An Analysis of the Article We Live in Fear of Massacre by Marie Colvin

The investigative article, “We Live in Fear of Massacre” by Marie Colvin of Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting, and the article, “Excitement fades to despair in rebel- held Syria as a war grinds on” by Tom A. Peter of CSMonitor, although published a year apart and examining different cities in Syria, both bring in the issues the citizens have with the Free Syrian Army (FSA), President Assad, and the opposition movements. Each article moves through various points of views in the cities they are in.

While Colvin’s article takes place in the district of Baba Amr in 2012, Peter writes about the district of Aleppo in 2013, however, even as the time of these two articles are a year apart, the treatment of the citizens in Syria remain distressing.

In “We Live in Fear of Massacre”, Colvin first speaks to Noor, who lost her husband and her home to the shells and rockets. “Our house was hit by a rocket so 17 of us were staying in one room.

We had had nothing but sugar and water for two days and my husband went to try to find food. He was torn to pieces by a mortar shell” (Colvin, 1). A group of 17 people, including Noor, stay in a small basement. This has become the norm for many others in the area as well. “Foam mattresses are piled against the walls and the children have not seen the light of day since the siege began on February 4” (Colvin, 1).

In Aleppo, Peter talks to Abu Ali, whose glass shop has been shuttered for almost a year at that point, losing about two-thirds of his income.

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However, he was willing to make that sacrifice as long as it meant that the regime change was coming to be reality. He states to Peter, “I’m angry that it’s taken such a long time. I want this war to be over now” (Peter, 3). The wait of the fighting to finish seems to be more of an trouble in this situation than a total hopelessness.

In Baba Amr, Snipers wait on rooftops of high buildings that remain surrounding the city to shoot any civilians that come in sight. Residents can not leave for any reason; not for supplies nor to rejoin families. “Residents were felled in droves in the first days of the siege but have now learnt where the snipers are and run across junctions where they know they can be seen… It is a city of the cold and hungry, echoing to exploding shells and bursts of gunfire” (Colvin, 2). In the 2011 nationwide uprising, security forces shot at protestors, demanded the release of political prisoners, triggering violent unrest that steadily spread nationwide over the following months.

From that event until the time of February 2012, when Marie Colvin’s article was published, there becomes a rise in opposition organizes while the New Syrian National Council sought to exile opposition activists. In Baba Amr, the FSA, the “armed face of opposition to Assad, has virtually unanimous support from civilians who see them as their defenders” (Colvin, 2). These citizens fear that the FSA will leave the city. However, in Peter’s article published in 2013, one citizen, Abu Yousef, says that a criminal group is connected to a corrupt FSA unit that kidnapped his cousin. His family then had to pay $40,000 ransom for his release. Bribing, in both articles, seem to be a factor in many of the citizens’ survival.

Though Syrian officials prohibited anyone from leaving the city of Baba Amr, some escapees managed to bribe their way out. Miriam, 32, said that she and her husband both had decided when they heard of the abuse the Shabiha militia had been afflicting on families in the area. In exchange for her safety, she had to give an official her wedding ring so that she and her husband could be smuggled. Abdul Majid, a computer science student at university, stayed in the city for a while to help the more elderly citizens.

He finally fled when his entire street was hit, not a single house left. He gave an army checkpoint “a packet of cigarettes, two bags of tea, and 500 Syrian pounds [and was told] to run… the soldiers were only pretending to try to shoot him to protect themselves, but his haunted eyes showed he was not entirely sure” (Colvin, 4).

Abu Saif was abducted from his work. Several men came in to his snack shop saying that he was needed for questioning at the police station. It was something that was supposed to be easily resolved and done in a short while. Abu Saif got into the car with them men, but after a few blocks was transferred into another car with a bag over his head. “His captors handcuffed him to a chair in a basement, beat him, and accused him of working as a spy for the Assad regime” (Peter, 4). After a week, Abu Saif’s family paid 500,000 Syrian pounds for his release. Once the group received the money, Abu Saif was dumped into a field on the outskirts of town.