FAZ: Houla killings work of anti-Assad group

FAZ: Houla killings work of anti-Assad group


Introductory comments that follow are by Mark Jensen, as edited by myself.
 Fred

 NEWS: Houla massacre work of anti-Assad militants, says Frankfurter
 Allgemeine Zeitung

 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the German newspaper that has the largest
 international circulation, published a sketchy report by Rainer Hermann on
 Friday that attributed responsibility for the massacre in Syria to
 anti-Assad militants in [A translation of the article by an Austrian blogger
 is posted below (wi Syria with a few silent stylistic improvements).[2] --

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2157034/Syria-Father-finds-wife-chil
 dren-victims-Houla-atrocity.html).

 [Item 1 is a related challenge to the war-propaganda version by John
 Rosenthal on National Review Online.]

 Meanwhile the Houla massacre continues to be attributed to Syrian
 authorities by media sources like the London *Daily Mail.*

 ArutzSheva,(http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/11771#.T
 9S1VJgoPTw), sometimes called the voice of the Israeli settlement movement,
 which extended blame for the massacre to Iran (e.g. "All this adds up to
 one, and only one thing: Iran, and Iran alone, is responsible for every
 murderous genocidal slaughter act Assad has committed, and will commit.
 Hence, Iran is already 'all in' on defending Assad, and will stop at
 nothing-nothing- to defend Assad's regime"). --Mark]
http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/11029/
 ====================================================

 1. New insights into deaths of Houla

 REPORT: REBELS RESPONSIBLE FOR HOULA MASSACRE
 By John Rosenthal
 National Review Online
 June 9, 2012
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/302261/report-rebels-responsible-houla-
 massacre-john-rosenthal#

 It was, in the words of U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan, the "tipping point"
 in the Syria conflict: a savage massacre of over 90 people, predominantly
 women and children, for which the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad was
 immediately blamed by virtually the entirety of the Western media. Within
 days of the first reports of the Houla massacre, the U.S., France, Great
 Britain, Germany, and several other Western countries announced that they
 were expelling Syria's ambassadors in protest.

 But according to a new report in Germany's leading daily, the *Frankfurter
 Allgemeine Zeitung* (FAZ), (
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/neue-erkenntnisse-zu-getoeteten-von-hula-
 abermals-massaker-in-syrien-11776496.html ) the Houla massacre was in fact
 committed by anti-Assad Sunni militants, and the bulk of the victims were
 member of the Alawi and Shia minorities, which have been largely supportive
 of Assad. For its account of the massacre, the report cites opponents of
 Assad, who, however, declined to have their names appear in print out of
 fear of reprisals from armed opposition groups.

 According to the article's sources, the massacre occurred after rebel forces
 attacked three army-controlled roadblocks outside of Houla. The roadblocks
 had been set up to protect nearby Alawi majority villages from attacks by
 Sunni militias. The rebel attacks provoked a call for reinforcements by the
 besieged army units. Syrian army and rebel forces are reported to have
 engaged in battle for some 90 minutes, during which time "dozens of soldiers
 and rebels" were killed.

 "According to eyewitness accounts," the FAZ report continues, "the massacre
 occurred during this time. Those killed were almost exclusively from
 families belonging to Houla's Alawi and Shia minorities. Over 90% of
 Houla's population are Sunnis. Several dozen members of a family were
 slaughtered, which had converted from Sunni to Shia Islam. Members of the
 Shomaliya, an Alawi family, were also killed, as was the family of a Sunni
 member of the Syrian parliament who is regarded as a collaborator.
 Immediately following the massacre, the perpetrators are supposed to have
 filmed their victims and then presented them as Sunni victims in videos
 posted on the internet."

 The FAZ report echoes eyewitness accounts collected from refugees from the
 Houla region by members of the Monastery of St. James in Qara, Syria.
 According to monastery sources cited by the Dutch Middle East expert Martin
 Janssen, armed rebels murdered "entire Alawi families" in the village of
 Taldo in the Houla region.

 Already at the beginning of April, Mother Agnès-Mariam de la Croix of the
 St. James Monastery warned of rebel atrocities' being repackaged in both
 Arab and Western media accounts as regime atrocities. She cited the case of
 a massacre in the Khalidiya neighborhood in Homs. According to an account
 published in French on the monastery's website, rebels gathered Christian
 and Alawi hostages in a building in Khalidiya and blew up the building with
 dynamite. They then attributed the crime to the regular Syrian army. "Even
 though this act has been attributed to regular army forces . . . the
 evidence and testimony are irrefutable: It was an operation undertaken by
 armed groups affiliated with the opposition," Mother Agnès-Mariam wrote.

 — John Rosenthal writes on European politics and transatlantic security
 issues. You can follow his work at www.trans-int.com or on Facebook.

 2.[Translation]

 AGAIN MASSACRES IN SYRIA
 By Rainer Hermann
 In Syria, in another massacre near Hama at least 55 people were killed. U.N.
 observers who wanted to visit the crime scene came under gunfire. **
 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
 June 7, 2012
http://mato48.wordpress.com/2012/06/10/what-really-happened-update-2/
 or
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/neue-erkenntnisse-zu-getoeteten-von-hula-
 abermals-massaker-in-syrien-11776496.html [German original]

 DAMASCUS -- At least 55 people were killed in a massacre in the village
 Qubair near Hama in Syria. Activists of the Local Coordination Committee
 reported even 86 fatalities. Eighteen of the dead are women and children.
 Many were burned to death in their homes or were stabbed with knives. Most
 of the dead were members of one family. While the rebels accused the regime
 militias of murder, the state television made a "terrorist group"
 responsible for the massacre.

 The U.N. observers stationed in Hama wanted to visit Qubair on Thursday.
 The U.N. observers reported that the Syrian army prevented their access to
 Qubair. The head of the U.N. observers, General Robert Mood, said that
 civilians were also blocking the observers. The observers were told, that
 their safety would not be guaranteed if they should enter the village. U.N.
 Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon later on said at the U.N. General Assembly in
 New York, the observers had been under fire. He called the massacre
 "shocking and disgusting" and said that Syria's President Bashar al-Assad
 had "lost all legitimacy."

 At first glance the massacre looks similar to the one in Houla, where 108
 people were killed on May 25. In the past few days Syrian opposition
 figures who come from the region have been able to reconstruct the probable
 course of events in Houla from credible witness reports. The result
 contradicts rebel claims that Shabiha militias, shielded by the Syrian army,
 committed the atrocity. The sources don't want to have their names
 disclosed, because opposition figures who oppose violence have been murdered
 or at least threatened.

 The Houla massacre took place after Friday prayers. Fighting started, when
 Sunni insurgents attacked the three army checkpoints around Houla. The
 checkpoints have the purpose of protecting the Alawite villages around the
 predominantly Sunni Houla against attacks.

 One attacked checkpoint called army units from a nearby military base for
 reinforcement. Dozens of soldiers and rebels were killed in the ensuing
 battles, which lasted about ninety minutes, and the three villages of Houla
 were completely cut off from the outside world during the fighting.

 According to the eyewitnesses, the massacre occurred during this period.
 Targeted were almost exclusively families of Houla's Alawite and Shiite
 minority. More than 90 percent of Houla's population are Sunni. For
 instance, several dozen members of a family that in recent years converted
 to Shiite Islam were slaughtered. Killed were also members of the Alawite
 Shomaliya family and the family of a Sunni member of parliament, who was
 considered a collaborator. The perpetrators filmed their victims
 immediately after the massacre, declared them to be Sunni victims, and
 distributed the videos via the Internet. Representatives of the Syrian
 government confirmed this version, but pointed out that the government had
 agreed not to speak publicly about Alawites versus Sunnis. President Bashar
 al-Assad is a member of the Alawites, the opposition is supported mainly by
 the Sunni majority.

 Meanwhile, Syrian expatriate businessmen in Qatar's capital Doha established
 a $300 million fund to finance the Syrian opposition and the rebels.
 Mustafa Sabbagh, president of the Syrian Business Forum in exile,
 represented the Fund. Wael Mirza, Secretary General of the opposition
 Syrian National Council, said that half of the amount has already been spent
 and partly directed to the FSA (Free Syrian Army).

 The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, called for an
 international conference about Syria, with all the countries influencing
 actors in Syria participating. Lavrov said the conference should include
 countries beyond the "friends of Syria," because this group is supporting
 only the "radical demands" of the Syrian National Council. Lavrov mentioned
 in particular members of the U.N. Security Council, the E.U., and the Arab
 League as well as Turkey and Iran. The aim of the conference should be to
 implement the Annan plan "correctly and without ambiguity."

 --Translated by Mato [Wolfgang Masarié].

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