Houla Activists Respond to FAZ Accusations
The following letter was written by activists from the Homs town of Houla that witnessed a massacre at the hands of government-sponsored security forces on May 25. The letter comes in response to a report published in the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The activists provided an original translation and Al-Ayyam makes it available here in original form.
We write this letter in the name of the residents of the four cities of Houla (Taldo, Kafarlaha, Taldahab, al Tiba al Gharbiya), in response to a disgusting slur published in the weekend in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung German newspaper, which shamefully presented lies as facts in the report written by reporter Rainer Hermann and published on June 7, 2012. The report cast the 108 people who died here at the hands of the regime as conspirators instead of victims. In almost four weeks since this dreadful act of savagery was brought to our village, we have been contacted by numerous reporters from many countries, all of whom have been in search of the truth. None of us recall being contacted by a German or non-German reporter that works for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. We most certainly have not been contacted by Rainer Hermann or any representative of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
The least that can be said about the claims of the newspaper that the families killed were Alawite and that the FSA is responsible for the massacre, is that they are ridiculous. Everyone who is involved with the Syrian issue knows that the four cities of Houla (Taldo, Kafarlaha, Taldahab, al Tiba al Gharbiya) are exclusively Sunni all the families who lost members to this slaughter are identifiably Sunni.
To anyone foolish enough to doubt this we invite you to look at the Sunni burial rituals, which are there for all to see on videos posted on YouTube.
The FSA is an essential part of Houla. They are our brothers, fathers, uncles and sons. Any reporter suggesting that they are in fact the villains in this plot are woefully blind or lying.
To conclude we say without reservation that this reporter spoke to no one from Houla before compiling his disgusting report from Damascus. If he has spoken to anyone at all it is stooges put up by the regime in an attempt to deceive. Despite the renewed anguish that this reporter has caused our community and the shame he has brought to himself and his newspaper, we invite him to come to our village to interview survivors and meet the community he has defamed. We guarantee him protection from justifiably angry residents here but wonder whether he first has the courage to slip from the grip of his masters in Damascus.
@activists
(1) You should have read the articles by Dr. Hermann:
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/neue-erkenntnisse-zu-getoeteten-von-hula-abermals-massaker-in-syrien-11776496.html
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/arabische-welt/syrien-eine-ausloeschung-11784434.html
You’ll find, that response refers merely to a tiny sub-set of the information provided by him.
(2) Your claim, that 100% of the citizens of Taldo, Kafarlaha, Taldahab, al Tiba al Gharbiya are Sunni is incredible. If that is true today, then mabye because all other citizens were silenced, driven out or murdered.
(3) Activists are never unbiased.
Your response to the FAZ article remains vague.
The FAZ quoted sources that gave a lot of names, precise location descriptions and timelines of the attack on Taldou.
There are quite a few witnesses quoted on ANNA News, with names, locations, setups in the place of the attacks. They witness, among other things, to an attack on the UN observer mission that tried to come through to an army checkpoint near Taldou. They show wounded and shot syrian soldiers. They publish eyewitness reports, which can, of course, be put into question, but they give details that your response lacks of.
The accent of the initial reports, unlike those from the FAZ, was not that the victims were Alawite or Shiite, but rather that they were government supporters like the family of the brother of one of the new parliament members which has been entirely killed.
These are facts. You are, of course, free to bring up yours.
Interessting that the facts from FAZ and Rainer Hermann are all from Marat Musin,who is the chief of an russian NGO and a loyalist of assad.
This facts first appeared by the syrian ambassador in moskwa (you can read it in bloomberg news,article by henry meyer.
And than there is an article by Marat Musin on globalresearch on june1st. And with the same facts came Rainer Hermann on FAZ on june7th!!
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/302606/assad-s-houla-propaganda-aymenn-jawad-al-tamimi?toggle=y#
I don´t believe these fakejournalism of the russian Marat Musin,sorry!
@antifo, tegucigalpa:
Amnesty international:
“Sixty-two of those killed were from the ABD AL-RAZAQ family in Teldo. All had been shot dead, except for a few children whose skulls had been smashed, presumably by rifle butts.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18240460
RASHA ABDUL RAZAQ’S MOTHER:
“He [an attacker] said: ‘We are from the mountain there, from Fulla,’ so I said: ‘We are neighbours then, we don’t have any terrorists here,’ and he said: ‘You are the terrorists’. They thought I was dead. It was thanks to God that I survived. He was shooting my kids and yelling. Please get me and my daughter some protection – we are staying now in different people’s houses. We are worried they will liquidate us.
HAMZA OMAR
“The shabiha militias attacked the houses. They had no mercy. We took pictures of children, under 10 years [old], their hands tied, and shot at close-range, from 10cm, just 10cm. By knife they cut their neck, not exactly all his neck, but they make a hole in the neck, a hole in his eyes.”
HASSAN ABDEL-RAZZAQ found hid family slaughtered:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2157034/Syria-Father-finds-wife-children-victims-Houla-atrocity.html
Alhoula, Eye Witnesses’ Accounts of the Massacre 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6nGOjXKuHY&feature=youtu.be
Survivors of Al-Houla Massacre: Our Families Were Murdered in Front of Us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsjmalW91Ks&feature=related
FAZ relied an all-government provided sources claiming to be eyewitnesses.
1) All the murdered Syrians belong to Sunni families
2) Houla residents who fled to Lebanon all blame the massacre on the regime-backed Shabbiha
3) The UN monitors clearly blamed the regime forces for the shelling of the houses. Why would they shell their own people?
4) All other German newspapers’ investigations (and others too) put the blame on the Shabbiha
5) All other massacres were perpetrated by regime elements. Why did the regime block access to Heffe?
FAZ is idiotically sticking to an incorrect and illogical narrative.
By the way, Shaque, there was no final proof of shelling.
Also, the report by Gen. Mood given after the Houla investigation does not blame anyone. You can see a copy of this original report here: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rXDyKvVJrZM/T8VLoloYhsI/AAAAAAAAL0c/6ADUEwWiQE4/s1600/2012-0529+Schockstarre+nach+Al-Hula_1.jpg
The mythical “Shabiha” is a concept that came up as a second version after it was proven that no substantial shellings have taken place, but rather that the victims have been killed by knife or been shot from a close range.
But the finest thing is the Russian and Chinese subtitles version of some footage from Houla published by the activists. First, it said “people were killed by heavy shellings”, later on, it was corrected as to say “and some were slaughtered by knife”. It was first published only a few moments after the massacre.
Well, there are a lot of things unclear. Especially the description of a Shabiha militant by a 10 year old survivor boy: “bald men with beards”. That’s a sunni militant in my perception.
“The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest possible terms the killings, confirmed by United Nations observers, of dozens of men, women and children and the wounding of hundreds more in the village of El-Houleh, near Homs, in attacks that involved a series of Government artillery and tank shellings on a residential neighbourhood.”
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2012/sc10658.doc.htm
@shaque
The phrase “attacks that involved a series of Government artillery and tank shellings” says by no means the children and women died from these shellings.
You forgot to quote this:
“The members of the Security Council also condemned the killing of civilians by shooting at close range and by severe physical abuse.”
Again, why would the Syrian regime shell people that support it? The shelling and the up-close killings targeted the same victims. Are you suggesting two parties committed the crime?
@Tegucigalpa: There was no proof of shelling?
Look at this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/may/29/syria-massacre-children-houla-video?INTCMP=SRCH
This is Houla today. Does it look pro-regime to anyone?
http://shabab.ayyam.org/en/content/update-leshaque-1339760774
@shaque
To me it looks as if they don’t like Russia and China. Apparently they put their fate on a no-fly-zone as in Libya. Bad luck.
“From the start of the revolution, we kept hearing that a no-fly zone would be imposed or there would be foreign intervention,” he says, “but none of that happened and it is does not look as though it will happen, at least not in the near future.”
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/syria-alternatives-i-man-cannot-live-guns-alone
According to that article, the uprise in Syria had taken a totally different course without the no-fly-zone expectation. One more argument against these bloody no-fly-zones games. It is simply a bad model for democracy export.
Please don’t give me quotes from pro-regime media. Had you actually spoken with real opponents inside Syria you’d know that they are not putting their hopes on anyone but themselves.
This can hardly be seen as a pro-Assad media. Please read the full article. It consists of two parts:
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/syria-alternatives-ii-no-homegrown-solutions
In their reply the activists object Dr. Hermann has not contacted them before he wrote his article from 7th of May.
In countries with press freedom it is not common, that one must go to a certain group of folks and have them approve media articles in advance. Instead it is common that dissenters write an article that brings up their view point.
In that particular case the principles of press freedom require the activists to come up with a plausible description of the events that lead to the slaughtering of of children and women by knife.
The activist’s reply would ideally cover all relevant aspects that were brought up by Dr. Hermann. That means it would include also a statement on the relatives of the People’s Assembly member Abdul-Moa’ti Mashlab. His name can be found under “Homs Constituency” in “The Other Sectors (B)” in the corresponding by SANA:
http://www.sana.sy/eng/21/2012/05/15/419139.htm
Note, that list was released May 15th, i.e. ten days before(!) the murdering of the children and women.
so who are the ‘activists’? they are unnamed…they could just as easily be this guy: http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/wests-syrian-narrative-based-on-guy-in.html
journalist Anhar Kochneva reports on HOMS
‘Especially kidnappings are more and more a part of the dirty business of “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) and of the associated armed gangs.’
http://www.syrianews.cc/syria-kidnappings-homs-armed-rebels-kidnapper-799.html
freedom fighters? peaceful protestors? or criminal gangs backed by Riyadh Washington and Telaviv?
Pro-regime outlet quoting a Russian source. How about you read something by one of the journalists who sneaked into Syria instead of idiots going on regime-organized tours?
“something by one of the journalists who sneaked into Syria”
Which one you mean? You love CNN. Right?
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/14/world/meast/syria-daoud-brigade-bomb-making/index.html
Have you ever read National Review Online? This is where U.S. politics are being discussed.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/302987/stay-out-syria-andrew-c-mccarthy
Here some quotes for you:
————
… the senators want to arm the predominantly Islamist, demonstrably murderous Syrian “opposition” — to strengthen America’s enemies with training and weaponry that America would either coordinate or provide directly.
…
In Syria, this plays out two ways. First, there is no realistic prospect of regime change favorable to the United States; intervention thus necessarily portends making one set of America’s enemies stronger than they currently are. Second, it is in America’s interest that al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood (including Hamas), the Assad regime, the Iranian mullahs, and Hezbollah all become weaker; non-intervention while they beat each other’s brains in is therefore to our great advantage.
…
The Syrian conflict has fomented just this trouble in jihadi paradise, and we haven’t had to pay a dime.
…
By letting events play out naturally … we find that the anti-Americans are at each other’s throats.
… they set upon each other with a savagery that shocks the West but is, in their culture, quotidian.
————
Andrew C. McCarthy claims slaughtering each other is quotidian culture in Syria.
I’d argue Russians know culture in Syria by far better.
In the U.S. all of you are seen as enemies, no matter on which side of the frontline you fight and dies. The more they see you kill each other, the more they sing and dance in their air-conditioned offices.
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The German fellow above with the pseudonym “Antifo” is a right-wing Christian activist and writing for the Islamophobic, Pro-Israel blog “Politically Incorrect”. It is interesting, that not only traditional German Nazis (like NPD) support Assad, but also the Pro-Zionist wing of the extreme right.
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