{"id":282,"date":"2011-06-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-13T00:00:00","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=282","title":{"rendered":"Why is the world silent? Syrian refugees speak"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nWhy is the world silent? Syrian refugees speak<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nBy Neil Sammonds, Amnesty International’s Syria researcher
\non the Turkish-Syrian border\n<\/p>\n

\nLittle is known of the life of the thousands of Syrians who
\nhave recently fled to Turkey, and are now living in camps in Yayladagi and
\nAltinozu in the south-east of the country.\n<\/p>\n

\nNot one civil society activist or journalist is known to
\nhave been able to enter the camps. Knowing that, and with Turkey virtually shut
\ndown for the national elections today, I chose to head for one of the hospitals
\nin the regional capital Hatay where one can sneak in to talk to injured
\nSyrians.\n<\/p>\n

\nBy all accounts, the Turkish government and people have
\nreceived, hosted and treated an unspecified number of Syrians extremely well.
\nOfficially there are up to 7,000 Syrians now here in Hatay province but many
\nbelieve the actual figure is much higher.\n<\/p>\n

\nThere are said to be up to 10,000 within a few kilometres of
\nthe border on the Syrian side, waiting to be able to go back to their homes or
\nto cross into Turkey if the violence moves further north.\n<\/p>\n

\nStrangely however, the Turkish government is hiding its
\nhospitability by denying access to the camps and making it a gamble on getting
\nin to see Syrians in hospitals.\n<\/p>\n

\nI entered the hospital, walked past the security guard as if
\nI was a regular and eventually, in a room with three single beds, I found the
\npeople I had been looking for.\n<\/p>\n

\nThese three Syrian men, all from the Jisr al-Shughur area,
\nhave been wounded in the recent clashes with security forces. I sensed their
\nunease each time the door opened but they told me their stories.\n<\/p>\n

\nOne of them, a 40-year-old farmer from a village 2km from
\nJisr al-Shughur who did not want to give his name for security reasons, had
\nbeen shot in the leg by security forces while tending to his land on 4 June.
\nThe army took him to a hospital in the nearby city of Idleb.\n<\/p>\n

\nA doctor with tears in his eyes told him he was forbidden to
\ntreat him. Security forces took him to a military interrogation office nearby.\n<\/p>\n

\nHe was blindfolded, with hands tied tightly behind his back
\nand badly beaten with rifle butts and kicks all over his body. The marks are
\nvisible on his face and all over his body.\n<\/p>\n

\n“While they beat me, they asked me if I belonged to the
\nMuslim Brotherhood, or if I was on the payroll of [Lebanon’s former Prime
\nMinister] Saad Hariri,” he told me.\n<\/p>\n

\nAn official went through his mobile phone and made a note of
\nall the names and numbers on it, and a a high-ranking officer later demanded to
\nknow the names of the people organizing the protest.\n<\/p>\n

\nAfter thumbprinting papers he didn’t understand as he is
\nilliterate, he was released on 7 June and made it across the border to Turkey
\nthe same day.\n<\/p>\n

\nDespite the volatile situation in his home country, he
\ninsisted that he will go back to Syria. “There’s no more fear,” he added.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe second man in the room, a 31-year-old building worker from
\nJebel al-Zawyah, had been shot in the leg by security forces while taking part
\nin the Friday protests on 3 June.\n<\/p>\n

\nThousands of people from neighbouring areas took to the
\nstreets on that day, he said. Security forces were everywhere – on the road,
\nperched on top of buildings. As the protesters approached a youth camp, the
\narmy suddenly opened fire.\n<\/p>\n

\nHe fell to the ground and security forces dragged him away
\nto a nearby building.\n<\/p>\n

\n“They asked me ‘Who is your god?’ ’Allah’ I said. ’No, say
\nBashar’ they said. They hit me with a stick on the back of the head and I fell
\ndown and lost consciousness. They must have thought I was dead and left me
\namong some trees,” he said.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhen he came to, the security forces had left and local
\npeople took him to a hospital in Idleb.\n<\/p>\n

\nLike the farmer I spoke to, he said he was interrogated and
\nasked for names of other protesters.\n<\/p>\n

\nAfter his release, he reached Turkey where his wound has
\nbeen treated and he now moves on crutches.\n<\/p>\n

\nAbu Taha, 29, a Red Crescent ambulance worker from Jisr
\nal-Shughur, described to me how he was shot in the back by security forces
\nwhile attending to an injured person in the centre of the town.\n<\/p>\n

\nLuckily for him, the bullet passed out on the other side.\n<\/p>\n

\nOn Saturday 4 June, the funeral for Basel al-Masri was held,
\nhe said. The town centre was packed with funeral-goers and around midday,
\nsecurity forces opened fire on the crowd.\n<\/p>\n

\nMany were killed and injured, he said, adding that some
\npeople started shooting at the army from the roofs of government buildings.\n<\/p>\n

\n“It was clear that the snipers were not locals – we all know
\neach other in my area. They wore plain clothes with grenade belts on their
\nchests. They have to be from the regime to make it look as if there are armed
\ngroups,“ he said.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhoever the men shooting at the army were, the consequences
\nfor people in the area have been dire. Abu Taha gave a chilling description of
\nthe fate of some small villages in the area.\n<\/p>\n

\nHe said that on Friday 10 June, a number of tanks arrived in
\nKem al-Rumanah, a small village in the border area with only 50 houses.\n<\/p>\n

\n“The tanks fired at the houses; once they were destroyed,
\nsome 300 shabiha militia soldiers entered. They killed or kidnapped anyone left
\nbehind, stole any possessions they could and burnt crops. They have done this
\nin several villages,“ he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n“Does the rest of the world want the end of the Syrian
\npeople? Why is the world silent?” he asked me repeatedly.\n<\/p>\n

\nSeveral other Syrians came in and out of the room while I
\nwas there. They all spoke of Syrians being united and peaceful, with only the
\nregime wanting divisions between communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nWhy is the world silent? Syrian refugees speak<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nBy Neil Sammonds, Amnesty International’s Syria researcher
\non the Turkish-Syrian border\n<\/p>\n

\nLittle is known of the life of the thousands of Syrians who
\nhave recently fled to Turkey, and are now living in camps in Yayladagi and
\nAltinozu in the south-east of the country.<\/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-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282","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=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}