Monitors visit affected cities as 755 prisoners are released

Monitors to Hama, Idlib, and Daraa as authorities release 755 prisoners Damascus – Agencies Human rights activists stated that 14 civilians, 3 defected soldiers, and 4 of Assad’s soldiers were killed, Wednesday, by Syrian security forces byllets, after the death toll on Tuesday reached 46. Whereas, head of the monitors’ mission to Syria, General Mohamed Ahmed Mostafa al-Dabi, expressed his optimism concerning the work of the mission, and denied that a “Mahjoub” is included in the monitors’ delegation, thus denying that any of the monitors have been injured as said previously.
Meanwhile, Syrian official news agency SANA stated that authorities announced the release of 755 prisoners, stating that those with “blood on their hands” were retained. The prisoners were detained in campaign launched by the government against opposition in the last nine months.
Releasing the detainees, which took place one day after allowing Arab monitors into various regions across Syria, is considered one of the terms included in the Arab League plan to end the bloodshed in Syria.
Human Rights Watch accused the Syrian authorities of hiding hundreds of detainees from monitors, claiming that detainees have been moved out of military sites. They urged observers to insist on full access to all locations used for detention.
"Syria has shown it will stop at nothing to undermine independent monitoring of its crackdown," said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's Middle East director. She added “Syria’s subterfuge makes it essential for the Arab League to draw clear lines regarding access to detainees, and be willing to speak out when those lines are crossed.”
HRW’s report, issued late on Tuesday, agreed with the statements of SNC, which asserted that thousands of detainees are being transferred to military sites before the monitors’ visit.
Syrian authorities released 2645 detainees, last month, in three groups. However, opposition says that thousands of activists detained last month are still imprisoned.
In the same context, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights stated that the Syrian security forces executed a campaign of raids and arrests in the village of Has, Idlib, where it detained 48 civilians and burned 3 homes of activists. It also pointed out that 4 civilians were killed in a village in Douma city affected by their wounds, to raise the death toll of registered civilians to 15, during the Wednesday attacks, of which 4 were in Homs including a 5 year old boy, and 3 were army defectors.
The observatory added that the body of a civilian in Rastan, tortured to death, was delivered to his parents. Whereas in Hama, two civilians died affected by their wounds which were caused by Syrian security forces bullets, Wednesday, when protesters tried to enter al-Asi square.
In Daraa, the observatory stated that a civilian was shot at and killed while returning from protests. Another civilian from Aleppo was killed by bullets while returning from protests in Andan, and yet another was shot at and killed in Idlib.
It was further stated that at least four soldiers were killed while 12 others were wounded, in an ambush set up by a group of defectors, Wednesday morning, in Daraa, where large protests emerged calling for the fall of the Syrian regime and the execution of Bashar al-Assad. Another protest broke out in Aleppo, according to the Observatory, where thousands of Syrians participated, cutting the international road linking Aleppo to Turkey.
The General Authority of the Syrian Revolution (GASR) announced the raise of the death toll on Tuesday to 42, including four children, mostly from Homs, marking the first day of the Arab monitors’ job in Syria, which was received by a large demonstration of about 70000 Syrians. Local coordination committees explained that 17 were killed in Homs, 7 in Hama, 3 in Damascus University, 4 in Daraa, 3 in Idlib, two in Deir Azzor, one in Saraqib, and another in Latakia.
As Arab monitors headed to Daraa, Hama, and Idlib, head of the Arab Leage mission, Mostafa al-Dabi, spoke to Al-Hayat newspaper, saying that they will send a report to the Arab League following their visit to Homs, Tuesday, explaining that they would not give details of the mission report to media (concerning the Syrian situation) but will directly send it to the Arab League. Dabi stressed that the mission reports what they see and hear to the Arab League in full transparency, so as to facilitate the making of a correct fair decision concerning the Syrian crisis.
He pointed out that Homs team included ten observers, denying that any member of them is called “Mahjoub” who claimed that he is a member of the Arab League delegation and was injured by the security forces in Homs, via phone call with a TV channel, saying that “this was fabricated.”
He also said he held a meeting with the Syrian Foreign minister, Walid Muallem on Sunday December 24 and will hold other meeting with Syrian senior officials. He pointed out “our mission is to observe and send reports to the Arab League. We are not an inspection or fact-finding mission, we are a monitoring mission. We will write what we see with our eyes and hear with our ears and report it to the Arab League in all transparency.”
Dabi stated that the arrival date of the second delegation of observers will be determined after they reach Cairo, pointing out that number of observers in the first stage is 110.
Regarding the protection of the monitors’ mission, he said that it is the responsibility of the Syrian government, however, explaining that equipment and mechanisms are the responsibility of the Arab League, saying that they have enough equipment to start the mission and more equipment will be provided to expand and assist the observers.
It is worth mentioning that Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani and Arab League Secretary General Nabil Al Arabi discussed in a phone call, Monday evening, the mission of the Arab monitors in Syria and the deteriorating situation there, especially in light of the use of excessive force by the Syrian authorities against civilians which resulted in more civilian casualties. It was also agreed during the call to continue following up the monitors work and take further steps after assessing the results of their mission.