Syrian Crisis
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. सीरिया में बीते करीब चार साल से सिविल वॉर जारी है। वहां फ्री सीरियन आर्मी जैसे कई ग्रुप असद की आर्मी से लड़ रहे हैं। इस्लामिक स्टेट ने भी सीरिया के कई हिस्सों पर कब्जा कर लिया है। ऐसे में, असद के लिए अपनी सत्ता को बचा पाना काफी मुश्किल हो रहा है।
सीरिया के मुद्दे पर रूस और अमेरिका जैसे देश क्यों हैं आमने-सामने?
- अमेरिका सीरियाई प्रेसिडेंट बशर अल असद को हटाना चाहता है। रूस असद का खुलकर सपोर्ट करता है।
- असद की आर्मी इस्लामिक स्टेट और पश्चिमी देशों के समर्थक विद्रोहियों के खिलाफ लड़ रही है। रूस असद की आर्मी के साथ है।
- मीडिया रिपोर्ट्स के मुताबिक, अमेरिकी अफसरों ने दावा किया है कि रूस सीरिया के उन इलाकों पर भी हवाई हमला कर रहा है, जहां आईएसआईएस एक्टिव नहीं है।
- ये वे इलाके हैं जहां सीरियाई प्रेसिडेंट असद के खिलाफ काम कर रहे कई विद्रोही संगठन एक्टिव हैं।
- रूस ने पिछले दिनों तुर्की के एयरस्पेस का भी वॉयलेशन किया। इससे अमेरिका और भड़क गया है।
- रूस के साथ सीरिया, ईरान और इराक जैसे देश हैं।
- वहीं, रूस के खिलाफ अमेरिका की अगुआई में ब्रिटेन और तुर्की जैसे देश हैं।
By GS HINDI
https://www.facebook.com/groups/608020872659777/
What's happening in Syria?
The violence in Syria began in March 2011 and the middle eastern country has been crippled by a brutal civil war ever since.
Since then, the United Nations estimates more than 200,000 people have died in the clashes between President Bashar al-Assad's government and rebel forces who want him out.
The UN's Refugee Agency says more than four million people have fled Syria to neighbouring countries, and over half of those are children.
Many of the refugees are among the tens of thousands who have been arriving in Europe, trying to reach countries like Britain and Germany. .
In July 2012, the International Red Cross said the violence in Syria had become so widespread that it was in a state of civil war.
But what are the reasons behind the violence? And what is being done to stop it getting any worse?
How did it all start?
The trouble began in 2011 in the Syrian city of Deraa.
Locals took to the streets to protest after 15 schoolchildren were arrested - and reportedly tortured - for writing anti-government graffiti on a wall.
The protests were peaceful to begin with, calling for the release of the children, democracy and greater freedom for people in the country.
The government responded angrily, and on 18 March 2011, the army opened fire on protesters, killing four people.
The following day, they shot at mourners at the victims' funerals, killing another person.
People were shocked and angry at what had happened and soon the unrest spread to other parts of the country.
What do the protesters want and what have they got?
At first the protesters just wanted democracy and greater freedom.
But once government forces opened fire on peaceful demonstrations, people demanded that the President, Bashar al-Assad, resign.
President Assad refused to step down.
As the violence worsened he offered to change some things about the way the country was run, but the protesters didn't believe him.
President Assad also has quite a lot of people in Syria that still support him and his government.
Who are the rebel fighters?
There isn't a clear single group of rebels, united against President Assad.
The opposition, who all want the president to step down, is split between groups of rebel fighters, political parties and people living in exile, who cannot return to the country.
It's thought there could have been as many as 1,000 groups opposing the government since the conflict began, with an estimated 100,000 fighters.
The Rise of IS
The war is now more than just a battle between those for or against President Assad.
In early 2014, in neighbouring Iraq, an extremist group called Islamic State, or IS, began to take over large areas of the country.
IS is a radical militant group which has used violence against anyone who doesn't agree with their extremist views.
They have also persecuted other groups, including Christians and Yazidis.
IS later moved into eastern Syria and in the chaos of war they were able to gain land and power there too.
To try and stop IS, in September 2014 the US, UK and other countries joined forces, using planes to attack their fighters on the ground.
Chemical weapons
Chemical weapons have been used during the war, causing anger around the world.
In August 2013, a chemical attack just outside the Syrian capital, Damascus, caused a strong reaction from many countries including America, Britain and France.
After the effects of these weapons were seen, there were long discussions over what the rest of the world should do.
In September 2013, United Nations inspectors confirmed that chemical weapons had been used in Syria, but the report did not say who was responsible.
Syria, however, denies using chemical weapons, which are banned under international law because the effects of their use are so horrific.
The government in Syria said: "There is no country in the world that uses a weapon of ultimate destruction against its own people."
They blamed the rebel forces for the chemical attack.
Destruction of chemical weapons
Why are western countries wary of getting involved?
BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner says:
"I think the real reason why Britain and other countries like America haven't got involved so far is that they don't want to upset the Russians.
"The British and American governments are saying: 'OK we care about what's happening in Syria - but are we prepared to go to war with Russia over this? No.'"
Syria crisis - Frank Gardner answers your questions (August 2013)
The chemical attack caused international outrage and many leaders argued it demanded a strong response.
But MPs in Westminster voted against Britain being involved in military action in Syria.
The American and French governments discussed limited missile strikes against military targets in Syria.
But Russia has strong ties with President Assad's Syrian government and has helped Syria in the past by supplying weapons.
In September 2013 Russia suggested a solution that could avoid a wider conflict: that the Syrian government should give up its chemical weapons and commit to destroying them so they can never again be used.
The process of destroying the weapons began in October 2013, and the people working on this project were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize later that month.
The refugee crisis
Many ordinary Syrian people have been caught up in the violence during the war and have been forced to leave their homes to escape to safety in other countries.
Every day refugees stream across the borders of Syria into the neighbouring nations of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.
More than 4 million people have fled Syria since the start of the conflict, most of them women and children. It is one of the largest refugee movements in recent history.
A further 8 million people, 50% of them children, have had to leave their homes within Syria.
They are in desperate need of help. But aid agencies say that getting aid to people inside Syria is very difficult and dangerous.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have now fled the country and refugee camps in neighbouring countries to come to Europe.
The journey they make across land and sea is often very dangerous.
Some countries in Europe have said they will accept refugees who want to start a new life here.
Germany says they can take up to 500,000 refugees a year, Prime Minister David Cameron says the UK will accept up to 20,000 people direct from Syrian refugee camps by 2020.
France has pledged to take in 24,000 people.
What happens next?
It doesn't look like the fighting is likely to end any time soon.
There is a stalemate between the two sides: the government forces and the rebel groups are unable to defeat each other.
In December 2013, the US and Britain stopped all 'non-lethal' supplies to the Syrian rebel groups too. Non-lethal supplies means things like medicine, vehicles and communication equipment.
Both the Syrian government and rebel groups are now also having to fight back against the terrorist group Islamic State,
Caught in the middle of these wars, the Syrian people have lost their homes and members of their family. Many are living in makeshift camps.
Lots of countries are continuing to supply aid, such as food and emergency supplies, but the US and Britain said they had to stop all other support as they feared the equipment may be stolen by rebel groups, which they did not support.
For now, discussions continue between powerful nations like the US, Russia, Britain and France, to try to work out if there is another way to help Syria achieve peace..........
recently RUSSIA attcked the ISIL affected area, as pro ASAD regime with the support from IRAN, IRAQ AND ASAD'S agreement. However US and Western nations are against this being against to ASAD's regime. while ASAD is struggling with many rebel groups and ISIL with the opposition of western nations and US....
A VERY STRANGE TRI-PARTITE STRUGGLE...putting the lives of citizens on stake and leading them to flee from syria to other nearby countries and Europe. ie.
SYRIAN GOVT-WITH IRAN, IRAQ AND RUSSIA == REBEL GROUPS Including ISIL ====WESTERN NATIONS WITH US
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MOREOVER THE TEN POINTS
THIS is a complicated war. This is a messy, cruel war where neither side has much regard for civilian casualties.
This war is not black-and-white. You might think it's the brave rebels versus the evil dictatorial regime, and that's part of the story. But it's not all of it. Not by a long way.
Confused about Syria? Us too. But this quick 10-point explainer will help. To help us navigate this tragic conflict, we spoke to two Australians with a unique view on the troubled nation.
We spoke to Dr Rodger Shanahan, former peacekeeper in Syria and non-resident Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy.
And we spoke to Father David Smith, a Sydney Anglican priest who this year travelled to Syria on a humanitarian mission. You can read his blog here at prayersforsyria.com.
1. Syria
A country smaller than the state of Victoria with almost the exact same population as Australia (22.5 million to our 23 million) which borders Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon. Syria has both deserts and fertile areas and is steeped in history dating back to biblical times.
2. The Syrian regime
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. AFP PHOTO/SANA
Source: AFP
Unlike many regime leaders in the middle east middle, The Assad family is not religiously extreme. They are Alawites - a relatively obscure branch of Islam which is not particularly hard-line. So the people have not been protesting against hard-line Islamists, as happened in other countries which participated in the Arab Spring uprisings.
But people are still angry at their government. As Rodger Shanahan points out, what they're angry about is the failure of long-promised economic and political reforms.
3. The Civil War begins
Rodger Shanahan says the catalyst was the jailing on March 6, 2011, of some children who painted anti-regime graffiti. Some were killed in detention, and this led to public protests which spread around the country - fuelled by the failure of the government to punish the perpetrators.
Another theory says the war started with demonstrations which mirrored those in neighbouring countries, and which soon led to a security crackdown. In April 2011, the Syrian Army fired on demonstrators and the protests became a full-sc
4. The rebellion grows…
By July 2011, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) had formed. As Dr Shanahan explains, the FSA never existed before that. "Local areas formed their own militias with the aim of toppling the government without any co-ordination or centralised command or control," he says.
"The militias were a combination of local area tribal groups, deserters from the military [who had been conscripted despite holding anti-government beliefs] and disaffected locals."
Then a combination of Jihadists, some from Syria and some from elsewhere, joined the FSA. Some even came from the faraway Caucasus region - where accused Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev originally hailed from.
So in other words, you had genuine Syrian freedom fighters joined by people with their own Islamist agendas. But because the FSA was underarmed and undermanned, they had little choice but to form a loose coalition with these volatile new kids on the revolutionary block.
5. And pretty soon, bad guys on both sides are killing civilians…
There are good and bad people on both sides. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network, SNN)
Source: AP
Father Dave illustrates his point with a communication he had with a Syrian woman which he published on his blog. The woman's name is Ghinwa and she wrote by text:
"The situation is very bad now in Latakia province. 7 Alawite villages were massacred. We know about the killing of 136 villagers all killed on sectarian bases. A friend of mind lost 21 member of his relatives.
"All of my friends who were documenting the name and the events of massacres in Latakia against Alawites are now being threatened to be killed by FSA and Al Nusra terrorists … On TV we are shown something different. It is only a propaganda. They're trying to say that Alawites are not being killed or displaced. The truth is being hidden by mass media. .. This is sick… My sister now is very ill … I guess a part of her illness is caused by sadness … we are afraid."
A quick recap. Alawites are the ethnicity of the ruling family. The fact they were allegedly being killed by rebel groups suggests the rebels are not all angels.
6. Civilian casualties
"There are accusations of atrocities on both sides," Rodger Shanahan confirms. We should believe some of them, absolutely. There's no accurate confirmation, but it's a nasty horrible civil war with people on both sides getting killed.
Dr Shanahan says there is evidence that opposition car bombs have killed countless civilians in the name of taking out a government target. But there are equally distressing reports that government soldiers executed civilians. Others, shockingly, were executed for taking a moral stance and failing to follow orders to execute civilians.
Like we said, it's a bloody mess. Literally. The death toll in the war is now said to be well over 100,000.
7. The president's wife
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma al-Assad. AFP PHOTO / Gerard Cerles
Source: Supplied
In March 2011, the American version of Vogue magazine ran a long, glowing profile of Asma al-Assad. Talk about bad timing. The story was soon removed from Vogue's website and the journalist who wrote it tried to cover her tracks by penning a separate story elsewhere entitled "First Lady of Hell".
Even as the Civil war rages, the Assad family remains popular with many middle class Syrians, especially urbanised Sunni Muslims, says Dr Rodger Shanahan. "They still prefer him to the opposition," he says.
8. Refugee hell
No queue-jumping here. AP Photo/Hadi Mizban
Source: AP
"The camps I saw were deeply impressive," Father Dave says. "Every Palestinian family took in two, maybe three Syrian families. These included polygamous families which presented a whole new problem. The wives often lived in separate houses in Syria but now they were not just under the same roof but sleeping on the same floor. The domestic violence and rape problems are enormous. I was deeply impressed with camp and people running it."
9. Chemical weapons
Just who unleashed the chemical weapons attack which killed hundreds of children and other civilians last week - and why? UN weapons inspectors arrived yesterday with a mandate to find that out. And when they do, it will affect what the world does next.
"They have a mandate to say whether a chemical attack occurred but not to apportion blame," Dr Shanahan cautions. "First, they have to establish whether an incident occurred [it is still disputed by some] and at what level the action was authorised. It is plausible that Assad didn't authorise it but a local commander did."
10. What happens next
The world waits. "You would think the way diplomatic manoeuvrings are going that if there is some kind of military strike it would be quite limited," Dr Shanahan says. "It would be punitive, not designed to tip the military balance."
In other words, no Iraq-style invasion or prolonged Western intervention.
And Father Dave's opinion of what comes next? He doesn't know. But he's praying. He speaks of a man he met in Syria who said he's gone "from unemployment to slavery". That's his way of saying the revolution has so far achieved a whole bunch of nothing except bloodshed and dislocation.
"I see the faces of all those beautiful people and I pray," he says.
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