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Open Letter to the Leaders of the Syrian
Opposition
23.3.2012
By Armed Opposition Members via Human Rights Watch
HRW |
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Regarding Human Rights Abuses
by Armed Opposition Members
March 23, 2012
Open Letter to the Leaders of the Syrian
Opposition Regarding Human Rights Abuses by Armed
Opposition Members - March 20, 2012
We are writing to express our concern about
increasing evidence, as described below, of
kidnappings, the use of torture, and executions by
armed Syrian opposition members and strongly urge
you to work to ensure that all opposition members
refrain from engaging in these unlawful practices.
Human Rights Watch has repeatedly documented and
condemned widespread violations by Syrian government
security forces and officials, including
disappearances, use of torture and forced televised
confessions, arbitrary detentions, indiscriminate
shelling of neighborhoods, and deaths in custody
under torture. Now, in the face of evidence of human
rights abuses by armed opposition members, Human
Rights Watch calls on the leadership of leading
opposition groups including the Syrian National
Council (SNC) and its Military Bureau to condemn
such practices by the armed opposition and to work
to prevent such unlawful practices.
While the protest movement in Syria was
overwhelmingly peaceful until September 2011, since
then Human Rights Watch has documented apparent
crimes and other abuses committed by armed
opposition elements. These crimes and abuses include
the kidnapping and detention of security force
members, individuals identified as members of
government-supported militias (referred to locally
as shabeeha), and individuals identified as
government allies or supporters. They also include
the use of torture and the execution of security
force members and civilians. Some of the attacks
targeting Shias and Alawites appear to be motivated
by sectarianism.
Abuses of this nature, including torture, taking of
hostages, and executions by armed opposition
members, have also been documented by the
UN-mandated Commission of Inquiry in its February
2012 report. In addition to concluding that armed
members of the opposition have committed gross human
rights abuses, the Commission’s report also
references and appends documentation received from
the Syrian government indicating that armed
opposition members have kidnapped, killed, and
disappeared civilians and security force members and
displaced civilians.
We recognize that the perpetrators of these abuses
are not always easy to identify nor do they
necessarily belong to an organized command structure
that follows the orders of the SNC or other
opposition groups. Some reports received by Human
Rights Watch indicate that in addition to armed
groups with political motivations, criminal gangs,
sometimes operating in the name of the opposition,
may be carrying out some of these crimes.
Following the creation of the SNC Military Bureau on
March 1, 2012, to liaise with, unify, and supervise
armed opposition groups including the Free Syrian
Army (FSA), Human Rights Watch calls on the Bureau
to condemn and forbid these abuses in order to
achieve its objective of ensuring members of the
armed opposition comply with international
humanitarian law and to meet its human rights
obligations. Human Rights Watch also calls on
members of the armed opposition that are not under
the operational command of the SNC to desist from
committing these rights abuses.
Kidnappings
A number of witnesses have told Human Rights Watch
that non-state armed groups identifying themselves
with the opposition have kidnapped both civilians
and members of the security forces. “Marwan,” an
Alawite resident of Karam el Zeitoun, Homs, told
Human Rights Watch that on January 23 an armed gang
entered his neighborhood and kidnapped his elderly
parents from their home. He said,
When the armed gang went into the house, my father
called me on the phone, but they grabbed the phone
from him. I tried to call back and couldn’t
reach him, so I called a neighbor, who told me
they took my father and mother, put them in a car,
and went south. The head of the gang, known as Abees,
called me the next day. He told me they had my
parents and asked for money and weapons as ransom.
He told me my father was okay and was with them. I
said I would give him what he wanted, but that he
had to let me hear my father’s voice. I spoke with
him, and he noticed I was crying. He said: “Don’t
cry. Don’t be afraid. I am not afraid. This is what
God has written.” My father had the Quran as his
weapon. He said, “Don’t worry and don’t listen to
them.” After that they cut the line. I tried calling
back a number of times but the phone was closed. The
next day I kept trying; Abees answered and was
swearing. He said to stop calling, and that they had
killed my parents. After that we saw a video on
YouTube showing their dead bodies. We have not
received the bodies back despite numerous pleas.
They took them because they want money. Myself, I am
a supporter of the government, but this is a
sectarian crime, and it has to do with money. My
father had nothing to do with the government.
“Mazen,” a Syrian activist, told Human Rights Watch
that members of the Abu Issa group in Taftanaz, a
village north of Saraqeb, Idlib, told him that they
had kidnapped individuals who worked with the
government and tortured three of them to death.
“Samih,” another Syrian activist who said he has
worked closely with the FSA in Saraqeb, told Human
Rights Watch that while he was there he saw
residents of Sarqeb complain to the FSA on more than
one occasion that the Al-Nur battalion, a Salafist
group that is not part of the official FSA
structure, was kidnapping civilians for ransom. He
said, “The people in Saraqeb were fed up with the
battalion for doing this and that they asked the FSA
to intervene” and that “Sometimes people would come
to me when this happened and I would talk to members
of the FSA on their behalf or I would direct them to
local FSA leaders.”
“Samih” also told Human Rights Watch that members of
the FSA were kidnapping soldiers:
They would kidnap them and ask their parents to pay
a ransom to let them go. One time, the FSA in
Saraqeb kidnapped a colonel from the Presidential
Guard. In return, the military kidnapped two
children from Saraqeb. The children were 15 and 16
years old. I was working with the FSA members and
local government officials to negotiate a trade. At
one point, the family members of the two kids called
me pleading that I speed up the negotiations as much
as possible. They said that they got a call at home
from the captors and that they could hear their kids
being tortured. They told them their kids would be
released when the FSA released the colonel. We were
able to negotiate a trade for the colonel and the
kids have now been released.
“Mazen” said he spoke to a member of the Syrian
security forces who was kidnapped and detained by
opposition fighters in Saraqeb. He said,
The detainee told me he was a First Assistant in the
National Hospital in Aleppo... I asked the
revolutionaries to bring him to me so I could speak
to him. He said that opposition fighters had beaten
him with electrical cables and on the head... and he
was blindfolded. He said they let him speak to his
parents...and that they asked them for money to
release him.
The media coordinator for another FSA group
operating in Homs, Al Farouq batallion, told Human
Rights Watch that the battalion is not kidnapping
soldiers but detaining them during military
operations. He said,
We are not kidnapping soldiers. During an armed
confrontation, soldiers surrounded by the FSA are
surrendering themselves to the Al-Farouq battalion,
so we are capturing and not kidnapping the soldiers.
After capturing the soldiers, the FSA calls the
government to negotiate the terms of their release
but they refuse to negotiate simply because they
don’t care about the captured soldiers. The captives
are placed in a room not a prison. The room has one
door with a lock, but no windows. The Al-Farouq
battalion is treating them very well.
In addition, Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned
about the FSA kidnappings of Iranian nationals, some
of whom the FSA has confirmed are civilians. On
January 26 the FSA Al Farouq battalion claimed
responsibility for capturing seven Iranian
nationals, five of whom they allege are members of
the Iranian armed forces. In an interview on
February 22, 2012, with Human Rights Watch, the Al-Farouq
battalion media coordinator explained that the other
two individuals detained are civilians but that they
were detained at the point of capture because a
Persian speaker was unavailable to confirm this
until later. When asked why the detainees identified
as civilians had not yet been released, he would not
comment.
In tandem with its announcement of their capture,
the battalion released video footage of the five
detainees that they identified as members of the
Iranian armed forces. In the video, one of the
captives, Sajjad Amirian,www.ekurd.net
explains that the five were following orders from
Syrian security forces to shoot at civilians. On
January 27 Syrian state media, SANA, reported that
Iran's MAPNA Group, an Iranian power company in
Syria, said that the on camera statements were made
under duress and untrue, and that the five
individuals were in fact Iranian engineers. In an
interview with Iranian state-owned Press TV, one of
the detainee’s family members, Mehdi Sohrabi, spoke
out against their detention, insisting that they are
all engineers. The Islamic Republic News Agency
reported that all seven men were released on
February 10, but on February 15 indicated that the
report was false and that the men remained in
custody. The Al-Farouq battalion media coordinator
told Human Rights Watch on March 16 that the seven
detainees were still being held in Syria and that
they were in good health.
According to media reports on February 1, members of
the FSA also kidnapped 11 Iranian nationals
traveling to Damascus on a pilgrimage tour, claiming
that they had connections to the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards. The FSA Abu el Fida battalion
announced their release on February 6 following
Turkish mediation efforts. An additional 11 Iranian
pilgrims reportedly kidnapped on January 26 are
still believed to be detained.
Torture
Human Rights Watch has reviewed at least 25 videos
on YouTube in which Syrian security forces or their
alleged supporters are filmed confessing to crimes
under circumstances in which it appears that their
statements were made under duress. At least 18 of
these videos show footage of
detained individuals who are bruised, bleeding,
or show other signs of physical abuse.
In one video, three individuals described by the
accompanying text as shabeeha are asked what their
names are, where they are from, their religion, and
what they are doing in Tal Kalakh. In the video they
are shown on their knees during this interrogation,
their hands bound. The face of one is clearly badly
bruised. They all identify themselves as Shia, from
el Rabwie, Homs, and “confess” that they were
killing peaceful protesters.
In another video bearing the emblem of the FSA
Khaled Bin Al Walid battalion, an unnamed individual
described by the accompanying text as a shabeeha
member is interrogated. He appears bound and his
face is bruised. At the end of the video, he denies
an allegation against him and the interrogator calls
him a liar, tells the videographer to stop shooting,
and directs someone off camera to bring him the
“electricity machine”.
All individuals in the custody of the FSA and other
opposition forces, including members of the Syrian
security forces and shabeeha, should be treated
humanely in accordance with international human
rights standards.
Executions
Other video footage reviewed by Human Rights Watch
and information received in interviews indicates
that members of the FSA have executed individuals
suspected of crimes against the opposition in their
custody.
One video, released on YouTube on February 4, shows
an individual hung from a tree by his neck in front
of several armed fighters. Commentary indicates that
he is a shabeeha fighter captured and executed by
the FSA Kafr Takharim battalion on January 22, 2012.
In a second video, which appears to have been
released by the FSA Al Farouq battalion on YouTube,
an individual identified as a member of Air Force
Intelligence based in Homs is interrogated and
confesses to shooting at protesters. The detainee’s
face is very badly beaten, cut, and bruised, and he
appears disoriented. Written statements accompanying
the video state that it was filmed before his
execution, and the interrogator in the video, amidst
curses, asks him for his final request before dying.
In a separate incident, the Al Farouq battalion
media coordinator told Human Rights Watch about the
execution of an Air Force Intelligence member. He
said, “The death of the member of the Air Force
Intelligence was an act of revenge because the
branch is responsible for horrific killings in Homs.”
In light of these reports, we strongly urge you to
publicly condemn kidnappings, the use of torture,
and executions by armed Syrian opposition members
and to work to ensure that all opposition members do
not engage in these unlawful practices.
Sincerely,
Sarah Leah Whitson
Executive Director
Middle East & North Africa division
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