Stop the killing, Syria

This is a post as part of the Britmums Syria: Day of Protest.


Syria first came to my full attention (besides just the name of a country on the globe) because that's where my pet hamster was from - a Syrian hamster - my hamster was lovely!


When I was about 20, I went on a date with someone who's parents were Diplomats in Syria, so he spent a lot of time out there. He told me some really horrific things, stories about secret police, torture, things that had happened to friends, people who he knew that had disappeared - including children, and all sorts of  other things (Like a spiders bite that could rot your skin) that to me just seemed unbelievable - I didn't go on another date with him as I'd felt he was exaggerating way too much to impress me and nothing really clicked - for the record, torture does not impress me and is not a good first date topic! - (however I did marry the man who took me to see a Zombie movie for our first date.)


A few years later, I found myself working for emap - a large magazine publishers at the time - think Heat, Grazia, FHM ... But I was on MEED - Middle East Economic Digest!
Working in marketing conferences and exhibition for the middle east, I learned a lot on that job, a lot of it was things I'd rather not have heard about - it made me realise that the guy I'd been on a date with a few years before hadn't been exaggerating at all - if anything, he'd dumbed things down!


I'm shocked and disgusted by the things I'm seeing on the news about Syria - but sadly I'm not surprised, in my opinion it's about time people knew about the situation there!


Having a baby and a toddler, I couldn't not be affected by what I saw reported on Wednesday. It's hard to imagine how the "soldiers" doing the executing can actually do it - if you were in the army and your captain told you and your fellow soldiers to go and slit the throats of all the babies in the town next to you - you wouldn't do it would you? I'd like to think all the soldiers would turn round with a "screw you" attitude - but these are people who have been brain washed, abused, tortured and fear for not their own lives, but their own children and families ... and we all know what the answer would be if the choice was your child or a child you didn't know.


"The children of Houla were not killed by random shelling. The UN yesterday revealed that they were murdered one by one. The militia came in the night armed with knives and guns, and the young victims were executed with a bullet to the head or a knife to the throat.


One photograph shows a cherubic baby girl, no older than 2, with a tiny gold ear-stud. She is wrapped in a white shroud. Half her skull has been hacked or blown away. A saucer of bone juts from a bloody gash in what remains of her head. (You can read the full article on The Times website http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/article3430302.ece )


Kofi Annan has said that the situation in Syria has reached a ‘tipping point’. BBC"


I don't always agree with stepping into other countries and sorting things for them, but on this occasion, it gets my full backing.


Syria, you are currently bringing shame on yourself and mass killing anyone - let alone children is just ridiculous and disgusting.


If you blog, join in. "Many of us are joining forces in protest against the killings in Syria. We’re blogging and tweeting and using our collective voice to make as much noise as we possibly can. If you’re on twitter, watch out for bloggers tweeting links to their posts using the hashtags #Syria #StoptheKilling and #tippingpoint, RT their posts and join in. It may not be much, but doing something is always better than doing nothing."


This is my voice, my protest.


Emma in Bromley.