On May 25th, two villages in the Syrian Houla region saw 188 defenceless civilians massacred. The atrocity has since then been used by western media and politicians to condition the public for yet another war.
The internationally financed Free Syrian Army accused the Assad-loyal Shabiha-militia of the massacre and the government truthfully retorted that it must have been committed by rebel groups.
According to its normal pattern, neither media or world leaders showed the slightest interest in examining which party was telling the truth. (If any such examination or analysis was actually done, the results were kept secret). Thus, the story was reported according to the traditional script of war propaganda - the mass murderer's own version of the story became the international truth. Their story was also the foundation for the United nations catalogue of demands, put to the Syrian government. Among world powers, only China and Russia resisted the UN resolution.
However, one of the leading media houses has now broken the ranks and admitted that sceptictal bloggers all over the world had been right all along. On the 7th of June, the German Damaskus-based journalist Rainer Hermann, working for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, got a professional article printed which cleared out the fog surrounding the May massacre.
After interviewing an number of opposition members who had personally visited the area, Mr. Hermann concludes that the violence started after the Friday worship on May 25th. Rebels were then attacking army checkpoints, which the government had placed around the village of Houla to protect the village (which adheres to Alawite/Shia Islam) from attack by rebel forces (who are Sunni moslems). During the fighting the villages were cut-off from all communication with the outside.
"According to eye witnesses, the massacre was perpetuated during this period. Most of the dead were of the Alawite/Shia religion. In the Houla region were the village is located, 90% of the population are of the opposing Sunni religion. Dozens of members of one large family, which has recently converted from Sunni to Shia, were killed. Among the dead were members of the Alawite Shomaliya family and the family of a Sunni member of parliament, who is seen by militant Sunnis as a government collaborator. Immediately following the massacres, the perpetrators filmed the remains of their victims and distributed the material over the internet, labeling the victims Sunni moslems."
Even on the same day as the attacks, Ban Ki-Moon, the UN General Secretary, condemned the Syrian government for its "unacceptable use of violence and assaults".
The Syrian Government analysis, that rebels had committed the atrocity in order to undermine Mr. Ki-Mooons own peace plan fell on deaf ears. And quite correctly, a few day later, the rebels proclaimed that they (in view of the massacre they themselves had committed) "no longer" would respect the General Secretary's peace plan.
