454: THE HAMA MASSACRE – Fire Fought With Fire, And Murder Reciprocated With Massacre – It Was Tit For Tat Plus Tit And Tat And More

01 December, 2008

THE HAMA MASSACRE – Fire Fought With Fire, And Murder Reciprocated With Massacre – It Was Tit For Tat Plus Tit And Tat And More

The Hama Massacre: Arabic مجزرة حماة‎ took place on 2^nd February 1982 when the Syrian army bombarded the town of Hama in order to quell a revolt by the Moslem Brotherhood. An estimated 25,000 people were killed, including about 1000 soldiers.

Background

Syria had been deeply involved in Lebanon's Civil War since 1976 and the beginning of the 1982 Lebanon War. Problems also arose from Turkey, which mobilized troops on its borders with Syria primarily to deal with Kurdish rebels, and accused Syria of supporting and training the PKK rebels within Turkey.

The Moslem Brotherhood took advantage of the situation to defy Hafez al-Assad and his depot-dictatorship rule or regime. It undertook guerrilla activities in multiple cities within the country; targeting army officers, government officials and the infrastructure. The anti-regime violence included the killing of eighty-three young military cadets at an artillery school in Aleppo June 1979 and three car-bomb attacks in Damascus between August and November 1980 that killed several hundred people.

In July 1980, membership of the Moslem Brotherhood was made a capital offense; punishable by death, with the ratification of Decree No 49. Throughout the early 1980s the Moslem Brotherhood staged a series of bomb attacks against the government and its officials, including a nearly successful attempt to assassinate president Hafez al-Assad on June 26, 1980 – during an official state reception for the president of Mali.

Hafez allegedly ran and kicked a hand grenade aside, after a machine gun salvo had missed him, but his bodyguard sacrificed himself to smother the explosion of another one. He survived and was later promoted to a much higher position. Hafez survived with light injuries, and his revenge was swift and merciless: only hours later, many hundreds of imprisoned Islamists were murdered in a massacre carried out by his brother Rifaat al-Assad in Tadmor Prison.

The Massacre

Calls for vengeance grew within the brotherhood, and bomb attacks increased in frequency. Events culminated in a general insurrection in the conservative Sunni town of Hama in February 1982. Islamists and other opposition activists proclaimed Hama a liberated city and urged Syrians to rise up against the infidel. Brotherhood fighters swept the city of Baathists, breaking into the homes of government employees and suspected supporters of the regime, killing about 50.

The aim of the attack on Hama was to halt the rebellious activities of the Moslem Brotherhood. The assault began on 2^nd February with extensive shelling of the town of 350,000 inhabitants. Before the attack, the Syrian Government called for the city's surrender and warned that anyone remaining in the city would be considered a rebel.

In his book, Pity the Nation, Robert Fisk described how civilians fled Hama while tanks and troops moved toward the city's outskirts to start the siege. He cites reports of mass deaths and shortages of food and water from fleeing civilians and from soldiers.

According to Amnesty International, the Syrian military bombed the old streets of the city from the air to facilitate the introduction of military forces and tanks through the narrow streets, where homes were crushed by tanks during the first four days of fighting. They also claim that the Syrian military pumped poison gas into buildings where insurgents were said to be hiding.

The army was mobilized, and Hafez sent Rifaat's Special Forces and his Moukhabarat agents into the city. After encountering fierce resistance, Rifaat's forces ringed the city with artillery and shelled it for three weeks. Afterwards, military and internal security personnel were dispatched to comb through the rubble for surviving Brothers and their sympathizers; then followed several weeks of torture and mass executions of suspected rebel sympathizers, killing many thousands, known as the Hama Massacre.

Estimates of casualties varied from 7000 to 35,000 people killed, including about 1000 soldiers. A journalist, who was in Hama shortly after the massacre, estimated fatalities as high as 10,000. The New York Times estimated the death toll as up to 20,000. Rifaat Al-Assad later boasted of killing 38,000 people. The Syrian Human Rights Committee estimated 30,000 to 40,000 were killed.

Daniel: ESTIMATES! From 7,000 to 35,000 with 10,000 and 20,000 in-between! Also, Rifaat claimed 38,000 and the SHRC estimated between 30,000 and 40,000! JEEZ! It just goes to show how accurate the Media is in reporting events, incidents, catastrophes and other; and how haphazard and confused it is when it comes to casualty-estimates!

Most of the old city was completely destroyed, including its palaces, mosques, ancient ruins and the famous Azzem Palace mansion. After the Hama uprising, the back of the Islamist insurrection was broken, and the Brotherhood has since operated in exile. Government repression in Syria hardened considerably as Hafez Al-Assad had spent any goodwill he had towards the Sunni majority in Hama, and was then compelled to rely on pure force to stay in power.

After the Massacre

Western countries denounced the attack as a breach of human rights and a massacre. In an official speech, Al-Assad called on the world not to harbour those who had fled Syria. His calls fell on deaf ears. Most members of the Brotherhood fled mainly to Jordan, the U.S, England, and Germany. Large numbers of them settled in the latter two, which granted them political asylum.

Locally, within Syria, the attack was publicized in order to act as a deterrent. However, even the most conservative, (but not radical), elements within Syria did not rise to the aid of the Brotherhood, nor expressed sympathy; largely because of the Brotherhood's violent means and actions, compared to Hafez Al-Assad's initial patience in dealing with them, until the attempt on his life and Hama's uprising. Thomas Friedman points out that never again have Moslem extremists threatened the Syrian government.

Some argue that the event was considered as one of the few occasions, after the end of World War II, when an insurgency was successfully dealt with by using military force.

Hama, which had some small tourist attractions like open parks and water wheels, was turned into a poor city. After the massacre, several of Hama's inhabitants moved away and, in their place, people came from nearby villages to settle there.

Posted by akill 10:00 | General | Comment(6) | Permalink

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