The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Friday 16 March 2012

SYRIA - FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE UPRISING – OVER 10,000 DEAD – THE UNENDING TORMENT


It’s one year to the Syrian uprising and we have nothing revolutionary to write but the brutal killing of over 10,000 Syrians opposing the Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The first stronghold of the Syrian protest, Homs, is almost devastated and war is on icon of the Syrian revolution, Daraa.  

Last year it was the protester who multiplied in the streets of Damascus to ask Assad to go. This year they are crushed. On the first anniversary day, this year, instead the global community saw obscene flow of the propaganda machinery when thousands of Assad’s supporters took to the street to show allegiance to the dictator.

Gaddafi had adopted the similar histrionics. The only thing is Assad is in a comfortable position to unleash his terror run on his own countrymen unlike Gaddafi. Libya had a recognized and united opposition fighting militarily. Though delayed, the international military intervention came before it was too late.

So Assad is doing whatever he has to do to continue his dictatorship and he is enjoying all the blood and gore as revealed from his leaked emails. A CNN report headlines, “Shopping amid a massacre: Leaked e-mails from Syria's regime”.

So after flattening Homs and places like Hama, Banyas, his torture run continues in Idlib. Border towns of countries like Turkey and Jordan are flooded with refugees telling countless tales of horror. According to a report in the British daily ‘The Independent’, about a thousand refugees have crossed the Syrian border from Idlib in the past 24 hours (15,000 so far and Turkey would not like to go back to the 1991 Iraq war days when 5,00,000 flooded the country). And they have done so risking their lives by crossing an area heavily mined by the Syrian forces. That tells us the scale of torture. The report further says quoting the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, “23 corpses were found dumped on the outskirts of Idlib city. The bodies had been blindfolded and handcuffed and some showed signs of torture.”

Another Voice of America report narrates ordeal of the Syrian refugees who have crossed the border to Jordan. It tells of a refugee from Daraa, whose toes were cut off with metal clippers. He was shot in the leg during anti-government protests in Daraa and found himself in a detention centre that he thought was a hospital.

Amnesty International recently released a human rights abuse report based on interrogation of Syrian refugees in Jordan. The report implicates the Assad regime behind alarming level of torture and free run of killing squads. Neil Sammonds who has prepared the report says, “The fact that it happens across the country and across the security agencies and the armed forces leads one to the assumption that the regime is directing this.  It knows it's going on and it's encouraging its guards and security officers to do this.”

OPPOSITION BADLY HIT BUT REMAINS – ONLY TO BE ANNIHILATED LATER, IF..

After killing them in Homs and other places, the Syrian forces pounded Idlib to terminate the remaining members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) or the Syrian National Council (SNC) or many other ‘factions’ of the Syrian opposition groups. Now they are on assault in Daraa, the birthplace of the Syrian revolution.

But all this ruthless run to target and annihilate the opponents has failed to deliver absolutely satisfying result as far as Assad’s comfort in preparing long shopping lists for London’s Harrods the upcoming days. He would be blaming the sophisticated communication technology and his ineptness that the whole world has come to read what goes on in this doctor-turn-moron’s mind while brutally killing his own countrymen.

Yes, they are not completely annihilated yet. And Assad and the Syrian opposition, both of these groups have the same nagging question staring in the face – Unity of the opposition. Unlike, Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, Syrian opposition is deeply divided and has not been able to put a united face to oust Assad.

If they come to unite and fight – it will be the real worry for Assad because then even the international community can think of Libya like intervention.

If they still cannot find the ways to make a strong opponent to the Syrian forces – they are soon going to be completely decimated.

And we don’t know how many more lives this predicament of the Syrian revolution will take.

THAT ELUSIVE INTERNATIONAL INTERVENTION

It doesn’t look to come soon. A Pew survey found that 64 per cent of the American voters are opposed to the military intervention in Syria. We cannot expect an unorthodox approach from Barack Obama in the election year. He would certainly not like to go against the domestic opinion. On Wednesday, he said the prospect of military intervention in Syria is premature and may lead to civil war.

Once the US is out of any global movement of the scale as needed in Syria, it jeopardizes the every other concerned geopolitical scenario. Russia and China are advocating for the opposition groups to come to the negotiation table; Turkey is talking of creating a buffer zone for the refugees; Jordan is voicing for the immediate end to the fighting while the one of the most players in Libya, France, is saying arming Syrian rebels may lead to ‘catastrophic civil war’ given the deeply divided opposition. UK’s David Cameron continues warning Syria for war crimes.

United Nations and the Arab League are sending their envoy Kofi Annan to Syria to bring peace between the rebels and Syrian regime.

But nothing seems to move on ground. Yes, Turkey’s decision to create buffer zone may be a game changer. A Reuters report, “Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's suggested humanitarian "buffer zone" for refugees in Syria could prove a turning point in the conflict, opening the door to foreign intervention in the year-old uprising.” The report further quotes Anthony Skinner, a Middle East analyst, saying, “If implemented, it may be a game changer. Protecting such a zone... requires the deployment of Turkish ground forces and this will be very significant in terms of the overall security dynamic and clearly benefit the opposition.”

For the moment, it is the unending torment for the Syrian masses and the endless list of Harrods shopping pleasure for the Bashar al-Assad, the Butcher’s family.



©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/