'Friends of Syria' threaten Assad with 'consequences', pledge sanctions
Published: 01 April, 2012, 13:11
Edited: 01 April, 2012, 17:19
The 70-nation Friends of Syria have gathered in Turkey to hammer out further support for the armed Syrian opposition. The group is going to set up a sanction the Assad regime committee' while the US threatens Damascus with serious consequences.
The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed doubts that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would fulfill the UN peace plan and threatened Syrian authorities with consequences if they do not halt violence against civilians.
"Our message must be clear to those who give the orders and those who carry them out: Stop killing your fellow citizens or you will face serious consequences," Clinton said while addressing the conference in Istanbul. She also blamed the Syrian government for breaking its promises despite its accepting Kofi Annans peace plan.
Clinton also announced additional American aid to the Syrian people that will bring the total to $12 million.
The leader of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) Burhan Ghalioun called on the international community to recognize the group as the sole representative of the Syrian people.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said ahead of the meeting in Istanbul that France and Turkey would like to recognize the SNC as "the legitimate representative body of the Syrian people", but not every member of the Friends of Syria group supports that move.*
The SNC has a myriad of internal problems to overcome. So far, beyond pledges for humanitarian and financial aid, there is not much that the Friends of Syria meeting can really offer.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who gave an opening address, said Ankara has no intention of interfering in any other countrys internal policy. However, he claims that the Syrian government continues to repress the legitimate demands of the Syrian people.
Erdogan stated that 20,000 Syrian people were forced to flee to Turkey because of the violence.
Those attending the Istanbul-hosted meeting are primarily concerned with making the Syrian opposition more effective. Saudi Arabia together with Qatar have advocated arming the Syrian opposition for quite a long time. At the same time, there are concerns that arming the Free Syrian Army could spark sectarian violence in the country.
The FSA has pleaded neighboring countries to help them acquire weapons. After meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, her Saudi counterpart Saud al-Faisal said the arming of the [Syrian] opposition is a duty.
The timeline for implementing Kofi Annans peace plan and how exactly it is going to be carried out also tops the meeting's agenda.
Moscow, which opted not to attend the conference, views the gathering as one-sided and questions its ability to push for real dialogue.
There have also been charges that talks of arming the Syrian opposition do not exactly encourage the peace process in the country.
Moscow has pointed out that whatever the conference decides, it cannot speak on behalf of the international community or judge the implementation of Kofi Annans peace plan. Neither can it be a replacement for the UN Security Council.
This means that without the support of the UN Security Council, any substantial decisions on Syria are highly unlike
Having seen the above article I thought it only fair that Syrians should see what these "friends" managed in Libya
150 dead in Libyan tribal clashes reveal vacuum in authority
Published: 01 April, 2012, 00:13
Edited: 01 April, 2012, 17:22
Libya's interim government says a ceasefire has been reached in a six-day conflict between two tribes that has claimed some 150 lives in the southern city of Sabha. However, the violence exposes the government's tenuous grasp in the country.
Premier Minister Abdel Rahim al-Kib told reporters in the capital Tripoli that "calm now prevails in Sabha." Previous ceasefires had been announced throughout the week, but collapsed within hours each time, as deep-seated local tensions erupted into violence.
The conflict in Sabha is between the indigenous Arabic population and the Tubu, a tribe that stretches through Niger, Chad and Libya itself, though its members are regarded as outsiders by many in the city.
Residents of the oasis say that the rivalry burst into open conflict Monday after a Tubu shot a member of the Arab Abu Seif tribe. Further aggravating the conflict, a delegation of Tubu elders and armed men heading to reconciliation talks were ambushed. The violence escalated as more and more families were dragged into a deadly blood feud that killed almost 150 people. In addition to the dead, more than four hundred have been injured, overwhelming local hospitals.
Sabha residents say the two groups exchanged fire with automatic rifles, mortars, and rockets. Tubu tribal spokesman Mohammed Lino said some 70 Tubu homes were torched and 100 families were forced to flee the city during the past week of violence. Some families from Sabha said they fled the city by foot as bullets whizzed by, sometimes striking women and children.
Libya's Tubu have kinsmen living across the border in Chad, and the defense ministry said Saturday that it sent a number of militiamen and national army soldiers to the country's southern border in case other African tribes tried to join the fight. Other militiamen as well as tribal chiefs from around Libya were dispatched to Sabha over the past few days. On Thursday, a cease-fire was reportedly brokered that residents say has held in the city, though not outside.
*Libya disintegrating
Although Libyas National Transitional Council nominally controls all of the country, in practice it has struggled to integrate the disparate tribal militias who fought Gaddafi into a single national force. As a result, large parts of Libya have disintegrated into separate fiefdoms.
The clashes in the oasis region some 650 kilometers south of Tripoli show the fragile authority of the Libyan government, particularly in the isolated settlements that dot the southern desert. With only a nascent national army and police force, Libya's ruling National Transitional Council relies on militias comprised of former rebels to keep the peace. However, the country's vast distances make it difficult to deploy them to trouble spots.
The Council has already been accused of passivity, but no-one knows for sure if it actually has the manpower to resolve a conflict in a city that far away from the capital.
The Sabha conflict is not the first major outbreak of violence. Clashes in Al Kufra, also involving the Tubu, killed more than a hundred people last month.
and west saving Arabs and introducing democracy and their way of life
Published: 01 April, 2012, 13:11
Edited: 01 April, 2012, 17:19
The 70-nation Friends of Syria have gathered in Turkey to hammer out further support for the armed Syrian opposition. The group is going to set up a sanction the Assad regime committee' while the US threatens Damascus with serious consequences.
The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed doubts that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would fulfill the UN peace plan and threatened Syrian authorities with consequences if they do not halt violence against civilians.
"Our message must be clear to those who give the orders and those who carry them out: Stop killing your fellow citizens or you will face serious consequences," Clinton said while addressing the conference in Istanbul. She also blamed the Syrian government for breaking its promises despite its accepting Kofi Annans peace plan.
Clinton also announced additional American aid to the Syrian people that will bring the total to $12 million.
The leader of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) Burhan Ghalioun called on the international community to recognize the group as the sole representative of the Syrian people.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said ahead of the meeting in Istanbul that France and Turkey would like to recognize the SNC as "the legitimate representative body of the Syrian people", but not every member of the Friends of Syria group supports that move.*
The SNC has a myriad of internal problems to overcome. So far, beyond pledges for humanitarian and financial aid, there is not much that the Friends of Syria meeting can really offer.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who gave an opening address, said Ankara has no intention of interfering in any other countrys internal policy. However, he claims that the Syrian government continues to repress the legitimate demands of the Syrian people.
Erdogan stated that 20,000 Syrian people were forced to flee to Turkey because of the violence.
Those attending the Istanbul-hosted meeting are primarily concerned with making the Syrian opposition more effective. Saudi Arabia together with Qatar have advocated arming the Syrian opposition for quite a long time. At the same time, there are concerns that arming the Free Syrian Army could spark sectarian violence in the country.
The FSA has pleaded neighboring countries to help them acquire weapons. After meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, her Saudi counterpart Saud al-Faisal said the arming of the [Syrian] opposition is a duty.
The timeline for implementing Kofi Annans peace plan and how exactly it is going to be carried out also tops the meeting's agenda.
Moscow, which opted not to attend the conference, views the gathering as one-sided and questions its ability to push for real dialogue.
There have also been charges that talks of arming the Syrian opposition do not exactly encourage the peace process in the country.
Moscow has pointed out that whatever the conference decides, it cannot speak on behalf of the international community or judge the implementation of Kofi Annans peace plan. Neither can it be a replacement for the UN Security Council.
This means that without the support of the UN Security Council, any substantial decisions on Syria are highly unlike
Having seen the above article I thought it only fair that Syrians should see what these "friends" managed in Libya
150 dead in Libyan tribal clashes reveal vacuum in authority
Published: 01 April, 2012, 00:13
Edited: 01 April, 2012, 17:22
Libya's interim government says a ceasefire has been reached in a six-day conflict between two tribes that has claimed some 150 lives in the southern city of Sabha. However, the violence exposes the government's tenuous grasp in the country.
Premier Minister Abdel Rahim al-Kib told reporters in the capital Tripoli that "calm now prevails in Sabha." Previous ceasefires had been announced throughout the week, but collapsed within hours each time, as deep-seated local tensions erupted into violence.
The conflict in Sabha is between the indigenous Arabic population and the Tubu, a tribe that stretches through Niger, Chad and Libya itself, though its members are regarded as outsiders by many in the city.
Residents of the oasis say that the rivalry burst into open conflict Monday after a Tubu shot a member of the Arab Abu Seif tribe. Further aggravating the conflict, a delegation of Tubu elders and armed men heading to reconciliation talks were ambushed. The violence escalated as more and more families were dragged into a deadly blood feud that killed almost 150 people. In addition to the dead, more than four hundred have been injured, overwhelming local hospitals.
Sabha residents say the two groups exchanged fire with automatic rifles, mortars, and rockets. Tubu tribal spokesman Mohammed Lino said some 70 Tubu homes were torched and 100 families were forced to flee the city during the past week of violence. Some families from Sabha said they fled the city by foot as bullets whizzed by, sometimes striking women and children.
Libya's Tubu have kinsmen living across the border in Chad, and the defense ministry said Saturday that it sent a number of militiamen and national army soldiers to the country's southern border in case other African tribes tried to join the fight. Other militiamen as well as tribal chiefs from around Libya were dispatched to Sabha over the past few days. On Thursday, a cease-fire was reportedly brokered that residents say has held in the city, though not outside.
*Libya disintegrating
Although Libyas National Transitional Council nominally controls all of the country, in practice it has struggled to integrate the disparate tribal militias who fought Gaddafi into a single national force. As a result, large parts of Libya have disintegrated into separate fiefdoms.
The clashes in the oasis region some 650 kilometers south of Tripoli show the fragile authority of the Libyan government, particularly in the isolated settlements that dot the southern desert. With only a nascent national army and police force, Libya's ruling National Transitional Council relies on militias comprised of former rebels to keep the peace. However, the country's vast distances make it difficult to deploy them to trouble spots.
The Council has already been accused of passivity, but no-one knows for sure if it actually has the manpower to resolve a conflict in a city that far away from the capital.
The Sabha conflict is not the first major outbreak of violence. Clashes in Al Kufra, also involving the Tubu, killed more than a hundred people last month.
and west saving Arabs and introducing democracy and their way of life
