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Every time I discuss the Syrian tragedy with an anti-revolution or pro-Assad person, I would be faced with these questions: how do you know the numbers of killed people are right? Can you verify them? Why not count the killed soldiers too? Obviously, these people try to muddle the core problem and cover (unintentionally sometimes) for the Syrian regime atrocities. This is exactly what blogger Sharmine Narwani did in a long article in Al-Akhbar English. From a previous conversation with her on twitter, Sharmine might not be a pro-Assad person, but she is doing her best to doubt the genuine outcome and intentions of the peaceful uprising (yes peaceful, that’s how it started, ok).
In her mentioned piece, she asks:
Perception is 100 percent of politics […] How then does one count 20, 40, or 200 casualties in a few hours while conflict continues to rage around them?
My answer could be: “in the same way a YouTube video is uploaded”, but I am not going to get into the mechanics and logistics of how gathering information works. You can go always to Al-Akhbar’s piece and discuss it over there, but I want to ask some questions which (obviously) Sharmine missed in her long post: why can’t the humanitarian organizations get in and do their job properly, and who is stopping them from doing that? Why unprofessional individuals are forced to be ‘activists’? Do we care to apply the Geneva Conventions? And Did we doubt our numbers when Israel bombed us? Do we have any long-term interest in discrediting the United Nations’ work in Palestine? Really?
Main stream media usually takes their numbers from three main sources documenting the Syrian daily casualties , who seem to be doing reasonably good job with their circumstances – with as much details included as possible (and video link if available). These sources are the Violations Documenting Center in Syria (VDC), Syrian Shuhada and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). Some activists told me they believe the former is the most accurate, as they base their numbers on Local Coordination Committees (LCC) who are the main drivers and facilitators of the protests.
All people who doubt the activists numbers don’t bother to ask my above-questions, let alone do any effort towards ‘rectifying’ the problem. They seem too concerned that the numbers are exaggerated, to be bothered with (let’s say) half or a quarter [of what’s been advertised] are really killed. The moral case is not there, because apparently there is an implicit allowed limit for killings per day.
Of course, there is a margin of error when inexperienced citizens take the role of the professionals in this field, but I assume their job would be more accurate if they were allowed to roam freely, speak to parents, attend funerals, take photographs, mark their graves, connect to the internet without censorship, check autopsy and official hospital death documents – that’s if the killed people are allowed to die in hospitals in the first place.
But again, Homs has been under continuous siege and bombardment since February 3rd 2012. I hear now the news that Homs could be falling, as the Syrian army ground troops enter the city. No one humanitarian organizations was allowed in by the Syrian regime. Even foreign journalists stuck there were being smuggled out to safety, with reportedly 23 activists sacrificing their lives for that. The ones killed in Homs didn’t have the chance to be buried outside, but they had the honour to be buried in Syrian soil.
There is an old saying by a former United Nations official that goes by: “if you kill one person, you go to jail. If you kill twenty people, you are considered insane. If you kill tens of thousands, you are offered asylum.” You don’t know, these exaggerating activists might be helping Bashar Al-Assad after all.
PS: VDC’s number as of today is 8942 people killed, with 7128 of them were civilians.
I think you need to be more specific when you say “Homs” has been under continuous bombardment.
Please read another of Sharmine’s articles on the subject:
http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/sandbox/high-tech-trickery-homs
Thank you for this post. You are absolutely correct. What number exactly makes it morally acceptable for a government to indiscriminantly kills its own citizens.
That is the question that matters Alex, not exactly what the satellite imagery showed or did not show
Abu Kareem,
Many things matter … for example unity and stability matter. The United States lost tens of thousands of its own soldiers (young men) in Vietnam. Why did their government sacrifice them?
Those satellite images show that when CNN wanted to prove that there is massive bombardment of civilian areas they picked the pro regime civilian areas that have been targeted for months by “the rebels”, as you would call them (or “the terrorists” as the rest of Syria calls them). There is cause and effect … if the Syrian army entered Homs eventually we can’t automatically declare that action deplorable. Was there necessity and proportionality to the unlawful action of “the rebels” there?
To create the impression that the army acted in a non proportional manner, Aljazeera and CNN and Al-Arabya an France 24 are doing their best to fabricate and exaggerate. Want to take a look at the many clips that Addounya showed today that demonstrate the heavy fabrication of bloodshed and bombing and horror?
Here is one acting scene by one of the heroes of the revolution … Hollywood should hire him!
jump to 20:00 for the best acting scene.
Alex
Let’s forget Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq or whatever for a moment and focus on the main issue. Shall we?
If you trying to say that FSA is shelling loyalist areas, then I say this is wrong and I am against it. But I think you need a stronger proof and imperative documentation.
But let’s be realistic here. We know both sides capabilities in shelling, and these enthusiastic guys can not cause such a widespread damage. Only Syrian TV audience believes that armed gangs kill itself, bomb its areas, only to be featured on Aljazeera.
Either way, you are denying how this developed to here, and how it all started: A peaceful movement was crushed to pieces in a bloody way. People baring arms is something inevitable when the regime keeps doing what it’s doing. It just amazes me they didn’t see this coming. You know as they talked it… this is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Like now, you (or they) keep talking about the war on Syria and conspiracy, but they do nothing to stop the killing. May be this is a start point to face the conspiracy? Sooner or later, sadly, war could rage in Syria if Bashar doesn’t get out from his illogical official line. He needs to talk to his people and do a deal with them. That’s how it works.
For me, I think the deal should be out. If 42 years weren’t enough, then the people will not give him another 42 years. My wishful thinking says he could call for independent presidential elections, to prove that the people want him – as he claims.
“This is NOT a war. There are no targets in Baba Amr. There are no military targets, it’s pure and systematic slaughter of a civilian population. The only reason those shells are going in are to eliminate the people and buildings of Baba Amr.” – Paul Conroy
http://t.co/h63guLnw
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“This is NOT a war. There are no targets in Baba Amr. There are no military targets, it’s pure and systematic slaughter of a civilian population. The only reason those shells are going in are to eliminate the people and buildings of Baba Amr.” – Paul Conroy
LOL and you think anybody not subscribing to the atlanticist version of events believes this piece of shit after we know his connections to the various takfirists (not rebels) that destroyed Libya?
Also, why don’t you investigate Gilles Jacquier’s death? It was established (even though his colleagues gave conflicting statements presumably due to hierarchical pressure) that Gilles was standing with Pro Assad civilians when your beloved takfirists (who don’t even give a shit about muslims, let alone foreigners trying to help them) threw grenades in their proximity. Now please tell me why the Syrian authorities would do something like that when they know that the “international community” is just looking to spin any and every situation around to make it look like everyone other than US subservient governments are fucked in the head and have absolutely no idea on how not to alienate their protesting people.
Also, there’s a political way of doing everything, and while I’m sure Assad has taken advantage of his popular status to benefit (just like everyone does at some point, nobodys perfect), but even today, since we’re “protesting” to bring changes everywhere, let’s consider just for a moment that Pro Assad rallies (just like the Pro Gaddafi rallies of Libya) are in most cases, approximately 20 times as large as the anti – assad rallies. They’ve done their best to mobilise Sunnis in all parts of Syria against the “kafir” Alawites, but I’m proud to say that most Sunnis didn’t even buy the Ikhwanite propaganda.
All what I can say is that you live in a different world. How close you are to Syria or to the way its governed? Everything is conspiracy? All YouTube videos are fabricated?
I am not with takfiris who are a real danger, but you are just as good as the regime in labeling everyone who says something not pleasing to them.