Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Friday 13 July 2018

Syrian government raises its flag over cradle of 2011 revolt

surrender their heavy and
medium weapons.
Under the terms of the
agreement, Russia will de-
ploy military police to main-
tain order in Daraa and fa-
cilitate the transition back
to government rule, said a
media activist inside who
asked for anonymity out of
concern for his safety.
Russian mediators are
warning fighters and civil-
ians against leaving Daraa
for Idlib, the northwest Syr-
ian province where over
a million displaced Syrians
are living in dire conditions
and exposed to govern-
ment airstrikes and the pos-
sibility of a future offensive.
“Idlib is a crematory,” the
activist said Russian media-
tors warned him.
Humanitarian groups say
more than 300,000 people
have been displaced by
the government’s southern
offensive, moving toward
the Jordanian border and
to Quneitra, a province
This Thursday, July 5, 2018 file photo, Syrian opposition media outlet shows smoke rising over buildings that were hit by Syrian that borders Israel.
government forces bombardment, Syria. Israel and Jordan’s borders
Associated Press are closed to refugees, and
the aid group Oxfam said
By PHILIP ISSA ranged from alleged tor- in Daraa, said fighters in have been killed in the Thursday it was unable to
Associated Press turing of dissidents to shell- the city had accepted an campaign, including 162 deliver enough aid across
BEIRUT (AP) — For the first ing the city with tanks and offer of amnesty from the civilians, according to Rami the Jordan border to meet
time in more than seven planes. With control over government, and let back Abdurrahman, director of the needs of the internally
years, the Syrian govern- Daraa, government forces in the state institutions and the Syrian Observatory for displaced residents.
ment raised its flag Thurs- can now focus on clearing symbols of Assad’s rule. Human Rights — among The circumstances are es-
day over Daraa, the first the last pockets of the op- Rebels refusing to accept them women and children. pecially perilous for jour-
city to revolt against Presi- position and, separately, the deal will be exiled with U.N. Secretary-General An- nalists and media activists,
dent Bashar Assad in 2011 the Islamic State group from their families to other rebel- tonio Guterres told report- who say they fear for their
and plunge the country the frontier at the Golan held parts of the country. ers at a news conference lives if they are captured by
into its calamitous civil war. Heights, which Israel seized The agreement follows a that the world body had government troops.
The display is laden with from Syria in a 1967 war. The template imposed by the tried “to prevent a blood- The Committee to Protect
symbolism as the govern- corner of southwest Syria is government and its Rus- bath” in the region. Journalists said Wednesday
ment moves to stamp an important corridor for sian and Iranian backers Late last month, Guterres at least 70 journalists were
out the last of the uprising trade between Syria and that has forced hundreds had called for an immedi- trapped in southwest Syria
against the 52-year-old Jordan, and onward to the of thousands of Syrians, ate end to military opera- and required protection.
Assad who has ruled with oil-rich Gulf states. But most including media activists, tions and a return to cease- Syria is one of the most
an iron fist over Syria for of the important fighting army defectors, and draft fire arrangements agreed dangerous countries in the
18 years. His father Hafez against the revolt has al- dodgers and their family to by Russia, the United world for journalists, ac-
Assad was president for ready been concluded in members to give up their States and Jordan. cording to CPJ. At least 120
three decades before him. shattering battles farther to homes to lift the sieges “I think that our action was journalists have been killed
Officials accompanied by the north for the main cities against their cities. useful in that regard,” he in the country in relation to
state media crews hoisted of Damascus, Aleppo, and Human rights monitors say said. “But again the objec- their work since the conflict
the two-star flag over the Homs, and territories in be- the arrangements amount tive must be and remains began in 2011, according
rubble of the city’s main tween. to a program of political entirely for us a political so- to CPJ research. At the time
square, allowing it to wave Some 400,000 people have and demographic engi- lution.” of CPJ’s most recent prison
in sight of the shell of the been killed in seven years neering in Syria to secure Mohamad al-Hanous, Da- census, at least seven jour-
Omari Mosque where pro- of war. Assad’s rule. raa’s governor, said gov- nalists were in Syrian state
testers first gathered in Protests in Daraa in 2011 Government forces ernment forces were in prisons while many others
demonstrations demand- against the government’s launched an offensive to control of 80 percent of the are missing.
ing reforms then Assad’s mistreatment of teenage recapture southwest Syria city, according to the gov- Masalmeh, the media ac-
ouster in the spring of 2011. detainees ignited a nation- and the areas neighbor- ernment-linked Central Mili- tivist, said he was smuggled
The mosque has since been al revolt against decades ing Jordan and Israel on tary Media outlet, while Syr- out of southwest Syria to
destroyed in the govern- of authoritarian rule. June 19. They surrounded ian state media reported Jordan four days ago, leav-
ment’s brutal crackdown Ahmad Masalmeh, a me- Daraa’s rebel-held quar- late Wednesday that reb- ing his parents and extend-
against the city, which dia activist formerly based ters on Monday. Dozens els in Daraa had agreed to ed family in Daraa.q