By Zach Waksman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria – Protests against the regime of embattled President Bashar al-Assad reached a new level in Syria on Friday.  For the first time, activists requested assistance from the international community in dealing with Assad’s crackdowns on public dissidence.  More than 2,200 people are estimated to have died since protests started in mid-March.

At the same time, a story of new atrocities by the security forces surfaced.  Thursday, Human Rights Watch reported that security forces stormed al-Barr hospital in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city on Wednesday, and removed 18 wounded people from the facility.  Five of those taken were in the operating room at the time, and two were unconscious.  A doctor at the hospital told Human Rights Watch that security forces were looking for a man named Bilal, but by the time they arrived, a person of that name who had checked in had succumbed to his injuries.  The forces then went through the hospital and took anyone who had a bullet wound.

“When we tried to help the wounded who needed urgent medical care, the security forces pushed us back, saying these were criminals and rapists. They were beating the wounded as they moved them out of the hospital,” the doctor added.  “A woman, who must have been a mother or a sister of one of the wounded, begged them [the security forces] to give her relative his medication but they pushed her. The security forces then put the wounded in ambulances and drove them away. We could see them beating them inside the ambulance as they departed. I don’t know where they took them.”

This new action runs counter to a statement made by International Committee of the Red Cross president Jakob Kellenberger at the end of his visit to Syria on Monday.  Kellenberger said he insisted that members of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent be able to do their work without interference while he met with Assad.  Instead, it continues a pattern of security forces interfering with medical personnel’s ability to provide needed treatment to the wounded.

Friday’s rally, dubbed “Friday for International Protection,” is the latest statement from the regime’s opposition.  Despite near-certain response from the country’s security forces, these protests, with attendance numbering in the thousands, have taken place every Friday after the week’s primary Muslim prayer service.  This one was no different, with troops firing into the crowd once again.  Several people were killed, including a 15-year-old boy, but the death toll is unclear at this time.

“We want international protection!” was heard in several cities across the country.  Others called for Assad’s execution.  Still others held signs that read “Bashar: Game Over!”

A Facebook page titled “Syrian Revolution 2011” has asked the United Nations to send a permanent observer mission.  Such a mission, if deployed, would be at best, “a first step” in the process of calming and stabilizing a rapidly decaying situation, according to the Syrian Revolution General Commission, an umbrella bloc of activists that called for monitoring as an attempt to deter continued attacks.  But such an effort could also backfire, according bloc spokesman Ahmad al-Khatib during an interview with Reuters.

“Calling for outside intervention is a sensitive issue that could be used by the regime to label its opponents as traitors,” said Khatib.

Syria’s own government does not take the protests seriously.  Friday, SANA, the country’s official news agency, issued a press release reporting that Samih Khreis, Secretary-General of the Arab Bar Association, considered the activists’ cries for help from the international community illegitimate. The report also said that the opposition should not make these requests because “’Genuine reform cannot be built on the ruins of the homeland,” but through unity.  This same release also alleged that the same calls were not representative of the people.  Instead, it said, they were “manufactured by a group from the Canadian-Zionist Organization.”

Syria’s allies are rapidly losing patience with Assad’s continued crackdowns.  Russia, who has long opposed sanctions, still feels that Syria is using excessive force in dealing with the protesters, even if they might be “terrorists.”  Turkey, once a strong supporter of the Assad regime, is now one of its most vocal critics.  Even Iran, its closest friend in the international community, has called for the killing to stop.  Wednesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recommended that Assad start talking to the opposition instead of shooting at it.  Friday, he suggested that the region meet in Tehran, his country’s capital.

“A military solution is never the right solution,” Ahmadinejad told a Portuguese broadcaster. “We believe that freedom and justice and respect for others are the rights of all nations. All governments have to recognize these rights.  Problems have to be dealt with through dialogue.”

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera — Syrians appeal for international protection — 09 September 2011

BBC — Syria unrest: Protesters call for international help — 09 September 2011

CNN — Report: Syrian forces snatched operating room patients — 09 September 2011

New York Times — Group Says Syrian Forces Seized Hospital Patients — 09 September 2011

SANA — Arab Personalities, Political Analysts: Calls for International Protection of the Syrian People Come from Canadian Zionist Organizations — 09 September 2011

Human Rights Watch — Syria: Security Forces Remove Wounded From Hospital — 08 September 2011

By Zach Waksman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria – Monday marked a step forward for the rights of those detained by the Syrian government since protests against the regime of longtime President Bashar al-Assad began in mid-March.  During a meeting with Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Syria agreed to grant the ICRC access to its primary prison facility.

This recent breakthrough comes on the heels of new information on what happens inside the detention facilities.  Last week, Amnesty International released a report on the treatment of detainees, whose number may run into the tens of thousands over just the past six months.  Highlights of the report include eyewitness accounts of beatings using both bare hands and occasionally weapons, and the use of electric shock on prisoners.  A minimum of 88 people are reported to have died in Syrian prisons between April 1 and August 15 alone, including 10 teenagers.  Amnesty International said evidence existed that 52 of those deaths were connected to torture of some form.  Syria denies that torture took place.

The results of the meeting provide limited access for the time being.  For now, the ICRC will only be able see people who were detained by the Minister of the Interior.  Kellenberger was optimistic of the possibility to expand the visits in the future.  “[W]e are hopeful that we will soon be able to visit all detainees,” he said.

Kellenberger also met with Syrian Walid Muallem Foreign Minister.  In a statement released by SANA, the country’s state-run news agency, Muallem emphasized that there was no shortage of access to medical care.  Despite recent claims that people had difficulty gaining such access, he said that the public hospitals were “constantly ready [to] provide the required medical services for all the citizens.”  He also said he was grateful for the efforts of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Organization, which had been invaluable in ensuring present needs were met.

While he spoke with Assad, Kellenberger said they “the rules governing the use of force by security forces in the current situation and the obligation to respect the physical and psychological well-being and human dignity of detainees.”

He reiterated that topic while talking to Muallem and other top Syrian officials.

A news release from SANA issued today said that Assad also embraced the ICRC’s visit.  Assad, it claimed, considered it vital that the detention center be directly examined so that alleged media distortions of what happens there could be rectified.  Continuing further, he said he “welcomed the Committee’s work as long as it remains independent and objective and is not politicized.”

The visit will give the Red Cross the chance to talk directly to detainees about their treatment in the facility.  It will also be able to request that Syrian authorities improve prison conditions and tell families about the fate of those detained.

While this news is promising, do not expect to learn exactly what the ICRC finds.  It told the BBC that, as a general rule, it does not release details of its findings during prison inspections to the public because it thinks revealing that information might limit future access to the facilities.

For more information, please see:

SANA — President al-Assad Affirms to Head of ICRC the Importance of Direct Examination of Situation in Syria in Light of Media Distortion — 06 September 2011

BBC — International Red Cross visits Syrian prison — 05 September 2011

CNN — Red Cross granted access to Syrian detention facility — 05 September 2011

ICRC — Syria: ICRC president concludes visit by holding talks with Syrian president — 05 September 2011

New York Times — Syria Allows Red Cross Officials to Visit Prison — 05 September 2011

Al Bawaba — Amnesty: Huge increase of deaths in Syrian prisons — 31 August 2011

Amnesty International — Deadly Detention: Deaths in custody amid popular protest in Syria — 31 August 2011