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Syria Human Rights Violations Report: 22 April 2012

By Adom M. Cooper
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

Location: Hamaa | Halfaya

http://youtu.be/54q6lCNAGeI

This hospital’s freezer is filled with bodies after the regime’s forces shelled the town. The young man seen here is one of the victims of the assault. 

 

Location: Hama | Masha’ Al-Arba’een

This woman is begging a monitor to help save the embattled citizens of Syria, telling him, “We are slaughtered, we are slaughtered.” 

 

Location: Damascus Suburbs | Douma

(WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT)

Several residents were killed and dozens were injured when the regime’s forces violently shelled the town on Tuesday. This footage was taken inside a makeshift hospital, and pictures the bodies of the dead. Extremely graphic footage of one of the victims, whose brain was blown out.

 

Location: Aleppo | A’zaz

http://youtu.be/udOrOzNAFj4

To keep up the appearance of committing to the Annan plan and fool the UN monitors before their arrival, the regime’s forces are seen here hiding tanks in trenches in the town. 

 

Video courtesy of:

Syrian Network of Human Rights – Violations Report – 22 April 2012

www.syrianhr.org

Charles Taylor Judgement Summary

Senate Supporters of Russia Rights Bill Press On Despite Warning

Press Release
Erik Wasson

Senate supporters of a Russia human-rights bill linked to trade said Tuesday that they are pressing forward despite a warning from the Russian ambassador this week that the bill will impair relations.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), would freeze the assets of Russian officials allegedly involved in the suspicious death of Russian whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky in November 2009.

Ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) said that he is fighting to get the bill voted on, and he and Cardin dismissed the comments by Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak that it would cause a “significant” reaction in Moscow and impair relations. “I accept that he made that assessment, but I would point out that this bill arises in the course of trying to do a number of things that will assist our relations with Russia, whether in trade or diplomacy, and it appears to me that the Magnitsky issue does make a point about our regard for human rights of citizens,” Lugar said.

Cardin said that his bill is meant to benefit the Russian people and said the United States is just reaffirming international norms. “This is for the Russians, it’s not for us,” he said, citing words of support from ordinary Russians he has received. “This is not meddling.”

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is moving toward considering the bill.

Lugar told reporters on Tuesday that the bill is no longer on the docket for a meeting this week, but he continues to press for passage. “The chairman has decided to take the Magnitsky issue off the table,” Lugar said. He added that Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) has been in consultations with the White House in making his decision.
Kerry spokeswoman Jodi Seth said the bill was never up for discussion this week, however, and that Kerry is supportive of the bill and is working toward its passage.

One of the items under discussion is finding a way to make the bill about human rights more broad rather than just about the situation in Russia, sources said. The Senate proponents of the bill are linking its passage to the extension of permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to Russia. Passing the Russia trade bill is the top trade agenda item for the White House this year. Russia will join the World Trade Organization regardless of congressional action — if PNTR is not passed, U.S. exporters will be penalized with higher tariffs than those faced by other WTO members. PNTR supporters argue that because of this self-injuring aspect to the bill, it is not the right vehicle to press Russia on rights.

Cardin expressed confidence that he was winning the fight, however. “There is a growing consensus in Congress and on the part of the administration that it is going to be a part of PNTR,” Cardin said. “I think we have the votes on its own merits but I think it will be helpful to have it as a part of PNTR.”

For more information, please visit:

The Hill—Senate Supporters of Russia Rights Bill Press on Despite Warning— 24 April 2012

 

 

Syria Human Rights Violations Report: 22 April 2012

Idleb, Jabal Ez-Zawiyyaah

Dozens were injured and many were killed as the regime’s forces pounded residents’ homes with rocket shells. The injuries on this casualty victim illustrate the extent of the shelling.

Douma, Damascus suburbs

This young man was killed by a sniper on his way to work on Sunday.

At-Tal, Damascus suburbs

The family of this young man bids farewell to him after was killed by the relentless gunfire at the hands of the regime’s forces during a demonstration.

Hama, Hama Province

The killing and destruction by the regime’s forces in Hama continues after the United Nations monitors left the town. This video captures the regime’s forces on a high building gesturing and threatening residents that a violent onslaught is about to begin again.

This is leaked video footage of the regime’s forces bragging about the pictured items (the chairs, fan, etc.) which they stole from residents after killing them.

This footage shows the pain of a mother crying to the United Nations monitors that she hasn’t heard from her son in months after he was arrested by the regime’s security forces, and that they refuse to give her any information.

Dar’aa, Khirbet Ghazala

These residents, at great risk, were able to capture footage of the regime’s checkpoint at the entrance of the town, where every vehicle entering and leaving is stopped and residents are berated by the regime’s forces, who often steal what is in the vehicles.

Homs, Al-Qusair

None of the points in the Annan Plan have been respected by the regime’s forces, and the tanks, military chekcpoints and armoured vehicles remain in the streets.

Homs, Al-Holeh

Even water is being prohibited from the residents, after the regime’s forces targeted the water tanks of the town in order to force the residents to flee as one basic necessity after another is taken away by the regime from residents.

Homs, Joret Al-Shayyah

Nothing is left in the town but massive destruction after the relentless shelling attacks on a daily basis by the regime’s forces.

 

Videos Courtesy of:

Syrian Network of Human Rights – Violations Report – 22 April 2012


 

Child Torture Revelations in Syrian Conflict

By Tyler Yates
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria — In a twisted development to an already aberrant conflict, there is news that Syrian authorities have been detaining and torturing children.  This is coupled with previous reports that the Syrian military has routinely raped women, tortured detainees, shot unarmed civilians, and encouraged looting of houses they storm.  There have been (unconfirmed, as of yet) stories of the Syrian opposition army employing child soldiers.

The individual stories of child torture are shocking.

13 Year Old Hossam is one of many children that has been tortured by the Syrian army (Photo courtesy of Salon).

Hossam, a 13 year-old boy, talks of the “ultimate pain” of his torture when a “terrifying person” with a “huge body” drove a screwdriver up into his big toe nail before ripping it out with pliers.  The man screamed, “’You want freedom? You want to topple the regime?’” as he beat the boy.

Mohammed, a 16-year old from Duma, was tortured with electricity after being arrested, and telling his captors that he supported a Syria that benefits all Syrians.  He was beaten with a cable two or three times a day, and electrocuted on his chest, hands, legs, neck, and on his stomach, close to his genitals.

Pure physical torture of children does not cover the extent of the stories coming out of Syria.

Ayman Karnebo, a dissident who was arrested last May when the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began, witnessed the Syrian security forces torturing a pregnant mother, her husband, and her husband’s mother in front of the couple’s infant sons.  Karnebo was sharing a cell with them at the time.

He recalls that the family was of Somali origin; having been rounded up after the revolt took hold.  All foreigners were viewed with suspicion by the Assad government, leading many, like this family, to be detained and questioned.

Karnebo describes all three adults as being tortured with electric shocks to the elbows, hands and toes in front of their terrified children.  After this round of torture the family was moved to another jail.  Their fate remains unknown.

The Assad regime has long been known for its systematic and widespread use of torture, but these new revelations have still come as a surprise.

Amnesty International recently identified 31 methods of torture being employed by Syrian authorities. Some methods have been in use for decades, include the “tire,” where the victim is forced into a large tire and beaten on the feet. There is also the “flying carpet,” where the prisoner is strapped face-up on a wooden board that is bent to stretch the spine.

There are relatively unknown apparently new and even more disturbing techniques, including using pincers to rip out flesh, anal rape with sharp objects and a form of crucifixion where the prisoner is hung from a wall by their wrists.

“The biggest lie of the regime is that there are no orders to torture,” a defected former member of Syrian Air force Intelligence told GlobalPost. “It’s a program, a routine. I saw an old man with a 6-year-old girl brought to the interrogation department. Just five minutes of what she saw there, the screams she heard will surely traumatize her for the rest of her life.”

Navi Pillay, the United Nations’ human rights chief believes that the UN Security Council has enough reliable information to refer Syria’s actions to the International Criminal Court (“ICC”).

“They’ve gone for the children — for whatever purposes — in large numbers,” the BBC quoted her as saying. “Hundreds detained and tortured… it’s just horrendous…Children shot in the knees, held together with adults in really inhumane conditions, denied medical treatment for their injuries, either held as hostages or as sources of information…I feel that investigation and prosecution is a crucial element to deter and call a stop to these violations.”

Syria is not a party to the ICC, so unless Damascus refers itself to the court’s jurisdiction, the only other way for ICC jurisdiction to be created is by a UN Security Council vote.  Given the previous vetoes by Russia and China on resolutions concerning Assad’s violent crackdown such actions are unlikely.

The United States, for its part, is urging the Syrian opposition to unite and pledge to respect minority rights should they eventually push Assad out of power.

“They must be able to clearly demonstrate a commitment to including all Syrians and protecting the rights of all Syrians,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

More than 9,000 people have been killed in the yearlong Syrian uprising.  Both the opposition and the Syrian government have been accused of human rights abuses during the conflict, drawing international flack from NGOs and other countries alike.

A supposed cease-fire between the opposition and the Syrian government, brokered by the United Nations, is scheduled to start on April 14, but its already shaky future is now further in doubt as the Syrian government is now claiming its conditions were misunderstood.

 For more information, please see:

Miami Herald — Syria puts new conditions on cease-fire — 08 April 2012

Business Mirror — Torture of children, rape by Syrian army ‘routine,’ ex-soldiers say — 07 April 2012

Independent — Syrians tortured parents in front of terrified children — 07 April 2012

Salon — Syria’s tortured children — 04 April 2012

Kansas City Star — Torture of children, rape by Syrian army ‘routine,’ ex-soldiers say — 02 April 2012

The Independent — Assad’s forces target children, says UN envoy — 29 Mar. 2012

MSNBC — Syria is torturing children, UN human rights chief says — 28 Mar. 2012