Talk:Life in Liberated Qusayr

When Syrian and allied forces re-claimed al-Qusayr (Quesir) in May, 3013 (see Talk:Quseir Campaign), it was widely portrayed as a victory for tyranny and the end of a long period of liberation under rebel control for for the better part of two years. But of course, that's not how most of use would describe it, if we knew what happened there. As Paul Wood wrote for the Spectator, "Qusayr is a warning" and in fact "Syria's war in miniature." The harsh details of life in rebel-held Qusayr show how the conflict "Western governments signed up to help" might become (or, rather, has been becoming) "a sectarian civil war." This page will compile some reports to share the details of that warning which, sadly, is just one among many. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:07, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

How Qusayr was Liberated
(forthcoming)

Driving Out the Christians
This fascinating piece speaks with a few refugees in Lebanon. One is Ilyas who "was, he told me, the very last Christian to flee Qusayr." And another was "Samah, a mother of three who was one of the first to flee."
 * Paul Wood, the Spectator: Syria’s war in miniature: meeting the Christians driven out of Qusayr
 * At first, [Sama] said, their Sunni neighbours tried to protect them. ‘But after a while, the Christians were left with a choice: fight alongside the rebels, or leave Qusayr. Masked gunmen came to our house and shouted for our men to come out. We could see our relatives, already captured, sitting in cars.’

Wood traces the troubles to a January 2012 event Wood was also on had to witness. A Christian soldier - Corporal Joseph Hanna - set up a self-defense check point for his Christian neighborhood. From there, Islamists say, he frequently shot at people for no reason. His arrest triggered counter-arrests of Sunnis by Hanna's brothers, and that spurred mass abduction of Christians. Here Ilyas the Christian rebel mediated so everyone was released bu Hanna had to leave. Later, Wood reports, "six men from Hanna’s extended family were killed. Next, Ilyas said, Christians with no connection to the police or army started to disappear, bodies dumped in the street a couple of hours later."
 * More of the Hannas: I checked the name in the opposition Center for Violations of Documentation (CDV) trying Hannah, Hanah, Hana, anyone with that name, nationwide, under "regime forces fatalities" (aka "other statistics") in all 2012. Not a single return. "Martyrs" list, "Hanna " for all 2012 yields two possible hits Hanna Iskandenavi (Scandinavian?), boy, age 10, killed by "random shelling" in "Qosair: Dumeineh Sharqeye" on 2012-05-17. Attia Hanna Ibrahim, male, age 40, killed in "Asheera neighborhood"  Jan. 16, shot "by Shabiha in shooting on the automatic bakery in Asheera neighborhood (Asheera bakery massacre)" Searching "Hana " (space) adds nothing. It seems this is one of the things they didn't document, like almost any death of any number of Alawites, that has their overall death toll as of October 16 at 75,976, more than 40,000 behind the SOHR's more reliable and probably conservative estimate somewhere past 115,000. Nationality of the dead is not noted here, but 62,164 - 82% of the total - adult males have been documented as dying. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:58, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

"It started happening after foreign jihadis arrived," Ilyas said, but it was a local Syrian who "form[ed an Islamist brigade (its ranks filled with foreign fighters) and last summer, he commandeered the mosque’s loudspeaker to announce that all Christians should leave. " Ilyas kept a lower and lower religious profile during the year as more and then all of his co-religionists fled. Finally the wrong people learned and came armed to his home. "They told me: “You’re a Christian – you’re not welcome here.” Some had probably lobbied for his death, and his ability to walk away and tell the tale is a sign that the forces of evil and chaos didn't win entirely, even in that dark place. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:07, 16 October 2013 (UTC)


 * The head of the FSA’s military council in Qusayr, Abu Arab, was incoherent with rage when I asked why he had failed to protect the Christians. It wasn’t his fault, he said. The West had stood by while the jihadis got arms and funding and corrupted the revolution. ‘The revolution was abandoned by its friends in the West,’ he said. ‘We were left to descend into chaos.’ ... Abu Arab is also now a refugee in Lebanon with his family and most of his men. 
 * Well they sure didn't have the fight-to-the-last-man spirit, while we're on the subject of reasons they failed in their battle, aside from poor choices of who would do most of their fighting for them. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:07, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

Controversy over Summer 2012 Expulsion Order
There is some. WIll come back to that (some prepared notes around somewhere, little new research planned now). --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:07, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

Driving Out the Alawites
(forthcoming)

Other
(forthcoming)