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"Syria's deputy oil minister announced his defection to opposition forces through a YouTube video posted late Wednesday evening. In the four-minute video, he decried his government's response to an Arab Spring-style movement.\n\"I, Abdo Hussameddin, deputy oil and mineral wealth minister in Syria, announce my defection from the regime, resignation from my position and withdrawal from the Baath Party,\" he said, according to a translation from the BBC. \"I am joining the revolution of the people who reject injustice and the brutal campaign of the regime.\"\n\"I tell the regime,\" Hussameddin added, \"which claims to own the country, you have nothing but the footprint of the tank driven by your barbarism to kill innocent people.\"\nHussameddin also said that he was leaving the country despite knowing the government would likely attack his family and burn his house.\nThe deputy oil minister is the highest-level official yet to leave the Syrian government and join the opposition against President Bashar al-Assad, although many members of Syria's military, including a top general, have also defected from Assad's regime. Hussameddin served under Assad in various roles for over thirty years. \nFor the past year, Assad's regime has been engaged in a violent crackdown against Syrian citizens calling for his resignation. \nThe violence has been particularly intense in the city of Homs, where opposition forces were gathered. The United Nations' humanitarian chief said that some parts of the city had been \"devastated\" by artillery, rocket and tank attacks. According to the UN, more than 7,500 people from across the country have been killed in the assaults.\n\nSEE ALSO: The World Watches Syria\u2019s Uprising on YouTube\nMost foreign press have been banned from Syria, and those that choose to venture into the volatile country put their lives at risk to report on the civil strife. Syrian citizens armed with camera phones or small video cameras have been documenting the government crackdown and uploading their footage to YouTube, allowing the world to get a first-hand look at the violence and its casualties."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/03/08/syria-youtube-defection/>