http://rt.com/news/syria-killings-hrw-report-020/
RT: What’s the scope of destruction and atrocities in relation to Christians?
EK: Dozens of churches were destroyed all over the country wherever the rebels showed up. The patriarchy keeps track of them – in Homs, Aleppo, Raqqa, and Damascus. They attacked one church in Arbine, 10 km from Damascus, and fire destroyed all of it. I prayed there among its ashes.
Two metropolitans and three Orthodox priests were kidnapped. Two of the priests died. They blinded father Fadi Haddad, an Orthodox priest from Aleppo. In Hama, another priest, father Basilios Nassar took his friend and went to rescue a wounded man, and was shot dead by a sniper.
RT: The West is trying to find explanations for today’s events in the past. Are there indeed any clues in history that would perhaps help to understand what’s happening now? Is this a religious war, or a civil war? Do we still run the risk of the Syrian conflict spilling over to Lebanon?
EK: Our history has been marked by repeated clashes between Christians and Muslims, between various Muslim communities, between the Druse and the Christians. We walked some rough paths in our history – just like Catholics and Orthodox Christians had differences, blaming one another and fighting with one another. We, however, have mostly preferred to wage a war of words.
But what we see today looks like a political plot to start a war under religious slogans. And we can see the groundwork for this already underway.
Some time ago Baalbek, a Shia-dominated town in Lebanon, saw a minor clash between the Shia and the Sunni. Now, everyone talks about the Shia-Sunni tensions these days. Then a skirmish happens – as if to confirm these speculations. This is scary. This looks like part of a plot to drive a wedge between Syria and Lebanon and destroy them both. That’s why we have Jabhat al-Nusra and others on the ground – they even have their agents here in Tyr, in a Palestinian refugee camp.
Those who have come to destroy our nation are using religion as a disguise.
RT: Don’t you think that efforts to stave off the US strike against Syria or the UN decision to destroy Syria’s chemical arsenal has somewhat eased the tensions?
EK: We know it’s a long way to go. There has been too much devastation, too much misunderstanding between various groups. There are so many Sunni and Shia Muslims, Christians, Druse, Alawites who know too little about religion. And so when somebody tells them to view Muslims or Christians as their enemies who have connections with the West, labeling Christians as crusaders, these people take this message as an instruction manual and start maltreating Christians.
We like to say that man is his own ignorant enemy. Whenever someone calls me a crusader, I tell him he should learn more about me and about where I stand. Before you judge me, get to know me better first – that’s my opinion.
RT: Thank you very much, Your Eminence.
EK: We have been bound together throughout history: our church and the Russian church, our nation and the Russian nation. I would like to thank the Russian Church and the Russian government for their role in preserving peace and aiding the weak and the poor in our region. We are very grateful to you. Our people love the Russian people. Some even have portraits of Vladimir Putin in their homes. Patriarch Kirill is in our hearts. We love Russians because we feel how close they are to our people. We feel that they protect us not for their own benefit, but because they feel like doing it and because it’s just so human.
Syria extremists financed by private Gulf donors carried out mass killings – HRW
At least 190 people were killed and more than 200 taken hostage by Syrian rebels financed by private Gulf donors in an August 4 military offensive in the Latakia governorate, according to a Human Rights Watch report.
At least 67 of the victims executed had lived in government-aligned Alawite villages, HRW said in itsreport, “You Can Still See Their Blood,” released Friday, which saw the events as the first evidence of planned crimes against humanity perpetrated by opposition forces.
The killings took place when President Bashar Assad’s forces were overwhelmed by the militants, who then proceeded to enter the 10 Alawite villages nearby, sometimes rounding up and executing entire families, while taking others hostage.
Torture and decapitations were also testament to the aggravated nature of the military offensive, proof of which was gathered by HRW through reports, witness statements, hospital records and materials recorded by the rebels themselves.
HRW’s Syria and Lebanon researcher, Lana Fakih, told Reuters that “homes were destroyed and burned. Most villagers had not returned.” She spoke to Hassan Shebli, whose elderly wife and disabled 23-year-old son were gunned down and buried next to his home, as he found upon his return to his village. The assailants took videos and posed with their victims before the killings.
According to the human rights watchdog, the nature, scale and coordination of the abuses and killings elevate them to the status of crimes against humanity. Acting Middle East director at HRW, Joe Stork, explained that “these abuses were not the actions of rogue fighters…this operation was a coordinated, planned attack on the civilian population in these Alawite villages.”
The attacks were found to have been planned and carried out by five distinct groups, including the Al- Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, as well as jihadists originating from outside Syria.
However, the broader offensive, which lasted until August 18, was thought to include 20 distinct groups.
The operation was thwarted by government forces on that day, after regaining control of the area.
Although the report could not confirm the presence of fighters from the Western-backed Free Syrian Army, the force’s commander, Salim Idriss, posted a video a week after the Latakia attacks in which he claimed the FSA participated in the operation “to a great extent.”
Other groups boasted about their exploits in their own recordings, used by HRW to corroborate its findings, although the rebels themselves also recounted the offensive to correspondents from Reuters, claiming to have killed about 200 people.
However, not all the groups admitted to the killings. A member of the Sunni Ahrar al-Asham militia claimed that his fighters only shoot in self-defense, although the group was among the five that were found to have participated in the Latakia killings.
The Syrian National Coalition’s spokesman, Khaled Saleh, also condemned the attacks and said that if any abuses by rebels associated with the coalition were found to have happened in Latakia, the perpetrators would be brought to justice.
"We have previously committed ourselves to applying these rules on all the brigades that work for us and we will hold accountable, after investigation and fair trial, all those responsible for violations against human rights or international laws. The incidents in Latakia are not an exception and we will treat them as we treated previous case,” Saleh said in a written statement to Reuters.
Nonetheless, dozens of witness accounts from the province remain, together with footage shot by rebels, as a gruesome reminder of the executions carried out on August 4. Returning residents reported finding the bodies of loved ones strewn around the streets, lying next to their homes, as well as charred corpses lying in mass graves.
The organization also wished to point out that the report is by no means a move away from scrutinizing the Syrian government’s own human rights abuses – including sectarian cluster bombings of Sunni areas in May, as reported By UN officials.
The report proposes that the UN Security Council imposes an embargo on supplying arms to all sides implicated in the systematic abuse of human rights and the carrying out of planned attacks, which is classified as a crime against humanity. The organization also proposed referring all transgressions to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Stork, HRW’s Middle East chief, said: “Syrian victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity have waited too long for the Security Council to send a clear message that those responsible for horrible abuses will be held to account.”
“The ICC referral is long overdue,” Stork said.
The civil war, now in its third year, has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people, according to UN estimates. Many experts fear that the sectarian nature and conflicting interests of the rebel groups involved are exacerbated by outside funding, and are turning Syria into a hotbed of extremism drifting further away from any resolution that outside actors may have planned for it.
http://rt.com/news/lavrov-afghanistan-chemical-weapons-036/
Foreigners train Syrian rebels in Afghanistan to use chem weapons - Lavrov
Published time: October 11, 2013 09:26
Edited time: October 11, 2013 11:15
Edited time: October 11, 2013 11:15
There are reports that some third countries are training Syrian rebels to use chemical weapons in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. The intention is to put the skill to use in new false flag actions in Syria, he explained.
The suspected training happened in Afghan territories not under control of the government in Kabul, Lavrov said.
“Some reports indicate that [Al-Qaeda-linked radical] Al-Nusra Front is planning to smuggle toxic compounds and relevant specialists into Iraqi territory to stage terrorist attacks there this time,” Lavrov said.
The Russian minister, who spoke after meeting his Kuwaiti counterpart Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, warned against any possible provocations in Syria related to the ongoing process of its chemical weapons disarmament.
“We are standing for conducting the work in a precise manner in accordance with the roadmap and without any hindrances. We warn against any possible provocation,” Lavrov said.
Al-Nusra Front is considered one of the most combat-worthy parts of the militants fighting against Damascus.
It has said that it takes orders from an Al-Qaeda branch operating in Iraq. Many countries, including the United States, list the group as a terrorist organization over several high-profile bombings it organized in Syria.
The use of chemical weapons in August near Damascus triggered a serious international crisis. The US threatened to use military force against the government of President Bashar Assad, which it blamed for the attack.
The tension was defused after a Russian-brokered deal to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal.
Damascus insists that the August incident and several previous cases of alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria were provocations by opposition forces. Russia shares this view.
Earlier Russian diplomatic sources said the August sarin gas attack was a special operation of Saudi Arabian intelligence conducted with the help of a radical Islamist militant group operating near Damascus.
The group called Liwa Al-Islam is headed by the son of a Saudi cleric.
http://rt.com/op-edge/muslims-christians-syria-violence-009/
‘They aren’t real Muslims’: Radical mercenaries kidnap, kill both Syria Christians and Muslims
Published time: October 11, 2013 00:56
Christians of the East view the war in Syria neither as civil nor as sectarian, Orthodox Bishop Elias Kfoury told RT. He also spoke of those who unleashed a conflict in Syrian society which hadn’t seen any religious hostilities in the past.
Metropolitan Elias Kfoury of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, Southern Lebanon and Western Beqaa spoke with RT’s observer Nadezhda Kevorkova in the biblical city of Sidon, located on the Mediterranean coast of Lebanon, in a church constructed in the building where the final meeting of the Apostles Peter and Paul took place in 58AD.
The Metropolitan’s residence is located in the very heart of the old city. It’s not easy to find, however any passing Muslim would show you the way to Metropolitan Elias’s place. Some of his parishes are located in the area populated by Shiites and controlled by Hezbollah. Others are on the territory of Sunni homes and Palestinian refugee camps. Presently the largest Syrian refugee camp is also located there. The cave where Mary was waiting for Jesus, and the cave where the evangelical wedding in Cana took place are a part of his eparchy. For 22 years some of his congregation lived under Israeli occupation. Twice, in 2000 and in 2006, their churches were bombed and destroyed by Israelis. During open hostilities campaigns anyone could find a shelter in Orthodox churches in spite of their religion, whether they were Sunni, Shiites, Druse or Catholics. So the Metropolitan has quite a profound understanding of the current situation that has been developing in Syria and is about to overtake Lebanon. He’s been walking this ground and talking to these people for a long time.
RT: Your Eminence, two Orthodox bishops, Metropolitan Paul of Aleppo and Metropolitan Gregory of the Siro-Jacobite Church were abducted at the Syrian border with Turkey in April of 2013. Rumor had it they were killed last summer but then media refuted this information. What’s the latest on their whereabouts?
Metropolitan Elias Kfoury: All we know is what people are saying. There haven’t been any official reports about their kidnappers or the location of these bishops. Two weeks ago we heard that someone saw them both safe and sound, that they were taking walks, and working out, and eating well. But there hasn’t been any real evidence, or any certain information regarding these bishops. What’s really sad and frustrating is that the abductions were performed by foreigners who had entered Syria. They are allegedly Muslims but their actions contradict Islamic principles. Those people aren’t the real Muslims. They abducted faithful individuals who had been sharing love and peace, who were not military actors!
The Metropolitan’s residence is located in the very heart of the old city. It’s not easy to find, however any passing Muslim would show you the way to Metropolitan Elias’s place. Some of his parishes are located in the area populated by Shiites and controlled by Hezbollah. Others are on the territory of Sunni homes and Palestinian refugee camps. Presently the largest Syrian refugee camp is also located there. The cave where Mary was waiting for Jesus, and the cave where the evangelical wedding in Cana took place are a part of his eparchy. For 22 years some of his congregation lived under Israeli occupation. Twice, in 2000 and in 2006, their churches were bombed and destroyed by Israelis. During open hostilities campaigns anyone could find a shelter in Orthodox churches in spite of their religion, whether they were Sunni, Shiites, Druse or Catholics. So the Metropolitan has quite a profound understanding of the current situation that has been developing in Syria and is about to overtake Lebanon. He’s been walking this ground and talking to these people for a long time.
RT: Your Eminence, two Orthodox bishops, Metropolitan Paul of Aleppo and Metropolitan Gregory of the Siro-Jacobite Church were abducted at the Syrian border with Turkey in April of 2013. Rumor had it they were killed last summer but then media refuted this information. What’s the latest on their whereabouts?
Metropolitan Elias Kfoury: All we know is what people are saying. There haven’t been any official reports about their kidnappers or the location of these bishops. Two weeks ago we heard that someone saw them both safe and sound, that they were taking walks, and working out, and eating well. But there hasn’t been any real evidence, or any certain information regarding these bishops. What’s really sad and frustrating is that the abductions were performed by foreigners who had entered Syria. They are allegedly Muslims but their actions contradict Islamic principles. Those people aren’t the real Muslims. They abducted faithful individuals who had been sharing love and peace, who were not military actors!
Those people abduct civilians, Christians, Muslims, or pilgrims. All these things really remind of times when pagans used to kill believers.
RT: In the Western world, every abduction or murder of Christians in Syria is viewed as proof of Islam’s war against Christianity, like it was previously in relation to Iraq.
EK: Muslims and Christians are brothers. We can talk a lot about it. The Koran speaks very highly of Christians, and Muslims know it. The Prophet Mohammed sent his people to the Habeshi kind of Ethiopia to inform him that his people were believers and that they would not kill or hurt them. Whereas these foreigners are given arms, they are sent to wage war and to kill. They burn down churches and contaminate the Christian cross.
RT: In the Western world, every abduction or murder of Christians in Syria is viewed as proof of Islam’s war against Christianity, like it was previously in relation to Iraq.
EK: Muslims and Christians are brothers. We can talk a lot about it. The Koran speaks very highly of Christians, and Muslims know it. The Prophet Mohammed sent his people to the Habeshi kind of Ethiopia to inform him that his people were believers and that they would not kill or hurt them. Whereas these foreigners are given arms, they are sent to wage war and to kill. They burn down churches and contaminate the Christian cross.
Several sacred Christian sites of global significance are located in the town of Maaloula 30 km from Damascus. In September 2013 rebel units occupied this settlement. They besieged the Orthodox monastery and destroyed the 4th century Catholic Monastery of Saints Sergius and Bacchus.
We have to ask the rulers of Muslims countries: why are you doing this? We are hurting because these alien people perform their deeds in the name of Islam.
Why did they occupy Maaloula? It’s a place where only civilians lived. There were no armed units or army troops there. Let the Arab countries answer this question – who are they sending to Syria, who are they arming.
RT: What’s the scope of destruction and atrocities in relation to Christians?
EK: Dozens of churches were destroyed all over the country wherever the rebels showed up. The patriarchy keeps track of them – in Homs, Aleppo, Raqqa, and Damascus. They attacked one church in Arbine, 10 km from Damascus, and fire destroyed all of it. I prayed there among its ashes.
Two metropolitans and three Orthodox priests were kidnapped. Two of the priests died. They blinded father Fadi Haddad, an Orthodox priest from Aleppo. In Hama, another priest, father Basilios Nassar took his friend and went to rescue a wounded man, and was shot dead by a sniper.
RT: Do you think they treat Orthodox Christians with deliberate, selective cruelty? They did kill the Catholics as well.
EK: It’s a difficult question. We don’t know what’s on their mind in terms of this issue. Not all of the insurgents are acting this way. There are some decent rebels representing the good Syrians. But those performing such atrocities are mere terrorists who do not recognize any religion. They don’t even recognize Muslims. We don’t know what their objective is. But we see that the very existence of Christians in the East is now jeopardized.
RT: Who has an interest in forcing Christians to flee from the East?
EK: These are terrorist groups that act on behalf of Al Qaeda. And these groups have been mushrooming: there’s Jabhat al–Nusra, there’s the ISIL and others. And they all consist of radical militants who oppose everyone, including Muslims. Anyone who thinks differently must be killed, first and foremost Christians, they say. And new groups keep emerging.
RT: Who has an interest in forcing Christians to flee from the East?
EK: These are terrorist groups that act on behalf of Al Qaeda. And these groups have been mushrooming: there’s Jabhat al–Nusra, there’s the ISIL and others. And they all consist of radical militants who oppose everyone, including Muslims. Anyone who thinks differently must be killed, first and foremost Christians, they say. And new groups keep emerging.
RT: But why would they do this? What is the reason for radicalism and zero tolerance to communities that have co-existed here for centuries?
EK: They have a different understanding of Islam. They are not Syrians. Those who kidnapped our priests are not Syrians.
We know what the Syrian people are like. I’ve lived in Syria for twenty years. Syrians don’t care about your religion. When you visit a Muslim home, the hosts will give you the warmest welcome ever. They are very kind-hearted people, who respect others. Unfortunately some of them are illiterate, they lack education – I’ve met such people. But they don’t hate Christians or Christianity. They may be illiterate, but they are nice people – that’s what Syrians are like.
I can’t really figure out where all these radicals come from. This is so untypical of Syria and just as hard to explain.
These people come from Libya, Saudi Arabia, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tunisia – everywhere.
We are convinced that Syrians are the least aggressive nation in the East and they would never perpetrate such evil acts. We know the Syrian people very well.
EK: They have a different understanding of Islam. They are not Syrians. Those who kidnapped our priests are not Syrians.
We know what the Syrian people are like. I’ve lived in Syria for twenty years. Syrians don’t care about your religion. When you visit a Muslim home, the hosts will give you the warmest welcome ever. They are very kind-hearted people, who respect others. Unfortunately some of them are illiterate, they lack education – I’ve met such people. But they don’t hate Christians or Christianity. They may be illiterate, but they are nice people – that’s what Syrians are like.
I can’t really figure out where all these radicals come from. This is so untypical of Syria and just as hard to explain.
These people come from Libya, Saudi Arabia, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tunisia – everywhere.
We are convinced that Syrians are the least aggressive nation in the East and they would never perpetrate such evil acts. We know the Syrian people very well.
The Saidnaya Monastery, a well-known Christian shrine in Syria, is visited by more Christians than Muslims, which proves that Syrians cannot do any harm to Christians. In Saida, I am often invited to visit Muslim families in their homes and I can say they are very friendly.
RT: The West is trying to find explanations for today’s events in the past. Are there indeed any clues in history that would perhaps help to understand what’s happening now? Is this a religious war, or a civil war? Do we still run the risk of the Syrian conflict spilling over to Lebanon?
EK: Our history has been marked by repeated clashes between Christians and Muslims, between various Muslim communities, between the Druse and the Christians. We walked some rough paths in our history – just like Catholics and Orthodox Christians had differences, blaming one another and fighting with one another. We, however, have mostly preferred to wage a war of words.
But what we see today looks like a political plot to start a war under religious slogans. And we can see the groundwork for this already underway.
Some time ago Baalbek, a Shia-dominated town in Lebanon, saw a minor clash between the Shia and the Sunni. Now, everyone talks about the Shia-Sunni tensions these days. Then a skirmish happens – as if to confirm these speculations. This is scary. This looks like part of a plot to drive a wedge between Syria and Lebanon and destroy them both. That’s why we have Jabhat al-Nusra and others on the ground – they even have their agents here in Tyr, in a Palestinian refugee camp.
Those who have come to destroy our nation are using religion as a disguise.
RT: Don’t you think that efforts to stave off the US strike against Syria or the UN decision to destroy Syria’s chemical arsenal has somewhat eased the tensions?
EK: We know it’s a long way to go. There has been too much devastation, too much misunderstanding between various groups. There are so many Sunni and Shia Muslims, Christians, Druse, Alawites who know too little about religion. And so when somebody tells them to view Muslims or Christians as their enemies who have connections with the West, labeling Christians as crusaders, these people take this message as an instruction manual and start maltreating Christians.
We like to say that man is his own ignorant enemy. Whenever someone calls me a crusader, I tell him he should learn more about me and about where I stand. Before you judge me, get to know me better first – that’s my opinion.
RT: Thank you very much, Your Eminence.
EK: We have been bound together throughout history: our church and the Russian church, our nation and the Russian nation. I would like to thank the Russian Church and the Russian government for their role in preserving peace and aiding the weak and the poor in our region. We are very grateful to you. Our people love the Russian people. Some even have portraits of Vladimir Putin in their homes. Patriarch Kirill is in our hearts. We love Russians because we feel how close they are to our people. We feel that they protect us not for their own benefit, but because they feel like doing it and because it’s just so human.
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