Breaking the silence over Hama atrocities (of 1982)
Posted on February 2, 2012 by X3R
By: Basma Atassi
Khaled al-Khani was just seven when he lost his father in the city of Hama during what residents say was the worst massacre in Syria’s modern history. Today, as the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad grips the country, men like Khaled are finally starting to discuss the grisly events of 1982, as protests slowly force open the veil of fear and secrecy which surrounded the killings.
It is estimated that between 10,000 and 40,000 died during the 1982 military campaign on Hama [Sleman Hiraki].
“The fact that Syrians will commemorate the killings of their loved ones for the first time in 30 years evokes in me strange feelings. It is not a celebration, but it cannot be mourned like a funeral,” Khani, who is now a celebrated Syrian artist, told Al Jazeera.
It was February 2, 1982, when troops, ordered by the late President Hafez al-Assad, Bashar’s father, seized the city, and bombed its centre with fighter jets, according to an Amnesty International report, enabling tanks to roll through Hama’s narrow streets, crushing an armed rebellion by an estimated 200 to 500 fighters from the Muslim Brotherhood’s military wing.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/02/20122232155715210.html?utm_content=tweets&utm_campaign=Trial3&utm_source=SocialFlow&utm_term=twitter&utm_medium=ExperimentMasterAccount
