AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: WAKE UP WORLD, SYRIANS ARE DYING.

Civilians are bearing the brunt of violence in the battle between Syrian government forces and opposition fighters for control of Aleppo - the country’s largest city and commercial capital - Amnesty International said in a new briefing on Syria.

This video contains footage from the fact-finding visit filmed by Donatella Rovera, as well as an interview with Donatella about her experiences and what the footage shows.

“Every protest I observed in Aleppo ended with security forces and shabiha militias opening fire on peaceful demonstrators.”  

As anti-government demonstrations gathered pace in recent months in Aleppo, Syrian security forces stepped up a brutal crackdown in an apparent bid to crush the protest movement and stamp out dissenting voices.

Scores of demonstrators and bystanders, most of them young men and boys but including several children and older men, have been shot dead and hundreds injured in the city by security forces and the notorious shabiha, the armed militias working alongside government forces. Some of the victims were bystanders who were not taking part in the demonstrations.

Families of demonstrators and bystanders shot dead by security forces have been pressured to sign statements saying that their loved ones were killed by “armed terrorist gangs”.

Wounded people risk arrest and torture if they go to hospital. Doctors, nurses and first-aiders who provide life-saving medical treatment to injured demonstrators in makeshift secret “field hospitals” have themselves been arrested, tortured and even killed by government security forces.

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The discovery of the charred and mutilated bodies of three young medical workers a week after their arrest in Aleppo city is yet further evidence of the Syrian government forces’ appalling disregard for the sanctity of the role of medical workers,  Amnesty International said.

All three men were students at Aleppo University – Basel Aslan and Mus’ab Barad were fourth-year medical students and Hazem Batikh was a second-year English literature student and a first-aid medic.

They were part of a team of doctors, nurses and first-aiders who have been providing life-saving medical treatment in makeshift “field hospitals” set up to treat demonstrators shot by security forces and who could not therefore go to state-run hospitals for fear of being arrested, tortured or even killed.

They had been detained by Air Force Intelligence since their arrest in the city on 17 June.

“The brutal killing of these young medics who took great personal risk to rescue and treat injured protesters is yet more evidence that Syrian government forces are prepared to commit unspeakable crimes to silence dissent,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s senior crisis response adviser who recently returned from several weeks in Syria.

“As casualties from the current unrest have mounted, so President Bashar al-Assad’s
government has intensified its hunt for the wounded and for those who provide life-saving emergency treatment to them.

“Such violations are part of an increasingly entrenched pattern of crimes against humanity being perpetrated with impunity by Syrian government forces.”

The three students’ burned bodies were found in the early hours of 24 June in a burned-out car in the Neirab area of Aleppo’s north-eastern outskirts. 

Medical personnel who saw the bodies at the morgue told Amnesty International that Basel Aslan had a gunshot wound to the head and his hands were tied behind his back.

One leg and one arm were broken, several teeth missing and the flesh was missing from his lower legs, leaving the bone exposed. Some of his fingernails had been removed. 

The bodies of the others were more heavily burned and also bore other wounds. 

Amnesty International has seen images of the corpses that back up these descriptions.

The students’ identity cards and university cards were found intact alongside their bodies, indicating that they had been left there after the bodies were burned.
 
A fourth, charred corpse found with the men has yet to be identified.

Shortly after the three students were arrested, one of their parents called their son’s phone and an unidentified man reportedly answered, saying: “You don’t know how to raise your son. We will teach him how to behave.” 

During their detention by Air Force Intelligence, their friends tried in vain to seek their release.  Senior Air Force Intelligence officers - who allegedly had released detainees in exchange for bribes in the past – told their friends “to forget them”.   

Crackdown in Aleppo

Security forces have routinely responded to peaceful protest demonstrations in Aleppo city by firing live rounds into the crowds and arresting and torturing known or suspected protesters and their supporters. 

As more frequent and larger demonstrations have been taking place in the city in recent weeks, the security forces’ crackdown has become increasingly brutal and widespread. 

In late May, an Amnesty International delegate witnessed security forces firing live rounds indiscriminately against peaceful demonstrators in Aleppo on several consecutive days, killing and injuring demonstrators and bystanders, including several children.

Medics targeted 
 
From the outset of the protests which began in February 2011, Syrian government forces have been targeting doctors and other medical personnel suspected of providing life-saving emergency treatment to protesters and bystanders wounded in deliberate and/or indiscriminate attacks.

Amnesty International documented such attacks in a report published last October.   

Government forces and militias also systematically destroyed and burned down field hospitals and clinics in towns and villages they attacked.

“Medics and first-aiders working amid unrest and conflict take enormous risks to provide immediate life-saving care to the injured and evacuate them to safety. In Syria such risks are magnified by a government policy to target medical personnel and to exact retribution against them,” said Rovera.

“Those responsible for such gross human rights violations at the highest level of government should be warned that they will not be able to enjoy impunity for such crimes for ever.”

As early as April 2011, Amnesty International concluded that crimes against humanity were being committed amid the Syrian government’s crackdown on protesters that began in March last year.

It has repeatedly called on the UN Security Council to refer the deteriorating security situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and made clear that the crimes are subject to universal jurisdiction.

“Russia must stop blocking decisive action by the UN Security Council to end the suffering in Syria,” said Donatella Rovera.

“Most importantly, it should support the transfer of the situation in Syria to the ICC.”

A FIRST-HAND TOUR OF HOMS: THE UNBELIEVABLE FOOTAGE OF THE DESTRUCTION AND OBLITERATION OF THE CITY FILMED ON THE GROUND. Homs (Jouret Al Sheyah): June 15, 2012 - You do not ned to understand the words of the cameraman to understand this video. Watch a few minutes of this and see what it feels like to be in a city that is being erased off the map. This is what a city looks like after months of the world’s most destructive and monstrous munitions being used against it - courtesy of Russia

This is what Assad’s forces are good at doing. They cannot and will never liberate the Golan Heights. However they will murder thousands of their own country men, women and children and destroy whole cities, towns and villages for their master - Bashar Al Assad.

Thanks @edwardedark

THE PEOPLE OF SYRIA ARE CALLING FOR HELP … NO ONE CAN HEAR

Thanks @HamaEcho

***VERY GRAPHIC & AWFUL*** A BABY BOY CRIES IN PAIN FROM A HORRIFIC WOUND TO HIS LOWER STOMACH & GROIN AS A RESULT OF SHELLING. Dier El Zor: June 12, 2012 - What on Earth could this baby boy have done to deserve such a brutal injury? Assad’s forces could care less as they blanket-bomb entire cities …

Thanks @Sumayya92

THE SNIPER ACTUALLY TOOK THE TIME TO SET HIS SCOPE ON HER AND KILL HER IN COLD BLOOD. A LITTLE GIRL. Homs (Talbiseh): June 12, 2012 - Rania Hawari was just a little girl when she was shot dead by an Assadist sniper. She is one of 1,000+ children to have been murdered by Assad’s forces since March 2011.

Thanks @HamaEcho

CNN’s Anderson Cooper talks to Robert King who filmed the struggle to save wounded children in Syria. 

AN UNBELIEVABLE BARRAGE OF SHELLS HIT THIS NEIGHBORHOOD - 11 SHELLS FIRED IN 3MIN AT THE HOMES OF CIVILIANS. Homs (Hamidiyeh): June 9, 2012 - Despite the systematic and unequivocal obliteration of this city, as can be seen here in this video - there are still those who dare to ‘doubt’ that Assad is doing this.

This is a snapshot of 3min on a single day in Homs. What you can’t see is what happens the rest of the time. You cant see the men, women and children being blown away in these brutal attacks from Russian supplies munitions. You can’t see the dead, the wounded, the fearful and the sheer terror of the people who must endure this every day of their lives.

More shelling and destruction in the Khalidiyeh neighborhood of Homs.

Thanks @Arwamenla

***UPSETTING*** A LITTLE BABY BOY CRIES OUT IN PAIN AND FEAR AS VOLUNTEER MEDICS REOMVE A SNIPERS BULLET FROM HIS BODY. Homs (Quseir): June 9, 2012 - The Assadist sniper had all the time in the world to ‘determine’ if this little boy was a ‘terrorsit’ or not. He decided he was, so he set his scope on him and fired.

Plain and simple. This is what Assad ordered him to do, so he did it.

Thanks @HamaEcho

ASSAD’S FORCES FIRING SHELL AFTER SHELL AFTER SHELL OBLITERATING HOUSE BY HOUSE, BLOCK BY BLOCK - KILLING AND WOUNDING HUNDREDS. Homs (Khalidiyeh): June 8, 2012 - Ten shells fall per minute in just this one video clip. Assad’s forces are systematically destroying the whole city block by block. They do not take a ‘break’ … they continue day and night …

A tour of Taftanaz reveals burned out homes and crushed cars and a family hunted down by soldiers, writes Javier Espinosa.

It was the day after the end of the offensive, and A Ghazal was helping to collect up the corpses. They were lined up on rugs inside a mosque, with pieces of paper identifying the victims.  

Before showing the pictures that he took that day, the 26-year-old said: “You are going to be shocked.”  

The pictures of the human remains from the attack on Taftanaz in April are indeed shocking – an endless catalogue of brutality. Many show the victims’ heads split open by the bullets that ended their lives. “They executed nine. Placed them up against a wall and shot them,” he said.  

Some emerged from the rubble covered by a layer of white powder that gave them a disturbing appearance. The bodies of some, such as Saleh Ghazal, had been reduced to charred wrecks.  

“This is what remained of five people,” said A Ghazal – whose full identity has been withheld for his safety – pointing at the computer screen, showing a mass of blackened flesh barely recognisable as human forms.

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FOR THE DOUBTERS: TENS OF THOUSANDS TAKE TO THE STREETS OF ALEPPO TO CALL FOR AN END TO ASSAD’S REGIME AND FOR FREEDOM. Aleppo (Al-Bab): June 8, 2012 - This protest in Al-Bab has the whole town out. Literally. 

Across Syria’s largest city (by population) tens of the thousands rallied in support of their brothers and sisters across the country and against Assad and his supporters.

This is a POPULAR uprising. It ALWAYS has been.

Tens of thousands rally in Aleppo (Al-Athamiya).

Unbelievable bravery - Rocks vs. Bullets. Protesters try to hold their ground as Assad’s forces open fire in Salah Al Din.

Assad’s forces open fire on protesters in Salah Al Din.

Massive protest in Bustan Al Qasr.

Despite the shelling and raids, the brave of A’zaaz come out to protest.

Thanks @NuffSilence @HamaEcho