Poet and Song Writer, Ibrahim Qashoush, Victim of Syrian War

ADDENDUM TO WRITERS AND THE WAR IN SYRIA:

(This one enrages me and brings to my mind the awful killings that went on in the Philippines during the Marcos Regime and in Argentina during the Dirty War)

I'm adding one more person who was killed for expressing his thoughts, the poet and song writer, Ibrahim Qashoush, whose protest song, Get Out Bashar! became popular. Shortly after the song was released, he was found dead in a river in Hama City, with his throat cut and his vocal chords ripped out.

The 42-year father of three led thousands of people in the protest song, "Get out, Bashar! Freedom is at the door!"
On 7/27/11 Huffington Post wrote: 

"...Qashoush was walking to work in central Hama when a white vehicle stopped, several men jumped out and muscled him into the car. They then sped away.

"We immediately knew he was captured by security agents," Abu Yaman told The Associated Press.
Early the next day, residents found his body in the Orontes River, which cuts through Hama. His throat had been cut away. YouTube footage of his body shows him being put on a bed, his head flopping loosely to show a gaping, bloody wound on the front of his neck where his throat used to be.

"This is a purely criminal act," said Omar Idilbi, a spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees, which track the protests in Syria. "They executed him."

Repeated calls to Qashoush's home by the AP were unanswered over the past days. It is nearly impossible to independently verify the claims on either side of the conflict in Syria, where the government has banned most foreign journalists and restricts coverage by reporters inside the country.

Since the uprising began, there have been several cases of protesters being detained by security force, only to have their bodies handed over later to their families, often with brutal marks of torture. Among them were two boys detained during protests in the southern province of Daraa in April. The body of one, 15-year-old Tamer Mohammed al-Sharei, was bruised, his teeth broken in; the other, 13-year-old Hamza al-Khatib, had a gaping wound in his skull, a broken neck and was mutilated – his penis severed."

Qashoush's song continues to be sung as a protest or revolutionary song in Syria. He is called the "nightingale of the revolution."

Click here to get to YouTube link
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCS8SsFOBAI

Get Out, Bashar!
by Ibrahim Qashoush
(English translation courtesy of  The Arabic Student)

Get out Bashar!
Bashar, you are not one of us
Take Maher and leave us
Your legitimacy has fallen

Get out, Bashar!
Oh Bashar you liar
To hell with you and your speech
Freedom is at the door

Get out Bashar!
Oh Maher you coward
You agent of the Americans
The Syrian people will not be insulted

Get out Bashar!
Bashar, screw you
And screw those who salute you
We're tired and we will kick you out

Get out Bashar!
Bashar, stop hiding
Your blood is worthless in Hamah
Your mistake is not forgiven

Get out Bashar!
There are new thieves all the time
Shalish and Maher and Rami
They robbed my brothers and my uncles

Get out Bashar!
Bashar, you infiltrator
Screw you and the Ba'ath party
And go fix your letter "s"

Get out Bashar!
We will remove Bashar
by our strong determination
Syria wants freedom

No Maher
And no Bashar and no barbaric gang
Syria wants freedom.
~~
For more information:
New York Times - Lyrical Message for Syrian leader
Syrians sing for Freedom
The Soundtrack of the Syrian Revolution
Syria: One Voice Less 
The Huffington Post - Ibrahim Qashoush, Syria Protest Song Writer, Gruesomely Killed

Read also my other blog entries about Syria:

•  Syrians fleeing war at rate not seen since Rwandan Genocide
•  Syrian Revolutionary Poem & Destruction of Khalid bin Walid Mosque
• Children and the War in  Syria 
• The Rape of Women and the War in Syria  
•  Writers and the War in Syria
• Jesuit Priest, Paolo Dall'Oglio - Another Casualty of Syrian War
• Two Organizations helping the children of Syria - re War in Syria 
• Assad Used Chemical Warfare in Syria - 1,300 dead in Ghouta
• Formation of Syrian Rebel Alliance is Exactly What Assad Wants
• Testimonies of Syria Chemical Attacks
• Request for Prayers for Monasteries in Syria and Egypt
• Assad is Responsible for Carnage in Syria, from Washington Post
• Catching up with news on the War in Syria 
• The Horror of the War in Syria to the Civilian Population

~~~
tags: Syria, Syrian, War, Civil War, Revolution, Ibrahim Qashoush, protest song, Get Out Bashar, Middle East, Conflict, Aleppo, Damascus, Homs, Assad, al-Assad, writers, journalists, media, Amnesty International, PEN, massacre, genocide

All for now,
Cecilia