Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Via Angry Left there is video here of Syrian security and militia forces firing on Kurdish civilian marchers. It's actually pretty tough from the video to really make out what was going on, but considering the dearth of information and video that comes out of a totalitarian terror state like Syria (unlike open societies like, oh...I don't know...Israel, where there's a reporter on every block and if anyone comes down with so much as a hangnail it's on the 6:00 news worldwide) it is interesting, nonetheless.
Similar pictures were broadcast by the UK TV station Channel 4, which reported that the officials in the Syrian embassy in London declined to be interviewed.
In a newly released unedited videotape, the mourners are taking for burial the bodies of the Kurds who had been killed by the same state security forces during a football match the day before, on March 12th, in the Kurdistani city of Qamishlo.
The unedited videotape, along with two other edited tapes, clearly demonstrates that Syrian state security forces responded to the unarmed crowd of men, women and children by shooting to kill.
The images show that the Kurdish protestors at first think that the soldiers and militias on moving vehicles were firing into the air. Some in the crowd are trying to calm the panicking crowd. People are falling down by what seems to be the gunshot wounds they receive.
Some in the crowd are trying to help the wounded while some demonstrators put up resistance, by shouting slogans and throwing stones, many civilians are running for their lives; women and children are screaming...
