| Hama Massacre |
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| 1982 | |
| history of syria | |
| massacres in syria | |
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BACKGROUND At the time the Midle East was in deep turmoil and Syria was deeply implicated in Lebanon's Civil War since 1976 and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Problems also arouse from Turkey which mobilized troops on its borders with Syria primarly to deal with Kurdish rebels, and accused Syria of supporting and training the PKK rebels within Turkey. The Muslim Brotherhood may have analyzed the situation as a weakness from the Government and started to defy its rule. It undertook terrorist activities in multiple cities within the country targeting officers, government officials and infrastructures, and even attacked schools. The anti-regime violence included the murder of eighty-three young military cadets at an artillery school in Aleppo in June 1979, and three car bomb attacks in Damascus between August and November 1980 that killed several hundred people. In July 1980, membership in the Muslim Brotherhood was made a capital offense punishable by death, with the ratification of Law No. 49. Throughout the early 1980s the Muslim Brotherhood staged a series of bomb attacks against the government and its officials, including a nearly successful attempt to assassinate al-Assad on June 26, 1980, during an official state reception for the president of Mali. As a machine gun salvo missed him, al-Assad ran to kick a hand grenade aside, and his bodyguard sacrificed himself to smother the explosion of another one. Surviving with only light damages, al-Assad's revenge was swift and merciless: only hours later many hundreds of imprisoned Islamists were murdered in a massacre carried out by his brother Rifaat al-Assad in Tadmor Prison. THE MASSACRE Calls for vengeance grew within the brotherhood, and bomb attacks increased in frequency. Events culminated with a general insurrection in the conservative Sunni town of Hama in February 1982. Islamists and other opposition activists proclaimed Hama a "liberated city" and urged Syria to rise up against the "infidel". Brotherhood fighters swept the city of Ba'thists, breaking into the homes of government employees and suspected supporters of the regime, killing about 50. The goal of the attack on Hama was to cease the rebellious activities of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. The assault began on February 2 with extensive shelling of the town of 350 000 inhabitants. Before the attack the Government called for the city's surrender and warned that anyone remaining in the city will be considered as a rebel. Robert Fisk in his book "Pity the Nation" described how civilians were fleeing Hama while tanks amd troops were moving towards the city's outskirts to start the siege. According to Amnesty International, the Syrian military bombed the old streets of the city from the air to facilitate the introduction of military forces and tanks through the narrow streets, where homes were crushed by tanks during the first four days of fighting. They also claim that the Syrian military pumped poison gas into buildings where insurgents were said to be hiding. AFTER THE MASSACRE Internationally calls came from Western countries denouncing the attack as a breach of human rights and a massacre. Al-Assad called those countries and the World, in an official speech, not to harbour those who fled Syria and consider them as a threat and terrorists. His calls fell on deaf ears. Most members of the Brotherhood fled mainly to Jordan, the U.S, England and Germany with large numbers of them settling in the latter two which gladly harboured them as political refugees. Today many Islamic groups are centered in England and Germany but with the present attacks of other radical groups (9/11, London and Madrid bombings) begs the question whether Al-Asad had predicted events in the present 20 years ago back in 1982. Locally, within Syria, the attack was publicized in order to act as a deterrent. However even the most conservative, not radical, elements within Syria did not rise to the aid of the Brotherhood, nor strongly expressed sympathy, largely because of their violent means and actions, compared to Al-Assad's initial patience in dealing with the Brotherhood, until the attempt on his life and Hama's uprising. Thomas Friedman points out that never again have Muslim extremists threatened the Syrian government. Even today the public at large are not well informed, especially when compared with comparable or smaller events in Iraq , Lebanon , or in the Israeli-Palestinian Dispute . Occurring 8 months before the Sabra And Shatila Massacre , in comparison, Hama is heavily underdiscussed in both the media and in academic circles. Hama, which had some small tourist attractions like open parks and water wheels, turned into a poor city. After the massacre most of its inhabitants moved away, and instead came commoners from nearby villages. One of the few foreign witnesses was journalist Robert Fisk , who has given his eye-witness account of the events in his book ''Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War.'' EXTERNAL LINKS |
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