Syrians tell of torture in detention amid mass arrests

Web news story: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/syrians-tell-torture-detention-amid-mass-arrests-2011-05-03

3 May 2011

Amnesty International has received first-hand reports of
torture and other ill-treatment from detainees held in Syria as a wave of
arrests of anti-government protesters intensified over the weekend.

Detainees who were recently released told the organization
of beatings and harsh conditions in detention, raising fears for the safety of
hundreds of others being held, including at least 499 people who were arrested
on Sunday in house-to-house raids in the southern town of Dera’a.

“These disturbing new accounts of detainees being tortured
further underscore the need for President Bashar al-Assad to put an end to his
security forces’ violent onslaught against his own people,” said Philip Luther,
Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“The use of unwarranted lethal force, arbitrary detention
and torture appear to be the desperate actions of a government that is
intolerant of dissent and must be halted immediately. Syrians must be allowed
to voice their calls for change peacefully.”

The army announced on Sunday it had arrested 499 just in
Dera’a, which has been a key location for pro-reform protests that have swept
the country.

Widespread arbitrary arrests have also taken place in recent
days in other towns and cities around the country, including Qamishly in the
north-east, az Zabadani and Madaya (west of Damascus), Duma (near Damascus) and
the coastal town of Latakia.

Among the many arrested are political and social activists,
including ‘Omar Qashash, an 85-year-old former political prisoner, 77-year-old
lawyer Hassan ‘Abdel ‘Azim of the Democratic Arab Socialist Party, and ‘Abd
al-Rahman Hamada, a 20-year-old student taken from his home on 30 April by
security forces who were searching for his brother Wa’el. Wa’el Hamada and his
wife Razan Zaitouneh, a human rights activist and leading human rights lawyer,
respectively, have gone into hiding.

Most are held at unknown locations without any access to
visits from their families or lawyers, adding to fears for their safety.

Two men who were detained last month in the coastal city of
Banias told Amnesty International that Syrian security forces had used rifle
butts to hit them and many other detainees on the neck and collarbone.

One detainee said that after being stripped and beaten he
was made to lick his blood off the floor. According to him, he and others
detained with him had been beaten with sticks and cables as well as kicked and
punched. Held without food for three days in overcrowded conditions in one
detention centre, he said they had to resort to drinking dirty water from a
toilet.

Amnesty International has obtained the names of 54 people
killed on Friday, bringing to 542 its figure for the total number of
protesters, bystanders and others who have been killed during six weeks of
pro-reform protests. The actual number of deaths is almost certainly higher.

The high number of deaths has been attributed to
heavy-handed tactics by Syrian security forces, who have shot live bullets
directly into protests and funeral processions and used tanks to shell
residential buildings. The military last week laid siege to Dera’a, cutting off
electricity and water supplies.

On 29 April the UN Human Rights Council condemned the
ongoing grave human rights violations in Syria and called for a UN fact-finding
mission to investigate.

President Bashar al-Assad’s government has accused “armed
terrorist groups” of leading a violent uprising and of being responsible for
the deaths of nearly 80 members of the security forces.

Amnesty International has not been allowed to visit Syria
since the protests began. The international media has also been severely
restricted; foreign journalists have generally not been allowed into the
country. Al-Jazeera confirmed to Amnesty International today that its journalist
Dorothy Parvaz has not been seen since arriving at Damascus airport from Qatar
on 29 April.

“We fear that many of the hundreds currently detained by the
Syrian authorities have been arrested arbitrarily,” said Philip Luther.

“Those detained merely for their involvement in peaceful
protests are prisoners of conscience and should be released immediately and
unconditionally. Those suspected of committing an internationally recognizable
criminal offence should be charged without delay and brought to justice in fair
trial proceedings.”