Syria Watch
The Kidnapped Groom
Syrian Justice and Accountability Centre
July 18, 2014
The Syria Justice and Accountability Center works to collect and document cases from different sources concerning the arrests and abductions of Syrian citizens. The center is highlighting some of these cases to demonstrate the systematic nature of these actions, to illustrate the center’s work, and to encourage other victims to testify, given the importance of testimony to any future justice and accountability processes in Syria.
These are excerpts from a testimony of a victim of kidnapping, “M.A.” M.A. was born in 1989 and he works as a tailor.
“My fiancé and I agreed to go to Damascus to get married and then return together to northern Syria. I was on my way there when our public bus lost its way Maraba, in the suburbs of Damascus, and entered Harasta. [We approached] government barriers, where government forces fired into the air to stop the bus. Then, the government soldiers pulled us down [from the bus] and stopped us in the street in a manner suggesting that they would shoot us.”
M.A. continues, telling the details of a story he made up to try to get himself out of trouble, which ended up backfiring:
“I was thinking that those who stopped us were gunmen from the opposition, and that there had been some confusion. I started shouting, trying to explain: ‘I have brothers like you in the Free Syrian Army in the Farouk Brigades!’ The soldiers all went crazy hearing this, and led me to a separate room, screaming into their wireless devices, asking to talk with the Air Force Intelligence branch. Then they started beating me with wooden sticks and batons for a long time.”
Regarding the whereabouts of his arrest, M.A. says:
“They took me to the Air Force Intelligence branch, and then I was blindfolded, but I could hear their conversations. They took me inside to a room that did not exceed about one square meter. I was struck by thirst, and began to request water urgently, but no one answered me. When I started knocking the door firmly, asking for water, they tied up my hands and my feet and took me inside a room with a water pipe. I approached it, crawling, but they put an electric wire in the water, which shocked me [when I tried to drink]. Then someone asked me if I wanted more water. I told him I completely abandoned the idea. ”
Regarding the Air Force Intelligence branch investigation, M.A. says:
“The interrogator asks me why I came to Damascus, so I answer, simply, that I am coming for [my] marriage. He returned me to a room no more than an area of about one square meter, shared with three other detainees. After several hours, they escorted me to a torture chamber where they folded me inside a rubber car tire tied to the ceiling. Then they start to beat me with sticks and electric rods. I was screaming for god’s help, so he [the guard] says: this is God’s stick. And he continued to beat me with it.”
This situation continued for more than a month and a half. Then they took me to a room of about nine square meters, shared with 70 other detainees. I was able to ascertain the number [by observing] the number of meals served and the number of people entering the room.”
Torture was almost daily and very routine, beginning around four in the afternoon and continuing until midnight and, in some cases, until the morning. Among the tools used in torture were the “Magic Carpet” and electrocution [while I was] in many positions, [used] on different body parts. ”
M.A. recalls his observations from that period:
“I have seen with my own eyes many of the deaths under torture. Others were dying inside the detention room due to hunger and lack of food.”
On one occasion, a number of armed elements of the [military] branch escorted me and three others out of the room. Our feet were bound together by chains, so none of us could escape on our own. They asked us to dig nearby. As we were digging, human remains appeared. I saw a full hand and I dug and found other human remains.”
We started digging at midnight and stopped at six in the morning. Then made us put our thumbprint on a blank piece of paper, and returned us to the detention room.”
One night it seemed that there was an armed opposition attack on the Air Force Intelligence branch in Harasta. So the branch soldiers put me and the other detainees in front of them, as a human shield. The other party [the opposition] stopped shooting, but the branch soldiers opened fire on us directly, killing six detainees.”
M.A. reports that he was not fully aware of the details of his kidnapping after he left the Air Force Intelligence branch in Harasta. He was transferred to the Mezze prison and remained there for three days without going to any interrogations or being asked any questions. Then he was transferred to the military police and stayed there a week.
Subsequently he went to the Justice Palace:
“In the Justice Palace in Damascus, one of the judges sentenced me, [saying] that I was a terrorist. I had never met this judge [before].”
M.A. was sent to Adra prison and then released three months later. In total, about eleven months passed between his wedding day and his release.
VDC: The Weekly Report 5-7-2014– 11-7-2014
Violations Documentation Center in Syria: The Weekly Report 5-7-2014– 11-7-2014 (2).pdf
Assad Sworn in for another Seven Year term Amidst Deadly Violence
By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Reporter, Managing Editor
DAMASCUS, Syria – On Wednesday Syrian President Bashar al-Assad placed his right hand on the Holy Quran and took his oath of office at the “People’s Palace” overlooking Damascus and was sworn into a third seven-year term as President of Syria. SANA, Syria’s state-run television station aired what it said was a live broadcast of the ceremony showing Assad arriving in a black BMW sedan as members of the Syrian military band played the national anthem.
In an address Assad claimed that the Arab spring uprising against established Arab leaders had brought nothing but ciaos to the region, arguing that “What we are seeing today in Iraq and Lebanon, and all countries struck by this ‘fake spring’ disease … proves our warnings were right: Soon we will see Arab, regional and Western countries paying a high price for supporting terrorism.”
“Syrians, three years and four months… have passed since some cried ‘freedom’,” Assad said in his address referring to the peaceful protests that turned violent in March 2011 when Assad’s forces attempted to silence protesters. Assad continued “They wanted a revolution, but you have been the real revolutionaries. I congratulate you for your revolution and for your victory.”
Even as Assad prepared to begin his next term in office, claiming victory over the Syrian rebels, State media reported that four people had been killed when rebel shells struck near Umayyad Square in Damascus. The Assad regime continues target rebel-held and rebel-sympathetic areas including the embattled city of Aleppo. On Friday video was posted to YouTube of an indiscriminate barrel bomb attack by the Syrian Air force that reportedly killed 20 people in Aleppo. The video shows rescues franticly trying to save a young baby who was stuck in the rubble.
Assad won re-election on June 3rd in an election that only allowed voting in regime-controlled territories. Assad claimed victory with a reported 88.7 percent of the vote, defeating two other candidates who were seen as figureheads, rather than true political rivals. Syrian opposition groups and members of the international community have condemned the election as illegitimate. The opposition National Coalition branded the election a “farce” even before it was staged, in a statement later echoed by the US secretary of state, John Kerry, and Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the secretary general of NATO.
The Syrian Civil war has become a massive humanitarian crises, in the 3½ years since the conflict began more than 1 million refugees have fled the country, mostly entering Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. The sudden displacement of hundreds of thousands of people from Syria has created growing tensions in the region, in Lebanon alone the Syrian refugee population is approaching one third of the overall population of the country placing strain on state infrastructure.
For more information please see:
Al Jazeera – Syria’s Assad Sworn in For Third Term – 16 July 2014
National Public Radio – Syria’s Assad Sworn in For Third 7-Year Presidential Term – 16 July 2014
The New York Times – Assad Is Sworn in For Third 7-Year Term in Syria – 16 July 2014
The Washington Post – Baby Rescued From Rubble after Syria Bomb Attack – 11 July 2014
The Washington Post – Syrian Crisis: Barrel Bomb Attacks in Aleppo – 11 July 2014
Ahram Online – Syria Refugees Set to Exceed A Third of Lebanon’s Population – 3 July 2014
Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Conflict Zones
Syria Justice and Accountability Centre
“For decades – if not centuries – there has been a near-total absence of justice for survivors of rape and sexual violence in conflict. We hope this Protocol will be part of a new global effort to shatter this culture of impunity, helping survivors and deterring people from committing these crimes in the first place.” – Rt. Hon. William Hague MP, British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
As SJAC has noted before, sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) is widespread in conflict zones all over the globe, and Syria is no exception. Women and men in Syria have been subjected to sexual, physical, and psychological assault and abuse while in detention, during home raids, or even while walking on the street. When SGBV is committed as part of a broad pattern of violations, as is almost certainly occurring in Syria, it can constitute a crime under international law: namely, a war crime, a crime against humanity, or genocide. The effects of SGBV on individual victims and entire communities have had a dramatic impact on the Syrian people’s sense of security, and they have been a major force in driving families out of the country and into refugee camps in neighboring countries.
SGBV can be difficult to document due to the lack of evidence available following the violence, the stigma often associated with the violence, and victims’ corresponding reluctance to disclose. In Syria, women in particular are hesitant to disclose sexual violence due to cultural, social and religious beliefs related to marriage and sexuality. Moreover, even where SGBV in conflict zones has been documented, the incidents have systematically been ignored or downplayed in post-conflict justice mechanisms and courts. Perpetrators of SGBV in conflict zones have rarely been held accountable for their crimes.
Last month, British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Angelina Jolie, Special Envoy for the UN High Commissioner on Refugees, co-chaired the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. The gathering was held in London and brought together 1700 delegates and 129 country delegations to focus on ending impunity for sexual violence in conflict. Meetings were held on a wide range of issues related to sexual violence in conflict, including conflict prevention, international justice, women’s rights and participation, men and boys, and children affected by conflict. The Summit corresponded with the launch of an International Protocol on the Documentation of Sexual Violence in Conflict, aimed at establishing international standards for documenting and investigating sexual violence in conflict zones. The Protocol uses current best practices to provide guidance to investigators, activists, national policymakers, prosecutors, counselors, and medical professionals.
SJAC is in the process of integrating many of the best practices from the Protocol into its own polices, methodology, and operations manual for documenting SGBV in Syria. Other organizations documenting SGBV in Syria and in other conflict zones should make use of this comprehensive document to further our shared goals of documenting SGBV and holding perpetrators of these crimes accountable.