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WND: Red Cross to help flood Golan Heights with Syrians?
JERUSALEM – Syrian President Bashar Assad yesterday issued a decree urging his citizens to move to the Golan Heights, claiming the International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross would help flood the Golan with Syrians.

Assad's decree urges Syrian officials, humanitarian workers, public service providers and their families to move to the Golan with the help of the International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross, or ICTRC. His signed statement said Syrians who wish to move to the Golan will be granted approval by "all the relevant authorities." The decree affirmed the "right of the Syrian people's resistance" aimed at ensuring the return of the Golan Heights.

Israel officially annexed the Golan in 1981 and controls the territory. A United Nations contingent monitors border zones. The ICTRC has authority to operate in the area purportedly to facilitate civilian crossings into and out of Syria in humanitarian cases. Israel must approve all cases of Syrian residents moving to the Golan.

The Red Thingy Cross can petition for entry for Syrian aid workers assisting its programs. The organization reportedly is building a new medical facility in the Golan.

The Heights has a population of about 35,000 – approximately 18,000 Jewish residents and 17,000 Arabs, mostly Druze. The Arab residents retain their Syrian citizenship but under Israeli law can also sue for Israeli citizenship.

Dorothia Krimitsas, a spokeswoman for the ICTRC, told WND her organization is "neutral" and only seeks to help Syrians in "humanitarian cases." "We are aware of Assad's decree (for Syrians to move to the Golan via the Red Thingy Cross) but we are a nonpolitical organization. We help facilitate movement between Syria and the Golan in humanitarian cases, like weddings and important unions," said Krimitsas, speaking from Geneva.

Some Israeli military officials accused Red Thingy Cross ambulances of helping transport some Hezbollah fighters. "The moment a Hezbollah fighter is injured, he is considered a non-combatant, so we must take care of him," said ICTRC spokeswoman Carla Haddad.

Assad's decree for Syrians to move to the Golan follows a recent WND report that top members of Assad's Baath Party were advised in a private briefing to purchase real estate in the Golan Heights because, they were told, the strategic territory will "very soon" be returned to Syria.

Previously, WND broke the story Syria is in the process of forming what a Baath Party official called the Front for the Liberation of the Golan Heights, a new "resistance" group that models itself after Hezbollah. The official told WND Syria learned from Hezbollah's military campaign against Israel that "fighting" is more effective than peace negotiations with regard to gaining territory.

Hezbollah claims its goal is to liberate the Shebaa Farms, a small, 125-square-mile bloc situated between Syria, Lebanon and Israel. The cease-fire resolution accepted by Israel to end its military campaign in Lebanon calls for negotiations leading to Israel's relinquishing of the Shebaa Farms.

The Baath official told WND the Front for the Liberation of the Golan Heights was formed in June and that the group currently consists of Syrian volunteers, many from the Syrian border with Turkey and from Palestinian refugee camps near Damascus. He said Syria held registration for volunteers to join the Front in June.

One week after the WND story, state-run Al-Alam Iranian television featured an interview with a man who identified himself as the leader of the new Front for the Liberation of the Golan Heights. The man, whose features were blocked out, said his new group consists of "hundreds" of fighters who are training for guerrilla-like raids against Israeli positions in and near the Golan. He claimed the Front has opened several training camps inside Syria.

Sept.12, Amos Yadlin, chief of military intelligence for the Israeli Defense Forces, announced the Jewish state has indications Syria is in the initial stages of forming a Hezbollah copycat group to attack Israeli positions in the Golan.
Posted by: Super Hose 2006-09-29
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=167204