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In Europe, the hand of the Syrian secret services Mukhabarat |
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In Europe, the hand of the Syrian secret
services Mukhabarat
2.3.2012
By Eric Bruneau
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ekurd.net |
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Mr Ferhad Ahma, a Syrian Kurd born in 1974 in al-Qamishli,
accepts to talk about his personal experience of the
repression president al-Assad dictatorship's carries
out of the country’s borders.
Photo: DPA
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March 2, 2012
On February 8th, 2012, a group of about 50
demonstrators stand in front of Berlin's Russian
embassy, waving Syrian uprising and Kurdish flags,
to protest against Russia's foreign minister's trip
to Syria. The same day, Mr Ferhad Ahma, a Syrian
Kurd born in 1974 in al-Qamishli, accepts to talk
about his personal experience of the repression
president al-Assad dictatorship's carries out of the
country’s borders.
"It was the night of the 25 to the 26/12/2011", says
Mr Ahma. It was 02:00. Some people knocked at his
flat's door. "Polizei", they said. "They said they
needed to check something". Unsuspecting, Mr Ahma
unlocked the door. Germany is not Syria, people
don't have to fear the police.
But he didn't have time to open. As soon as it was
unlocked, the door was violently pushed, and two men
started to beat him with bludgeons, making him
falling. But even when he was on the ground, the
attack continued. "They said nothing, asked nothing.
They immediately attacked me" When they were at his
door, asking him to open, did he notice any accent?
"No. They just said two very short sentences in
German, not enough to identify any accent. But they
were not Germans. They were from Middle-East." "They
were from the mukhabarat" he adds, very
matter-of-factly.
For Mr Ahma as already been subjected to pressure
from the Syrian Internal Security directorate. Since
he left Syria as a political refugee more than 15
years ago, his family at home has been harassed by
the all-powerful agency.
"It is their regular procedure", confirms Mr Hozan
Ibrahim, a member of the opposition SNC general
committee. "The regime is putting pressure on the
exiled dissidents by threatening their families in
Syria. It didn't start with the uprising, it has
been ongoing for years."
And in the war the dictatorship's agents are waging
against opponents abroad, Mr Ahma is a target.
"I was, originally, a member of the PYKS (Partiya
Yekiti ya Kurd li Suriye). But I left in 1998, two
years after arriving in Germany: the possibilities
of action inside the Syrian Kurd political parties
are too limited. I could be more active and more
efficient as a human rights activist." He became,www.ekurd.net
too, a member of the German "Green" party, and more
recently coordinator for the Syrian Kurdish Youth
Abroad association, an organisation providing
support to activist groups inside Syria.
"Additionally, I work with the SNC.". As many
reasons, in the eyes of the mukhabarat, to switch
from pressure to direct attack.
"it is difficult to estimate how long it has been.
Maybe five, maybe seven minutes", says Mr Ahma. Then
he adds, tellingly, "It's very long."
The attack was so brutal one of the aggressors'
cudgel broke. But Mr Ahma was able to alert one of
his neighbours. "I shouted, banged against the wall
of the flat next to mine, I made the more noise I
could. A neighbour came to investigate, it made the
aggressors run away."
Mr Ahma’s case is not isolated. A report from
Amnesty International, made public the 03/10/2011,
registers aggressions directed at anti al-Assad
protesters all over the world.
“Those attacks are organised and perpetrated by the
Syrian embassies. Or, more exactly, by mukhabarat
personnel placed in the embassies.”, says Mr Hozan
Ibrahim. “Two intelligence agencies have people
among embassies staff: the counter intelligence, and
the external branch of the state security
directorate, the one in charge with surveillance -
and action - against Syrian dissidents in exile.”
These claims are confirmed by other sources. The
12/10/2011, the British newspaper The Guardian
edited an article about a Syrian-born US citizen,
Mohamed Amas Haitham Soueid, accused of spying on
opponents of the al-Ba’as regime living in USA. Mr
Soueid, said the article, was recruiting informers
in their ranks, and sending video and audio
recordings of protesters, details such as phone
numbers or email addresses, to a contact at
Washington’s Syrian embassy.
“Past week”, adds Mr Hozan, “anti al-Assad
protesters stormed the Syrian embassy in Cairo city.
They seized there documents, lists of mukhabarat
agents, with their targets, their contacts, this
kind of things.” These documents have not been made
public, he says, because the militants don’t want to
ignite retaliation attacks.
And, for sure, spying for the Syrian secret services
doesn’t look to be a quiet occupation. According to
The Guardian article, among the offences reproached
to Mr Soueid, there is a false statement he made to
buy a handgun. A sign, maybe, that he was becoming
increasingly nervous.
Asked about the aftermath of his attack, Mr Ahma
says he sustained, fortunately, only minor wounds:
no broken bone or anything like this, “only” a cut
above the eye and bruises on his limbs - defensive
wounds - he get while defending himself. But he is
aware is fate could have been different if his
neighbour had not come to see what was happening.
“When they heard him they ran away. He did not see
them, just their back. I am the only one to have
seen them.”
Did he change anything in his habits? Mr Ahma
shrugs. “Not really. I am living in the same place.
I lock the front door very carefully, this is
obvious, and the police forces have been around.
Their investigation established clearly that the
attack wasn’t a criminal or a personal one, but was
politically motivated. They kept the part of the
broken cosh used by the thugs as an evidence. And,
as you can see, I recovered from the wounds: I keep
no sequels.”
His immediate reaction, he says, has been to talk
about what happened. “I saw an opportunity: I could,
through my personal case, expose the methods of the
Syrian regime, the repression it directs at its
critics living abroad. It is very important that the
Western governments know that on their own
territory, Syrian exiles who speak against the
regime are in danger, that they are victims of
aggressions aiming at silencing them.”
Unknown to Mr Ahma and to Mr Hozan, the same day,
08/02/2012, Berlin’s criminal police arrested a
Lebanese holding German citizenship, Mahmoud el-A.,
and the Syrian Akram O., accused by the authorities
to have, during several years, spied on members of
the Syrian opposition in exile in Germany.
Accordingly to the last news, the two secret agents
will not be expelled, and will have to face the
German justice. Asked if they were the two men who
assaulted him, Mr Ahma answered by phone, the day
after, that he hadn’t been contacted by the police
yet. “But”, he added, “it is good to hear this great
news.”
References:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/12/us-citizen-charged-spying-protesters?INTCMP=SRCH
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE24/057/2011/en/31e11754-c369-4f17-8956-548b2f7e1766/mde240572011en.pdf
Eric Bruneau has worked as an analyst for a TV
station in Iraqi Kurdistan. He lives in Europe and
visits different parts of Kurdistan (Syria, Turkey,
Iran and Iraq) for research on Kurdish issues.
Report by Eric Bruneau for ekurd.net
Copyright © 2012 ekurd.net
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