Adnan, a young Syrian professional in his thirties, tells of his experience as one of hundreds detained in President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on dissent…
The whole experience is built around humiliation. We were blindfolded. We were shouted at. We were only allowed to the toilet once a day, for three seconds. We had to strip down to our underwear and someone would stand outside the door counting. If you didn’t finish within three seconds you were beaten. I often didn’t go; I was too worried. We were given water and food, but you don’t want to drink when you can’t go to the toilet.
We were taken out of the cell to be beaten and I was interrogated several times. One time they took us to a room with an electric chair. I said no, this is too much, not this. They didn’t use it but they have one – I saw it with my own eyes. They accused me of working for foreign gangs. They were angry about videos of the protests being leaked and they searched everyone’s phones. They finally decided to let me go in the early hours of the morning, exhausted and bruised and battered. It was a horrible experience. This regime is brutal but also stupid. Everyone in there said they were angrier, not more afraid. You cannot forgive a regime that does this to you.”
News of brutality in Syria is regrettably unsurprising and hardly new. But is the international community right to take a much more hand-off approach than it has in Libya and (eventually) in the Ivory Coast? Is this sensible pragmatism about what can or can’t be done or is there more that should be done? The comments thread awaits…
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2 Comments
I wait with interest for the Stop the War Coalition to call a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in protest at the Syrian Government’s brutal mistreatment of its own Arab citizens and of the Palestinians who live in Syria. After all, if Israel was behaving like this, the demonstrators would be out in force in Trafalgar Square and outside the Embassy, shouting “Not in my name” and demanding an end to the killings. But it seems that some people care more about some deaths than they do about others, so not a peep from those people about what’s happening in Syria. I don’t include Liberal Democrats in that, I mean certain people on the Far Left who are guilty of double standards and hypocrisy.
Excellent article above, thanks Mark.
In direct answer to the question posed, no the international community is not right to cherry pick which brutal dictators / regimes it stands up to. The UN is useless and no longer fit for purpose. But with Russia and China as permanent members of the Security Council it can hardly be considered a guardian of the oppressed….
As for Libya, I would think the assasination attempt made recently resulting in the death of one of Gaddaffi’s sons has gone so far over the mandate on protecting civilians that it should be investigated as a possible war crime. The regime and its leader are beneath contempt, but the party that led many protests about the legality of Iraq should not allow NATO to stray from its legitimate mission.