Syria Video Essay: 1st Day of Ramadan was a Day of Chaos
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 9:42UPDATE 1837 GMT: A new video, posted today, of yesterday's bombardment of Hama.
SeekerSK provides this translation:
Artillery shelling of Hama on 8-1-2011 before/when people break their fast- Vid was uploaded today
UPDATE 1245 GMT: James Miller here, with two additional updates about this first, and now infamous clip.
The first is that if you compare the audio from the original to the audio of the State TV version, the State TV version is worse (the state TV version starts at about 08:22). They have added a low-level buzz, and then the audio drops out and the buzz swells. As an audio professional in a previous life, I can testify that a battery operated camera will not get an audio buzz, only a broadcast camera, and it never sounds like that. It is our assessment that the Syrian State TV is obviously, and clumsily, doctored.
The second update comes from the Guardian's Paul Owen, who links to us and provides a translation for the video:
Some of (the bodies) seemed to have had their throats slit - (are) being thrown into the Al-A'assi river by Shabiha ("ghosts" – pro-Assad militia). The dead people are described in the caption as "heroes of Hama". The people around the Shabiha can be heard encouraging them, and insulting and cursing the dead people. The Shabiha shout "God is greatest" as they throw the bodies in the river. "Don't film" is also heard.
The video was uploaded on 31 July. The Arabic caption reads: "Is there any crime worse than killing someone and then throwing the body in the river? Where are human rights? Where is world opinion? Where is Amnesty International?" There is no way to properly verify the clip. Many thanks to my colleague Mona Mahmood for translation.
UPDATE 0830 GMT: And now a twist in the tale....
This 11-minute clip from Syrian state TV starts with footage which claimed to be of gunmen in Hama shooting at military from the streets and rooftops.
It is the final minutes, however, that are of immediate interest. The clip uses the same footage, posted by James Miller below, of what has been claimed as pro-Assad "thugs" throwing the bodies of protesters into a river near Hama. On state TV, however, the footage is protesters throwing dead troops over the bridge --- the sound has the men talking about the bodies as "soldiers".