Syrian state television said a final agreement had been reached between Syrian authorities and an Arab League committee tasked with finding a solution to end seven months of unrest.

Reuters

Her remarks come as protesters took to the streets on Friday in different cities, a nationwide outpouring supporting the “free army,” a reference to personnel who have defected from President Bashar al-Assad’s military and the recently-formed Syrian Free Army. At least eight people have died in protests, one activist group said.

Pillay said the government has “manifestly failed to protect its population” and has “ignored the international community’s calls to cooperate with international investigations,” she said.

“At stake are the universal rights to life, liberty and security of person which must never be brushed aside in the interests of realpolitik. The international community must speak with one voice and act to protect the Syrian people.”

Protests in Syria erupted seven months ago, with demonstrators demanding changes to regime policies and/or an end to the regime. Opposition activists have accused officials of killing protesters, but the government has said it is going after armed groups.

The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights, a London-based activist group with a network of informants across Syria, estimates that more than 3,100 people have died since the uprising began in mid-March. Most of them are civilians but some are military personnel as well.

Pillay also said the death toll has exceeded 3,000 people and at least 187 of them are children. She said more than 100 people have been reported killed in the last ten days.

The government “has consistently used excessive force to crush peaceful protests,” she said.

“Sniping from rooftops, and indiscriminate use of force against peaceful protesters — including the use of live ammunition and the shelling of residential neighborhoods — have become routine occurrences in many Syrian cities,” she said.

“In addition, thousands have been arrested, detained, forcibly disappeared and tortured. Family members inside and outside the country have been targeted for harassment, intimidation, threats and beatings. As more members of the military refuse to attack civilians and change sides, the crisis is already showing worrying signs of descending into an armed struggle.”

Two months ago, she said there had been “credible allegations of crimes against humanity in Syria” and urged the U.N. Security Council to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court.

Countries across the globe have expressed outrage over the instability in Syria. The European Union and the United States have imposed sanctions against the regime.

The Gulf Cooperation Council, six Gulf Arab states, urged an immediate meeting of Arab League states to discuss the country’s violence. The meeting should be at the foreign ministers level, the council said in a statement Thursday without providing details. Syria is a member of the Arab League.

Demonstrations occur regularly in Syria but activists mount nationwide demonstrations every Friday after Muslim prayers and those events regularly have labels, like the “Free Army Friday” theme.

The Syrian Observatory said seven civilians killed and more than 30 wounded in the city of Dael in Daraa province in the south amid sustained gunfire. A civilian was killed during clashes in the Damascus suburb of Saqba, it said.

Activists said security forces opened fire on protesters in the cities of Homs, in the west, and Damascus, the capital, and besieged worshipers at a mosque in Banias, in the west. More than 4,000 people chanted for the Free Syrian Army in Idlib province, in the northwest.

In the city of Douma, in the south, communication lines including cell phones were cut off after earlier demonstrations, the group said. In Hasaka, in the northeast protesters outside a mosque chanted “freedom.”

The Syrian Arab News Agency, the state-run outlet, reported “10 army and law enforcement officers” were killed after they were “ambushed by an armed terrorist group in the Idlib province town of Binnish on Thursday. This narrative directly contradicts that of the opposition, which claims defector soldiers and civilians were killed.

At least 15 people were killed Thursday, including two young children, the Syrian Observatory said. Twelve of those killed were in Binnish, which soldiers raided searching for dissidents and army defectors, activists said.

Among those SANA reported killed on Thursday in Binnish was Lt. Col. Abdul-Majeed al-Misri from Daraa.

But on Friday, Omar Idlibi, a Beirut-based spokesman for the opposition Local Coordination Committees told CNN Brig. Gen. al-Misri was in fact killed in the city of Hama, in the west.

Idlibi told CNN Syrian security forces opened on al-Misri’s car, killing him, after he defected from the military.

An opposition video shows people marching and denouncing Bashar and Hafez al Assad in al-Misri’s home village of Atman outside Daraa city. Hafez al-Assad is Bashar’s late father and one-time Syrian president

The man filming the video says at the beginning “this is Free ArmyFriday, after the burial of Abdul-Majeed al-Misri.” Thirty seconds into the video, a man holds up a martyr’s portrait purportedly of al-Misri.

The crowd is chanting “God damn you Hafez and Bashar.”

CNN cannot independently confirm events in Syria, which restricts international journalists from accessing many parts of the country.

CNN

My older brother, Bashir, 26, is one of the thousands of people who have been detained by Bashar Assad’s regime in recent weeks.

At first, we didn’t know what had happened to him. He and two friends had been missing since they went to the northern city of Jisr Al Shoughur on June 10 to secretly film the protests and the army crackdown there. Then, last week, I was watching Syrian state television when my brother suddenly came on the screen. A caption underneath his image said he had confessed to subversive activities.

Bashir, an economics student at the University of Latakiya, is neither very religious nor very liberal in his views. Like most people in Syria, my brother and I often talked about politics between ourselves, but we were careful to stay away from political activity. The secret police watch everyone, and they can twist the most mundane statements and actions into evidence of subversive activity. Even growing a short beard might prompt the secret police to make a report: “His beard is now one centimeter long.” This would then be presented as evidence of Islamist extremism.

When the protests began, Bashir decided to start filming the ones in our area and posting the footage on YouTube and other channels so people outside the country would know what was happening. Our parents were very opposed, saying we should just be patient and that, in time, the regime would change. They warned Bashir that he could be imprisoned.

But Bashir defied them. To him, the protests presented our best chance for ending government corruption and repression. He saw the possibility of living a free life, without the constant fear of arrest or worse.

He tried to explain that to my parents. “Now is the time for change,” he said. “I don’t want my children one day to still be living under this regime.”

He had watched what happened in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, and he felt that this was the moment for Syria too.

It took a lot of courage to do what Bashir did, as there are informants everywhere in our country. Taking out his cellphone and filming in public made it almost certain that observers would inform on him. I admired that courage but didn’t dare to do the same.

Then, about a month ago, I was writing my university exams when I received a call from Bashir. I said I couldn’t talk as I was in an exam, but he interrupted me: “Leave right away. They have found out my name, and they will come for you as well.”

I got up and left, and since then I have lived on the run. I also have joined the struggle for Syria’s freedom.

Earlier this month, we finally saw each other in a camp on the Syrian-Turkish border. We talked deep into the night about our work, about our hopes that the protests would succeed and how terrified we were. Very early the next morning, on Friday, June 10, he got up and left to do more filming with his friends.

When he disappeared, I assumed he was in hiding, as it is often difficult for young men to move around with all the checkpoints. But as the days went on, even as I told my parents not to be alarmed, I became increasingly worried that he had been arrested.

When he appeared on Syrian state television, I grew dizzy. We were in a room full of activists, and I broke down in tears. Everyone knows that when people appear on state television in Syria to make “confessions,” they have been brutally tortured and forced to lie. Only God knows how they forced him to tell those dirty lies.

One of the friends he disappeared with was also on the television “confessing,” but there is still no word on the fate and whereabouts of the other man who was with them when they disappeared.

Bashir and his friend looked drugged and tired. They named many of the other activists, and as I looked around the room I could see faces cloud over with worry, for themselves and their families. Syria’s security services regularly detain family members to pressure activists to turn themselves in. It is terrible to know that we are putting our families at risk.

In their confessions, my brother and his friend claimed that they had videotaped the crimes of “armed gangs” and small protests of just a dozen people, but that the other activists had doctored the footage to make the protests look larger and to make it appear as if the security services and the army were responsible for killing citizens. I couldn’t bear to watch and ran out of the room.

I dreaded calling my parents to tell them about Bashir’s arrest. Finally, my dad called me. I had been afraid that my parents would beg me to stop my activities and return home, so I jumped in and explained to my father how we had to continue our struggle, how this was the moment for creating a new Syria.

He listened and finally gave his permission, saying, “Go, my brave son. You are now truly a man.” I could hear my mother crying.

All we want is our freedom. We know the cost, but we are ready to pay the price. With 1,300 dead already, we cannot give up now, because their deaths would have been in vain.

In the room with me watching my brother confess to crimes he didn’t commit were two fellow activists whose brothers have already been killed, shot dead while protesting. They are carrying on the struggle their brothers started.

I will do the same, continuing Bashir’s peaceful struggle with the courage he taught me.

*Nazir al-Abdo is a Syrian democracy activist currently in Turkey. Peter Bouckaert translated this piece.

LAT

“This is a moment of extraordinary opportunity for the cause of freedom in Syria, and it has tremendous strategic significance for the region,” Lieberman said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program, noting Syria’s close ties with Iran.

Lieberman called on the U.S. to freeze Assad’s wealth and go to the United Nations to place an arms embargo on the regime.

As we witness a rebirth of a revolutionary neo-Arabism that has infected millions from Morocco to Bahrain, we cannot ignore the birth-place of the original pan Arab movement of the past century – Syria.

Much has been written about Syria and why it cannot be next in line of the modern day Grand Arab Revolution. Very few have asked the question: “Why not?”

On March 15, the Syrian Day of Rage, as its Facebook group put it, hundreds were reported to have taken to the streets of Damascus, the capital.

On March 17th, “The Friday of Dignity”, the momentum picked up. Hundreds of Syrians protested in Homs, Aleppo, Dara’a and the coastal city of Banias. In Dara’a, a southwestern city on the Jordanian border, protests have turned deadly and the regime has sealed off the city in a hurried attempt to quell the spreading unrest.

Challenging the regime

“]

Funerals have been held for protesters killed in the southwestern city of Dara'a [Reuters

For anyone, let alone thousands of Syrians to call out in the open for freedom and dignity is simply unheard of: It is understood by every Syrian to mean a challenge to a once set-in-stone status quo.

A forty year old red line has been crossed and there is no turning back.

Some have made the argument that Syria is immune to unrest because the country has a popular president, who is generally considered to be in-tune with the sentiments of the Arab street on foreign policy and who is a young idealist that has introduced a “reform” agenda. Some others claim that Syria will side-step revolution because the social and economic conditions in the country are more tolerable than those of Tunisia or Egypt.

While these explanations may have some merit, they assume a false frame. Tunisians, Egyptians, and now Libyans, have demonstrated to the Arab world, and Syrians in particular, that people cannot be placated with hand-me-downs per the discretion, or the timeline, of the regime. It is about proactively taking what is rightfully theirs – from holding their government accountable to having a real choice in who governs them in the first place.

Freedom, dignity and democracy can be trickle down from dictators, they are the inheritance of the people.

Culture of dissent

The revolutionary rumbles that can be heard in Syria today, indicate that revolution is not only possible, but is inevitable because Syrians have learned from neighboring uprisings that freedom is attained through exercising one’s inalienable human right to self-determination and self-dignity.

Like their Arab counterparts, Syrian youth have similar grievances: unemployment, lack of government accountability and rampant corruption that forecast a bleak future. Like other Arab revolutionaries, they are neither dominated by an Islamist ideology nor a foreign agenda. They are Syrians who comprise the rich diversity of Syria – whether Christian or Muslim, Druz or Alawi, Kurd or Assyrian. The recent protests in the country have shown that these young protesters are united in purpose, and peaceful in their means.

Syrians have embarked on an irreversible path of collective political self-awareness. The slogans of March 15th, “God, Freedom and Syria, period!” cannot be unuttered. They have challenged a culture of complacency, fear and silence.

No one will be able to tell with any degree of certainty what will happen in the next few days or weeks in Syria. Will the momentum continue to snowball and bring more Syrians to the streets? Will the regime make an example of Dara’a and show the populace the price one pays for dissent? Or will a critical mass of Syrians decide the time is now for Syria to join its free brethren in Egypt, and Tunisia?

One thing, however, is for certain: If Syria does not see a full-blown uprising soon, a culture of dissent has nonetheless commenced. The fear barrier has been broken irreversibly.

People are finally realising that they are entitled to what is fundamentally theirs, and like their Tunisian and Egyptian sisters and brothers, they will know what do with it. They will organise and come together and they will learn to build a revolution and a more prosperous Syria.

M. Yaser Tabbara is a Syrian American civil rights lawyer and activist. He is currently the president of Project Mobilise, a Chicago based political action organisation.\

Al jazeera

US State Department spokesperson Mark Toner urged Syria on Wednesday to exercise restraint and to refrain from violence.

“We call on the Syrian government to live up to its obligations under the universal declaration on human rights, ” adding ” we are concerned by today’s reports of injured and detained protesters in Syria and we call on the Syrian government to exercise restraint and to refrain from violence.”

Despite the ban , about 150 protesters gathered in a square in the Syrian capital, near the country’s interior ministry calling for the release of political prisoners . Security forces reportedly arrested more than two dozen of the protesters.

This was the second day of protests . About 200 protesters took to the streets of Old Damascus on Tuesday, calling for liberty and political freedoms.

Security forces broke up the protest using batons and at least four people were reportedly arrested.

On Tuesday, according to videos posted online, hundreds took to the streets of the capital and other cities calling for democratic reforms.

The ruling Baath party has dominated Syrian politics for nearly 50 years.

President Bashar al-Assad – who came to power in 2000 after three decades of rule by his father Hafez – has moved slowly to open up the economy, but his administration does not tolerate any dissent.

Political prisoners

On Wednesday, some 150 protesters gathered in a square in the capital, near the country’s interior ministry.

“After a long wait and rumours of an impending release of prisoners of conscience in Syria, our hopes have vanished,” said a statement from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The organisation – which groups together the families of 21 jailed human rights activists – had said it planned to demonstrate in front of the ministry on Wednesday.

There are thousands of political prisoners in Syrian jails, and major opposition groups are banned.

Guards keep watch outside the Interior Ministry at Marjeh square in central Damascus March 16, 2011. Security forces wielding batons dispersed 150 demonstrators who had gathered in central of Damascus on Wednesday in the most serious protest against Syria's ruling hierarchy since revolts spread in the Arab world

The government also blocks access to several internet sites and maintains strict control of the media.

Reports said that shortly after the protesters gathered a counter-demonstration was held in the same square with people chanting that they would defend the Syrian president “with our soul, with our blood”.

In January, President Assad told the Wall Street Journal that Syria was more stable than Tunisia and Egypt. He said that there was no chance of political upheaval, and pledged to press on with a package of reforms.

Watch the BBCvideo on the protest:

Travelers to Dubai and the important oil industry center of Abu Dhabi will — like local residents — have to do without BlackBerry e-mail, messaging and Web services starting in October, when the ban is scheduled to take effect.

It could also leave time-pressed business travelers hurrying through the region’s busiest airport in Dubai, many of them changing planes to destinations elsewhere, without access to the Web or their e-mail.

“I think it’s a very big step back. All developed countries in the world have it. Why should we not?” said Emirati BlackBerry user Maisoon al-Iskandarani, 24, who works at an international bank in Dubai. “How are you going to stay in touch with your clients and colleagues?”

Device maker Research in Motion Ltd. has so far declined to comment on the plan to suspend the services, which Emirati authorities announced Sunday.

The UAE contends some BlackBerry features operate outside the country’s laws, “causing judicial, social and national security concerns.” At the heart of their concerns is the way the BlackBerry handles data, which is encrypted and routed through RIM’s servers overseas, where it cannot be monitored for illegal activity.

Critics of the crackdown say it is also a way for the country’s conservative government to further control content they deem politically or morally objectionable. The smart phones enjoy a following not only among the region’s professionals, but also among tech-savvy youth who see their relatively secure communication channels as a way to avoid unwanted government attention.

The Telecommunication Regulatory Authority had left the question of phones run by foreign operators unanswered in announcing the ban, which is due to take effect Oct. 11.

But in an e-mailed response to AP questions Monday, the regulator said the service suspension would apply to all users in the country, including visitors using roaming services on foreign BlackBerry phones.

“Roaming for BlackBerry Messenger, BlackBerry e-mail and BlackBerry Web browsing will also be suspended,” the TRA said in its unsigned e-mail. “They won’t be able to use the mentioned services in (the) UAE as it’s suspended (in) the country.”

That would put BlackBerry service out of reach for business travelers and others passing through the Mideast’s busiest airport in Dubai, which averages about 100,000 passengers a day.

Dubai is a major commercial center, hosting the Mideast’s biggest port, and has emerged as the region’s financial capital and a popular tourist destination.

Its image as an easy place to do business has been tarnished, however, by a credit crisis that has left the emirate more than $100 billion in debt. Residents fear the BlackBerry crackdown won’t help.

“Dubai as it is doesn’t have a good reputation right now. Do you really want to add to that, so people say ‘even technology-wise they’re behind?’” al-Iskandarani said. “If anything, they should bring in extra services.”

The UAE’s other six emirates increasingly rely on foreign visitors too. The UAE federation’s capital Abu Dhabi, while less well-known abroad than its flashier neighbor, is building ties with multinational firms, actively promoting tourism and investing heavily in its own aviation sector.

Smaller emirates, such as Ras al-Khaimah in the north of the country, are also trying to entice foreign businesses to set up shop.

The UAE has singled out BlackBerry devices for scrutiny before.

Last year, RIM criticized a directive by the UAE state-owned mobile operator Etisalat telling the company’s BlackBerry users to install software described as a service upgrade. Tests showed the download actually installed spy software on users’ phones that could allow authorities to access private information stored on the handsets. It strongly distanced itself from Etisalat’s decision and told users how to remove the software.

The TRA says there are 500,000 BlackBerry subscribers in the UAE.

Telecommunication officials in Saudi Arabia have also said they are planning to curtail use of the BlackBerry messaging service, but not other services on the phones. Other countries, including India and the Gulf state of Bahrain, have also raised concerns about BlackBerry messaging features, but have not blocked them outright. AP

At a time when many countries are working on introducing G4 technology for fast and reliable telecommunications that is becoming increasingly video oriented Lebanon has the distinction of having one of the least sophisticated telecommunications infra structure in the world and the most expensive in the region, I might add.

Yet out 128 clowns and what passes for a cabinet are doing their best to drag us back into the stone age and to take away one of the very few windows of fresh air that we have. Whether you live in Lebanon or whether you live abroad but maintain close connection to friends and family the law that is to be voted upon tomorrow will affect you and in a rather negative way.

If the law passes and the government has its say then all VOIP will become effectively illegal and are to be banned including Skype. But that is not enough. The government is planning on giving itself a carte blanche to have access to all your internet communications and to have the right to confiscate hard drives and to sue those that are critical of the government and its feudal landlords. For an excellent discussion in Arabic go to tella.org a Lebanese blog.

If you care about internet neutrality, personal freedom, efficient technology and competitive environment  then please contact any of the parliamentary members that you can to impress upon them the need to defeat this draconian intrusive law which has very few counterparts besides Egypt, Algeria and Turkey, non of whom is exactly a hotbed of creativity, democracy and personal liberty. Just ask them to keep their hands off the internet.

If you want some more information then visit any of the following links:

SMEX says ACT NOW: Stop the E-transactions law.

Qifa Nabki’s Missed Call Nation.

Lebanon is stifling your freedom: Daily Star article.

Maya Zankoul nails another one.

Beirut Spring

Identity Chef

Independence 05

Trella

Beirutiyat

Sarahilal

A country is as good as its citizens. Let us show them that we care about democracy, modernity and freedom.

WWhenever the subject of democracy, modernity, equality or liberty come up, which is almost in every conversation, the Lebanese invariably advance the argument that the Lebanese society is the most liberal in the Middle East, and is the most advanced and the most democratic. Some will even imply that the Lebanese are the smartest, the best educated and the most capable. Well guess what; narcissism and hubris are arguably the worst of sins. Misplaced arrogance is nothing short of self deception.  But those who suffer of grandiose self deception will not usually listen to reason. This time, however, there is a factual study that presents as solid of an argument and as objective and scientific of an opinion as one can possibly ask for that can conclusively point to the errors brought about by hubris.

The process of healing whether it is for an individual, an institution or a state cannot begin until the offending entity admits to its mistakes and acknowledges that a different path is needed. The Second Annual State of Reform in The Arab World impressive study that calculates an Arab Democracy Index has just been released. The study is the culmination of an annual effort by a large number of Arab Think Tanks from Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria and Kuwait in conjunction with a number of European institutions.

The report for 2009 covered 10 Arab countries and concluded that democracy is not well entrenched in any of them. That in itself is a judgment that is worthwhile since it is in essence the result of Arabs who are looking at their own societies analytically. But what is of even greater concern for us in Lebanon is the fact that when all is said and done Lebanon ranks as the 4^th country out of the ten in the study which is an improvement on our rank of being the sixth out of the 8 countries studied during 2008. Thank goodness for the improvements.

What the study shows conclusively is what many of us have known for a long time but unfortunately the politicians have consistently refused to admit. Lebanon is a hollow democracy with many ineffective institutions, legislation that is never implemented, social injustices that are dealt with through lip service and the most egregious of all a backward. Undemocratic even feudal electoral system based on the most discriminatory idea of sectarian belief.

This comprehensive study goes on to highlight some very relevant facts about other Arab countries. The two countries that have the most influence in Lebanon and the two that in essence shape many of its decisions and policies; Saudi Arabia and Syria; have the lowest Democracy Index rank among the ten countries covered by the study and the third lowest respectively.

The final rankings were as follows:

Jordan  620         Morocco  601          Egypt 596          Lebanon 583         Algeria 570

Kuwait  553         Palestine 506           Syria  461           Yemen   457          Saudi Arabia 402

Can you imagine seeking instructions from a tutor who is more badly in need of remedial work than the client? That in a nutshell is our sad state of affairs. If we do not reverse these trends and introduce political, social and economic reforms then our chances of ever becoming a vibrant, modern and liberal state will just fade away. Will we ever realize that a wish is not a plan?

The Rankin

You can read the full report here.