{"id":320,"date":"2011-08-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-08T00:00:00","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=320","title":{"rendered":"Syria: Defectors Describe Orders to Shoot Unarmed Protesters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nFor Immediate
\nRelease<\/p>\n

Syria: Defectors Describe Orders to Shoot Unarmed Protesters
\nShootings, Detentions, and a Disinformation Campaign<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/strong>(New York, July 9,
\n2011) – Defectors from Syria<\/a>’s
\nsecurity forces described receiving, and following, orders to shoot on
\nprotesters to disperse them, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch
\ninterviewed eight soldiers and four members of the security agencies who had defected
\nsince anti-government
\nprotests<\/a> erupted in March 2011. Those interviewed participated in the
\ngovernment crackdown in Daraa, Izraa, Banyas, Homs, Jisr al-Shughur, Aleppo,
\nand Damascus. The soldiers also reported participating in and witnessing the
\nshooting and injury of dozens of protesters, and the arbitrary arrest and
\ndetention of hundreds.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>All of the interviewed defectors told Human Rights Watch that their
\nsuperiors had told them that they were fighting infiltrators (mundaseen<\/em>),
\nsalafists, and terrorists. The defectors said they were surprised to encounter
\nunarmed protesters instead, but still were ordered to fire on them in a number
\nof instances. The defectors also reported that those who refused orders to
\nshoot on protesters ran the risk of being shot themselves. One of the defectors
\nreported seeing a military officer shoot and kill two soldiers in Daraa for
\nrefusing orders. Human Rights Watch interviewed the defectors in person in
\nLebanon, Turkey, and Jordan.<\/p>\n

“The testimony of these defectors provides further evidence that the killing of
\nprotesters was no accident but a result of a deliberate policy by senior
\nfigures in Syria to use deadly force to disperse protesters,” said Sarah Leah
\nWhitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Syrian soldiers and
\nofficials should know that they too have not just a right but a duty to refuse
\nsuch unlawful orders, and that those who deliberately kill or injure peaceful protesters
\nwill be subject to prosecution.”<\/p>\n

Under international standards such as the United Nations Basic Principles on
\nthe Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, intentional lethal
\nuse of firearms may only be made when strictly unavoidable to protect life. The
\nUN Code of Conduct for law enforcement officials says that they shall to the
\nbest of their capability prevent and rigorously oppose any violations of the
\nlaw or Code of Conduct.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Human Rights Watch called on the UN
\nSecurity Council<\/a> to condemn the Syrian authorities’ systematic violations
\nof human rights, adopt targeted sanctions against officials responsible for the
\nkilling and torture of protesters, and impose an embargo on all arms and
\nsecurity equipment to Syria. Russia has opposed a European-led UN Security
\nCouncil draft resolution, which condemns Syria’s government but stops short of
\nimposing sanctions. South Africa, India, and Brazil have refused so far to
\nsupport the resolution.<\/p>\n

“Four months into the crackdown, the Security Council should be pressing the
\nSyrian leadership to end the bloodshed, yet some members refuse even to consider
\na resolution, hiding behind their frustration with the situation in Libya,”
\nWhitson said. “Syria’s civilians deserve far more support from emerging powers
\nlike South Africa, India, and Brazil.”<\/p>\n

Human Rights Watch called on the Syrian government to grant access to Syria to
\nindependent observers and allow them to monitor and report on developments in
\nthe country freely, and to provide full cooperation and access to the UN Office
\nof the High Commissioner for Human Rights team tasked to investigate the
\nalleged violations.<\/p>\n

Orders to Shoot Protesters
\n<\/strong>Five of the defectors told Human Rights Watch that they received explicit
\norders to shoot at protesters. One member of Syria’s security <\/em>agencies,
\nreferred to locally as mukhabarat<\/em>, was deployed in Homs, Syria’s third
\nlargest city, on April 19, when Syria’s security forces violently dispersed one
\nof the biggest gatherings of protesters attempting to stage a sit-in in the
\ncentral Clock Tower Square. He told Human Rights Watch that Colonel Abdel
\nHameed Ibrahim ordered the soldiers to fire on unarmed protesters and that the soldiers
\ncomplied, killing dozens of people: <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe
\nprotesters had sat down in the square. We were told to disperse them with
\nviolence if needed. We were there with air force security, army, and shabbiha<\/em>
\n[armed supporters of the government who do not belong to security forces]. At
\naround 3:30 a.m., we got an order from Colonel
\nAbdel Hameed Ibrahim<\/strong> from air force security to shoot at the protesters. We
\nwere shooting for more than half an hour. There were dozens and dozens of
\npeople killed and wounded. Thirty minutes later, earth diggers and fire trucks
\narrived. The diggers lifted the bodies and put them in a truck. I don’t know
\nwhere they took them. The wounded ended up at the military hospital in Homs.
\nAnd then the fire trucks started cleaning the square. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nA conscript
\nwho was a member of the Presidential Guard recounted how he was deployed on
\nApril 18 to Harasta, a suburb of Damascus, to quell a protest: <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nThey gave
\neach one of us a Kalashnikov [rifle] with two magazines, and there was more
\nammunition in the vehicles. They also gave us electric tasers. They told us we
\nwere being sent to fight the gangs because security services needed
\nreinforcement. We were surprised [when we got to Harasta] because we couldn’t
\nsee any gangs, just civilians, including some women and children, in the
\nstreet, and members of the mukhabarat<\/em> firing at them. I was in a group
\nwith five other soldiers from my unit. We received clear orders to shoot at
\ncivilians from the Presidential Guard officers and from the 4th<\/sup>
\nmilitary battalion, although normally we don’t get orders from other units. One
\nof the officers who gave orders was Major
\nMujahed Ali Hassan<\/strong> from 4th<\/sup> battalion; his military vehicle
\nlicense plate is 410. The exact orders were “load and shoot.” There were no
\nconditions, no prerequisites. We got closer to the demonstrators, and when we
\nwere some five meters away, the officers shouted “fire!” At that moment, the
\nfive of us defected and ran over to the demonstrators’ side throwing our
\nweapons to them while running away. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe interviewed
\ndefectors reported that they were generally deployed in mixed teams of army
\npersonnel and often plainclothes mukhabarat<\/em>
\nand shabeeha<\/em>. Two soldiers reported incidents where their units had
\nopened fire on armed mukhabarat<\/em> and shabeeha<\/em> wearing civilian
\nclothes after mistaking them for anti-government gangs. A first sergeant (Raqeeb Awwal<\/em>) said the army opened fire
\nin the coastal town of Bayda on members of security services wearing civilian
\nclothes because they mistook their identity. Other defectors reported that
\nsecurity services later dressed in army clothes to avoid such shootings.<\/p>\n

A conscript trained as a sniper was deployed in Izraa, a town of 40,000 near
\nDaraa, on April 25, three days after security forces had shot 28 protesters<\/a>
\nover a 48-hour period; he told Human Rights Watch:<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nI was in
\nSquad 14 (Firqa 14<\/em>) of the 4th<\/sup> Regiment. We were around 300
\nsoldiers deployed to Izraa. I had heard so much about foreign armed groups that
\nI was eager to fight them. But then General
\nNasr Tawfiq<\/strong> gave us the following orders: “Don’t shoot at the armed
\ncivilians. They are with us. Shoot at the people whom they shoot at.” We were
\nall shocked after hearing his words, as we had imagined that the people were killed
\nby foreign armed groups, not by the security forces. We realized that our
\norders were to shoot at our own people. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nA soldier
\nwho was deployed for a month in Daraa before defecting on June 1 said: “We
\nreceived orders to kill protesters. Some military refused the orders and were
\nshot with a handgun. Two were killed in front of me, by someone in the rank of
\nlieutenant (muqaddam<\/em>). I don’t know his name. He said they were
\ntraitors.”<\/p>\n

A sergeant (raqeeb<\/em>) in Squad 7 of Brigade 88 (liwa’<\/em>), who was
\nposted in the southern town of al-Hara, near Daraa, described the orders his
\nsquad received when the army circled the town: “Snipers were on rooftops. Their
\norders were, ‘If anyone goes out on the street, detain or shoot.’ I recall
\nwatching a guy go out to smoke outside and then being shot and killed by a
\nsniper.”<\/p>\n

Mobilized to Fight Infiltrators and Terrorists<\/strong>
\nAll of the interviewed defectors told Human Rights Watch that their superiors
\nhad led them to believe that they were fighting armed gangs paid by outside
\nactors. A member of Regiment 45 in the Special Forces (al-Kuwwat al-Khassat
\n– Fawj<\/em> 45<\/em>), deployed in the coastal areas of Banyas and Markeb, told
\nHuman Rights Watch: “We were told that there are terrorist groups coming into
\nthe country with funding from Bandar Bin Sultan [a prominent Saudi prince who
\nserved until 2009 as Saudi’s national security chief], Saad al-Hariri [a former
\nLebanese prime minister], and Jeffrey Feltman [US Assistant Secretary of State
\nfor Near Eastern affairs].”<\/p>\n

Military commanders often communicated this information during daily briefings
\nto soldiers, referred to as “nasharat
\ntawjeeh<\/em>.” A lieutenant in Squad 14 (Firka 14<\/em>), posted in Damascus,
\ndescribed the briefing: “Each morning we had guidance briefings. They would
\ntell us there are gangs and infiltrators. They would show us pictures of dead
\nsoldiers and security forces.” <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nA member of
\nthe mukhabarat<\/em> posted in Homs reported that he and his colleagues “received
\nleaflets that there are infiltrators and salafists in the country and that they
\nneeded to stop them. In the flyers, they said Bandar Bin Sultan and Saad Hariri
\nhad paid those infiltrators.”<\/p>\n

According to the defectors, regular soldiers were not allowed to watch
\ntelevision in private to avoid any of them watching TV channels that aired anti-government
\ninformation. Officers could watch television but only Syrian state television
\nand Dunya TV, a pro-government channel owned by Rami Makhlouf, a cousin and
\nclose ally of President Bashar al-Asad. A conscript doing his military service
\nin Damascus told Human Rights Watch:<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nEvery night
\nthey used to summon us in a stadium-like place in the military barrack and make
\nus watch Dunya TV from a big TV screen. It was all scenes from Daraa showing
\npeople killed by what they reported as foreign armed groups. Officers would
\nrepeatedly tell us that there is a “foreign plot” going on in Daraa. Watching
\nDunya TV every night between 20:00 and 22:00, we had the firm belief that there
\nis a foreign conspiracy against which we need to fight and protect our people.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nDetentions
\nand Theft During Break-ins
\n<\/span><\/strong>Some of the
\ndefectors said that security forces detained large numbers of people and
\nroutinely beat the detainees. A member of Regiment 45 in the Special Forces (al-Kuwwat
\nal-Khassat – Fawj<\/em> 45<\/em>), who was deployed in the coastal area around
\nBanyas, told Human Rights Watch about the arrest campaign he witnessed in the
\nvillage of Markeb: <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nWe had
\naround 400 names of people whom we wanted to detain. We went to the village.
\nThen a woman’s protest came out refusing the entry of the army (we had not yet
\ndetained anyone) inside the village, almost in the center. We started going
\ninto homes. We would break into closed houses. We detained so many people. Some
\nmen tried to escape through a side road in a valley. But the army opened fire
\non those trying to escape. We brought those detained to the center of the
\nvillage, stepping on them and insulting them. A security officer stood on a
\nman, yelling “Who is your god? [Say] Bashar al-Asad.” We had so many detainees
\nin the area that we used the Banyas stadium as a detention facility. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe soldier
\nreported that the security forces also detained children. “I saw the list of
\nwanted individuals. So many were born in 1993, 1994, 1995. Mere teenagers,” he
\nsaid. “We later entered Banyas and also detained men and children. By the end
\nof our first day in Banyas, I asked an officer how many detainees we had taken
\nthat day; he said around 2,500 in Banyas alone, all taken to the Banyas
\nstadium. People would get beaten in the bus on the way there and in the stadium
\nas well.”<\/p>\n

A sergeant (raqeeb<\/em>) in Squad 7 of Brigade 88 (Liwa<\/em>’) who was
\nposted in the southern town of al-Hara, near Daraa, described the arrest
\ncampaign following the security forces’ entry into the town on May 10: <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nWe
\nsurrounded the town for days. I saw how the snipers would shoot on anyone who
\nwent out of his house. Then we moved in. The mukhabarat<\/em> who were with us
\nhad lists of people to arrest. They had details: this person tore a poster of
\nthe president or this person shouted “with excitement” at an anti-government
\nprotest. I saw many of those detained and some looked as young as 12. Six buses
\ncame and took the detained. We then gathered all the motorbikes in the town’s
\ncenter, and a tank crushed them. We talked among ourselves about how some
\nsoldiers stole gold and money from houses. In one house, a colleague told me
\nthat they found one million Syrian pounds [around $20,000] and his commanding
\nofficer decided to confiscate the money saying it was being used to purchase
\nweapons even though my colleague told me there was no such evidence.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nOther
\ndefectors also reported theft incidents in the towns of Daraa and Homs.<\/p>\n

A member of the Special Missions Unit (Wihdat al-Maham al-Khassat<\/em>), an
\nelite unit under the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry, described his unit’s
\nrole in cracking down on university students in Aleppo:<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nWe were
\nsent to the university dorms to arrest people, with a simple order: “Go in and
\ndetain.” We must have detained more than 200 people in one day around late
\nApril\/early May. We wanted to scare them and other students to prevent them
\nfrom protesting again. Our job was to detain the students and take them to the
\nbranches of the mukhabarat<\/em>, mostly Military Intelligence. We would beat
\npeople all the way to the bus. We didn’t know what would happen to the
\ndetainees after we dropped them off with the mukhabarat<\/em>.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“The
\naccounts of soldiers who were horrified enough at their commanders’ orders and
\ndeceit to flee should send a message to the UN and other countries that they
\nneed to do more to put a stop to these brutal attacks on civilians,” Whitson
\nsaid.<\/p>\n

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on
\nSyria, please visit:<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.hrw.org\/en\/middle-eastn-africa\/syria<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information, please contact:
\n<\/strong>In Beirut, Nadim Houry (English, Arabic, French): +961-1-447833; or
\n+961-3-639244 (mobile); or houryn@hrw.org<\/a>
\nIn New York, Sarah Leah Whitson (English): +1-212-216-1230; or +1-718-362-0172
\n(mobile); or whitsos@hrw.org<\/a>
\nIn Johannesburg, Peter Bouckaert (English, Dutch, French): +41-78-945-9385
\n(mobile); or +1-917-216-4812 (US mobile); or bouckap@hrw.org<\/a>
\n<\/span>In Brussels, Reed Brody
\n(English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): +32-49-8625-786 (mobile); or brodyr@hrw.org<\/a>
\n<\/span>In Berlin, Wenzel
\nMichalski (English, German): +49-151-419-24256 (mobile); or michalw@hrw.org<\/a>
\nIn Paris, Jean-Marie Fardeau (French, English, Portuguese) : +33-1-43-59-55-35;
\nor +33-6-45-85-24-87 (mobile); or fardeaj@hrw.org<\/a>
\nIn London, David Mepham, (English): +44-20-7713-2766; or +44-7572-603995
\n(mobile); or mephamd@hrw.org<\/a><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shootings, Detentions, and a Disinformation Campaign
\n<\/span><\/strong>(New York, July 9,
\n2011) – Defectors from Syria<\/a>’s
\nsecurity forces described receiving, and following, orders to shoot on
\nprotesters to disperse them, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch
\ninterviewed eight soldiers and four members of the security agencies who had defected
\nsince anti-government
\nprotests<\/a> erupted in March 2011. <\/span><\/p>\n

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