اتهمت منظمة أطباء بلا حدود، النظام السوري، اليوم الجمعة، بقصف مستشفيات في مناطق تسيطر عليها المعارضة بطريقة ممنهجة.
وقالت أطباء بلا حدود إن الضربات التي توجّهها طائرات حربية سورية إلى المستشفيات قتلت 11 شخصًا بينهم ثلاثة من العاملين بالقطاع الطبي في محافظة إدلب الشمالية الغربية في الأسبوع المنصرم. وأصيب في القصف 31 شخصا آخرين.
وقال سيلفيان جرول، رئيس بعثة منظمة أطباء بلا حدود في سوريا إنه "من الواضح أن الوقائع التي حدثت في الأيام القليلة الماضية في إدلب قامت بها طائرات أطلقت صواريخ، وواضح جدًا من حجم الأضرار أن هذا كان متعمدًا ومستهدفًا". وأضاف "يتناقض هذا تمامًا مع القانون الدولي."
وسقطت معظم مناطق إدلب هذا العام في أيدي تحالف مسلحين إسلاميين يحقّقون مكاسب بينما يتقدمون غربًا صوب المعقل الساحلي للرئيس بشار الأسد، وسقطت عاصمة المحافظة في آذار/مارس.
وقال جرول إنه "بعد سقوط مدينة إدلب، على الفور تعرضت المستشفيات الرئيسية، التي كانت متبقية في ذلك الوقت للقصف من طائرات حربية حكومية."
وقال إن كل الاطراف التي تقاتل في الحرب الأهلية المستمرة منذ أكثر من أربع سنوات التي قتلت ربع مليون شخص مسؤولة عن الهجمات على منشآت الرعاية الصحية لكن أغلبها نفذتها القوات الحكومية.
MSF staff operate on a war-wounded Syrian patient at Al-Ramtha Hospital in Jordan, 2013.
July 09, 2015
Over the past two weeks, more than 65 war-wounded Syrian patients—most injured by barrel bombs—arrived at the emergency room of Al-Ramtha hospital in northern Jordan, marking a significant spike in the number of patients treated there by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
In late June, 34 wounded Syrian patients arrived in just three days. Some were stabilized by MSF medical teams and referred to other hospitals. The rest continue to receive surgical and rehabilitative treatment at Al-Ramtha hospital, which sits about three miles from the Syrian border, and where MSF works in close collaboration with the Jordanian Ministry of Health to provide quality medical care to Syrian patients.
"More than 70 percent of the wounded we receive suffer from blast injuries, and their multiple wounds tell their stories," said Renate Sinke, project coordinator of MSF’s emergency surgical program in Ramtha.
MSF and many other organizations have called repeatedly for an end to the bombing of populated areas inside Syria. These calls have had no impact. Patients of all ages continue to arrive at Al-Ramtha hospital in large numbers with injuries that they say were caused by barrel bombs dropped by helicopters on residential areas and health structures in southern Syria.
There have been reports of health facilities coming under attack in Syria’s Dara'a Governorate in the past two weeks, leading more Syrian patients to risk the dangerous trip across the Jordanian border, seeking medical care that has become extremely difficult, if not impossible, to access in their home country. Many hospitals inside Syria now lack the personnel, medical expertise, or equipment to deal with highly complex injuries.
"A significant proportion of the patients we receive have suffered head injuries and other multiple injuries that cannot be treated inside southern Syria, as CT-scans and other treatment options are limited," said Dr. Muhammad Shoaib, MSF medical coordinator in Jordan.
One recent patient at Al-Ramtha Hospital was Majed, a 27-day-old baby with a head injury caused by shrapnel from a barrel bomb.
Majed's father, Murad, gave the following account:
"At 9:00 a.m., a barrel bomb hit our house in Tafas. I was not around at that time. I have to work to feed and take care of my family. When I heard the news, I dropped what I was doing and I ran to the house as fast as I could.
"I found my wife and mother both injured, but their injuries did not look too severe. Then I saw my little boy. He was quiet and his head seemed to be injured. I took him to the field hospital in Tafas. They tried to help him but couldn't, since the appropriate equipment is not available in Syria. He needed to go to Jordan for treatment.
"It took us one-and-a-half hours from the time of injury until we arrived at the border, and some more before arriving in Ramtha. Now, all I want is for my baby to be better and go back to Syria."
Since the Syrian conflict began, more than four million Syrians have sought refuge in neighboring countries, including Jordan. MSF has been present in Jordan since August 2006, running a reconstructive surgery program in Amman. Since 2013, MSF has been working to support refugees and patients through the Al-Ramtha emergency trauma surgical program, as well as a mother and child hospital and two noncommunicable disease projects in Irbid to support Syrian refugees and vulnerable Jordanians in host communities.
By Nadine Haddad, Egypt Campaigner at Amnesty International, Link
As you walk through the bustling traffic in Cairo’s Rabaa al-Adawiya Square today, you would never know the bloodiest incident in Egypt’s recent history had taken place there two years ago, when the dispersal by security forces of two sit-ins in Cairo and other protests across Egypt left up to 1,000 people dead in a single day.
The government has recently renamed the square after Egypt’s Public Prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, who was assassinated in Cairo in a car bomb on 29 June. To some he represented the state protecting its citizens, but to many others he was a symbol of repression covering up for security forces’ abuses and ordering the detention of thousands incarcerated in the authorities’ mounting crackdown on dissent over the last two years.
The only commemorative sculpture in the Square - erected after the massacre- is of two angular arms, representing the police and army, protecting a silver orb, representing the Egyptian people.
I’ll never forget the man who risked his life crossing sniper fire just to deliver a small plastic bag full of medicines as supplies ran out.
There is nothing that evokes the blood, death and flames, so prominent that day, except for the memories which resurface as you walk around.
This July I re-visited the Rabaa al-Adaweya medical centre, which overlooks the square, for the first time since I witnessed the massacre. Today the outer walls which had been blackened after the security forces had set the building alight are clean. The blood has long since been scrubbed off the inner walls, floors and spiralling staircase. It looks and feels just like any medical centre. Doctors and patients quietly go about their business.
On 14 August 2013 you had to cross through sniper fire just to reach or leave the centre. Inside, were scenes of emergency and chaos. There was a shortage of hospital beds and medical equipment. Many of the injured lay on any available space of floor, even alongside bodies of the dead.
I’ll never forget the man who risked his life crossing sniper fire just to deliver a small plastic bag full of medicines as supplies ran out. Or the woman, fully covered in a black niqab, sitting on the hospital floor by a pool of blood next to her dead husband who had been shot in the head. The stench of death was everywhere.
Today, many ordinary Egyptians are still living in the shadow of what happened in Rabaa that day. It proved a turning point, a day in which the full ferocity of the security forces was laid bare.
Reporters run for cover during clashes between Muslim Brotherhood supporters of Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi and police forces in Cairo on August 14, 2013 during the clearance operation of the Rabaa al-Adawiya camp. AFP / Stringer
Sara, a petite 25-year-old student, was a participant [protesting] at the Rabaa sit-in. Her last memory of her father, Mohamed al-Sayed, a 58-year-old medical doctor, is of four masked burly men shoving him into the back of a car outside their house and speeding away as they shot at family and neighbours trying to chase after them, two weeks after the Rabaa incident. She has not seen him, or heard his voice, since.
“Where is my father?” she asks. “Where is the law in this country? What is the evidence against him? ”
In Sara’s hometown of Zagazig, north of Cairo, she says it took three days for the police to file a formal report of her father’s disappearance. A complaint by the family to the Public Prosecutor’s Office has yielded no results. Through informal sources she’s discovered that her father is likely to be in a military prison somewhere.
As the two-year anniversary of her father’s disappearance approaches, Sara says: “I don’t feel like I’m alive. He was the soul of our family, and he’s been taken away.”
Mohamed al-Sayed joins a growing list of people arrested and detained incommunicado for prolonged periods, under conditions of enforced disappearances, in the two years since Egypt’s former president Mohamed Morsi was ousted from power by the military.
The police and army opened fire and used excessive force to disperse the sit-in of Morsi supporters four times in July and August 2013. The Rabaa massacre on 14 August was Egypt’s darkest day.
In the two years since then, not a single security officer has been held accountable for the hundreds of deaths and injuries that day... they put the blame on protestors for violence and shielded the security forces from any criticism.
In the two years since then, not a single security officer has been held accountable for the hundreds of deaths and injuries that day. The Public Prosecutor and a national fact-finding committee appointed by the government to investigate the killings failed to uphold justice; they put the blame on protestors for violence and shielded the security forces from any criticism.
Instead, the authorities have accelerated their crackdown arresting thousands, who either support the Muslim Brotherhood, which has since been declared a terrorist organization by the state, or former president Morsi. The crackdown has also targeted journalists, rights defenders, students, perceived government opponents, and others just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
More than 22,000 people have been detained since July 2013. At least 124 have died in detention, either after torture and other forms of ill-treatment, or because of the very poor detention conditions and lack of access to medical care in prison.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s criminal justice system has become another tool for repression by prosecuting and trying people in grossly unfair mass trials in which judges sentence hundreds of people - often supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood - to death or life imprisonment.
Metwally Ali-Sayed, whose two sons were shot dead by security forces during the Rabaa sit-in, is demanding justice for their killing and all others who died.
“They don’t even treat us like … human beings,” he said.
So far the spiralling human rights crisis in Egypt has been met with an almost deafening silence from the international community. Instead, many of Egypt’s international allies have sought to strengthen trade and business ties with President Abdelfattah al-Sisi’s government; some have resumed arms exports in recent months and signed new sales.
Respect for human rights is fundamental for the future stability and prosperity of Egypt. Countries must take strong and co-ordinated action at the United Nations, including at the upcoming September session of the Human Rights Council to publicly condemn the deterioration of the human rights situation in the country. All states including the USA, UK and France must immediately suspend the transfer of all arms that could be used in internal repression.
This collective failure to act in the face of the bloodiest and most repressive days in Egypt’s recent history is an affront to justice and humanity, an insult to the memory of those who died and willful blindness to a situation that will only get worse if left unchecked.
Ayatollah, prime minister and main opposition all ostensibly support reforms yet many question whether leaders are simply trying to mollify the people Martin Chulov
When demonstrators last took to the streets of Iraq four years ago, they were met by bullets. Over the past six weeks, as a new mass protest movement gathered momentum, they were instead greeted by soldiers with plastic flowers in the barrels of their guns.
Then and now, the demands were the same; better government services, less corruption and more accountability among officials. As Iraq withered this summer under an extreme heatwave, with limited power and electricity, the people and their protectors this time were aligned. And, crucially, so too was an overlord.
The support for the demonstrations by Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most powerful religious figure in the country, who usually remains taciturn on issues of state, was echoed by the prime minister, Haidar al-Abadi, who introduced a range of reforms to slice elite entitlements and shore up representative rule.
The convergence of voices has given Iraqis a rare opening to press home their demands on a political class that has largely shown itself to be unresponsive to their needs, while being especially attentive to their own. Iraq’s ruling class enjoy some of the most lucrative entitlements of leaders anywhere in the world, with large security details, fleets of cars, villas and salaries.
But in the wake of a parliamentary vote on Tuesday, which overwhelmingly ratified Abadi’s measures and won the notional support of most political blocs and religious parties, questions are being asked about how the PM – regarded as a weak leader beholden to his patrons – can do much to change that. The sweeping reforms he has introduced include eradicating the posts of vice-presidents and deputy prime minister and starting a corruption inquiry.
Beyond that though, they challenge the very vested interests that have put him in power and take on a national elite that has enriched itself over the 12 years since the US invasion and taken a heavy toll in Iraq’s financial coffers.
“The entire system is built on patronage and corruption,” said Ali Khedery, an adviser from 2003-11 to US ambassadors and military chiefs in Iraq. “And literally everyone is guilty. So how do you change that, I just don’t know.”
A corruption index compiled by Transparency International has consistently rated Iraq as one of the 10 most corrupt countries in the world. It’s most recent ranking was number five. The actual aim of Abadi’s package is itself being questioned, with some observers suggesting it instead intends to sideline at least one senior political figure, or create momentum for constitutional changes that could pave the way for an executive presidency.
Before his ascension, Abadi was a mid-ranking official in the Shia Dawa party, which Maliki led. He was regarded as a compromise candidate for leader after months of failed political horsetrading failed to produce a replacement. Ever since, though, Maliki has set himself up as a rival power base, and has retained influence over Shia militia groups who have directed the fightback against Isis, often taking primacy over the Iraqi military.Abadi was named as PM late last year after Nouri al-Maliki was ousted as leader in the wake of the Islamic State seizing control of the country’s second-biggest city, Mosul, and most of western Iraq. Maliki’s downfall came after he lost the support of Sistani, as well as Iran and the US, which had backed his administration from 2006.
“Maliki is somehow at the centre of this,” said Sir John Jenkins, executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and a former British ambassador to Iraq. “Does Abadi think he can sideline him as a political force with the support of Sistani? If so, it’s a very big risk.
“He’s effectively taking on a whole system and he isn’t starting from a strong position. It’s hard to see how this could work.”
This week Maliki reacted warily to the changes, which are thought likely to require changes to the constitution that would need to be ratified by the supreme court.
Ihsan Shimari, a Baghdad-based political scientist, said: “There are politicians … who are using the card of the constitution and saying there are changes they can’t accept. But at the same time, they can’t say they are opposing the marjaiya (Sistani), which they can’t be seen to do.
A former adviser to the Iraqi government, Dr Hisham al-Hashimi, said: “Most politicians are showing that they are accepting the changes but would Maliki let go of the 70 government cars he has and the 500 security and the government positions that all of his allies hold?”“So they are going to have to give up something there. Cosmetic changes at least.The religious parties are in the same boat. I suspect that they will agree to the changes, then scuttle them later. Then it will be back to business as usual.”
Another senior Iraqi official said: “No party is really supportive of these demonstrations but they pretend to be. If the leader can make everyone equal and put everyone under one law without any favours, then there is a chance to change but I can’t yet see that with these demonstrations.
“I can’t see Maliki or any others let go of their positions or even possessions. They want to stay without any changes to financial status. We will have to wait for two weeks and see what Abadi is able to push through.
“If nothing happens, then I expect to see fighting in the streets, some of it whipped by militias who will be part of the demonstrations and turn it to violence. I don’t want that to happen but I expect it.”
قال تشكيل عسكري سوري إن مقاتليه أسروا أربعة مقاتلين أجانب، بينهم ضابط إيراني، ومقاتل يعتقد أنه تابع لحزب الله اللبناني وأفغانيان.
وقد أظهر تسجيل بثه التشكيل -الذي يطلق على نفسه اسم "لواء فجر التحرير"- صور ثلاثة أشخاص قال المسلحون إنهم وقعوا في كمين نصبوه لهم على الطريق القديم الواصل بين دمشق ودرعا بالقرب من مدينة الصنمين.
وقال المسلحون إن الكمين كان ردا على خرق الهدنة بين قوات النظام والمليشيات الأجنبية التابعة لها في مدينة الصنمين.
تخفي ترسانة أسلحة ضخمة وكانت تخطط لتفجيرات Link الكويت ـ «القدس العربي»: أعلنت وزارة الداخلية الكويتية عن تمكن الأجهزة الأمنية من ضبط ثلاثة من أعضاء خلية إرهابية وترسانة ضخمة من الأسلحة والذخائر والمواد المتفجرة، تم إخفاؤها في أحد المنازل في حفرة عميقة ومحصنة بالخرسانة، كما تم ضبط عدد 56 قذيفة ار.بي.جي وذخائر حية في إحدى مزارع منطقة العبدلي التي تعود ملكيتها للمتهم (ح .ع كويتي الجنسية مواليد 1968) وهو صاحب المنزل المذكور. كما أعلنت عن ضبط المتهم الثاني المواطن (ع. ح مواليد1981) حيث عثر في منزله على ثلاث قطع من الأسلحة النارية وكمية من الذخيرة الحية، وتم ضبط المتهم الثالث (ح. ط مواليد 1980) حيث عثر في منزله على ثلاث حقائب تحتوي على أسلحة وذخائر ومواد متفجرة متنوعة حيث اعترفوا جميعا بانضمامهم لأحد التنظيمات الإرهابية، كما اعترفوا بحيازة تلك الأسلحة والذخائر والمواد المتفجرة وأرشدوا على أماكن إخفائها، ولا تزال أجهزة الأمن تواصل تحرياتها وتحقيقاتها لملاحقة وضبط شركائهم وأضافت الداخلية أن أجهزة الأمن المتمثلة بقطاع الأمن الجنائي وقطاع الأمن الخاص والجهات الأمنية الأخرى ذات الصلة قد شاركت في عملية المداهمة والضبط والتفتيش، حيث أرشـد المتهمـون الى المكان الــذي قامـوا بإخفاء الأسلحة والذخائر فيه حيث عمل رجال إدارة المتفجرات باستخراج 56 قاذفة آر.بي.جي من مزرعة العبدلى التي تعود ملكيتها للمتهم (ح. ع) وعشرات الأسلحة والذخائر والمواد سريعة الانفجار عثر عليها في منزل المتهم نفسه. وأوضحت الداخلية أن جميع هذه المضبوطات من الأسلحة والذخائر والمواد شديدة الانفجار وغيرهـا من الأسلحة التي وجدت في مزرعة ومنازل المتهمين الثلاثة هي كالآتي 19 الف كيلو ذخيرة متنوعة و144كيلو متفجرات متنوعة من مادة TNT شديده وعدد (65) سلاحا متنوعا وعدد ثلاثة آر.بي .جي وعدد 204 قنابل يدوية بالإضافة إلى صواعق كهربائية. هذا وقد تم تحويل المتهمين إلى جهات الاختصاص لاستكمال التحقيقات واتخاذ كافة الإجراءات القانونية حيال ذلك. وتؤكد وزارة الداخلية أنها سوف توافيكم بكامل المستجدات فور الانتهاء من تحقيقات الجهات المختصة ۔ مصادر أمنية قالت لـ»القدس العربي « إن هذه الشبكة لا تنتمي لتنظيم الدولة الإسلامية (داعش) وإنها من التحقيقات الأولية تنفذ أجندة إيرانية تحت إدارة حزب الله اللبناني، حيث اتضح أن رئيس خلية حزب الله في الكويت والذي كان ينوي تنفيذ تفجير يدعي حسين هادي حاجيه مواليد 1968 ويسكن منطقة الرميثية، وأنه استخدم بيته في إخفاء عشرات الأسلحة أيضا والذخائر والمواد سريعة الانفجار. هذا وقد تم تحويل المتهمين إلى جهات الاختصاص لاستكمال التحقيقات واتخاذ كافة الاجراءات القانونية حيال ذلك، وأن وزارة الداخلية سوف تكشف التفاصيل عبر الإعلام وكامل المستجدات فور الانتهاء من تحقيقات الجهات المختصة مع الخلية الإرهابية ۔
Allegations are second claim of napalm use in Syrian war and come a week after UN passed resolution to let investigators identify perpetrators of chlorine attacks The Guardian Link Images from the aftermath of an alleged napalm attack in Daraya, Syria.
A Syrian civil defence group has accused the government of President Bashar al-Assad of using napalm on a town near Damascus, the latest escalation in a conflict that has seen the use of chemical weapons and indiscriminate aerial bombing campaigns.
If true, the attack would be the second serious allegation of napalm use in the Syrian war. In 2012, a BBC crew in Aleppo province witnessed what they described as a “napalm-like” attack on a school.
The latest allegations come just over a week after the UN security council passed a resolution that would allow investigators to identify the perpetrators of chlorine attacks in the country, widely believed to be conducted by the Assad regime.
They also come almost exactly two years since the infamous sarin gas attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta that killed more than a thousand people and nearly triggered American air strikes against Assad’s forces.
An unverified photo of an unexploded barrel bomb alleged to contain napalm gel. Photograph: Daraya civil defence
Syrian civil defence volunteers said the Assad regime dropped four barrel bombs containing napalm on Tuesday afternoon on the electricity company district in the town of Daraya, triggering huge fires which were only brought under control in the early hours of the morning.
“The wounded were treated under the light of the fires,” said Abu Suleiman, a pseudonym of the commander of Daraya’s civil defence team. “There were massive fires and the civil defence was completely paralysed in dealing with them.”
The attack was part of a wave of barrel bomb raids and missile strikes against the town, which has been besieged for more than two years and is controlled by the opposition.
Unverified footage and images from Daraya posted online and gathered by the civil defence showed the aftermath of the attacks, with large plumes of smoke, blackened buildings and raging fires.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commanding officer of the UK Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) regiment and Nato’s Rapid Reaction CBRN battalion, said the footage appeared consistent with the aftermath of napalm attacks.
“It is likely that it is napalm,” he said. “Napalm seems to fit the bill.”
The civil defence said it was collecting samples from the attack sites for chemical analysis to prove the alleged use of napalm.
Napalm is an incendiary weapon that includes both fuel and a gel substance that adheres to skin and burns intensely when it combusts.Protocol III of the Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits the use of incendiary weapons on civilian targets and on military targets surrounded by concentrations of civilians.
A photo of alleged napalm gel that the civil defence team in Daraya said was discovered in an unexploded barrel bomb. Photograph: Daraya civil defence
De Bretton-Gordon said the attack was likely a result of the increasing military pressure facing the regime and in reaction to the chlorine resolution, which was backed by Russia, despite its unflinching support for Assad.
He said it was probably also a tool to increase the psychological pressure on the opposition.
“In stark terms it’s no more dangerous than highly explosive barrel bombs but it’s horrific in the way it burns and how the jelly sticks to people,” he said. “It’s just another step up in the level of dreadfulness.”
The Daraya Media Center, a group of activists inside and outside the city, said the fires spread to civilian areas but wounds were limited because many fled to the appointed shelters when the attacks began.
“The people have become used to this and are calling on the silent international community to move to save those who are left,” a spokesperson said.
Suleiman said the volunteers faced great difficulty controlling the flames because of a supply shortage as a result of the ongoing siege. Though the number of wounded were few, those who were injured suffered primarily from burns.
• This article was amended to 13 August 2015 to remove a description of the Syrian Civil Defence as “aligned to the opposition”. The SCD argue that they are a neutral organisation and not aligned to any political group.
Former Tunisian President Moncef Al-Marzouki did not stray too far from the truth when he said that the dreams of the Arab Spring have gone unheeded.
There is no doubt that the counter-revolutionary forces led by the region's deep-rooted regimes, with the support of their allies, have succeeded in demonising the revolutions and converting them into burdens on the people, especially in countries like Syria, Yemen and Libya where the current reality has turned into a hell that can no longer be tolerated.
In Syria, the regime has managed to make agreements with high ranking Iranian officials along with their regional and Arab allies and perhaps the Americans and Israel as well. The regime was able to derail the path of the revolution to the point where the situation in Syria has become not only an internal catastrophe, but a regional and international one as well.
With the blessings of the American, Russian and Iranian governments, the regime was successfully able to transform Syria into a blazing hell. Now, the Syrians are longing for the days where the authoritarian regime had its concentrated levels of power and iron fist. We have witnessed many speeches where Bashar Al-Assad can be seen boasting about his ability to abort and derail the Syrian revolution.
In turn, Yemen's tyrant, Ali Abdullah Saleh, found it humiliating when he was forced to leave his seat in power after pressure from the Yemeni street after millions of people protested for months on end demanding an end to the regime. The ousted Yemeni leader had no choice but to form an alliance with the Iranian-sponsored Houthi militias in order to stage a coup on the new government. Saleh used all of his military and economic finances to burn Yemen to the ground.
Pro-Assad forces adopted the slogan: "Either Assad or we burn down the country". Similarly, those who were in favour of Ali Abdullah Saleh adopted the slogan: "Burn down everything beautiful in Yemen to take revenge on the revolutionaries". The result of this chaos led the Yemenis to long for the days in which they lived under the regime's tyranny because today's reality is far darker than the days of the past.
As for Libya, anything was possible after the people successfully brought down the Gaddafi regime and began building a new state on the remains of the fallen administration. Enemies of the state both inside and outside the country were plotting against the revolution and placed the country in the hands of rebels who were in conflict with one another.
Even in Tunisia, the size of the losses is no different. While it is true that Tunisia did not suffer the same losses as the people of Syria, Yemen and Libya, the reality remains that the country has returned to square one with the return of the former regime, that is, that the remnants of government's past have returned even after the Tunisian people showed them the door.
Supporters of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali have returned to sow the seeds of corruption, tyranny and terrorism on Tunisian television screens. It is as if they are seeking revenge on the revolution like their counterparts in Yemen, Syria and Libya. Therefore, it is no surprise that El Caïd El Sebsi's government was among the first to restore its diplomatic relationship with the Syrian regime while still completely ignoring all of the injustices that the Syrian regime has waged against its people.
In Egypt we find that people are longing for the days where Hosni Mubarak ruled the country as they transitioned from a dictatorial regime to a fascist one. At least this seems to be the sentiment among many members of the Egyptian opposition. Today, a member of the Egyptian opposition could be heard expressing his disbelief for how beautiful the days of the Mubarak era were as back then the Egyptian people enjoyed a bit of freedom; however, today many Egyptians are not only afraid to express the truth about how they feel, but also fear that their whispers of disapproval could turn into accusations of treason, terrorism and the like. The current Egyptian regime has sought its revenge on the Egyptian revolution in an undeniable way, as many oppositionists now believe.
There is no doubt that those who oppose the revolutions in Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen, especially on the internal level, find a source of happiness when they read or hear about beliefs such as the ones that are mentioned in this article. They take joy in knowing that they have sought their revenge on the popular revolutions and the people. They have turned the clock back not only to the past but to the dark ages. Yes, they have succeeded at this stage but do they really have any other plans aside from this plot for revenge? Of course not. Is the situation in Syria more favourable now for the likes of Bashar Al-Assad, for example?
Does he think that he will ever rule the Syria that existed once upon a time? Does that country even exist anymore? While it is true that such regimes care very little about their countries or their people, are they not harming themselves by harming their people? Are Bashar Al-Assad, Ali Abdullah Saleh and Gaddafi loyalists not planting the seeds for tens of future revolutions? Will they be able to fix the damage they have caused with their own two hands by killing, destroying and forcing their populations to migrate? Of course not.
Even in Egypt and Tunisia, which have not experienced destruction, one must ask: what are the goals behind the new regime's project? Do they have any true strategies for leading the people away from revolutions and elections? Do they truly have better alternatives? Are the realities in these countries so bad that they are on the brink of collapse politically, economically and in terms of security? Are terrorism laws the way to fix the people's ways? Is it enough to win against your political opponent by raising a victory sign in a country suffering in every domain, especially after a revolution?
Some people believe that the consequences of the revolutions will bring people to obedience. Look at the Algerian people who were forced to swallow their wounds, which they acquired during the 1990s conflict only to be brought back to a dictatorship. There are those who believe that the rest of the Arab world will follow suit by following this example. To those who believe that Algeria will not repeat the revolutionary experience, I say you understand history in the same way that I understand the science of nuclear fission. It is impossible to heal a wound that spills this much blood without expecting it to cause more damage the second time it occurs.
To those who have sought revenge on the revolutions: do not rejoice too much because revenge is not a solution but a prelude to destruction and urban collapse, as well as to future revolutions. The future revolutions will make the past ones look like child's play and if in the past you had thousands of protesting revolutionaries, then today you will have millions. What is coming is bigger and more dangerous than you can possibly imagine!
