25 Reported dead in syria

December 04, 2011
Sabrina Armesto
Humanities: Juna-Willa Frondoza

“25 Reported Dead in Syria as Violent Clashes Continue”, by Nada Bakri
It was the self-immolation of a man in Tunisia thattriggered the Arab Spring almost one year ago. Mohammed Bouazizi was just a street vendor who wished nothing more but to take care of his mother and family, but felt so humiliated after a police officerconfiscated his belongings and prohibited him of selling his products, that he set himself on fire as a way of protesting. Following his act, the people of Tunisia took to the streets indemonstration; and thus the Tunisian Revolution started, which eventually led to the resignation of the former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Tunisia’s victory encouraged several other countries of the MiddleEast to take action against their oppressive governments. Already in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen, their presidents have been either overthrown or have been forced to resign. After many months ofcrackdown, Libya’s President Muammar Gaddafi was hunted down and killed.
Syria is next on the list. Demonstrations against Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad started in January when the first case ofself-immolation was reported, and has been going on ever since. This past Saturday, December 4th, 15 people were killed in Idlib, a small province located in northwestern Syria. These deaths were the resultof a confrontation between the Syrian security forces and army defectors, joining the ranks of the revolutionaries, after no consensus has been reached for nine months now. The gunfight lasted threehours, and it’s believed to be one of the most dangerous and violent confrontations of the entire uprising. Not only security officers and army defectors were killed, but three innocent Syrians, whohappened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, were caught amid the gunfight and shot to death.
According to the Charter of the United Nations, the organization has no jurisdiction on the...