Latest News from Syria – 19 February 2014

– More than 140,000 confirmed deaths in Syria, including hundreds of Hezbollah and Sepah fighters
– Syrian regime blacklists opposition’s delegates to Geneva conference

MORE THAN 140,000 CONFIRMED DEATHS IN SYRIA, INCLUDING HUNDREDS OF HEZBOLLAH AND SEPAH FIGHTERS

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it has documented 140,041 deaths in Syria since the beginning of the revolution in March 2011. These include 71,141 civilians, of whom 5,064 were women and 7,626 children.

They also includes some 5,000 people who were killed during the Geneva II ‘peace’ talks, which the Ovservatory described as the “bloodiest period” in the past three years.

The group, which is based in the UK, has also documented the death of 275 Hezbollah Lebanon fighters, as well as another 360 from other non-Syrian Shia militias fighting alongside the Assad forces.

All the cases included in the count were, according to the Observatory, those it could document with either names and identification documents, or pictures and videos. “The true toll on both sides is likely to be much higher – perhaps by more than 60,000,” said the head of the group Rami Abdul-Rahman.

The count does not include some 180,000 people missing inside Syrian regime’s prisons, nor does it include some 7,000 people detained by regime forces and armed groups loyal to the Assad regime, or hundreds of people kidnapped by Islamist groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS).

In January 2014 the United Nations said it would “stop updating” its Syria death count as dangerous conditions on the ground made estimates “impossible to update with accuracy.”

Source: http://syriahr.com/en/index.php?option=com_news&nid=1660&Itemid=2&task=displaynews

COMMENT FROM THE EDITOR:
Remember that these are only the confirmed deaths. The actual figures are definitely much higher. Nonetheless, if you were to read just the names of these confirmed ones, you would be reading non-stop for three and a half days. While doing that, remember who is responsible for all these tragedies: the Syrian regime and its supporters, including Sepah Pasdaran and the Iranian government. How can we Iranians keep silent about this?

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SYRIAN REGIME BLACKLISTS OPPOSITION’S DELEGATES TO GENEVA CONFERENCE

As a sign of its willingness to find a ‘peaceful’ solution to the ‘crisis’, the Syrian government has decided to add most of the opposition delegates with whom it was negotiating in Geneva last week to a “terrorist black list” and seized all their assets.

The opposition delegation only learnt of the decision when a copy of the list was circulated by activists on social media sites. The list, issued by the Justice Ministry under a 2012 ‘anti-terrorism’ law, includes some 1,500 activists and rebels opposed to the Assad regime.

Source: http://www.all4syria.info/Archive/131018

COMMENT:
How can anyone expect the Geneva talks to succeed if one party views the other as ‘terrorists’? Seriously. Moreover, how can anyone, even its supposed allies, trust this regime? How can Hezbollah and Sepah Pasdaran, for example, be sure that al-Assad will not change his mind tomorrow and declare them as terrorist organisations after stricking a surprise deal with the US or whoever all of a sudden? The Syrian Baath regime has made many dramatic shifts in alliances in the past, after all. Ask the Lebanese, the Palestinians and the Kurds about the political ethics of Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez.

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