's voice shouting away from me : "No, No, let her go, she's a very young girl. It's forbidden. She's got all her future before her, take me instead of her, I'm begging you !"

My mom and the other women, screaming, crying, turn themselves to God, asking for his protection. Their suffering thrills the monsters. They laugh even louder and become more violent.

Laying on the ground, I saw three faces coming close to me, sniggering, rejoicing, and a hand started wandering on my body.

"O mom, protect me", in a few second I was completely naked.

I'm still trying to resist. I'm shaking like a hen whose throat is about to get cut. Arms are coming closer, just like octopus' tentacles ; they're over me, I feel that they're injecting me with some liquid. I'm quiet now, as infirmed, yes, I'm still before them. They're playing with my body as they want. I was under the influence of a drug but my raped soul was groaning, they were like the tornado that removes everything on its way.

My mom was shouting, let her go, criminals, let my girl go, shoutings, screamings, then I don't hear anything anymore.

I was suffocating, smelling something like rot, like disgusting bodies.

"You want freedom, huh, this is freedom !", "Freedom, freedom !". Laughters again. My pain was unbearable. I got my freedom.

Another monster started hitting me on the face, the body very violently. He steps on my chest with his huge feet. I felt my bones crunching under his shoes. Pricks of fire all over my body.

My mother, I'd like you to be here, to kiss me, with all the tenderness of your hands, as you always used to do whenever I came back crying after playing with our neighbour's son. "Don't worry, sweetheart, we will complain about it to his mom."

Whom can I complain to about these monsters now, mom ?

Mom... I still hear her screams : "It's a disaster ! My daughter, o good God." Someone hit her : "Shut up, mother of a whore."

They keep on singing on my body, one after the other, applauding, laughing, singing again : "We want freedom too."

Ten human monsters took over from each other around my wounded body. They tortured me, one after the other.

I don't hear my mom screaming anymore. Turning my head after the rape journey, I found her. On the ground, lying covered with blood.

She had been killed with the other women and the children. Throats cut.

They had all been slaughtered.

I was not the only girl to be part of all this. The others had all been tortured and killed.

The last freedom dance on my body comes to an end.

Someone wanted to cut my throat too. A voice said : "Leave her alone. Don't you see that she's almost dead, she barely even breathes."

Yes, I barely breathed. They had broken my ribs under their feet, but I stayed alive, my body alive, the human being in me, killed.

They killed my soul, o how I would have appreciated if they had killed my body too.

When they were done with the slaughter, rape, torture, they threw my body in the garbage, for me to die there. "In the garbage, here's where you belong, you whore !"

Time is passing slowly. I'm naked, wounded, it's hard for me to breathe, I feel the cold and the emptiness. The Square is quiet now that all the screaming and the shouting is over.

Death is prowling around me, and silence.

Hours, hours passed by, then I heard footsteps and voices, it seems like they're nice ("May God never forgive them !").

They're having a close look at the corpses, trying to bring them together, to take them some place else. I felt a hand on my body and a voice said : "She's alive ! She's alive !"

Hours, days, weeks, I don't know. I woke up later, unfortunately. It would have been better for me not to wake up at all. It would have been better for me had I to the other side.

"Thank God for saving you", an old woman's sweet eyes are looking at me.

I started realising what had happened to me. I was crying. I cried my soul, my dreams, desires, I cried my mom, I cried my country.

"Don't worry sweetheart, you are safe here." I turned my face, silent. I kept silent, without talking, I didn't know where I was. They told me : "You're outside your country, we're taking care of you. Don't worry, you'll live."... What life ?

A psychiatrist came, talked to me, I didn't hear him, he gave me antidepressants... And so what ?

"You're a heroine, your the pride of the country."

The last thing I remember is laying in the garbage.

I'm nothing.

I was in a small room, but clean and comfortable. They put a television so that I could regain interest in the world, so that I could stay in touch with the outside world. They decorated my room with beautiful pictures of a girl smiling ; a boy put the pictures on the wall.

He was embarrassed when he was done with his job and wished me to be healthy and safe. His words calm me but don't console me. And, as he was very embarrassed, he forgot his hammer on the table before going.

I was not alone at the hostel, there were other girls, rape victims too. I knew there were people to help us. But it didn't calm my pains and my fear and my anxiety.

I felt I would become crazy one day.

I had anger fits, I was sobbing, I was shouting, how could I handle what I went through.

Some days ago, I still was this cuddly girl who was dreaming of love and of a white horse that would take her away to happiness forever.

Where am I now, where is my dad ? Where is my mom, my brothers, my family ?

"You have to tell your story, we'll register it, as the others' stories, so that we can accuse the criminals later. Talk, tell, so that you can get out of it. You have all your future before you."

What can I say ? How can I describe what I went through and how I was raped ?

"Talk" but my soul keeps silent.

One day, as I was watching some tv program, I heard someone talking about my country, about its wounds, its tragedies, and about us, the raped girls, the wounded of freedom.

He says : "Why talk about these stories, it's a very sensitive matter in our society. A girl's pride is her hymen, it is the nation's pride. Why talk about what hurts these young girls ? Let us talk about other crimes, about repression, massacres, arrests, tortures, exile. Rape cases are individual cases very rare, and on the other side, what is the aim of registering all these stories ? What does it lead to ? Another scandal is no use. Let them live their lives. What is done is done, it's not worth talking about hidden things."

So that's what it is ! "Rape cases" ! I'm a "rape case" ! What do they say about my killed soul ? What, the human monsters will keep living as if nothing happened, they will keep killing and raping !

I kept silent, but something inside me was exploding. A volcano was waking up. A volcanic eruption. Its fire was burning everything... everything... everything...

Explosion of my silent anger.

I saw the hammer left on the table. I took it the way we take a sabre out of its case, and I started hitting the television until it was broken.

Flames shot up from my soul and refused to die down.

I was shouting, but it was not my voice, it was the voice of angerness, of freedom and dignity.

The fool who was giving advices finally shut up.

But me, I will never shut up anymore.

My voice is exploding and shouting, ejecting my angerness, my anxiety, my fear.

A shout that gives a new life to my broken soul.

O  bastards, you want us to shut up, no, o never, I'm crying while writing, I will never shut up again !

I'm human.

I AM A HUMAN BEING.

I AM A HUMAN BEING.

I'm not a "rape case".

I'm calm, tears are rolling down my face, and I hope these tears will console me.

A soft hand is caressing my hair. I look.

The soft voice of the old lady : "Don't cry sweetheart, we all are with you."

Douma empty after the massacres (video) : here

Douma's people finding bodyparts in garbage bins after the massacre (video - graphic) : here

Douma : Mass grave - tombe commune

Français :


Témoignage de viol : ici


Douma vide après les massacres (vidéo) : here

La population de Douma trouvant des membres humains dans les poubelles après le massacre (vidéo - choquant) : here

Annan and his new plan, Geneva - Annan et son nouveau plan, Genève

New Annan plan is aiming to form a transitional government that would include members the former one too. There is no demand of Assad departure, but Annan is trying to make the opposition and the regime dialogue. Annan met Assad on July 9th to convince him that a compromise is the best solution. Apparently, Assad thinks that "Kofi Annan is doing, so far, difficult but good work". And Syrians in all this ? After all the slaughters they're supposed to agree on a compromise with the one who killed their families, to dialogue with his regime ? For months the uprising was peaceful and demonstrators were only asking for reforms ; they got bloodshed instead, torture, rape. Time for dialogue is long gone.

Maybe it's time to talk about weaponry too. In his first plan, Annan asked for a full ceasefire on both sides, which never happened. First thing we have to remind us is, again, that at first the uprising was peaceful. It wouldn't have changed without the need to defend oneself. The opposition has the right to defend itself, as no one else in the world does. There is no way we can compare the FSA with the Assad regime. First, they don't have the weaponry the regime has : no helicopter, no real tank, very little weaponry on the whole. They do with what they have to protect themselves ; they use an old shell to make a new one, transform a truck into a tank,... And we should keep in mind that the regime regularly receives weaponry from Russia and Iran, and that the FSA struggles to get some. Second, their actions are mainly self-defense. They can't wait for everyone to get killed while the world is watching, talking, analyzing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I agree with all the FSA does, and there are some groups acting under its name that are not acting for the best. But on the whole, they're trying to defend themselves when no one else does.

So Annan wants a peaceful solution ? Why not just let go of the regime and let Syrians rebuild their country ? Why not just support Syrians with medical aid, food, money, weaponry and in every possible way ? They're getting better, Syria is heading to freedom, but it would help a lot if the West finally decided to take side. Assad is no more a president, he is a serial killer, and so is his regime, and they deserve to be treated this way.

Among the progresses of the opposition, one really deserved to be mentioned : almost all the area of Idlib is more or less free, giving people the opportunity to create a "buffer zone" near the turkish border. There, they can wheal the wounded and get weapons from outside the country.

No demand of Assad departure, transitional government... more here

Assad interview : here

Kofi Annan thinks he's reached an agreement with Syrian president. But opposition wants no dialogue. Rula Amin about it (video) : here

"Kofi Annan is doing, so far, difficult but good work," Al Assad said. "There are many obstacles, but it shouldn't be a failed plan." here

No transition in Syria until Assad falls : here

New Annan plan explained : here & here

Russia wants members of the present government to be part of the future one : here

Why Russia sends weaponry to Syria : here

"Our task is to find a peaceful solution as soon as possible." And while they're supposingly finding, what do they think is happening ? Do they think Assad is waiting for them to decide what to do ? Because he's not, he's killing as many opposants as he can. People while they "decide".

Russia will not send new weapons : here
But will continue with previously agreed exports... Thanks, it helps a lot, it's NOW that they need to stop sending weaponry.

"Buffer zone" neart turkish border : here

Français : Le nouveau plan Annan cherche à former un gouvernement de transition qui inclurait des membres du précédent gouvernement également. Aucune demande du départ d'Assad, mais Annan tente de faire dialoguer le régime et l'opposition. Annan a rencontré Assad le 9 juillet afin de le convaincre qu'un compromis serait la meilleure solution. Apparemment, Assad pense que "Kofi Assad fait jusque là un difficile mais bon travail". Et les Syriens dans tout ça ? Après tous les massacres, ils sont censé accepter un compromis avec celui qui a tué leurs familles, dialoguer avec son régime ? Pendant des mois le soulèvement a été pacifique et les manifestants ne demandaient que des réformes ; ils ont reçu en réponse un bain de sang, la torture, le viol. Le temps du dialogue est passé depuis longtemps.

Peut-être est-il également temps de parler de l'armement. Lors de son premier plan, Annan a demandé un cessez-le-feu complet des deux partis, qui n'a jamais eu lieu. La première chose que l'on doit se rappeler est, à nouveau, que le soulèvement était tout d'abord pacifique. Cela n'aurait jamais changé sans le besoin de se défendre. L'opposition a le droit de se défendre, puisque personne d'autre dans le monde ne le fait. Le régime Assad et l'opposition sont absolument incomparables. Tout d'abord, l'opposition n'a pas l'armement que détient le régime : pas d'hélicoptère, pas de vrai tank, très peu d'armes dans l'ensemble. Ils se protègent avec ce qu'ils peuvent ; ils utilisent de vieux obus pour en créer de nouveaux, ils transforment un camion en tank,... Et nous devrions garder en tête que le régime reçoit régulièrement de l'armement de Russie et d'Iran, alors qu'il est très dur pour l'ASL de s'en procurer. Deuxièmement, leurs actions sont principalement basées sur la légitime défense. Ils ne peuvent pas attendre que toute la population se fasse tuer pendant que le monde regarde, parle, analyse. Comprenez-moi bien, je ne dis pas que je soutiens tout ce que fait l'ASL, et il y a des groupes qui agissent en son nom qui ne le font pas au mieux. Mais dans l'ensemble, ils tentent de se défendre quand personne d'autre ne le fait pour eux.

Alora, Annan dit vouloir une solution pacifique ? Pourquoi ne pas laisser tomber le régime et laisser les Syriens reconstruire leur pays ? Pourquoi ne pas les soutenir avec du matériel médical, de la nourriture, de l'argent, de l'armement et de toutes les manières possibles ? Ils s'améliorent, la Syrie se dirige vers la liberté, mais ça aiderait beaucoup si l'Ouest décidait finalement de prendre parti. Assad n'est plus un président, c'est un tueur en série, ainsi que son régime, et c'est ainsi qu'ils devraient être traités.

Parmi les progès de l'opposition, il y en a un notable qui mérite d'être mentionné : presque toute la région d'Idleb est relativement libre, donnant ainsi l'opportunité à la population de créer une "zone tampon" près de la frontière turque. Là-bas, ils peuvent soigner les blessés and obtenir des armes de l'extérieur du pays.

Films manif Genève : ici et ici

Photos manif Genève : ici

Avis suisse : ici

Syrie, possible succès des rebelles : ici
Pas possible, non. Certain. Pas d'autre solution. :)

Other news - Autres nouvelles

Starting from July 5th and during about 2 months, WikiLeaks will publish files related to the Syrian regime and opponents. More than 2 million emails written between 2006 and 2012, mostly by Syrian political figures.

July 5th - WikiLeaks will publish files related to Syria and opponents : here

Emails reveal Assad mystery woman at top UK university : here

Français : Depuis le 5 juillet et durant approximativement 2 mois, Wikileaks publiera des fichiers relatifs au régime Syrien et à ses opposants. Plus de 2 millions de mails écrit entre 2006 et 2012, principalement par des figues politiques syriennes.

Videos

Assad's interview and answers : here

Human Right Watch sees Syrian torture : here

Damascus - explosion (very GRAPHIC images) : here and here (subtitled)

Damascus, Zamalka - after the June 30th explosion : here

Horses slaughtered : here

Copenhagen, Denmark - Flash mob for Syria : here

English

Syria tests its missiles : here

Assad "regrets" the downing of the turkish plane : here

Torture in Syria, inspired by the Human Rights Watch report : here

Interractive map of Syria's torture centers : here

Testimonies of Syrian refugees in Jordan : here
"There is all this talking, and still the Syrians need beds and food and stoves."
Syria amassing tanks near the Turkish border : here

General Manaf Tlas defects : here & here

Palestinians' situation in Syrie : here

Français

La torture en Syrie - infos tirées du rapport de Human Rights Watch : ici

Les chrétiens ne sont pas persécutés en Syrie : ici

Laïcs et islamistes en Syrie, un front uni : ici

Décrédibilisation d'"InfoSyrie", site géré par des non-Syriens et dont le créateur est lié au régime : ici

Film about Riad Turk "Ibn al Am Online" here