Millions Face Food Shortage in Zimbabwe

By: Dan Krupinsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

HARARE, Zimbabwe – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday that Zimbabwe, following a drought and poor harvest, faces its worst food shortage in four years.

According to the agency, they will work with the government and other international aid organizations to provide food assistance to a portion of the nation’s 13 million people from October until March and April of 2014, when the next crop harvest will occur.

An estimated 2.2 million people, which is one fourth of the rural population of Zimbabwe, are expected to need food assistance in the time before the harvest period next year.

Food sits, ready for distribution to those in need. (Photo: WFP/R. Lee)

“Many districts, particularly in the south, harvested very little and people are already trying to stretch out their dwindling food stocks,” said WFP Country Director Sory Ouane. “WFP is working closely with the Government and partners to respond to the looming food crisis and will start food and cash distributions to the most vulnerable in October.”

Food prices in Zimbabwe are up by as much as 15% in some cases, and as the availability of foods like grain and cererals becomes even more scarce, the already inflated prices will rise even more.

The rising prices create obvious hardships for the citizens, especially in a country where the unemployment rate is as high as 70%, according to some estimates.

Erratic rains and the rising cost of harvesting goods, such as fertilizers, are just a couple of the numerous factors contributing to the crisis.

Critics blame President Robert Megabe’s policies for an economic crisis lasting over a decade and peaking in 2009, perhaps most notably land grabs of white-owned farms by the government for redistribution to blacks with no land. Magabe maintains that he was correcting ownership imbalances created by colonialism, but over the last 15 years, Zimbabwe has turned from a country that was self-sufficient into one desperately in need of help.

According to a report by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee, this shortage would constitute the highest level of hunger since early 2009, when more than half of the population required food support.

To combat the problem, WFP and its international aid partners will provide regionally-available cereals as well as imported vegetable oil and pulses. Cash transfers will be used in selected areas to afford people flexibility and help support local markets. The distributions will increase gradually from October until the new harvest period in March of next year.

 

For further information, please see:

All Africa – Zimbabwe: Hunger Looms in Rural Zimbabwe – 3 September 2013

News 24 – Hunger on rise in Zimbabwe – 3 September 2013

Reuters – U.N. agency says 2.2 million Zimbabweans face food shortages – 3 September 2013

UN News Centre – Over 2 million people in Zimbabwe to require food assistance, warns UN agency – 3 September 2013

Council of Europe’s Committee Will Debate How to Punish Sergei Magnitsky’s Killers

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Distribution

2 September 2013 – This Wednesday, 4 September 2013, between 9 am and 1 pm, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), will consider a draft resolution entitled “Refusing Impunity for the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky”(http://www.assembly.coe.int/Communication/ajdoc24_2013.pdf).

Since the report’s publication earlier in June, Russian officials have been struggling to find ways of diluting the conclusions of the report.

Russia is one of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe. The draft resolution and the report on the impunity of Russian officials in the Magnitsky case have been prepared by Swiss MP, Rapporteur Andreas Gross under his Council of Europe mandate from November 2012 to carry out an independent review of Magnitsky’s death in Russian custody.

On 25 June 2013, Mr Gross presented his findings to the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee of the Council of Europe. Even before the report was released, the Russian delegation expressed its dissatisfaction and pledged to “influence” the content of the report before the 4 September 2013 vote.

Alexei Pushkov, MP from the Pro-Putin United Russia and head of the Russian delegation to the Council of Europe,(http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/AssemblyList/AL_MemberDetails.asp?MemberID=6889), said prior to the 25 June 2013 meeting on the draftMagnitsky resolution:

“We will try to influence its content. The first page of the resolution announces Magnitsky as a fighter with corruption which he never was, because he was a finansist, specialist in creating schemes to avoid taxes”(http://www.er-duma.ru/news/59702).

Pushkov also said that the draft report presented to the Council of Europe’s Committee by Mr Gross “repeated the political imprints which have been accepted by the Western approach to the ‘Magnitsky case.”

Pushkov denied that Magnitsky died from beating, saying: “I repeat. This has not been determined.”

After these remarks were made, Mr Magnitsky’s mother publicly confronted Mr Pushkov with a statement that she and other relatives were eyewitnesses to the injuries her son had suffered before his death.

“The statements you have made have offended the feelings of Sergei Magnitsky’s relatives, who had the misfortune to witness first hand the injuries on his body pointing towards a violent death,” said Mrs Magnitskaya in a letter addressed to Mr Pushkov.

Mr Magnitsky’s mother demanded a public apology from Mr Pushkov over his remarks: “You have made statements over a long period of time about a deceased person, which are impermissible both from the point of view of the morality and law. In spite of this, you have never asked for the clarification of the position from the family of Sergei Magnitsky,” said Mrs Magnitskaya.

 

Natalia Magnitskaya’s letter was published by Novaya Gazeta (http://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/66840.html). No response from Mr Pushkov was forthcoming so far.

 

Another Russian delegate to the Council of Europe, Alexander Sidyakin (http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/AssemblyList/AL_MemberDetails.asp?MemberID=6899) said  the report by Rapporteur Gross was “not accounting for the position of the official structures of Russia” and implied that the death of Mr Magnitsky was similar to the death of the former Serbian President Mr  Milošević.

“Our objection is that the report is biased. We proposed to them [PACE Committee] to examine the death of the particular person in detention, but this is a banal topic. Milošević also died in detention, because help was not provided to him,” said Mr Sidyakin in comments published bygazeta.ru on 26 June 2013 (http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2013/06/26_a_5394273.shtml).

 

Notably, when Andreas Gross MP was first appointed as Rapporteur on the Magntisky case, the Russian officials welcomed his candidacy. According to comments made in November 2012 by the Russian delegate to the Council of Europe, Leonid Slutsky MP (http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/AssemblyList/AL_MemberDetails.asp?MemberID=4380), “Gross was one of the co-rapporteurs on the monitoring file on the Russian Federation and had shown himself as a constructive partner” and his appointment would help avoid an “openly biased approach” (http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/20121112184851.shtml).

 

The motion “Refusing Impunity for the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky” calling for an independent review of the Magnitsky case by the Council of Europe was tasked to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights in October 2012 following a recommendation of the Council of Europe’s Bureau. At the meeting on 12 November 2012, the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee designated Mr Gross to prepare a report on the Magnitsky case.

 

The draft resolution before the Committee’s vote on 4 September 2013 prepared by Rapporteur Gross on the impunity of officials in the Magnitsky case calls for the Council of Europe member states to hold to account all those who share responsibility in Mr Magnitsky’s death, ensure that his posthumous prosecution and the persecution of other lawyers who represented Hermitage in Russia is ended, and urges Russian authorities to cooperate with criminal investigations launched by European countries into the $230 million funds stolen by the group of Russian officials and criminals exposed by Sergei Magnitsky.

 

The draft resolution summarises the details of the corrupt criminal conspiracy exposed by Mr Magnitsky (see, for instance, Mr Magnitsky’s testimonies from 5 June 2008 and 7 October 2008 given before his arrest, his testimonies from detention from 14 October 2009 and 12 November 2009 at http://russian-untouchables.com/eng/testimonies/). In spite of the evidence, the Russian authorities attempt to argue that Mr Magnitsky did not discover their corruption, and instead posthumously blamed Mr Magnitsky himself for the $230 million theft he had exposed.

The draft resolution before the Council of Europe’s Committee describes Mr Magnitsky’s beating before his death (see the prison records evidencing the use of hand-cuffs and rubber batons, the signs of violence on Magnitsky’s body discovered at the funeral, the act of death referring to his suspected head injury, and the findings by the Russian President’s Human Rights Council in: http://russian-untouchables.com/eng/cover-up-presentation/).

Even the official Russian medical experts referred to rubber batons as a likely cause of injuries on Magnitsky’s body, yet the official position of the Russian government remains that of denial that beatings took place. In March 2013, the Russian Investigative Committee formally closed the investigation into the death of Sergei Magnitsky finding that “no event of crime” had occurred. In April 2013, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that the Kremlin had “no reason to doubt the competency of those who conducted the investigation”(http://www.interfax.ru/russia/news.asp?id=301437). Mr Peskov insisted that the Magnitsky case must not be discussed outside of Russia, calling such discussions “impermissible” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/russia/2013/04/130415_peskov_interview.shtml).

The official agenda of the 4 September 2013 meeting of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights which will take place in Paris, France, includes the consideration of the draft report on the impunity in the Magnitsky case, the addendum and the draft resolution (http://assembly.coe.int/Committee/Agenda/20130904JUR3932_E.PDF).

For further information, please see:

Law and Order in Russia

International Criminal Justice News Roundup: August 2013

Dear all,

Please find below the news headlines on international criminal justice from August. You can find past headlines and other relevant resources on the International Association of Prosecutors’ (IAP) Forum for International Criminal Justice (FICJ) website.

The FICJ is password protected and only IAP members have access. This is meant to facilitate open and frank dialogue between prosecutors. Please contact Evie Sardeman, Office Manager (OM@iap-association.org) or Janne Holst Hübner, Communication Manager (CM@iap-association.org) with questions about IAP membership and website access.

******

30 August
UN SG: Cambodia Khmer Rouge tribunal needs funding
(Source: Jurist)
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday that Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge tribunal, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), is running out of money, threatening its survival. Ban urged international donors to provide financial support to keep the tribunal running. Due to the financial strain, some staff have not been paid in months and are now threatening to strike…

29 August
ICTY removes judge from Vojislav Seselj’s war crimes trial
(Source: Deutsche Welle)
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) announced on Thursday that it had disqualified Danish Judge Frederik Harhoff from adjudicating at the trial of Serbian ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj. It said a special panel or chamber of three judges appointed to consider Sesejl’s request for Harhoff’s removal had voted 2-1 in favor of the disqualification. “The Chamber found… that Judge Frederik Harhoff had demonstrated an unacceptable appearance of bias in favour of conviction,” a statement posted on the ICTY’s website said…

It’s Time for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi to Go to The Hague
(Source: Human Rights Watch)
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the former Libyan leader, has been held under guard by a militia in Zintan in western Libya for close to two years, as the new Libyan authorities and the International Criminal Court (ICC) argue over who will try him. After failing in a bid to prosecute the ICC’s allegations against Gaddafi, it’s time for Libya to follow its legal obligations and turn him over to the ICC…

28 August
Bosnia police chief sentenced to 14 years for war crimes
(Source: Jurist)
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday sentenced Goran Saric, a former police chief, to 14 years for crimes against humanity. His charges specifically involved detention, forced transfer and murder of civilian Bosniak population of Sarajevo’s Centar municipality between June and July 1992 during the Bosnian Civil War in violation of Article 172(1)(h) of BiH’s Criminal Code…

27 August
Rwanda Tribunal digs up partial truth
(Source: Radio Netherlands)
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) based in Arusha, Tanzania, is due to conclude at the end of 2014 following several deferrals. Analysts have globally recognised the ICTR’s role in bringing perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandese genocide to justice. However, for a variety of reasons, analysts also believe that the tribunal has not entirely fulfilled its mandate…

UN failed to investigate Kosovo war crimes: AI
(Source: Jurist)
The UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) failed to adequately investigate missing person reports in the aftermath of the 1998-99 Kosovo war with Serbia, Amnesty International (AI) reported Tuesday…

26 August
UN rights chief visits Sri Lanka to investigate war crimes allegations
(Source: Jurist)
At the beginning of a week-long visit to Sri Lanka, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay pledged to raise concerns with the government’s human rights record, particularly with regard to alleged war crimes against ethnic Tamils…

19 August
Chad: Investigation Starts in Habre Case
(Source: allAfrica)
The special court charged with trying former Chadian president Hissène Habré this Monday launched its investigations with a two-week mission to Chad, reports Radio France Internationale. Habré, who has been living in exile in Senegal for 22 years, was arrested on June 30 at his home in Dakar and charged two days later with crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture committed between 1982 and 1990 when he was in power in Chad…

18 August
Jailed general cleared of contempt of court
(Source: WDTN)
The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal has acquitted a jailed Bosnian Serb army general of contempt of court, saying his post-traumatic stress disorder was a reasonable excuse for refusing to testify in the trial of his former commander-in-chief, Radovan Karadzic. Gen. Radislav Krstic, who is serving a 35-year sentence for aiding and abetting genocide, was subpoenaed last year to testify at Karadzic’s long-running trial, but repeatedly refused to give evidence, citing ill health…

16 August
ICC Seeks to Reassure Kenyan Violence Victims
(Source: IWPR)
Ahead of two trials due to start in The Hague in the coming months, the prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court, ICC, has sought to reassure Kenyans about the strength of its case against the country’s leaders. Despite significant challenges surrounding its investigations in Kenya the Office of the Prosecutor, OTP, has said the public “should not read too much into” revelations that certain witnesses who were due to testify before the court have recently been replaced…

15 August
Israel extradites Serb-Israeli to Bosnia-Herzegovina for genocide
(Source: Jerusalem Post)
The government of Bosnia- Herzegovina submitted the request for his extradition on August 29, 2010…Extraditions are a rare proceeding where a defendant can both go before the Supreme Court as an appeals court and later appeal to the same court in its capacity as the High Court of Justice on different grounds. Zvtkovic is suspected of involvement in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which as many as 8,000 Muslims were executed after Serb forces overran the town during the civil war in Bosnia…

13 August
Hague war crimes ruling threatens to undermine future prosecutions
(Source: The Guardian)
Generals and politicians could evade responsibility for war crimes in future because of a ruling requiring proof that they “specifically directed” atrocities, say some international lawyers and senior judges. A series of acquittals by the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) have created a novel judicial precedent that human rights groups fear will make it difficult to deliver justice in the wake of massacres…

11 August
HRW states July 29 Iraq bombings were crimes against humanity
(Source: Jurist)
Human Rights Watch stated on Sunday that the Islamic State of Iraq, a suspected al Qaeda branch, had committed crimes against humanity during the July 29 bombings in Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for a series of car bombs implemented to aid a prison raid. The July 29 bombings killed over 60 people, and July was the bloodiest month in Iraq in over five years according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) estimates…

8 August
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s lawyer calls for UK intervention over execution fears
(Source: The Guardian)
The British lawyer representing Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has called on the UK to intervene on his client’s behalf amid fears that the son of the former Libyan dictator will be sentenced to death in a trial expected later in August…

7 August
ICC Prosecutor voices concern about ongoing serious crimes in Central African Republic
(Source: UN News Centre)
The prosecutor of the world’s first permanent court set up to try those accused of genocide and war crimes today voiced her deep concern about the worsening security situation in the Central African Republic (CAR) and reports of serious crimes being committed there…

5 August
International prosecutor accuses Nigerian Islamist group of possible crimes against humanity
(Source: Montreal Gazette)
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says that after a preliminary investigation she believes that acts attributed to the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram are likely crimes against humanity. “Information available provides a reasonable basis to believe that since July 2009 Boko Haram has launched a widespread and systematic attack that has resulted in the killing of more than 1,200 Christian and Muslim civilians in different locations throughout Nigeria,” Fatou Bensouda wrote in a report issued Monday…

ICC moves witnesses to Europe ahead of Hague trial
(Source: The Star)
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has relocated five top witnesses from an African country ahead of the start of hearings for the post election violence cases against President Uhuru Kenyatta, his Deputy William Ruto and journalist Joshua Arap Sang…Before they were flown out by officials from the ICC Witness Protection Unit there were fears about their security which led to the relocation on a night flight two days ago. ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is expected to use the witnesses to testify during the hearings…

Liberia: Taylor Complains From Prison
(Source: allAfrica)
Detained ex-President Charles Taylor has written the African Union, complaining about the prison condition and the discrimination being meted out against him and other African detainees there, describing it as racist…

2 August
Special Tribunal for Lebanon sets provisional date for Hariri murder trial
(Source: Middle East Online)
The UN-backed tribunal set up to try the killers of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri on Friday set a provisional January start date for the trial. “The pre-trial Judge at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon today issued an order setting 13 January 2014 as a new tentative date for the start of the trial,” the court said in a statement…

Syria: UN human rights chief urges probe into alleged execution of Government soldiers
(Source: UN News Centre)
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay today urged an independent investigation into whether war crimes had been committed when armed opposition groups in Syria allegedly executed dozens of captured Government soldiers in the northern province of Aleppo last month…

SNHR: SNHR Receives a Certificate of Thanks and Appreciation from the Human Rights Data Analysis Group

The Syrian Network for Human Rights received a certificate of thanks and appreciation from the Human Rights Data analysis group (HRDNG): an Organization that analyzes conflict-victims around the world, and whose research is depended on by the United Nations.

On the back of cooperation and constant communication between Syrian Network for Human Rights and HRDNG and also the United Nations, and provides them with all required statistics and files using the highest global standards in all objectivity, perseverance and continuity,  and also provides the answers to all questions in all detail.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights, considered one of the most prominent sources for the United Nation, in documenting non-international armed conflict’s victims in Syrian, depended on by many human rights organizations, and Arab and international news agency.

Please view the message’s text via following attachment:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Bj18tlYYKBRnZNNi1URzJWUDQ/edit

The Syrian Network for Human Rights will keep working professionally and in high credibility, and we thank the SNHR’s members, especially the members deployed inside Syrian governorates, who risks their lives in order to document the ongoing violations committed against Syrian citizens.

Founder and Director of the Syrian Human Rights Network,

Fadel Abudl Ghany

SNHR: Military Pieces that Contain Prisoners

Prepared by Syrian Network for Human Rights

Date of issue: 30/8/2013

According to the last statistic conducted by SNHR in 12/6/2013, the number of detainees exceeded 215.000.  SNHR listed more than 50% of them, and because there are parents not willing to refer to their child’s detention, especially if she is a female, this hampers the ability to document all detainees’ names, unlike the victims whose names we documented accurately.

The detention, or enforced disappearances, occur when persons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government, by organized groups, or private individuals acting on behalf of, or with the support be it direct or indirect, consent or acquiescence to the Government.  This is followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned, or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the protection of the law.

Among the 215.000 detainees, 80.000 Syrian citizens considered as enforced disappearance, according to SNHR’s lists, which are available for IRC and UN if they wish to see.

Among the 215.000 detainees, more than 9,000 are under the age of 18, and subjected to different types of torture similar to the torture detained men undergo.

Among the 215.000 detainees, more than 5000 women.

The detainees are subjected to the daily, systematically, and extremely violent and difficult methods of torture for at least 14 hours a day, which led to the death of 3117 citizens tortured to death, including 29 women and 91 children.

Due to the significant rise in the numbers of detainees, prisons and the main security branches are no longer enough, they are:

1- Air Force intelligence

2- Military Security

3- Political Security

4- State Security

In addition to central prisons, that contain thousands of detainees, our report focuses on military bases that contain detainees.

The Syrian regime used military bases as detention centers where civilians were tortured.  It is almost confirmed that the international society will intervene militarily to stop the bloodshed in Syria and hit the regime’s military bases where they used to shell the cities and residential neighborhoods from.  However, we must pay attention to theses military bases that contain civilian prisoners that take into consideration an objective to only target military vehicles without the buildings that exist within those military units, in order to preserve the life of those civilians.

We also don’t rule out that Syrian regime will kill large numbers of detainees and accuse the international society of doing so.

These are the following military bases, with each site there is a map that shows the location of it:

First: Damascus governorate

 

– Almaza military airport (there are almost 8,000 detainees from Damascus and countryside exist in the sport hall of the airport)

https://maps.google.com/?ll=33.484225,36.22673&spn=0.004886,0.010568&t=h&z=17

– Omaya school turned into military barrack

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=33.517122,36.311917&num=1&t=h&z=16

– Altajheez school turned into military barrack

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=33.515351,36.292498&num=1&t=h&z=17

– Pakistani school turned into military barrack

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=33.50424,36.115451&num=1&t=h&z=16

– Tenth Brigade Qatana

– Third Brigade Qtaifih

– Sydnaya prison https://maps.google.com/maps?q=33.665461,36.328819&num=1&t=h&z=15

– Aldomair airport

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=33.615191,36.745563&num=1&t=h&z=14

– Fourth Brigade Dimas containers

– Republican Guard:  Najha containers

– First Brigade: Alkosoa

================================

Second: Homs governorate:

– Alhasan Ibn Alhaitham military campaign, all the detainees there are civilians:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=34.69048,36.728763&hl=en&num=1&t=h&z=17–

– Military housing factory, most detainees are civilians:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=34.657216,36.715898&hl=en&num=1&t=h&z=16

– Air Defense Brigade in Ghantou village, most of the detainees are defected soldiers and Free Syrian Army’s fighters:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=34.795259,36.710932&hl=en&num=1&t=h&z=17

– Military institute for vegetables and fruits- Qusor neighborhood, most detainees moved to air security branch, only a few civilians there:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=34.746895,36.709562&hl=en&num=1&t=h&z=19

SNHR’s members received reports that security forces evacuated the security headquarters and central prison, and were transferred to civilians headquarters in the following areas:

(Mukhtaria, Zahraa, Zaidal)

========================================

Third: Aleppo governorate:

– Hanano Barrackshttps://maps.google.com.eg/maps?q=36.207403,37.169641&hl=en&num=1&t=m&z=16

36.207403,37.169641

– Aleppo International Stadium: turned into military barrack, contains armor

https://maps.google.com.eg/maps?q=36.186104,37.116939&hl=en&num=1&t=m&z=13

36.186104,37.116939

– Alnairab military airport, has civilians and defected soldiers in its buildings

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=36.180614,37.22438&num=1&t=h&z=16

===========================================================================

Fourth: Hama governorate:

 

– Military airport has large numbers of detainees, specifically in dispensary and the near buildings.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=35.122717,36.708042&num=1&t=h&z=13

– Brigade 47 located on southern side of Homs Highway

–  Dier Shmil camp located in the western countryside

==============================================

Fifth : Lattakia governorate:

 

All the detainees are civilians who retreated or wanted to do military service.  They were held in this location in addition to prisoners that were transferred from political security..  Unless they were transferred to the courts or Damascus.

 1- Military bases:

-The castle is in the center of the city and is also an air base and a missile platform, containing a large number of Anti-aircraft munitions, Gvozdika, number of soldiers are 360, and there are tunnels underneath

35.521434, 35.785303

 

– Salah Aldin barracks ( which is a battalion belong to the Republican Guard, military security and Military prison)

– Al- Yahodia located at the entrance of the city before Tishreen university, extends over a wide area, contain thousands of soldiers, surface to surface rocket launcher and other weapons.

2- Alternative bases:

– Sports city (Alassad sport city) off the shore of the Mediterranean Sea on the northern outskirts of the city of Latakia. With an area of 160 hectares, has been turned into a military barracks contains tanks, armored personnel carrier, Ammunition depots, and is the official residence of Helal Al-Assad while turning the horse track to a place of detention hundreds of Syrians

– Jol Jamal school turned into military barrack, launching centre, and arming soldiers ( inside the school there is a tunnel leads to shelters under Hafez Al-Asaad’s statue in Sheikh Daher square , we think that there are detainees there )

35.522211,35.778415

SNHR’s members got reports that security forces evacuate security headquarters and central prison, and move them to civilians headquarters.

======================================================================

 

Sixth : Dier ez-Zor governorate:

 

– Avant-garde camp in Jorah neighborhood

https://maps.google.com.qa/maps?q=35.353776,40.106621&hl=ar&num=1&gl=QA&t=m&z=13

– Panorama’s barrier building located at the sides of Dier ez-Zoor towards Palmyra, almost 10 km far from the centre of the city, they held civilians there temporarily, then they departed to a security branch.