In Pictures: Egypt’s second revolution | Egyptians are continuing to stage protests calling for change in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
Benghazi Demonstration 06/07/2011
The free and liberated city of Benghazi went out to protest to show their pride in their country and to rub it in Gadaffi’s face that they can get out and proudly showcase their happiness without fear.
Anti-government demonstrators display their hands — which read “Youth of the Freedom” — as they demand the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Taiz Tuesday.
Photo by Anees Mahyoub (AP)
Saturdays in Syria are usually the scene of mass funerals for those who were killed by security forces in gunfights during Friday protests.
In the video above, hundreds flock to the streets in Qaboun in a funeral procession for one of the dead.
“We are the people of Damascus. We are the martyrs,” they chant.
[…]
“We take death, but never humiliation!” crowds of anti-regime protesters roared in Job Jandali near the Syrian city of Homs during a demonstration Friday evening, according to the amateur footage posted above.
Despite the brutal crackdown that engulfed Syria on Friday and left dozens dead, protesters proved relentless in their call for democracy and freedom as demonstrations swelled in towns and cities across the country.
Night demonstrations have been a signature maneuver of the months-long Syrian uprising. In the evenings Syrians from all walks of life gather and march through the streets as part of their cat-and-mouse game with the security apparatus.
According to Wissam Tarif, activist and director of human rights organization INSAN, seven different night demonstrations swept across the northern province of Idleb, which includes the embattled town of Jisr Shughur on Friday.
“The crackdowns are getting bad in Idleb, especially in the area of Al Karkouz. Communication has been cut from the town and a wave of arrests have been reported,” Tarif said.
According to witnesses, helicopters, tank-mounted machine guns and heavy artillery were used against the northern city, leaving many houses on fire.
In an effort to maintain the protest momentum, hundreds of residents also assembled by night in the northern city of Hama, scene of the infamous 1982 massacre ordered by Hafez al Assad to subdue the Muslim Brotherhood, which left thousands of Syrians dead. They declared their willingness to sacrifice their own lives to bring down the regime.
The centers of the large cities of Aleppo and Damascus have been relatively quiet. But even there, street demonstrations on Friday afternoon continued into the night in at least two Aleppo neighborhoods.
In Damascus, where assaults on peaceful protesters by security forces in the Midan and Qaboun district on Friday resulted in at least two deaths, demonstrators roamed the streets in after-hours marches.
“Bashar, you butcher, we don’t want your reforms!” protestors chanted.
According to witnesses, security forces dispersed the protests with live ammunition and tear gas. Many were injured, witnesses said.
“The regime thinks they can take us down with him. Especially us, residents of the capital,” one activist in Damascus said on condition of anonymity for fear of punishment.
Hikmat was one of the few remaining residents in Jisr al-Shughour when the Syrian army rolled in, firing wildly and at will. “They didn’t care what they were shooting at,” said the 39-year-old, who was hit in the foot as soldiers finally delivered on a week-long threat to wreak havoc in the town that dared rage against the regime.
Jisr al-Shughour has now been sealed off by some 15,000 troops – backed by tanks and helicopters – who are operating with impunity.
Hours after being wounded, Hikmat fled for the Turkish border. “There was a good man with a motorcycle who gave me a ride,” he said. “We had to travel at night because the roads were still not safe.” He said he passed “many, many” people from the town of more than 40,000 who had fled to the rolling hills between Jisr al-Shughour and the safety of the Turkish border. “They are too scared to move. They are terrified.”
Those who have crossed the frontier are shedding increasing light on three days of bloodshed that have changed the face of the Syrian revolt. Until now there have been few voices able to speak out about what was left behind in Jisr al-Shughour or the events leading up to last weekend’s carnage.
The Syrian information ministry said that the bloodbath had been caused by armed gangs, which attacked the military and killed 120. Interviews conducted in recent days, however, have painted a very different picture. They tell of a crackdown far more brutal than any other seen since the first uprising three months ago, although protests have been met with ever-increasing force by President Bashar al-Assad.
Last Sunday, Samir, 27, had just returned from a funeral for a local man, Bassil Musri, who was killed the day before by security forces. “We were gathered in a large garden at the centre of town,” he said. “I was the first one shot. They had taken positions in every government building surrounding us.”
Samir’s body was riddled with bullets, which have taken a terrible toll. He is bleeding internally and is racked with infection. He may not survive the coming days. “The gunfire was from everywhere,” he said, lying in a hospital bed in Antakya in Turkey. “So many people fell. It was a massacre.”
Samir said trouble had been brewing for days. Strangers in town had been gathering information on demonstrators – especially those the regime had flagged as agents provocateurs. “We had been campaigning for freedom, for our rights, just like everyone else. They say we had weapons. Believe me, if we had I would have been the first to use one.”
In the same hospital, Abu Tahar, 29, an ambulance driver from Jisr al-Shughour, was being treated for gunshot wounds to his back. He had arrived at the garden last Sunday to help the wounded. “Bullets were raining from everywhere,” he said. “It was chaos.” He said that up to 10,000 people had gathered in the garden, one of the few large public places in town, to protest at the killing of Musri.
“They just kept shooting and shooting,” he said. “Earlier in the week we had been told not to go to pick up the wounded. They wanted them to die there. Anyone who tried was shot, his body falling on top of the other victim. That is what happened to me. The next thing I knew I woke up here.”
He said he had spoken by telephone to family members in the town who confirmed that in the hours after the shooting in the garden large numbers of security forces had abandoned their posts – and had been shot at by soldiers loyal to the regime. He said some 14 soldiers had returned to their homes earlier in the week after refusing to carry out orders, a rarity in Syria, which had led officials to send in spies to monitor citizens and extra forces to deal harshly with any further dissent.
Samir said he had been among a group that had captured two men who had been acting as government informants. “One of them had a beard – and none of the Syrian army has beards. He didn’t speak a word of Arabic.” Samir’s account matches those of six other Jisr al-Shughour citizens who last week all spoke of foreigners – perhaps Iranians – who were standing alongside Syrian soldiers during the clashes. Britain has accused Iran of sending members of its Revolutionary Guards corps to help Damascus monitor the protests, but until last week said it had not seen evidence of troops on the ground.
The presence of Iranian troops would raise the stakes in a revolution that is steadily drawing in neighbouring states. Turkey said it is now dealing with 4,300 refugees and expecting many more. Lebanon, too, is facing an influx of people fleeing eastern Syria. Israel is also bracing for more attempts to infiltrate the Golan Heights, which it seized in 1967. Israel and the US insist that Damascus is trying to create a series of deadly diversions along the Golan in a bid to divert attention from its own woes.
Abu Tahar said the violence a week ago rekindled family memories that his father had long ago buried – two massacres ordered by Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez, in the early 1980s, one of which also targeted Jisr al-Shughour. “My father always said forget about it, never speak about this.” Abu Tahar added: “He said we could not get involved in politics because it would kill us all. We know the nature of our regime. Every day for the past month I knew they were coming for us. They have done what we feared they would do. The difference is that the world now knows. They will kill us all if they can. There are many people still in the mountains too scared to move. This is a crisis and they need help.”
centerforinvestigativereporting:
Thousands of Iranians took to the streets in 2009 as part of the Green Movement to protest a disputed presidential election. The government crackdown that followed included some women being imprisoned, tortured and raped. This report, which the Center for Investigative Reporting co-produced with PBS NewsHour, shares some of their stories.
Dr Ali Kanaan, director of the Quneitra hospital, confirmed the television report of 14 dead – 12 Palestinians and two Syrians. He said 225 were wounded. The youngest victim was a 15-year-old Palestinian, Mohammed Issa, who lived in the Neira refugee camp in Aleppo.
“We were trying to cut the barbed wire when the Israeli soldiers began shooting directly at us,” Ghayath Awad, a 29-year-old Palestinian who was shot in the waist, told the AP at the hospital.
Mohammed Hasan, a 16-year old student, was wounded in both feet. “We want on this occasion to remind America and the whole world that we have a right to return to our country,” he said.
The recent protests are designed to draw attention to the plight of Palestinian refugees who fled or were expelled from their homes during Israel’s war of independence in 1948. The original refugees, and their descendants, now number several million and they demand the right to return to the families’ former properties.
About half a million Palestinian refugees live across 13 camps in Syria, a country with a population of 23 million. Palestinians are allowed to work and study, but they do not have citizenship and cannot vote.
Page with ‘Stop Harper’ sign fired from Senate
A Senate page who was fired Friday for holding a “Stop Harper” sign during the government’s throne speech says she hopes to inspire more cases of “civil disobedience.”
Brigette Marcelle, a 21-year-old graduate from the University of Ottawa, said that she only recently decided to put her job on the line and stage the silent protest.
Though she was immediately fired from the sought-after position, Marcelle said she doesn’t regret upstaging the government on its coming out day in Ottawa.
“This is the only way we’re going to see real change,” Marcelle told CTV News Channel, as she conceded that Harper’s majority government will hold parliamentary sway for the next four years.
Marcelle managed to hold her sign up for about 20 seconds, and stood steps from Prime Minister Stephen Harper. She was quickly escorted out of the chamber and immediately fired.
Marcelle had served in the Senate as a page for nearly a year, but she decided to take action a few days ago because she said Harper doesn’t reflect the majority of Canadians.
“Harper’s agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation,” Marcelle said.
She added that the government is “blowing billions of dollars” on fighter jets and corporate tax cuts, but ignoring important environmental issues like climate change.
But since Harper recently won a majority, Marcelle said that staging “creative” protests is the only way to fight back.
“I think that Harper’s agenda is so damaging that it called for something that is different,” she said. “I think we really need to take action.”
This is how it’s done in Canada, bitches.
Well, I think it’s good to protest ANYBODY who speaks from a THRONE!
