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Spokespeople from the NATO countries and their loyal media
outlets have seized upon a massacre at Houla, Syria, to
mobilize for open imperialist military intervention against
the Syrian government and — and no one should doubt
this — against the people of Syria. NATO governments
have already begun expelling Syrian diplomats.
There seems to be no doubt at this time — May 29
— that a massacre took place. There is, however, much
confusion about who exactly carried out the massacre. The
corporate media is blaming the killings on the Syrian
government and calling for foreign intervention. The
Syrians, however, deny that their armed forces or police
have taken part, blame the killings on the armed opposition
and have themselves condemned the killings and are
organizing an investigation.
While we have no special knowledge about what did or
didn't happen, we do have a treasury of knowledge of how the
imperialists have manipulated such events in order to
justify a war or intervention on a "humanitarian"
basis. It is this type of manipulation that anti-war and
anti-imperialist forces should be most on the alert
for.
The most recent such manipulation was in Libya last year,
when the imperialist powers claimed there would be a
"massacre" of civilians in the city of Benghazi, a
center of monarchist opposition to Moammar Gadhafi, if there
were no NATO intervention. This supposed threat became the
pretext to win U.N. backing for a "no-fly zone" in
Libya. France and Britain, with enormous U.S. logistical
support, turned this "no-fly zone" into a military
assault on the pro-Gadhafi regime and overthrew it, leaving
Libya prey to the Western oil and energy
monopolies.
In
January 1999, the imperialists used the "Racak
massacre." A group of reactionary commandos were killed
in a gunfight with Serb military and police forces in the
town of Racak, in the Kosovo province of Serbia. The
reactionaries dressed the dead fighters up as civilians and
claimed they were executed at close range. A few news media
— Le Figaro (Jan. 20, 1999) and a year later the
Berliner Zeitung (March 24, 2000) — exposed the more
obvious inconsistencies in the “massacre” myth.
A Finnish team led by Helena Ranta also discovered that all
23 dead were killed by gunfire at a distance. (See
“Hidden Agenda: The U.S./NATO takeover of
Yugoslavia,” International Action Center,
2002)
Nevertheless, NATO spokespeople and the corporate media
spread the lie that there had been a massacre of civilians.
U.S. and NATO forces used this pretext to justify 78 days of
bombing of Serbia and the dismemberment of what remained of
Yugoslavia.
Groups such as Amnesty
International have put out statements calling for the U.N.
Security Council to move "beyond condemnation" of
the Syrian regime. Let's keep in mind that
Amnesty International is currently partnering with Madeline
Albright, to demand that NATO defend women in
Afghanistan. As Secretary of State Albright stated in
an interview with Leslie Stahl that she felt that the death
of 1/2 million children in Iraq was "Worth
it".
There is no possible justification for imperialist
intervention in Syria, whatever happened in Houla.
NATO’s own bombing campaign in Afghanistan regularly
kills civilians (See Miami Herald, May 29), but no one dares
raise these crimes before the United Nations. NATO’s
hypocrisy is all too familiar. The media campaign around
Houla should put the anti-war movement on alert that the
imperialists are preparing right now for another
intervention.
We
reprint here the Syrian government's side of the Houla
story, slightly edited from a statement released by
Damascus:
Makdessi: Syria will establish Investigative Committee on
Houla Massacre
(Dp-news)
“Syria will establish an
investigative committee on the Houla massacre, to issue
results within three days,” said Syrian Foreign
Ministry spokesperson Jihad Makdissi in a press conference
on May 27.
Makdissi has categorically denied
responsibility of the Syrian forces for the massacre that
took place in al-Houla area in Homs Province.
Makdissi also condemned in strongest
terms this terrorist massacre against the Syrian civilians
as he condemned the accusation that Syrian forces had done
that.
"The Syrian state is responsible
for protecting civilians according to the constitution and
Syria preserves its right to defend its citizens," he
said.
Makdissi stressed that no tanks or
artillery entered al-Houla town and the law enforcement
members never left their positions, rather they were in a
state of self-defense.
"A military judicial committee
was formed to conduct an investigation and the results will
be announced in three days," Makdissi added.
The suspicious coincidence between
the attacks in parallel with the visit of U.N. Special Envoy
to Syria, Kofi Annan, is a slap in the face of the political
process, said Makdissi, adding that the brutal killing is
alien to the ethics of the Syrian army.
He said that those who committed the
killing are not the army but the armed terrorist groups.
The spokesperson added that what
happened doesn't serve the interests of the Syrian state,
stressing that "We don't trade with the Syrian
blood." Makdissi stressed that there is no
justification for carrying weapons against the dignity of
the state whatever the political excuse, indicating that the
terrorism and crimes increased since Syria's approval of
Annan's plan because they don't want to make the plan a
success.
The spokesperson for the Syrian
Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ministry said that the armed
terrorist groups committed more than 3,500 violations of
Annan's plan, adding that "non-stability is a good
environment for terrorists. … There are al-Qaeda and
Takfiris but we won't allow them to make use of this
environment no matter how long the confrontation
takes." Makdissi stressed that the solution to the
crisis in Syria lies in lending a helping hand to the Syrian
government.
Makdissi indicated that Syria wants a
truce and his government is committed to Annan’s
plan.
International Action Center
c/o Solidarity Center
55 W 17th St Suite 5C
New York, NY 10011
212-633-6646
iacenter@iacenter.org
www.iacenter.org
c/o Solidarity Center
55 W 17th St Suite 5C
New York, NY 10011
212-633-6646
iacenter@iacenter.org
www.iacenter.org
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