Monday, March 17, 2008

"Many Syrians have been the victims of crimes, including beatings, robberies, the setting on fire of tents where they live, and even killings. "Before [2005], you could walk around comfortably without any problems. Now, we don't feel safe," said Khaled, who was beaten by a group of young men one day as he was walking down the street. "I didn't know who they were. They didn't take anything from me. They just beat me up for no reason." In spite of a lack of available information, Human Rights Watch (HRW) was able to document 12 beatings of Syrian labourers, seven knife attacks, three instances of tents being set ablaze, one incident where a Molotov cocktail was thrown on a construction site and seven violent incidents in which 10 Syrians were killed in 2007. There is no way directly to link political motivation to the attacks, but there is a trend, HRW said." No link to political motivation? Give me a break HRW. What about the ones that followed the assassination of Jubran Tuwayni in `Alay? Or after other assassinations? (thanks Nadim)