Aug 02 2011
Violence in Syria Peaks Amid International Silence
Government forces in Syria shelled civilian areas in the centrally located city of Hama. This was the second day of attacks in Syria following the bloodiest day of the 5-month long Syrian uprising on Sunday when 140 people were killed. Protestors have been demanding the resignation of their president Bashar al-Assad, who has been in power for 11 years, following his father’s 29 year reign. The weekend massacre is being seen as a pre-emptive strike launched by President Assad against the protesters’ plan to up the ante during the Holy month of Ramadan, which began yesterday. In a speech on Monday commemorating the 66th anniversary of the nation’s army, Assad referred to the protesters as “warmongers and blood merchants,” and their actions on Sunday as a “vicious attack,” despite the obvious fact that his army was the perpetrator of the assault. Assad went on to praise his troops for “foiling the enemies [of Syria].” With government forces clamping down so hard, Syrians who have lost loved ones have been forced to bury their dead in public parks and gardens as access to cemeteries has become more difficult. More than 2,000 civilians have been killed during the protests since this March. Foreign media are not being allowed in the country, and online videos and blogs by activists are the few sources of information reaching the outside world. Meanwhile Mark Toner, US State Department spokesperson condemned the slaughter this week calling it “despicable” and “abhorrent.” Toner added that the US “stand[s] with the Syrian people.” However, the US’s actions in another Middle Eastern country, namely Libya, are seen as hypocritical, given that they are based ostensibly on protecting civilians from a brutal dictator. Even the United Nations, which is meeting in closed-door sessions this week to discuss Syria, is reluctant to pass a resolution condemning the violence against protesters.
GUEST: Joshua Landis, Director of Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, and writer of the blog, Syria Comment
Read Joshua Landis’ blog Syria Comment here: www.joshualandis.com.
One Response to “Violence in Syria Peaks Amid International Silence”
Dear Sonali,
I am one of the listeners of your program and long time financial contributors to KPFK. I have realized to my amazement that you concentrate on Syria “uprising” with guests such as Josh Landis who has nothing but western point of view about middle east (his claim of so called 14 years in Middle east probably been with privileged western parents and who knows what they were doing in Middle east). Quoting Al Jazeera which is known arm of Middle east monarchies with known links to Rupert Murdoch and Co, on Syria with very little on other far more domestically driven popular movement as in Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, Saudi etc has been nothing but double standard by the zionist infested media. I am not a fan of Syrian regime but I tend to trust their TV report far more than Al Jazeera. If you really want to know more on the middle eastern issues tune to presstv.com and for documentaries presstv.ir/doc.
I hope you realize that Al Jazeera is totally lacking objective Judgments being run from Doha, Qatar with investments from Monarchies and very little coverage on Bahrain, Yemen, and Saudi, Jordan uprising which are far more genuine than anything in Syria specially what Josh Landis is writing about.
At the end I would want to express my deep disappointment on KPFK spending on Al Jazeera English news which is not much different than CNN and FOX empty propaganda coverage.