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.

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