Syria:
Observers or Not, the Dictator Continues His Repression

Jan 9, 2012

On December 26, some 60 observers from the Arab League were deployed in Syria to verify that the “protocol to end the crisis” established between a number of Arab countries and the dictatorial regime of Al-Assad, was being implemented. According to the agreement, the Syrian army is supposed to withdraw from the cities, peaceful demonstrations are to be authorized and the prisoners taken since the beginning of the crisis, March 15, 2011, are to be freed.

The Arab League wanted to find a way out of the crisis from within the Arab states. Evidently, if their intervention could calm the popular revolt against the Syrian regime that has been continuing for months, it would benefit all the leaders of the Arab states who are worried about their own positions.

The naming of Sudanese General Mustapha Al-Dabi as head of the delegation of observers did not bode well, however, given that he is the former chief of the military secret services implicated in the repression of the population in Darfour. And the result of the first eight days of the presence of the observers confirmed the impression.

First of all, except in his visit to the city of Homs, where the residents were savagely repressed, the Sudanese General stated that he observed nothing “very shocking.” Nothing worse than in Darfour, to summarize!

With observers or not, the security forces of the regime continue to massacre the demonstrators, killing another 150 people in one week, added to the some 5,000 victims of the repression since the beginning of the crisis. As for the 14,000 prisoners taken during this time, many of whom have been tortured, only 755 have been released.

The number of observers has climbed to 500. But no matter what their number, they do not protect the populations. The president of the Arab Parliament, representing the Arab League, has even admitted that the Syrian regime continues to massacre innocent civilians, underlining “an increase in the violence” including “more deaths, including of children, and all that in the presence of the observers.”

In any case, this tragi-comedy of the observers has not disarmed the anger of the population. The hundreds of thousands of people who responded to the calls to demonstrate on December 30 and 31 in Doma, and who faced the nail-bombs that the repressive forces launched to disperse them, is proof that the determination of the population to rid themselves of this dictator has not fallen.