Theodore's Call: Lebanon Reformed

Thursday, April 14, 2011

UN Helicopter Over Abidjian

A UN helicopter passes over the city of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on Friday, April 1, 2011 (AP Photo/Emanuel Ekra via The Atlantic: In Focus).

Syrian Regime Rounds Up Men in Banias

According to Syrian bloggers, this photograph shows men in the village of Bayda, in northeastern Syria, after they were detained by the security forces on Tuesday (via The Lede - The New York Times).

Not Israel but Syria. That's right. This is what the Syrian regime is doing to innocent civilians demanding human rights and rightful freedoms.

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Syrian Secret Police Memo

English translation is mine (feel free to send in corrections). Original Arabic version here (read it!!):

There is a growing trend in the low literacy segment of society to imitate what happened in Tunisia and Egypt by taking advantage of economic conditions in the country and the regional atmosphere which is conducive for popular movements.

It is necessary that we take advantage of past experiences in dealing with the hostile Muslim Brotherhood movement, and benefit from the mistakes of the Tunisian and Egyptian especially given that they had to neutralize the power of the army and Republican Guard from the outset and allowed the media to cover every move until events got out of control.

We don't expect things to progress to a point of serious danger to public order and the country or to threaten the continuity of the status quo. We expect things to continue for several months and after which it will die out and the regime will come out more powerful than ever.

The reduced security committee ... met on 23 3 2011 with regard to protests and demonstrations and it discussed all aspects of the situation - from security to politics to media - and has developed a series of measures and actions. The emphasis of the response will be three-pronged: security response; media response; and an economic-political response.

The detailed plan: the plan depends on three integrated components: information - a security and performance of field - political, economic.

Media

The demonstrations and protests must be linked to generally despised figures and personalities of Lebanese and Saudi Arabian origin. In addition, a link should be established between these demonstrations and Zionism and/or America. There is a plan prepared by the security services to implicate Bandar bin Sultan through certain sites using credible and persuasive information.

An intensive media campaign accusing the protesters of being conspirators on behalf of Saudi Arabia, Israel and America. Should any killings take place security services media organs must repeatedly accuse armed gangs or extremist of carrying them out and portray security services and the military as helping to maintain security and stability.

An indirect campaign aimed at sowing a fear of sectarian strife in the Christian and Druze communities will be conducted away from TV cameras and through private channels. These communities should be made to fear the Muslim Brotherhood and other extremist groups, which they will face if they did not take part in ending the protests in the Sahel . In addition, the Allawite community will be alerted to the need to defend their regime and their lives that will be threatened by Sunni extremism.

Assigning agents from the various security agencies to create fake Facebook accounts in order to respond and jam messages, pages and groupings hostile to the regime. These agents are to attack and discredit opponents of the regime, as well as revealing groups and movements hostile to the President and the country.

Preventing the media from being present in places of riot, and punish those who convey any news that does not serve the regime, do not show any laxity in this matter.

Should the protesters be able to transmit any videos and/or images security service media organs should seek to discredit them manipulating/editing these images so that their credibility with the general public is lost.

Second page summary: The second page details the deployment of Christian and Druze military officers into areas of protest and luring them into situations where they have to defend themselves. In addition, Army units in which most of the rank and file comes from non-protesting areas should be deployed to protesting areas so as to reduce the possibility of rejection of carrying out orders, rebellion and mutiny.

Should the situation become critical a choice between security, stability and protesters' demands for freedoms should be forced - wherein the choice of security and stability should prevail. This can be implemented with assassinations along sectarian and clan lines , and/or the bombing of places of worship in areas with high [sectarian] tensions.

Political and Economic Measures

A massive outpouring of support and protest in support of the President of the Republic should be held before his address to the people so that the speech is in response to the demands of these pro-regime masses only. Strict instructions are to be issued to government institutions, trade unions and schools to mobilize staff and students, as well as the distribution of new flags and banners to them.

The President's speech is to be postponed as much as possible, this delay will project the image of a powerful state in control, along with a lack of interest or worry in the events taking place. This will also clear the atmosphere and allow for a determination as to the amount of political and public relations action required.

The regime should appear unified and coherent, and all developments should seem as no surprise to the regime which should appear to be in control of the situation and all its organs.

Actions that can be declared in the presidential address before Parliament: increase the salaries of state workers and the development of a plan for the return of financial stability through a 3 month period - especially as this increase may lead to the disorientation of economic interests . The launch of a promise to create new job opportunities throughout the provinces. Commodity price reductions as well as a partial change of government and a campaign to expose corruption at a ministerial level (this requires a security committee to choose a minister who must be sacrificed) thereby contributing to efforts to persuade the general public of the seriousness of the authorities' reform and anti-corruption drive.

Ostensibly reduce tariffs on mobile calls (lost revenue can be recovered through hidden fees).

Personal and public benefits should be extended to those Muslim and Christian clerics close to the regime. They should be used to publicly denounce, decry, defame and discredit anti-regime protesters, highlighting religious verses and sayings aimed at deterring the general public from participating in the protests.

Delegate official [regime] figures marginally acceptable to the [regime-sponsored "official"] opposition in order to launch a dialogue with them. Of course some of them will immediately accept the overture while others will place conditions and others still will reject the offer of dialogue. This will be useful in order to create a continuous sense of controversy and disagreement, depriving those opposed to the regime of the ability to project themselves as a cohesive, compatible and effective bloc are compatible and effective, and additionally keeping them away from the protesters.

Responding to some Kurdish demands as they relate to naturalization and citizenship. This action is to be followed only in so far as it does not affect the status quo of the Syrian state and society. This should be construed as a countermeasure to their potential recruitment by foreign actors should the situation deteriorate further than expected. The North Eastern region is the only area open to this possibility.

Instruct Syrian embassies abroad and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to continuously issue assurances to the American and European countries, reminding them of the possibility for turmoil on the Golan front should extremists take hold of the situation.

Syrian embassies in all countries should closely monitor Syrians communities, their actions and behaviors (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be instructed to act in this regard).

The expected hot spots: Dara - Deir ez Zor - Hama - Banias - and some neighborhoods in various other cities.

Needs: Put on secret alert the various security and media organs.

Note: There will not be a single organ in charge of a detailed plan , its implementation will be carried out by the various branches and sections.

Given that media outlets will be prevented from covering events as they unfold on the ground, we expect them to rely on eye witness accounts, which will become available as some citizens will dare to telephone satellite TV channels with their eye witness accounts. As such, it becomes incumbent on the state security apparatuses' media organs to mobilize trained agents to call into both state-sponsored media organs and these satellite TV channels as [false] witnesses in order to undermine and discredit the testimonies provided by civilians. Through these actions on the ground eye witnesses accounts can thus be discredited.

Assign some members of the People's Assembly to respond to the protesters, instructing them on how to respond.

Assign some state officials from the affected regions to respond to the local protests in their region.

If the situation deteriorates and the level of hostility increases to the point where it is hard to ignore, it is necessary to transform and maintain the image that these protests and demands are merely local/private and are not on a national scale.

Convoys of vehicles carrying pictures of the President of the Republic, to which Syrian flags can be added, should be encouraged among security agents, their friends and children of officials, providing some of these cars with emergency service sirens (ambulance sirens, etc...) in order to create awe in the hearts of passers-by and residents.

Hosting some opposition members on Syrian television, giving us a chance to be courteous with them, thereby reducing their demands and transforming the [aggressive] demands into a simple request made to and met by the President, this is useful in creating splits among the leaders of the opposition.

Issuing the Ministry of Education strict instructions and warnings for schools and students about the use of Facebook.

Assigning some known artists or performers loyal to the regime to speak to the protest areas or to respond to the dissidents and protesters, according to what we tell them to say.

Security element and field performance:

Zero tolerance to attacks on the symbols of the regime [presumably, such things as statues and posters of Bashar al Assad and/or his father, Hafez al Assad], no matter the cost, as such actions would signal a willingness/readiness among protesters to overcome all red lines.

It is expected that protesters will gather in high density residential areas in order to draw attention and encourage others to join them. It is necessary when such events take place, we besiege/cordon the affected area as best we can, while using security agents in civilian clothing to infiltrate the protesters, stirring up controversy and divisions among them and spoiling their assembly as quickly as possible, and should the situation deteriorate to arrest some of the main agitators among them.

Mandate Information Branch of the Department of Scientific Research Center, in collaboration with two mobile phone network operators, to closely monitor the landlines and mobile lines of known opposition figures.

Use of intimidation measures among the youth in order to create a sense of dread and a reluctance to participate in protests. This should include arrests of some youths along a with a general mobilization of the armed forces reserves in order to of fatigue young people and activists and force their integration into military society.

Fatigue opponents and symbols of resistance through lawsuits of all shapes and soil and discredit their moral/religious standing/reputation, previously prepared materials and methods can be used in this regard.

Influential figures in the Syrian opposition should be barred from travel under any circumstances.

The military's security apparatus should initiate intensive monitoring of all officers of middle or high rank, especially those of the Sunni faith.

To get clashes between the army and the protesters a clear no-firing order must be issued to the army. However, such an order will not apply to clandestine elements of the security services as well as two special forces battalions [black/secret forces?]. Snipers from these battalions should fire from undisclosed locations, ensuring that the source of fire is indiscernible. Snipers are permitted to target/shoot soldiers and officers in the Army, as such mobilizing/turning the armed forces them against the civilian protesters.

Any place wherein protests get out of control:

Isolation of the protest area through a security forces and army cordon, cutting off electricity and telecommunications and the Internet.

Arrest of some influential figures from this place, and if conditions are critical, orders to kill such figures.

Introduction of smugglers and criminal gangs into the restive area [exact text is to flood the area with smugglers and criminals] in order to create a state of chaos.

Clandestine security agents in civilian clothing are to be inserted into the area of protest and will proceed in convincing protesters to use weapons against the military and security forces.

Send in security forces and the two clandestine special forces battalions, using snipers to target the protesters. The death toll from each confrontation should not exceed twenty as this might uncover the operation and expose the regime to foreign intervention.

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Video: The Dramatic Capture of Laurent Gbagbo

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Qatari Air Force Mirage 2000 Takes Off

A Qatari Air Force Mirage 2000 jet fighter takes off for a mission to Libya from the military airbase base of Souda on the Greek island of Crete, Wednesday, March 30, 2011. The Qatar Air Force participates with the French Air Force in joint missions to Libya with Mirage 2000 jet fighters from the Souda Air Base (AP Photo via Daylife)

Thoughts On Avoiding Another Civil War

Michael Young airs out some thoughts on how the Lebanese can avoid another civil war:

Next week Lebanon will commemorate, doubtless in vapors of indifference, the 36th anniversary of the start of its civil war. Indifference is not necessarily a bad thing, but given the polarization in the country today, particularly between the Sunni and Shia communities, a look back is necessary.

In 1975 Lebanon did not seem like a country on the verge of a 15-year conflict. There were those who saw through the glitz of the era, the nights at the Caves du Roy and the imperishable cliché that one could swim in the sea and ski on the same day. Toufiq Youssef Awwad’s novel Tawaheen Beirut, like Ziad al-Rahbani’s brilliant, caustic plays, offered literary glimpses into the often impossible social contradictions the Lebanese had to juggle. Political life was, like today, deadlocked, the Lebanese divided over the role of the state, their social contract and the armed Palestinian groups in their midst.

... [Today] there is still no consensus over a Lebanese social contract, still no broad accord when it comes to the state, and still a highly volatile quarrel over weapons not under the authority of the state, in this case those of Hezbollah. And you can still ski and swim on the same day.
...
How might the memory of war help us today? The priority for the political class in the foreseeable future, on all sides of the Lebanese divide, is to avert a conflict between Sunnis and Shia and create a framework for serious dialogue between the two communities. This may sound terribly trite, and it is illusory today to expect that the factions will find substantial common ground. The projects advanced by the March 14 coalition and by Hezbollah are largely incompatible, at least in the forms expressed by representatives on both sides.
...
It is doubtless necessary for Nasrallah to climb down from his high perch, one from where he believes that he can intimidate his political adversaries to change their views on a host of crucial national issues, ranging from their support for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to their disapproval of Hezbollah’s weapons. But it is also vital that Hariri take more steps of his own, for example reestablishing a relationship with Nabih Berri. From Hariri’s perspective, the parliament speaker has a lot going against him. Yet March 14 twice elected him to his post after the Independence Intifada of 2005, even though Berri had done everything to undermine the then-parliamentary majority.

Above all, Lebanon needs a government. That March 14 has chosen to remain in the opposition is constitutionally legitimate. However, at this stage, with so much uncertainty in the country and in the Arab world, it really makes more sense for it to join the government, on condition that it receive veto power. The former majority would thus place itself in a position to defend its stakes, including the Special Tribunal, and build useful coalitions with President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and even Walid Jumblatt on myriad issues. None of the three relishes the thought of seeing the government turned into a battering ram for Hezbollah and Michel Aoun.

Mikati may well agree to grant March 14 veto power, as it would allow him, finally, to form a governing team. More importantly, a new government would allow for politics within the confines of national institutions. Better in the cabinet than in the streets.

As Michel Chiha, an essential ideologue of the Lebanese system, wrote in 1936 that Lebanon’s diversities can only be brought nearer to one another “by allowing them to live politically together, by allowing them to make laws together in an Assembly and to control the implementation of these laws.” The government is one such assembly, but there are, potentially, many others. As the April 13 anniversary looms, let’s remember that Lebanon is condemned to manage its differences in consensual ways; otherwise the shadow of war will never be far enough away.

Syria Update

Citizens rounded up and later beaten in the Syrian Coastal town of al Bayda, Banias.

The NYTimes reports:

The security crackdown on Syria’s coastal region tightened on Tuesday, with checkpoints blocking off access to the city of Baniyas and its outlying areas and a violent raid by government security forces on the nearby village of Bayda, local human rights advocates said.
...
On Sunday, four protesters were killed by state security forces during pro-democracy demonstrations in Baniyas, a port city known for its nearby orchards and its large oil refinery. ...

The village of Bayda was being “punished” for offering refuge to people fleeing Baniyas, and because residents were rumored to be planning a protest of their own, said Wissam Tarif, a Syrian human rights advocate. He said security forces had raided houses in the village and pulled both men and women into the town square, where they were “collectively beaten” by security agents.

“They formed circles around them in the square, and they beat them,” Mr. Tarif said. “They felt like the town was supporting Baniyas.”

His organization, Insan, has confirmed one death in Bayda and was told of two more in Baniyas, which he said it had been unable to confirm. Mr. Tarif was speaking by phone from Tartous, about 20 miles south of Baniyas.

Razan Zeitouneh, a Damascus-based human rights advocate, said in an e-mail that her sources backed up Mr. Tarif’s account of the attack on Bayda and added that there was mounting anxiety in Baniyas about another assault.

“Baniyas is still surrounded by army and security,” Ms. Zeitouneh wrote. “There is fears that it will be attacked this night.”

Several hours after sending the e-mail, Ms. Zeitouneh, who has routinely used her Facebook page to publicize the findings of her organization, the Syrian Human Rights Information Link, began posting what she said were eyewitness accounts of nighttime attacks on villages near Baniyas.

“Heavy shooting at the southern entrance of Baniyas now,” read one post.

“Finishing invasion of the orchards and arresting tens, and starting to invade the neighborhoods of al-Basyia and al-Oudima,” read another.

Syria’s state-run news agency, SANA, has remained mostly silent about the events in and around Baniyas, reporting only on what it said were the killings of nine Syrian soldiers “at the criminal hands of a group of terrorists and thugs” in Baniyas on Sunday. Some members of the Syrian opposition have claimed that the soldiers were killed by security forces for refusing to fire at protesters.

Joshua Landis, a Syria specialist and professor at the University of Oklahoma who is married to a Syrian, reported on his blog, Syria Comment, that his wife’s first cousin, Lt. Col. Yasir Qash’ur, was one of those killed.
...
In some cases, security forces have surrounded hospitals so wounded protesters cannot get treatment. “We’ve also heard about shooting of demonstrators who were trying to pull people to safety into buildings,” Mr. Houry said. “We’ve talked to seven or eight people who have been involved in or witnessed such incidents.”

The White House issued a statement on Tuesday condemning the government’s response to the protests as “outrageous.”

“We are deeply concerned by reports that Syrians who have been wounded by their government are being denied access to medical care,” it said.

Professor Landis said: “It is clear that the gloves are off and the regime is going to do whatever it takes to stay in power. This is war at this point. The government cannot afford to have this level of violence continue much longer.”

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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

HRW Documents Atrocities by Syrian Regime

A video posted on YouTube Monday shows the fresh scars and wounds of a young 16 year old Syrian boy from Douma, a suburb of Damascus, who was taken by security forces and interrogated on Friday, April 8 2011 (via NOWLebanon Blog).

This is hard to read but it needs to be. Doctors tell HRW of bullet wounds to children, protesters' inability to access medical supplies and facilities, beatings and indiscriminate shootings. Please read the full Human Rights Watch report, below is an abridgment:

Syrian security forces in at least two towns prevented medical personnel and others from reaching wounded protesters on April 8, 2011, and prevented injured protesters from accessing hospitals, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch, which interviewed 20 witnesses from three Syrian towns, urged Syrian authorities to allow injured protesters unimpeded access to medical treatment and to stop using unjustified lethal force against anti-government protesters.

"To deprive wounded people of critical and perhaps life-saving medical treatment is both inhumane and illegal," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Barring people from needed medical care causes grave suffering and perhaps irreparable harm."

Blocking access to necessary medical treatment for people who have been injured violates the government's obligations to respect and protect the right to life and not to subject anyone to inhuman treatment, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch interviewed six witnesses from the town of Daraa, ten from Harasta, and four from Douma, towns where protests took place on Friday April 8. Those interviewed included four doctors, four injured protesters, formerly detained protesters, and families of wounded protesters.

Human Rights Watch confirmed that at least 28 people were killed in protests in the three towns on that day. Syrian human rights groups provided a list of 27 protesters killed in Daraa on April 8, and Human Rights Watch confirmed the death of at least one additional protester in Douma. Protests also took place in Qamishli, Derbassiye, Banyas, Amuda, Homs, Latakia, Tartous, and Arbeen, but Human Rights Watch was unable to obtain reliable information about any casualties in these towns.

"Syria's leaders talk about political reform, but they meet their people's legitimate demands for reform with bullets," said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch. "They accuse the protesters of inciting divisions in Syria's society, but the violence of their security forces is what is harming Syria the most."

Daraa

Two large protests took place in Daraa ... "Ahmad" (not his real name), said people were carrying olive branches to symbolize their peaceful intentions.

The security forces set up a roadblock near the bridge to prevent the protesters from crossing to the other part of town. Ahmad said that about 50 soldiers were in front, surrounded by several thousand members of security services, some in uniforms and others in civilian clothes, as well as snipers on nearby rooftops. ...

The security forces fired straight into the crowd with Kalashnikovs, and snipers opened fire at the same time, Ahmad said. He said he personally saw about 35 people fall immediately, hit by bullets, although he was not sure whether they were injured or killed:

I saw one man - he was hit by three bullets, and fell on the ground, he was clearly dead. The security forces ran toward him, and, although he was already dead, started beating him with sticks on the face. Nobody could stop them, and when we finally managed to retrieve the body, it was unrecognizable - we could only identify him because he had his civil ID in his pocket.
...
Ahmad said that the security forces did not allow the ambulances to approach the road to pick up the wounded, and kept shooting when other protesters tried to carry the wounded away. Footage posted anonymously on YouTube showed protesters, apparently in Daraa, trying to retrieve the wounded and coming under fire. Ahmad said that he later saw the bodies of a doctor, a nurse, and an ambulance driver who, other witnesses told him, were shot when their ambulance tried to reach the wounded protesters.

Two protesters told Human Rights Watch that some of the protesters seized weapons from a checkpoint abandoned by soldiers and shot at the security services, killing about a dozen security personnel, and setting two cars belonging to the military and the security services on fire. An unnamed Syrian official in the Interior Ministry told SANA, the Syrian state news agency, that "armed groups" shot at security services in Daraa on April 8, killing 19 people. SANA only reported the names of three of the security forces killed in Daraa.
...
... "Muhammad" (not his real name), one of the protesters, said he saw three people hit by bullets and carried into the Omari mosque. He said that he followed them to the mosque where he saw about ten wounded protesters, three of whom died from their wounds while he was still in the mosque. Another protester who also went to the Omari mosque told Human Rights Watch:

People were lying on the floor [of the Omari mosque], all over the place, and there were a couple of doctors and nurses, and also local women struggling to help the injured. But they could not do much - they only had the basic supplies brought from the local pharmacies; the hospitals were blocked by the security forces and it was impossible to bring the necessary equipment or supplies into the mosque. Several people with serious injuries were dying, and there was nothing we could do to help them.

A doctor from Daraa told Human Rights Watch that he counted 18 corpses at the Daraa national hospital, and that five of them were returned to their families while the other thirteen remained in the hospital's morgue.

... security services arrested large numbers of people, putting them in civilian cars, white cars with no official markings. ... protesters went to the Political Security building in Daraa - one of Syria's main security services - to request the release of the protesters arrested earlier that day. But snipers on the roofs of the nearby White Rose hotel and several governmental buildings opened fire, and the crowd had to disperse, ...

The April 8 shootings brought the total of protesters killed in Daraa and surrounding villages since March 18 to at least 130, according to lists compiled by Syrian human rights groups and information received by Human Rights Watch.

Harasta
...
At around 2 p.m., the protesters reached a large group of security forces blocking the road. ... "Khalil" (not his real name), who was subsequently injured, told Human Rights Watch that a large group of men in plain clothes emerged suddenly from a side street and immediately opened fire with Kalashnikovs, with no warning. He said:

When they opened fire, everybody started running. The guy next to me was shot in the leg, and fell to the ground. I hid in the nearby building and saw security men come up to him and beat him with sticks. I was among 20 people who were trying to rescue him - we would hide, and then try to run out. I ran out, waving an olive branch and saw four security men aiming at me. They all fired simultaneously, and I was hit by four bullets. One bullet went directly through my chest and the other three ricocheted from the wall and the ground and hit me in the neck and in the hand. I fell, and several people tried to rescue me - security forces continued to shoot, and two or three of the rescuers were injured as well, but others managed to carry me away and put me in the car.

Another injured protester, "Mahmud" (not his real name) ... said that security forces started beating his father when he tried to rescue a young boy whom the security services were beating with sticks. When Mahmud tried to run toward them to help his father, his brother grabbed him and tried to pull him back. At that moment, security forces, who were some 50 meters away, opened fire, hitting Mahmoud in his right hip. Mahmoud's brother said that at the same time five or six other protesters who were in a group next to him were also hit.

Two doctors told Human Rights Watch that they each treated four wounded protesters in Harasta. They said all had bullet wounds in various parts of their bodies, and that several were children. The doctors explained that it was impossible to bring the injured into the hospital because it was surrounded by the security forces. He said families were afraid to bring the injured there, having heard that security forces arrested wounded protesters in hospitals after previous protests in Douma and Daraa. One of the doctors said:

I was in the hospital in the afternoon, when I started getting calls from people asking for help. I knew people could not bring the wounded in - the hospital was surrounded by the security personnel. We also couldn't send an ambulance, fearing the security forces would open fire, as happened in other places.

I rushed out and went to private homes where the rescuers brought the wounded. I could not take any major supplies or tools; only the most basic things. The injuries were serious and we had nothing to work with - in one case, we had to probe a wound with a metal spoon to see how deep the bullet went.

Another doctor said that five protesters with bullet wounds came to the house he was in, and that he knew of at least six other houses where doctors treated wounded people. He added that one of his patients was 17, and he knew of several other patients under 18.

A family of an injured protester told Human Rights Watch that they tried taking him first to the military hospital, but were told that civilians could not get treatment there, and then to the civilian hospital - but the security personnel at the hospital said that only servicemen could receive treatment, not wounded civilians. A doctor interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported that he heard from friends that the government hospital was under the control of security forces, who were turning away injured protesters.

Douma

In Douma, another town neighboring Damascus, security forces allowed protests to proceed in the afternoon, but later in the evening killed at least one man and injured at least one other in an incident on the edge of Douma. ...
...
Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that the same night, at least 11 men and boys, were arrested in various parts of Douma by groups of security personnel who first brutally beat them with sticks and then put them in buses and drove them away. The detainees were released on April 10 - all had been subjected to prolonged beatings and other forms of torture while in detention, the people who spoke with Human Rights Watch said.

"The Syrian authorities are responding to protests against repression with more repression: killings, mass arbitrary arrests, beatings and torture," Whitson said. "Syria's security forces should free those arbitrarily detained for participating in public protests and put an end to torture and ill treatment of detained protesters."

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Monday, April 11, 2011

Looting in Abidjian

In this photo taken on Sunday, April 3, 2011, looted streets can be seen in Abidjan, Ivory Coast (AP Photo/Jane Hahn via The Atlantic: In Focus).

Gbagbo Captured!

A picture taken on April 11, 2011 shows Laurent Gbagbo surrounded by troops loyal to Alassane Ouattar appearing on a TV footage on Ivorian television channel TCI shortly after his capture. Troops loyal to Ivory Coast leader Alassane Ouattara captured former strongman Laurent Gbagbo and his wife Simone and brought them to their base, Ouattara's spokeswoman said. The official, Anne Ouloto, told AFP the former first couple had been brought to Abidjan's Golf Hotel, where Ouattara's camp is based, at around 1.00 pm (1300 GMT), shortly after their arrest (Getty Images via Daylife)