{"id":239,"date":"2011-05-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/?p=239","title":{"rendered":"Syrians tell of torture in detention amid mass arrests"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nSyrians tell of torture in detention amid mass arrests<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nWeb news story: http:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/news-and-updates\/syrians-tell-torture-detention-amid-mass-arrests-2011-05-03<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n3 May 2011\n<\/p>\n

\nAmnesty International has received first-hand reports of
\ntorture and other ill-treatment from detainees held in Syria as a wave of
\narrests of anti-government protesters intensified over the weekend.\n<\/p>\n

\nDetainees who were recently released told the organization
\nof beatings and harsh conditions in detention, raising fears for the safety of
\nhundreds of others being held, including at least 499 people who were arrested
\non Sunday in house-to-house raids in the southern town of Dera’a.\n<\/p>\n

\n“These disturbing new accounts of detainees being tortured
\nfurther underscore the need for President Bashar al-Assad to put an end to his
\nsecurity forces’ violent onslaught against his own people,” said Philip Luther,
\nAmnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.\n<\/p>\n

\n“The use of unwarranted lethal force, arbitrary detention
\nand torture appear to be the desperate actions of a government that is
\nintolerant of dissent and must be halted immediately. Syrians must be allowed
\nto voice their calls for change peacefully.”\n<\/p>\n

\nThe army announced on Sunday it had arrested 499 just in
\nDera’a, which has been a key location for pro-reform protests that have swept
\nthe country.\n<\/p>\n

\nWidespread arbitrary arrests have also taken place in recent
\ndays in other towns and cities around the country, including Qamishly in the
\nnorth-east, az Zabadani and Madaya (west of Damascus), Duma (near Damascus) and
\nthe coastal town of Latakia.\n<\/p>\n

\nAmong the many arrested are political and social activists,
\nincluding ‘Omar Qashash, an 85-year-old former political prisoner, 77-year-old
\nlawyer Hassan ‘Abdel ‘Azim of the Democratic Arab Socialist Party, and ‘Abd
\nal-Rahman Hamada, a 20-year-old student taken from his home on 30 April by
\nsecurity forces who were searching for his brother Wa’el. Wa’el Hamada and his
\nwife Razan Zaitouneh, a human rights activist and leading human rights lawyer,
\nrespectively, have gone into hiding.\n<\/p>\n

\nMost are held at unknown locations without any access to
\nvisits from their families or lawyers, adding to fears for their safety.\n<\/p>\n

\nTwo men who were detained last month in the coastal city of
\nBanias told Amnesty International that Syrian security forces had used rifle
\nbutts to hit them and many other detainees on the neck and collarbone.\n<\/p>\n

\nOne detainee said that after being stripped and beaten he
\nwas made to lick his blood off the floor. According to him, he and others
\ndetained with him had been beaten with sticks and cables as well as kicked and
\npunched. Held without food for three days in overcrowded conditions in one
\ndetention centre, he said they had to resort to drinking dirty water from a
\ntoilet.\n<\/p>\n

\nAmnesty International has obtained the names of 54 people
\nkilled on Friday, bringing to 542 its figure for the total number of
\nprotesters, bystanders and others who have been killed during six weeks of
\npro-reform protests. The actual number of deaths is almost certainly higher.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe high number of deaths has been attributed to
\nheavy-handed tactics by Syrian security forces, who have shot live bullets
\ndirectly into protests and funeral processions and used tanks to shell
\nresidential buildings. The military last week laid siege to Dera’a, cutting off
\nelectricity and water supplies.\n<\/p>\n

\nOn 29 April the UN Human Rights Council condemned the
\nongoing grave human rights violations in Syria and called for a UN fact-finding
\nmission to investigate.\n<\/p>\n

\nPresident Bashar al-Assad’s government has accused “armed
\nterrorist groups” of leading a violent uprising and of being responsible for
\nthe deaths of nearly 80 members of the security forces.\n<\/p>\n

\nAmnesty International has not been allowed to visit Syria
\nsince the protests began. The international media has also been severely
\nrestricted; foreign journalists have generally not been allowed into the
\ncountry. Al-Jazeera confirmed to Amnesty International today that its journalist
\nDorothy Parvaz has not been seen since arriving at Damascus airport from Qatar
\non 29 April.\n<\/p>\n

\n“We fear that many of the hundreds currently detained by the
\nSyrian authorities have been arrested arbitrarily,” said Philip Luther.\n<\/p>\n

\n“Those detained merely for their involvement in peaceful
\nprotests are prisoners of conscience and should be released immediately and
\nunconditionally. Those suspected of committing an internationally recognizable
\ncriminal offence should be charged without delay and brought to justice in fair
\ntrial proceedings.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n Syrians tell of torture in detention amid mass arrests<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nAmnesty International has received first-hand reports of
\ntorture and other ill-treatment from detainees held in Syria as a wave of
\narrests of anti-government protesters intensified over the weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}