Interview with WBEZ (NPR in Chicago)

شيكاغو 4/25/2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4niolUH4uQ&feature=youtu.be

A UN-brokered cease-fire in Syria, in place since April 12, has had little effect on stemming the violence that has raged for more than a year now. Yesterday, three members of the Syrian security service were killed in Damascus. Reports also suggest that government forces have been keeping a low profile in the presence of UN monitors and then resuming their attacks once they leave.

The UN Security Council still backs the cease-fire and is preparing to send hundreds of additional monitors in the coming months. Yet many are skeptical over whether this plan will actually end the conflict. Mohyeddin Kassar is the president of the Syrian American Society. He givesWorldview an update on the crisis in Syria. 

From:  http://www.wbez.org/

Letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations:

Letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations: 
We, the Syrian People in our peaceful revolution, commit ourselves to the initiative of United Nations for Syria. We shall commit ourselves to stop dying if the Syrian regime stops shooting. 


Lettre au Secrétaire Général des Nations Unies:
Nous, les peuple syriens dans notre révolution pacifique, nous nous engageons à l'initiative des Nations Unies pour la Syrie. Nous nous engageons à cesser de mourir si le régime syrien cesse de tirer.


Письмо Генерального секретаря Организации Объединенных Наций:
Мы, народу Сирии в нашей мирной революции, берем на себя обязательство по инициативе Организации Объединенных Наций по Сирии. Мы берем на себя обязательство остановить смерти, если сирийский режим останавливает съемку.


رسالة إلى السكرتير العام للأمم المتحدة
نحن الشعب السوري ومن خلال ثورتنا السلمية نلعن التزامنا بمبادرة الأمم المتحدة من أجل سورية، ونتعهد أن نتوقف عن الموت إذا توقف النظام السوري عن إطلاق النار.

Listen to Osamas's story

In an interview with National Public Radio Chicago, Osama tells the story of the non-violent struggle against Syrian dictator.  Thanks to Worldview at Chicago Public Radio for being the voice of those who do not have voice. :-)

http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/2011-12-13/hiding-not-scared-syrian-activist%E2%80%99s-
story-peaceful-resistance-94856

Iymar, the daughter of Osama and Maimouna is also on the run.  She is a threat for Asad regime.

The saga of Ousama Nassar and his family continues:

I posted an old blog again before this entry because it is relevant to what happened today and to this entry.    Shortly before eight o’clock this evening (Damascus time) Maimouna answered her door bell quickly hoping that the bell will not wake up her 6 month old daughter, Iymar.  At the door there was a platoon of al-mukhabarat (the Syrian political police) with her brother, Suhaib, shackled.   Suhaib Ammar was walking to his sister’s apartment when he was stopped by al-mukhabarat.   They asked him where about his brother in law,  Ousama.  He did not know where he was.  They invaded the house searching for Ousama. 

"Your husband is prisoner of conscious is he not?" asked the officer. 

"Yes."  She answered.  

"You know that he became a bomb maker and he killed several security officers."  

"That is not true."  She replied with confidence.   

"Where is he?"  The officer asked.

"I do not know.  Since he was released from jail he has been absent."   She answered.

"It looks like you are not going to speak."  T"ake the baby with you until her father turns himself in," shouted the officer. 

Scared to death Maimouna held on to her 6 month old fighting them off.  Finally they left and took her brother Suhaib instead  with them.  She ran after them.  "Why you are taking my brother?  He has nothing to do with this!" 

"Don’t worry. We will return him dead in couple days."   

They left with Suhaib.  One can only imagine how the night passed for the 26 year old young mother.  

If her 6 month old daughter got arrested today it would not be the first time.  The young mother got arrested when she was 6 months pregnant with her.  When she was born early this summer her father was in jail for the fourth time in his life.  After he got released, she never slept in the same house with her father.  He is always on the run. 

The six month old baby Iymar was born into troubled Syria to a family totally committed to non-violent struggle against dictatorship.  Her parents are well known nonviolent activists who worked against the dictatorship for more than 10 years.  Her grandfather, Dr. Mohammad al-Ammar, M.D. is also a well known non-violant activist who has been in jail for several months as of today.  

Tonight she went to bed with her father on the run, her grandfather and uncle in jail, and her mother listening closely to each move she hears behind the door. But hope remains because her parents and millions of Syrians are working today to give her a more free future. 

Written on May 11: Syria: the oppression of nonviolence activists continue

Detention of Osama Nassar, by the Syrian Regime, 5:30 AM, Damascus, at dawn in Syria on Sunday 01/05/2011 (Saturday 11:30 PM USA EST) Reported by his wife.

We were sleeping .... I woke up. I wanted to go to the bathroom. I thought I heard the doorbell ring... I sat up... Opening the door of my room, I heard a voice more clearly ... I found my mother-sitting in the dark in the living room and standing beside my sister-in-law - who happened to be visiting today -… they did not know what to do... I realized that they came ... and then I heard a knock on the door by hand … Banged hard ... I entered the room again and I told him “they came” … he got up to put on his clothes.... In the meantime, they increased hammering on the door I went to his sister's side, she was looking through the peephole in the door. We heard them talking about breaking the door and then we heard someone say, "Break down the door" ... We hurried to the room and I told Osama that they are going to break down the door.   He ran to open it but they had done their duty and already broken it.  He met with them and five or six of them came in...They argued with him about not opening the door immediately.  His mother told them she was asleep and did not hear.  They asked him to bring his mobile phone and identity ... I searched for the cell phone and pulled out a piece of identity from the drawer.  I thought –wrongly- it was his.  They were asking him to hurry up and bring his piece of identity.   I gave the ID and the mobile phone to his mother.  She said they were hers.   His mother asked them to allow him to enter to his room and get his own identity... He entered the room and tried to finish putting on his clothes.  I found the identity... One of them followed him inside the room. I heard him coming ... I went near the door.  I reacted when I saw him and shouted, "Where are you entering!! Where are you entering!! Get out! Get Out! Criminals!!”  He was wearing full military uniform, carrying a weapon and ammunition around his waist.   Osama asked me to calm down and the military backed out.   I took the ID out of the wallet and threw it in front of him.  Osama's mother picked it up and gave it to them.  I gave him a hug. I saw him holding his socks in his hand I told him to put them in his pocket.  Then I said after some hesitation, “Put them on!”  He bowed down to put them on and said, "These good people are not in hurry!"  He, the soldier, said to him, "You put them on in the car." ... Osama said, "You and I know what is going to happen in the car" and he finished putting them on.  I was standing in the corridor in front of him ... I looked at the soldier and said aloud, "Because we are a terrorist cell!! You are coming fully armed!!  May God be our protector!"  We escorted him to the door and outside there was about ten or more soldiers similar to the other ones.  Some of them had their weapons down and others were pointing them.  All of them were dressed in military clothing and all of them were carrying guns.  One of them was wearing a black leather jacket seemed it was their leader.  We saw some of them coming down from the top of the stairs.  They were besieging the place is what it seemed.  They took him.  I raised my voice which accompanied them down the stairs, "Be careful, you have a terrorist!"  Our neighbor was standing outside.  He said he was returning from morning prayers.  He said he saw a large security presence at the entrance and around the building.  When he came out to pray, they stopped him and asked him for his identity.

By: Maimouna Alammar

Osama Nassar: 33 years old, born in Damascus, Syria, August 11, 1978.  He is an activist with a deep belief in nonviolence.  He served 3 months in Syrian prisons in the early 2000s, just for trying to organize students to clean the street of their village during summer break.  He got arrested this morning again by Asad’s Security forces.  His last post on his Facebook page was “Peaceful! Peaceful! Even if they kill a hundred every day.” (It rhymes in Arabic)

The narrator, Maimouna Alammar (25 years old), is Osama’s wife, was born on December 6, 1986. She is preparing her master’s degree in Information Science. She is 9 months pregnant with their first child.  She got arrested on March 25, 2011, in a demonstration supporting the families of prisoners of conscience and she was released due to her pregnancy.

Syria: Even the army is subject to Oppression

The car stopped at the road barrier erected by the army.  A young soldier approached followed by a lieutenant with 3 others soldiers behind him.  The soldier asks the driver for an I.D. He looks at the I.D. and compares it to a long list he has in his hand.  He did not find the name on the “wanted” list.   “You live by the grocery store?” asked the soldier staring in the face of the driver as if try to read something in it.  He gathered his courage and raised the list in front of his face.  His lieutenant and the other three comrades stand in half circle behind him as a wall.   He recited four or five names and said tell them not to come through the barrier.  He wanted to give more names.  But one of his comrades started insulting the driver and ordered him to take off ending the scene.  The driver left trying to remember the names he just heard.  A soldier of the “republican guard” arrived at this moment to witness the end of the scene.   

The soldiers and their officer are risking being shot on the spot by a single bullet in the back of the head if the last “soldier” saw what they did.   They had been set up at the barrier and were given a list of names to search for in each car.  The list of the name is for political activists or even just demonstrators who got recognized by the security forces.  The last soldier was a “Shabih,” a thug or a paramilitary, who is paid per day an amount equal to a monthly salary of an elementary school teacher.  He was given 15 days of training and a uniform to use if needed.  His mandate authorizes him to shoot anyone including army personal.  He receives all the support he needs from the republican guard snipers who keep an eye on the scene from not far away. 

This scene is a normal event every day in the cities of Syria.  Some cities or neighborhood are not as lucky as this one.  They do not get an army barrier only.  They find themselves facing invasion of the tanks of the republican guard. 

Many of the soldiers in the Syrian army find themselves between a rock and a hard place.  Their colleagues who refused to shoot civilians have been executed by the Security forces of Assad or by his republican guards.  Their bodies returned to their family with the standard explanation that they were killed by “armed terrorists.”  Even the highest ranks in the army were plagued by sudden retirements and sudden heart attacks during the last six months.   Some troops have defected.  The question is “defecting to where?”  Some of them run to Turkey.  But with the Syrian regime the punishment is collective.  General Harmoush, for example, defected to Turkey leaving his family behind.  His wife was arrested. His house destroyed.  His brother killed under torture. 

When I hear these stories, these terrible stories leaked from the iron curtains forced around the country by the regime, my fears are deep that one day we will discover that this is but the tip of the iceberg.  The international community has a history of being late.  Angola and Bosnia are examples of the outcome of this habit.  The question is, what did we learn from them?

Scaring away the wolf is easier than fighting it

The Syrian foreign affairs minister al-Muallim threatened the countries with severe consequences if they recognized the Syrian National Council.  Today a part of the speech given by Hasun (al-Mufti in Syria) was posted on youtube.   Hasun says:

“With the first bomb falling on Syria, Lebanon and Syria will see each one of their children become suicide bombers on the lands of Europe and Palestine.  I am saying it to all Europe and to America. We shall prepare suicide bombers who are now in your land if you bombard Syria or Lebanon, from now on an eye for an eye and the one who starts it is the unfair one.  You are the one who asked for it.  I will tell everyone don’t think that these suicide bombers in the lands of France, UK, and America will be Arabs and Muslims. They will be a new Jul Jammal. They will be a new Muhammad Durra.  Therefore we beg you not to attack Syria.”

Threat seems to have become the last tool of diplomacy left in the hand of Assad’s regime.  Some months ago al-Muallim commented on the prospect of European punishment on the regime saying, “We will erase Europe from the map.”  I do not believe that we, in the west, need to take this threat seriously.  Neither Assad nor Hasun has any religious weight in the Sunni street.  Though Assad likes to think that that religious establishment is standing with him, he is fooling himself if he believes that.  In spite of 50 years of state controlled Sunni Islam in Syria, no single Sunni will shed a tear for Assad. 

Al-Mufti Hasun lost what was left of his position’s respect when he stood by the regime against the will of the revolution.  The regime might have asked him to say what he said, but he knows that he has no followers to give his threats any credibility.  However, one can see Hasun’s threat and before it the threat of al-Muallim, only in the framework of the Iranian – West confrontation.   Only in this context might these threats make some sense.   This is taking us back to the elephant in the room. After the failure of disconnecting Iran from the Syrian regime, Syria becomes the battleground of this confrontation.  The West needs to make up its mind and stand by the Syrian revolution as the only viable solution.  A free and democratic Syria is the viable solution for the stability in the Middle East.