Syria, inside Homs
Mani
pour Le Monde
Winner of the 2012 ICRC Humanitarian Visa d’or Award – International Committee of the Red Cross
Shortly before the Syrian uprising, the first people to sense that revolution was on the way were the most determined opponents of Bashar el-Assad’s régime. They could still remember 1982 and the Hama massacre, the cruel epilogue to crush an Islamist revolt that had been going on for three years. At the time, the régime was led by Hafez el-Assad, the father of the current president, who had no qualms about firing heavy weapons on the fourth largest city in the country, leaving thousands dead, although no official figures were ever released. (According to estimates, the number of dead was between 10 000 and 20 000.)
The opponents were right. Since March 17, 2011, and the first killings in Deraa in the south of the country, the Syrian regime has again opted for a military response, plus a few purely cosmetic reforms on the side. When massive crowds gained control of the streets, peacefully, the régime was faced with a challenge, and attempted to push part of the opposition movement into armed confrontation, an area where it believed it held the advantage.
Under this pressure, the Free Syrian Army formed, their ranks filled with deserters and civilians, and the angry demonstrations still continued every Friday. Bashar el-Assad’s calculation turned out to be short-sighted, as a classical guerilla force took shape, prepared to concede terrain when concentrated forces sent in by the regime from time to time proved to be too powerful, and then quick to return once the armored vehicles had set off for another rebel stronghold.
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Another weak point of the regime was that it failed to rebuild the “wall of fear” which had been established over three decades or more of repression – from the Tadmor prison massacre in 1980 to the Sednaya prison massacre in 2008 – and despite the fact that since the beginning of the uprising the régime had set its militia forces, the Shabiha, to do the dirty work: summary executions, torture, ethnic cleansing, attacks on communities, rape and more.
Over the last fifteen months the country has been in the grips of unbelievable violence – the violence of a State with total disregard for even the most basic humanitarian principles. Hospitals, medical centers and doctors have been targeted, as opponents are methodically hunted down across the country. Eye-witness reports from Homs from special correspondents for the newspaper Le Monde and the NGO Médecins sans frontières describe organized hunts through public buildings, and the wounded have no other choice than to rely on makeshift medical centers with little or no medical supplies.
To help maintain its chance of survival, the Syrian regime has chosen the inhumane option, with no going back, spreading hate and triggering reprisals, settling old scores: the choice of the scorched earth policy.
Gilles Paris, director of the international desk, Le Monde
