Current situation in Homs

Description

Syria crisis
Avaaz diplomatic briefing / analysis
Thursday November 3, 2011

Current situation in Homs
The Syrian army, security forces and Shabiha death squads are still in the
city of Homs. At 3am this morning, tanks started shelling the northeast
area of Baba Amr neighbourhood. Ensha’at district in Homs was raided by
security forces supported by death squads, who targeted houses searching
for activists.
Military reinforcements from Hama arrived to Homs in the early hours of
this morning.
Two nights ago, an armed resistance group in Homs kidnapped and killed 9
Alawites, severely stoking sectarian tensions and provoking retaliatory
attacks on Sunni in a tissue factory in Hawla. Sources from Alawite
neighbourhoods claimed that the attack on the tissue factory and killing of
11 Sunni workers was a spontaneous reaction from people in the Alawite
community, and that the army was not involved in the incident.

Avaaz has been working hard to calm the rising sectarian tensions in
Homs. Wissam
Tarif, Arabic campaigner at Avaaz, said: “Since the early hours of this
morning we have been engaging activists in talks with community leaders
from both sides. It is crucial to note that retaliatory attacks are
provoked by the regime in Homs. Unlike in other parts of the country where
death squads are brought in from other regions, death squads operating in
Homs are from neighbouring towns. Those looking to exact revenge on the
Alawite death squads are targeting anyone in their own Alawite community as
a result. The regime strategy is to specifically and very deliberately
incite division between Alawites and Sunnis in Homs. Community leaders from
both sides understand what is happening. The attacks are sowing the seeds
of very personal and long-term violence, as the vendetta will lead to
specific families being targeted. The situation so far is containable and
opposition figures are talking with Sunni clerics to calm people down.
Alawite artists and intellectuals are dealing with the Alawite groups
intent on violence.”

Weapons trade
The number of Syrians buying weapons in Lebanon has increased significantly
during the last three weeks. Lebanese businesses selling hunting weapons
are flourishing - especially in the Bekaa Valley. Nevertheless smuggling
operations in general into Syria from Bekaa have not been effective and the
smuggling of weapons has been seriously hampered by the regime, which is
determined to stop weapons from getting into the Damascus suburbs.
Ambushes by armed gangs were reported in Zabadani and Madaya last month,
nevertheless we are seeing less and less of it now as the regime has
tightened up security significantly along that stretch of the border.
Still, the smuggling of cigarettes and other goods is operating without
hindrance. Smuggling networks have been penetrated by regime security
forces and is a main source of income for many of them. Therefore they
decide what gets through and what doesn’t.
On the northern Lebanese border, Syrian activists have developed close ties
to arms traders in Lebanon. Their operation is still on a small scale and
primarily financed by Syrians in the diaspora, although we know that some
people in Homs have even sold the furniture from their homes to buy weapons
and smuggle them into Homs.

Having met with Lebanese politicians, activists, smugglers and Homs
residents who are active on the military front, we have come to the
conclusion that no Lebanese political party is involved in smuggling
weapons into Syria. Due to the relatively small volume of trade, it is
clear that no country is involved in financing the weapons smuggling to
Syria.

A prominent Lebanese politician known for being opposed to the Assad
regime, said: “Lebanon cannot afford to destabilize the Syrian regime.
Smuggling is taking place under the regime’s nose. They see it and they
allow it. It takes them less than two hours to secure their border and stop
any form of weapon smuggling inside their border. The weapons trade is
manipulated by the Syrian regime and using usual networks to list what is
allowed and what is not allowed to be sold to Syrian activists. The
operation is fully exposed to Syrian security forces.”
The implication of these remarks is that the Syrian regime is actively
trying to foment violence, knowing that it needs to allow a certain amount
of armed resistance to the continued crackdown in order to verbally justify
its heavy-handed repression of the protesters.

Arab League initiative
It had been expected that the regime would accept the initiative, and throw
the ball in the Syrian National Council’s court by proposing dialogue. The
SNC is in a difficult position. Protesters’ demands are clear - they are
anti-dialogue and against any political process not focused on regime
change.
Borhan Ghalioun, the president of the Syrian National Council released a
statement today, regarding the Arab League deal with the Assad regime. He
said that the acceptance of the Arab League initiative by the regime does
not mean that the regime will respect the clauses of this agreement.
He asked for assurances, in summary:
1. The immediate implementation of all the provisions of the initiative
before the start of any negotiations in order to test the intentions of the
regime. Specifically, the SNC expects the army to withdraw from cities and
to stop the killing of civilians.
2. The appointment of human rights committees and organizations to
document the abuses faced by detainees as well as to hold the perpetrators
accountable.
3. The involvement of the United Nations in order to ensure implementation
and compliance.
4. A deadline for the regime to fully implement the initiative.

Dima Moussa, a member of the Syrian National Council, told Avaaz today: “The
regime has been violating the Arab League Initiative from the moment it
agreed to it. The military offensive against Homs today, especially in Baba
Amr, since agreeing two days ago to immediately stop military operations
against the civilians, was a clear violation. We encourage everyone to
monitor what the regime is doing, by sending in human rights observers or
the media, which by the regime's own agreement, should be allowed into
Syria to travel around to freely and observe and report the conditions
inside.”