Latest News from Syria – 28 November 2013

– New separation wall in Salihiyyeh, Damascus
– Over 11,000 children killed in Syria

NEW SEPARATION WALL IN SALIHIYYEH, DAMASCUS

The Syrian regime has finished building a new separation wall in the Salihiyyeh district in the heart of Damascus, completely isolating it from its surroundings. The concrete wall, 70 cm thick, will force the residents of the area, which has seen numerous popular demonstrations against the regime, to go through security check points everyday.

Source: Radio Al-Kull (a new independent Syrian radio), https://soundcloud.com/radioalkul/local_news-27-11-2013

Meanwhile, the British newspaper The Guardian has published a new interactive map of separation walls around the world. Alongside the apartheid Israeli wall and the wall between Greece and Turkey, dubbed as ‘Europe’s new border’, the Guardian map features what it calls ‘the newest wall’ in Homs, Syria, which was built in 2012 to isolate the Bab Amr district, which at the time witnessed fierce resistance by opposition fighters, from the rest of the city.
See the map here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2013/nov/walls#homs

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OVER 11,000 CHILDREN KILLED IN SYRIA – BUT BY WHO?

The Oxford Research Group, which specialises in global security studies, has published a new report documenting the deaths of more 11,000 Syrian children since the Syrian Revolution started in March 2011 up to the end of August 2013.

In some areas, like Daraa, the report says that one in 400 children were reported killed. By far, the primary causes of children’s death, according to the report, have been explosive weapons and air bombardment.

The report, entitled ‘Stolen Futures: The Hidden Toll of Child Casualties in Syria’, can be found at
http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/publications/briefing_papers_and_reports/stolen_futures

COMMENT FROM THE EDITOR:
Even though such documentation studies are very important, the artificially neutral language used effectively equates “the two sides” of “the conflict”, and often stop short of pointing the finger to the main perpetrator of these crimes, namely the Syrian regime and its backers (Russia, Iran and Hizbullah). Instead, they often talk about “all armed forces” and “groups involved in the Syrian conflict”. Typical mainstream ‘objectivity’ that lacks the moral courage and responsibility to tell the truth as it is.

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