The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Car bombs kill 28 in Syria
235 injured as twin blasts rock country’s second largest city of Aleppo

Beirut, February 10
Two powerful car bombs rocked Syria’s second largest city of Aleppo today, killing 28 persons and wounding 235, state TV reported as it aired gory footage of the carnage caused by the blasts.

The television said a “suicide bomber in a car packed with explosives” carried out one of the attacks on a police station, flattening a nearby food distribution centre. The second bombing targeted an intelligence base.

The report showed mangled bodies in pools of blood in the street outside rows of shattered buildings. Emergency workers held up body parts, including hands, feet and a torso.

State television, which said soldiers were among the casualties, blamed the attacks on “armed terrorist gangs”. The channel aired the footage live from the site of the blasts, with bulldozers quickly deployed to clear away shattered concrete strewn across a broad avenue.

Several people who were interviewed denounced Turkey and Qatar for not standing by the regime in Syria as it seeks to put down a revolt that broke out last March.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP there were two blasts in the northern city, after earlier reporting a total of three.

Aleppo has been largely spared the unrest that has rocked Syria for nearly a year, leaving more than 6,000 people dead according to rights groups.

Today’s blasts were the biggest since two suicide bombings in Damascus, one of which killed 44 persons in December and the second 26 people in January. — AFP

Special to The Tribune
For Russia and China, road to Tehran lies through Damascus
Iran being close ally of Syria, both super powers keen to secure future oil supplies from a friendly Islamic regime
Shyam Bhatia in London

It’s almost a year since the uprising in Syria started to gain momentum. Since then the authoritarian regime of President Bashar al Assad has continued to defy international condemnation, refusing to temper it’s crackdown on anti-government protesters. The UN estimated by mid-February that 4,500 persons had been killed in the unrest, although after brutal attacks on the cities of Homs and Hama that figure is thought to stand much closer to 5000.

But what about the response of the international community, including the UN and the Arab League?

Earlier this month, the UN Security Council met to consider another resolution (following an earlier veto last October by both Russia and China). This time the call, backed by Washington and its allies, was for President Assad to step down - along with backing for an Arab Peace Plan. India moderated the explicit references to Assad’s departure while still voting for the resolution. So too did Pakistan, despite the Syrian regime’s honourable record of supporting the Bhutto family during the long years of military dictatorship in Islamabad.

The Russians and Chinese “no” vote led to furious reactions from the US and Britain with both Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Foreign Secretary William Hague accusing Russia and China of failing to stop further bloodshed.

The all-important question is why these two super powers feel it is in their national interest to oppose sanctions against the Assad regime.

First, the Russians consider Assad to be an ally. The port City of Tartus houses Russia’s only naval base in the region - first established in the early 1970s - with its capabilities significantly upgraded in recent years. Little wonder that the Kremlin rates this Mediterranean base, if only to facilitate future arms deals and ensure a role in any forthcoming Middle East peace negotiations.

Also important is the impact of US support for countries in Russia’s traditional zone of influence. The election of pro-West leaders in countries like Georgia and Ukraine, and US military support for the Georgian government, soured relations between Washington and the Putin/Medvedev regime in Moscow. Any shared feeling of vulnerability after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US soon evaporated. What remains is Moscow’s perception of what it sees as the West’s meddling in Russia’s back garden.

The Kremlin’s fear is that more countries succumbing to what is described as the cloak of democracy will simply pave the way for the further isolation of Moscow and ignite even more restlessness among the Russian masses. As Sir Tony Brenton, a former British Ambassador to Moscow, recently observed: The Russians ‘view Western support for human rights as no more than cynical cover for the expansion of influence.’

China though is a different matter, although more straightforward to understand. This economic giant is often criticised itself for it’s long history of human rights violations, ranging from the deaths of 12 million Tibetans opposed to China’s takeover of their country to the estimated 30 million Chinese who died during forced collectivisation. It is unlikely that any UN sanctions could ever be implemented against China, but Beijing remains nervous of the international community’s readiness to intervene and democratise regimes across the globe.

The Chinese are against interventions of any kind, underlined by their sharp rejection of any potential action against Iran. So Beijing’s objection to the UN resolution on Syria is hardly surprising.

Whatever the merits and motives of Russia and China’s support for Assad, there are equally compelling questions to be asked about how the West has responded to the regime in Damascus. Assad’s gross betrayal of human rights speaks for itself and has been condemned in the strongest terms. His adversaries in the Free Syrian Army can expect a sympathetic hearing in London and Washington as they shop around for body armour, night vision googles and medical equipment to withstand more attacks.

But Syria is also a key ally of Iran and in the larger Middle East picture, it is Tehran’s nuclear ambitions that most concern policy makers in Washington and other Western capitals.

Russia and China in particular, keen to secure future oil supplies from a friendly Iranian regime, are fearful that the road to Tehran runs through Damascus and that the international response to the Syrian crisis may be a dress rehearsal for what could happen with Iran.

A weakened and leaderless Syria, post-Assad, would be a strategic setback to Iran. It would also serve as a warning to the mullahs in Tehran about what awaits them if they refuse to back down from trying to transform their country into the world’s latest nuclear weapons power.

Memogate: Ijaz to testify from London via video link
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

The Judicial Commission probing memo scandal on Friday decided to allow Mansur Ijaz, the central character in the memo scam, to record his statement from London through video-link.

Ijaz had earlier failed to appear before the commission on Thursday citing apprehensions he would stuck up in Pakistan because of hostile attitude of interior minister Rehman Malik. The minister had threatened Ijaz might be put on exit control list to bar him from leaving the country until he answer charges of maligning Pakistan’s security establishment and conspiring to topple the government of slain premier Benazir Bhutto in the 1990s.

Ijaz agreed to record his statement at the Pakistan High Commission on February 22 through video-link. The secretary of the commission will also be present and receive documentary evidence from Ijaz to substantiate his claims.

The three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa of Balochistan High Court dismissed objection by the Attorney-General Anwarul Haq and the counsel of former ambassador Hussain Haqqani against facilitating Ijaz to give evidence through video-conference despite defying commission’s summons.

Qazi Faez Isa said the Supreme Court had mandated the commission to collect evidence at home or abroad to unveil the veracity of the alleged memo that sought US intervention to rein in Pakistan’s military. He said the lawyers would be consulted and then a date will be decided when Ijaz would come to the Pakistani High Commission to have his statement recorded.

Lawyers in Islamabad will be able to cross-examine Ijaz in the videoconference.

Chinese officials told to prepare for ‘war’ in Tibet

A Tibetan monk holds a poster depicting a burning monk during a rally in Siliguri. — AFP

Beijing, February 10
Describing the situation in Tibet as "grave", China has ordered the authorities there to prepare themselves for "a war against secessionist sabotage" by the Dalai Lama amid reports that security forces shot dead two Tibetans protesters.

Officials in the Tibet Autonomous Region have been ordered to recognise the "grave situation" in maintaining stability and to ready themselves for "a war against secessionist sabotage", Chen Quanguo, regional Communist Party chief of Tibet, told official Tibet Daily.

The orders come ahead of the February 22 Tibetan New Year and this year's Chinese Communist Party congress to elect new leaders.

The congress would elect new leaders replacing President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, who are set to retire later this year.

Chen and other top officials called for extra vigilance to foil any attempts by the Buddhist Monks and supporters of the Dalai Lama pointing out that the Tibetan spiritual leader has a spoken of a "decisive battle" to be launched ahead of this year's Communist Party congress, likely to be held in November this year.

Meanwhile, US-based broadcaster Radio Free Asia today said two Tibetan brothers, who have been on the run after protesting against Chinese rule, have been shot dead.

Yeshe Rigsal, a 40-year monk, and his 38-year-old brother, Yeshe Samdrub, had been pursued by the authorities after they participated in the January 23 protests against Chinese rule.

The two brothers had been on the run for more than two weeks, and had been hiding in the hills in a nomad region when they were surrounded and fired upon.

The fight against the Dalai Lama clique is a "long-term, complicated and sometimes even acute" one, Chen was quoted as saying. — PTI