“On May 25, 2012, 108 people were murdered in the Syrian town of Houla. Gruesome videos of woman and children slaughtered in their homes spread like wildfire across the Internet, the United Nations issued a report that attempted to discern exactly what happened, and the United States expelled Syria’s top diplomat in Washington.
Fast-forward 11 months: The Syrian military has reportedly launched an offensive in the Damascus suburbs of Jdeidet al-Fadl and Jdeidet al-Artouz — part of a broader effort to secure the capital from rebel assault — and the Local Coordination Committees of Syria are reporting that more than 400 people have been massacred. Other opposition networks cite a lower death toll, but still point to a significant loss of life: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, for instance, is reporting that 101 people have been documented killed, but that the final death toll could exceed 250 Syrians.
The two events may be equally horrifying, but there are few similarities in the international response to them. The coverage of Jdeidet al-Fadl and Jdeidet al-Artouz has been limited to a fewnewspaper articles — top U.S. officials have not felt compelled to respond, and the United Nations has not sprung into action.
Part of the reason for the lack of an international response this time around is the absence of any information coming from the Damascus suburbs. Even though Jdeidet al-Artouz is only about 10 miles from the center of Damascus, the Syrian military has locked down the area — no journalists or NGOs have been able to get close enough to report on what is going on. The lockdown is also preventing information from getting out of the towns, which explains the murkiness about the casualty figures. Even so, a few videos have leaked out, purporting to show dead men, women, and children.
But it’s hard to avoid another conclusion: The international community is simply growing desensitized to reports of massacres in Syria. At the time of the Houla massacre, the conflict had killed an estimated 10,000 Syrians — 11 months later, the United Nations estimates the death toll at more than 70,000 people. In the face of such unrelenting violence, the world simply looks away.”
what scares me about all of this is that the staggering death toll we had seen in yesterdays massacres might become the new “norm” shame on the world for turning a blind eye on our people.
Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa said that neither the forces of President Bashar al-Assad nor rebels seeking to overthrow him can win the war which is now being fought on the outskirts of Assad’s powerbase in Damascus.
Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim in a power structure dominated by Assad’s…
04/12/12
Millions of Syrians are using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Skype to disseminate and discuss the conflict. Each week our Mohammed Sergie monitors the online conversation in English and Arabic, pulling out the highlights in a feature called the Social Media…
Nov 23/12 By Christina Chew
With winter arriving soon, some 200,000 Syrian refugee children are at “serious risk.” More than 2 million people have been displaced as the 20 month conflict drags on and the United Nations expects that some 700,000 people will register as refugees by the end of this…
18/11/12
“If Bashar is staying until the last Russian bullet, then we will stay until the last shout for freedom.” #Syria
She deserves your help…
#Syria Atmeh - Rawan Malek, 4, who fled with her family from the violence in their village, flashes the victory sign as she poses for a photograph inside a tent at a displaced camp, in the Syrian village of Atmeh, on November 7, 2012. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)
Winter is almost here and children like Rawan need your help. Please consider a donation. www.syrianassistance.com/our-activities.html Thank you.
It’s not a civil war. It’s a genocide. Leave us die, but do not lie. Liberated Kafranbel.
courtesy @RazanSpeaks
Oct. 23, 2012. Syrian residents carry the lifeless body of a boy who was killed by an artillery shell that landed near a bakery, in front of a hospital in Aleppo, Syria. Narciso Contreras.
