TIME after tIMe - RT. 'Laporan membimbangkan mengatakan pembunuhan 450 Kurdish di Syria' Laporan yang tidak disahkan telah muncul memperincikan pembunuhan
beramai-ramai baru di mana 450 Kurdish - termasuk 120 kanak-kanak - didakwa
dibunuh oleh pemberontak al-Qaeda berkaitan menentang kerajaan Syria. Laporan
itu telah mencetuskan kebimbangan antarabangsa.
Menurut Iran saluran TV
Al-Alam, militan dari Jabhat al-Nusra Front menyerang bandar Tal Abyad pada
hari Isnin, membunuh 120 kanak-kanak dan 330 wanita dan warga tua berhampiran
sempadan Turki.
Saluran ini juga berlari
rakaman ngeri ‘uncensored’ dari tempat kejadian - kesahihan yang tidak boleh
disahkan secara bebas pada masa ini. Atas sebab-sebab etika, RT akan mengelak
daripada menyiarkan video.
Pihak kerajaan Syria atau
pembangkang telah mengesahkan laporan itu. RT dihubungi beberapa sumber, termasuk
beberapa ditemubual Kurdish, yang memberi keterangan bahawa peperangan
meningkat telah mengambil tempat di kawasan mereka.
“Militan al-Nusra dan
pasukan pemberontak lain mengepung kampung itu,” Yasin Tarbush, saudara-mara
salah seorang mangsa serangan Kurdish, memberitahu RT. "Mereka mula pergi
pintu ke pintu, memasuki setiap rumah. Jika terdapat mana-mana lelaki, mereka
membunuh mereka dan mengambil wanita-wanita dan kanak-kanak sebagai tebusan.”
Mengulas mengenai laporan,
pejabat PBB Hak Asasi Manusia di Geneva berkata, mereka sedang menyiasat dan
jika ia mengesahkan mereka, akan menganggap ia satu jenayah perang dan mencari
penjenayah yang dibawa ke muka pengadilan.
“Kumpulan Tentera juga
mempunyai tanggungjawab di bawah undang-undang antarabangsa dan tidak berfikir
bahawa mereka adalah kebal daripada pendakwaan,” kata Navi Pillay dalam satu
kenyataan.
Rusia menggesa Majlis
Keselamatan PBB untuk mengutuk keganasan di Syria dari yang segi jelasan.
“Kita melihat sebelum
beberapa anggota Majlis Keselamatan enggan mengutuk serangan pengganas di Syria
atas alasan bahawa - sebagai sinis kerana ia berbunyi - serangan mereka sedang
dijalankan oleh orang-orang menentang rejim usang,” kata Menteri Luar Rusia
Sergey Lavrov. “Kedudukan ini adalah benar-benar tidak boleh diterima. Tiada
double standard boleh digunakan untuk keganasan.”
Serangan Islam
RT ini Irina Galushko
bercakap kepada wartawan Kurdi Barzan Iso, yang mengesahkan bahawa “Al-Qaeda
mula menyerang kampung-kampung Kurdis pada 19 Julai. Selepas serangan ini
mereka menculik ramai Kurdish. Kami tidak mempunyai statistik yang tertentu, “katanya,
merujuk kepada fakta bahawa banyak kawasan-kawasan yang dikuasai oleh Jabhat
al-Nusra dan militan al-Qaeda berkaitan yang tidak membenarkan Kurdish untuk
mendapat akses dan menyiasat.
Iso menjelaskan Kurdish
'bukan setia kepada kedua-dua belah konflik Syria: “Sejak awal peristiwa di
Syria, Kurdish cuba untuk tidak menjadi sebahagian daripada konflik sivil . . .
terdapat Kurdish bukan Islam, serta Alawi Kurdish - itulah sebabnya mereka cuba
untuk berada jauh dari (Itu). Tetapi kini, beberapa kumpulan pembangkang
menggunakan al-Qaeda dan al-Nusra untuk menyerang Kurdish. Punca utama adalah
bahawa mereka mempunyai mentaliti nasionalis radikal. Itulah sebabnya mereka
menggunakan al-Qaeda sebagai payung untuk menyerang orang-orang Kurdish.”
Iso mendakwa bahawa apabila
dia bercakap kepada ahli-ahli Gabungan Kebangsaan Syria, komponen politik pihak
pembangkang yang disokong oleh Barat, mereka sedia menyalahkan serangan
terhadap Islam Kurdish pada cakera Kurdi kemerdekaan. Front Al-Nusra, sebuah
cabang cawangan Iraq-berasaskan Al-Qaeda, memohon untuk menuntut wilayah Kurdish
untuk sebuah negara Islam yang merangkumi bahagian-bahagian Iraq dan Syria, di
mana kumpulan itu mahu bina.
Syrian rebels (AFP Phot /Daniel Leal-Olivas)
Laporan berikut
contoh-contoh lain persengketaan berat antara etnik Kurdis dan militan al-Qaeda
berkaitan dalam sejarah Kurdis diselesaikan utara dan timur laut Syria.
Pendirian berkecuali tegang Kurdis
Orang Kurdis adalah kumpulan
etnik yang terbesar di DUNIA tanpa sebuah negara mereka sendiri. Mereka kini
tinggal di wilayah yang bersempadan dengan Syria, bersempadan Turki, bersempadan
Iran, dan bersempadan Iraq. Idea mengukir sebuah negara Kurdis bebas mempunyai
banyak penyokong di kalangan orang Kurdis, dengan negara-negara tuan rumah cuba
untuk tahun untuk menentang secessionism.
Dalam pra-perang Syria,
penduduk Kurdish telah dinafikan beberapa hak yang kumpulan etnik lain nikmati.
Walau bagaimanapun pada awal konflik kerajaan Presiden Bashar Assad memberi
beberapa konsesi kepada orang Kurdis, termasuk pemberian kewarganegaraan kepada
beribu-ribu daripada mereka.
Sejak itu, Kurdis telah cuba
untuk menjauhkan diri daripada tumpuan perang saudara, membentuk militia untuk
mempertahankan wilayah mereka, tetapi sebaliknya tidak menyokong mana-mana
pihak. Dalam beberapa bulan kebelakangan radikal kumpulan anti-Assad telah
semakin menyerang bandar-bandar Kurdis, yang, menurut beberapa laporan, telah
memberikan Kurdis insentif untuk sampingan yang lebih dengan kerajaan Syria.
Pada 30 Julai, sebuah
militia Kurdis telah mengumumkan mobilisasi terhadap militan al-Qaeda berkaitan
di timur Syria selepas pembunuhan pemimpin pembangkang Kurdis Isa Huso.
“Kami menyeru rakyat Kurdish
. . . untuk melangkah ke hadapan . . . sesiapa patut memikul senjata perlu
menyertai barisan Jawatankuasa bagi Perlindungan Rakyat Kurdis (YPG) dan untuk
menghadapi serangan-serangan kumpulan-kumpulan bersenjata,” kata kenyataan YPG
berbunyi.
Portal berita Suriya al-Ain
mendakwa bahawa pengganas melaksanakan tahanan Kurdis sebagai “dendam terhadap
orang Kurdis, kerana kekalahan yang dikenakan ke atas mereka.” Satu minggu
lalu, militan al-Nusra menyerang 2 bandar-bandar Syria, mengambil kira-kira 200
orang awam tebusan. Ia telah dilaporkan bahawa semua orang-orang diculik datang
dari keluarga tentera Briged Kurdish yang sebelum ini sebahagian daripada
pembangkang Free Syrian Army, tetapi kemudian berpaling tadah kepada Kurdis
kuasa sendiri Pertahanan.
Perang Saudara Syria - di
mana pemberontak cuba untuk menggulingkan rejim Assad - telah mengamuk sejak
2011, dengan lebih daripada 100,000 orang terbunuh dan hampir 8 juta pelarian,
menurut anggaran PBB.
Melengkapkan Al-Qaeda
Banyak negara-negara Barat
dan sekutu serantau, termasuk Turki, Arab Saudi dan Qatar, menyuarakan sokongan
mereka yang kurang radikal kuasa-kuasa anti-Assad. Tetapi realitinya adalah
bahawa jihad Al-Qaeda berkaitan, termasuk Al-Nusra Front, yang mendominasi
pemberontak.
Contoh terbaru ialah
pengambilalihan lapangan terbang tentera penting di utara Syria pada hari
Selasa oleh pasukan diterajui-Islam. Lapangan terbang itu, yang telah dikunci
sejak Oktober, telah diambil dalam serangan 2 hari oleh gabungan 9 kumpulan
pemberontak, termasuk beberapa yang disokong oleh Barat, menurut laporan
McClatchy.
“Kemenangan itu sekali lagi
memberi impak utama strategik yang dimainkan oleh militan Islam, khususnya di
utara Syria,” Charles Lister, yang memantau berjuang untuk berpangkalan di
London tentera analisis kumpulan IHS Janes, katanya. “Setiap serangan besar di
utara Syria pada tahun ini telah diumumkan, yang diketuai dan diselaraskan oleh
Islam.”
Beberapa kali, ahli-ahli
politik Barat telah menegaskan bahawa mereka tidak mahu pelampau berjalan
berleluasa di seluruh Timur Tengah dan mendapat akses kepada bekalan senjata
asing seperti yang mereka lakukan di Libya dan lain-lain konflik baru-baru ini.
Walau bagaimanapun, ini adalah apa yang berlaku di Syria, sains politik
akademik Colin Cavell, di Bluefield State College di West Virginia, memberitahu
RT.
“Buat masa ini kebanyakan
orang Amerika adalah sangat jelas tentang apa yang sedang berlaku. Jenis media
kami memastikan ia turun rendah pada satu yang hujung, dan pada akhirnya yang
lain ia berkata kami menyokong pembangkang demokratik sederhana, yang kelakar
kepada sesiapa yang mengikuti ini. Kami menyokong Golongan Al-Qaeda berkaitan,
yang ‘massacring’ rakyat, "katanya.
Walaupun panggilan oleh
Barat untuk melengkapkan pemberontak Syria dalam perjuangan mereka menentang
kerajaan Assad, masih tiada cara yang tepat membezakan pihak pembangkang bukan
radikal dari militan Islam berazam untuk mewujudkan negara berdaulat mereka
sendiri di Timur Tengah.
Disturbing report alleges killings of 450 Kurds in Syria . . .
Unconfirmed reports have emerged
detailing a new massacre in which 450 Kurds - including 120 children - were
allegedly slaughtered by al-Qaeda-linked rebels fighting against the Syrian
government. The report has sparked international concern.
According to Iranian TV
channel Al-Alam, militants from the Jabhat al-Nusra Front attacked the town of
Tal Abyad on Monday, killing 120 children and 330 women and elderly near the
Turkish border.
The channel also ran
horrific uncensored footage from the scene - the authenticity of which can’t be
independently verified at this moment. For ethical reasons, RT will refrain
from airing the video.
Neither the Syrian
government nor the opposition has confirmed the report. RT contacted a number
of sources, including several Kurdish interviewees, who testified that
increased fighting has been taking place in their areas.
“The al-Nusra militants and
other rebel forces surrounded the village,” Yasin Tarbush, the relative of one
of the Kurdish attack victims, told RT. “They started going door to door,
entering every house. If there were any men, they killed them and took the
women and children hostage.”
Commenting on the reports,
the UN Human Rights office in Geneva said they are investigating and if it
confirms them, would consider it a war crime and seek that perpetrators are
brought to justice. “Armed groups also have responsibilities under
international law and should not think that they are immune from prosecution,”
Navi Pillay said in a statement.
Russia called on the UN
Security Council to condemn acts of terrorism in Syria in unambiguous terms.
“We saw before some Security
Council members reluctant to condemn terror attacks in Syria on the grounds
that – as cynical as it sounds – those attacks are being carried out by people
fighting against an obsolete regime,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
said. “This position is absolutely unacceptable. No double standards can be
applied to terrorism.”
Islamists on offensive
RT’s Irina Galushko spoke to
Kurdish journalist Barzan Iso, who confirmed that “Al-Qaeda started attacking
Kurdish villages on the 19th of July. After these attacks they kidnapped many
Kurds. We don’t have a specific statistic,” he said, alluding to the fact that
many of the areas are dominated by Jabhat al-Nusra and al-Qaeda-linked
militants who do not allow Kurds to gain access and investigate.
Iso explained the Kurds’
non-allegiance to either side of the Syrian conflict: “Since the beginning of
the events in Syria, the Kurds tried not to be a part of the civil conflict…there
are non-Muslim Kurds, as well as Alawite Kurds – that’s why they tried to be
away from [it]. But now, some of the opposition groups are using al-Qaeda and
al-Nusra to attack Kurds. The main cause is that they have the mentality of
radical nationalists. That’s why they are using al-Qaeda as an umbrella to
attack the Kurdish people.”
Iso claims that when he
spoke to members of the Syrian National Coalition, the political component of
the West-backed opposition forces, they readily blamed the Islamist attacks
against Kurds on the Kurdish drive for independence. Al-Nusra Front, an
offshoot of an Iraq-based Al-Qaeda branch, is seeking to claim Kurdish
territories for an Islamist state encompassing parts of Iraq and Syria, which
the group wants to create.
Syrian rebels (AFP Phot /Daniel Leal-Olivas)
The report follows other
instances of heavy strife between ethnic Kurds and al-Qaeda-linked militants in
historically Kurdish-settled northern and north-eastern Syria.
Kurdish neutrality stance strained
The Kurds are the largest
ethnic group in the world without a state of their own. They currently live in
the bordering territories of Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. The idea of carving
an independent Kurdish state has numerous supporters among Kurds, with host countries
trying for years to oppose secessionism.
In pre-war Syria, the
Kurdish population was denied some of the rights that other ethnic groups
enjoyed. However in the early months of the conflict the government of
President Bashar Assad gave a number of concessions to the Kurds, including
granting citizenship to thousands of them.
Since then, Kurds have been
trying to distance themselves from the focus of the civil war, forming militias
to defend their territory, but otherwise not supporting any side. In recent
months radical anti-Assad groups have been increasingly attacking Kurdish
towns, which, according to some reports, has given Kurds an incentive to side
more with the Syrian government.
On July 30, a Kurdish
militia has announced its mobilization against al-Qaeda-linked militants in
north-eastern Syria after the assassination of Kurdish opposition leader Isa
Huso.
“We call on the Kurdish
people…to step forward . . . anyone fit to bear arms should join the ranks of
the Committees for the Protection of the Kurdish People (YPG) and to face the
assaults of these armed groups,” the YPG statement reads.
The Suriya al-Ain news
portal claims that the terrorists are executing Kurdish prisoners as “revenge
on the Kurds, for defeats inflicted on them.” One week ago, al-Nusra militants
attacked two Syrian towns, taking around 200 civilians hostage. It was reported
that all of those abducted came from the families of soldiers of the Kurdish
Brigades who were previously part of the opposition Free Syrian Army, but later
defected to the Kurdish Self-Defense forces.
The Syrian Civil War – in
which rebels are trying to topple the Assad regime – has been raging since
2011, with more than 100,000 people killed and nearly 8 million displaced,
according to UN estimates.
Arming Al-Qaeda
Many Western countries and
their regional allies, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, voiced their
support for the less-radical anti-Assad forces. But the reality on the ground
is that Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists, including Al-Nusra Front, are dominating the
rebels.
The latest example is the
takeover of a crucial military airport in northern Syria on Tuesday by
Islamists-spearheaded forces. The airport, which had been locked down since
October, was taken in a two-day assault by a coalition of nine rebel groups,
including some supported by the West, according to a McClatchy report.
“The victory again
underlines the leading strategic impact being played by militant Islamists,
particularly in northern Syria,” Charles Lister, who is monitoring the fight
for the London-based military analysis group IHS Janes, said. “Every major
offensive in northern Syria this year has been announced, led and coordinated
by Islamists.”
On numerous occasions,
Western politicians have emphasized that they do not want extremists running
rampant across the Middle East and gaining access to foreign arms supplies as
they did in Libya and other recent conflicts. However, this is what is
happening in Syria, Colin Cavell, a political science academic at Bluefield
State College in West Virginia, told RT.
“Right now most of the
American people are very unclear about exactly what is going on. Our media kind
of keeps it down low on one end, and on the other end it says we are supporting
moderate democratic opposition, which is hilarious to anybody who is following
this. We are supporting Al-Qaeda-linked Jihadists, who are massacring people,”
he stated.
Despite calls by the West to arm Syrian rebels in their
fight against Assad’s government, there is still no accurate way of
distinguishing non-radicalized opposition forces from Islamist militants
determined to create their own sovereign state in the Middle East.
