- Amnesty International
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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE:
6 July 2011
The brutal methods used in a devastating Syrian security
operation in the western town of Tell Kalakh may constitute crimes
against humanity, Amnesty International said today in a new report.
"The accounts we have heard from witnesses to events in Tell Kalakh paint a deeply disturbing picture of systematic, targeted abuses to crush dissent," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director.
"Most of the crimes described in this report would fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. But the UN Security Council must first refer the situation in Syria to the Court's Prosecutor."
The paper's findings are based on interviews carried out in Lebanon and by phone with more than 50 people in May and June. Amnesty International has not been allowed to enter Syria.
The operation began on 14 May when the army and security forces entered Tell Kalakh following a demonstration calling for the downfall of the regime.
At least one person, 24-year-old Ali al-Basha was killed on that first day, apparently by snipers, and even the ambulance carrying his body came under fire. As many tried to leave, Syrian forces fired on fleeing families.
The following days saw scores of male residents, including some aged over 60 and boys aged less than 18 years, rounded up and detained. Every family from Tell Kalakh that Amnesty International met in Lebanon said they had at least one relative in detention.
Most of those detained were tortured, some even as they were being arrested, according to accounts. In one incident, soldiers transporting detainees counted how many they had arrested by stabbing lit cigarettes on the backs of their necks.
Detainees told Amnesty International that Military Security, one of the security forces which detrained people, used the shabah (ghost) method, where the detainee is forced into a stress position for long periods and beaten, in these cases by being tied by the wrists to a bar high enough off the ground to force the detainee to stand on the tip of their toes.
Twenty year-old "Mahmoud", who was arrested on 16 May and released after nearly a month in detention, was held for around five days at the Military Security detention facility in Homs:
"Each day [was] the same story. They tied me up in the shabah position and applied electricity to my body and testicles. Sometimes I screamed very loudly and begged the interrogator to stop. He didn't care."
At least nine people died in custody after being arrested during the security operation in Tell Kalakh, according to witnesses. Eight of these men -- some of whom had been active in demonstrations -- were shot at and wounded as they were ordered out of a house, and were then taken away by soldiers.
It was only around two weeks later that relatives were told to go to a military hospital to identify the bodies of the eight men. Witnesses said the bodies had marks on them which suggested torture, including cuts to the chest, long vertical slashes on the thighs and what seemed to be gunshot wounds on the back of the legs.
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