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Syria: 'Torture of the worst kind'
By Lucky Gold
(CNN) - Ivan Simnovic, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations for Human Rights, says the Syrian government has reached the “threshold” of committing war crimes: “They are widespread and committed in a systematic manner,” said Simnovic.
Speaking Thursday to Christiane Amanpour, he stated that “there is unselective shelling; there is deliberate targeting with live munition of protesters.” Then he added, “There is systematic torture going on in prisons – and this is the torture of the worst possible form.”
Asked to be more specific, Simnovic said, “I will not go into details, but it includes physical torture as well as psychological threats – threats such as raping members of family, direct torture involving putting people in unnatural positions for a long time, torturing them by burning them and so on and so on…It’s appalling.”
We cannot establish their whereabouts
Establishing the nature of those crimes was made more difficult, he said, because UN observers “were denied access to Syria, so they interviewed victims and witnesses in neighboring countries.”
Even so, he left no doubt that in terms of international law, crimes against humanity have been committed by the Assad regime: “What is new is…that the situation, at least in parts of Syria, has reached the threshold to be considered as an internal armed conflict – to put it simply, from the moment you have internal armed conflict, you can also have war crimes.”
“We are calling on all sides involved to stop the violence,” said Simnovic, “and the (Syrian) government to release arbitrarily detained persons. But this is not happening yet...We have thousands of detained, and for some of them we cannot establish their whereabouts.
@camanpour on Twitter
There is no excuse for this being "news." There are plenty of Syrians who have escaped and sought asylum living here in the US. Their stories of torture are there for the asking. This is also true of every country in Africa, the Middle East, the Far East and everywhere in between. These heroes are full of information we pay millions of dollars for "experts" in formal business attire to travel to these countries to find. We are so stupid.
You don't know people very well and are quite naive. Please look up the definition of credibility in the dictionary and think stop to think how does one (or a group) insure that information and/or stories are credible. I would be very weary of any expat stories concerning political asylum etc. as these people will and do tell whatever story they need to tell in order to meet their objectives or advance their agendas.
Its funny how these Assadists have a photografic memory when it comes to conflicts they like, and total amnesia in conflicts they dislike
people who care, care no matter what, people who only care when it suits them aren't people
very smart comment
I'm not naive. I have worked with torture survivors for years. You haven't.
Heros? More like cowards for trying to escape the enhanced interrogation love that their governments were trying to provide them.
Cowards??? Again, you don't know them. The people I worked with were most definitely tortured. Their families were beaten and shot. Your skepticism is unwarranted in this case. Goodbye.
Here we go again 99% of you no nothing about how the middle east works... There is no Good and Evil as you would like.... perhaps if we replaced The Syrian Gorvernment is killing and fighting "Muslim tribes and Al Quada" that would make a difference? The USA involvmenet in other countries has actually led to more killings and has now resulted in ethnic cleansing from the rival muslim factions that have taken over.... can you understand that you will be taking one muslim extremist and then soon replacing it with a new one.... you cannot win.... Al Quaeda are killing these woman and children so they can take over the country
too bad your truth is falling on deaf ears
I totally agree with you. But the sad truth is that everything has political roots and self motivated agendas and though they may stand in the name of a charity and serving the people, there are hidden agendas. This means that some things get dealt with and others don't depending on the benefit it reaps the investigating governments to do so.
Everything has a purpose, even this article. Dont base your decisions on media propaganda. What you see is only half the true. What about the events behind the events?. i believe there is a regime out there trying to create a third world war. This regime in all of its ways seems anti-christ. I SEE THIS ANTI-CHRIST REGIME TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD. TRYING TO ESTABLISH A ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT. THEY CALL IT 'THE NEW WORLD ORDER'. YOU THINK THEY ARE FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY LOL!. NO, THEY ARE FIGHTING FOR THE CAUSE OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER. 'THE WHITE MANS SENSE OF FREEDOM IS AS PALE AS HIS SKIN'...
Why do these foreign propagandists even try to pretend to be american, and spin these horror stories to us as no big deal. Its sick and only revolts us more and fires us up. Im talking to you barbara.
Dear Ms. Amanpour,
I was listening to your interviewing of Mr. simnovic.
I would say that you still narrate the one side of the story in Syria. If Mr. Ivan Simnovic says they were not allowed access to Syria, how could he be sure of the kind of torture that he reserved of speaking about? Once you asked him about torture, he gave general description and a tone of hesitation could be perceived in his speech. Actually, I was listening yesterday to your correspondent "Arwa Damon" commenting on the massacre in Hama, Qaiber. The repot was broadcasted at 2.30 am Damascus time zone. My question: how could you have access to data in such time with the claim from the opposition of shelling, and random killing, electricity cut? Are you thinking that a sane person would trust that a militia of the regime, as you called it, would commit a crime and leave it to others to photograph and broadcast it? I do not say there are no mistakes from our government. I hope you raise the following question: why Western media do not even listen to other Syrians who can communicate through social network or with the Syrian immigrants who came to Syria within this period of uprising? I was happy listening to you talking to Hanan Ashrawi about Palestinian -Israeli conflict. In such occasion, you must be aware that the 67th borders include the occupied heights in Syrian Golan. Another important question: you asked Ashrawi why there is no uprising in Palestinian territories, and she answered highlighting that the uprising is to be against the occupier. So, in this case why no part of this so-called " revolutionary groups" in Syria raised one motto in their Fridays series of fabricated demonstrations- I do not say there is not uprising or demonstrations, but Aljazeera and other one sided channels damaged the uprising by exaggerating things and giving blindeyes to Bahrain and Libya suffering after Nato raids and assassination of Qhadafi- so no motto to liberate the Golan! I am not in the mood of being with or against, but I refuse the way the Media cries crocodile tears on Syrians while many reports on CNN, which I have watched about Libya, highlight the suffering of children there. Many Libyan children were massacred. And no one is remembering them. So, stop treating us like fools. Arwa Damon used in her report yesterday the word "shabihha". She is just parroting the concepts of the opposition. We do not want her to be with the regime! The claim of not being given access to a place does not justify narrating false exaggerated stories about it. for me , as a CNN watcher, I would appreciate if you use the sentence" and we could not make sure of this news from an independent source due to being unable to be on the Syrian ground" Otherwise you are liars. It is not professional media to depend only on activist and opposition groups.
You are a shill for the Assad regime. Although the reporters don't have as much access as they would like, you have even less, yet you defend a dictator in the face of video and photographic images that boggle the mind. I suppose you would argue that the Earth is made of sand because that's all you see.
Quite fascinating.
Dear Sir,
If the former secretary of the state Colin Paul presented a fild in february 2003 before attacking Iraq and he him self afterleaving power admittedthatthis was not true, how would you convince me that media do not make lies. It is extremisim on your part and others commenters. If I say facts, not at all defending the regime, youturn it as an accusation against peopel like me. I do not support violence in my country. pls do not try o convince me you are so worried about syria more than the syrians!!! an important example. the fires broken outin Qater treated so hardly in media despit 13 children were killed. Aljazeera hardly mentioned any thing about that. The funny thing: remember once the London protest escalated the BBC Arabic reported some news aout protests in Chna and the news bar on the screen did not mention any thing about London. Pls I am not narrow minded. I do notsupport violence but Iam skeptical about the false sympathy from the old colonial powers. For me holding M.A , with mythesis focusing on postcolonialsim, made me a littlea ware of the story being told, or to use Edward Said's words" misrepresentation"
is it not evidence that Bashar and his family have ruled Syria for 42 years? can anyone last on a throne this long without torture and mass abuse of human rights?
"can anyone last on a throne this long without torture and mass abuse of human rights?"
Had China not invaded Tibet ...
And Jeff's point about the Queen was spot on.
they would leave evidence their they dont care .also they are trying to scare the syrian people this is not the first massacre in syria wont be the last as long as assad regieme is in power . i say to you open your eyes to what is going on in your country . you are a supporter of a murderer and a rapist . god bless free syrian army , god bless the syrian people ,may assad rot in hell .
Nahed , Amen and hallelujah ! you are spot on with your analasis , CNN is Disney and therefore a big company selling===="News" I already long ago lost trust in their reporting. people get what they need... sad but true.. luckily there are still sources to get infoi and of course our common sense.
That was exactly the idea, Assad's nifty plan, to bar the observers/journalists from coming to Syria and then dismiss all their findings by saying they had no first hand information. Are you really so @#$#@ naive not to see the whole hypocrisy of it? Until Assad let's the observers and journalists in I assume all the accounts of attrocities perpetrated by his militia are true.
I aprreciate your point of view, ut does it mean that since Amercia blinden our perception about Guantanamo, we should trust any story narrated about it?
please it is not a matter of defending the regime, it is a principle of ehics.
pls read this article
Six Ways the Media Has Misreported Syria
March 14, 2012
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How One-Sided Reporting is Facilitating Escalation
by AFSHIN MEHRPOUYA
counterpunch@counterpunch.org
amanpour never was and is a professional journalist
she is a sensationalist
getting high on the moment
only stupid westerners believe the false propaganda
she spews out
I truly feel sorry for her
If she does not obey her white masters
she would have no job
Please don't lie. You think Bashar al-Assad and his Shabiha will ever care about you when they run away. Don't you think the lives of those murdered children are more important than loyalty to a murderer like al-Assad?
Dear Khaldoun,
I respect your point of view very much. But all i say that the so called freinds of syrian peopel are not less tyranic. Do you have answers for these questions:
why the syrian national council do not solve the problem of Syrian refugees in Turkey? we do not know anything about these camps. little information is reported from there despite the place is not in Syrian regime fist. Now, two cases : Syria as a whole, and these camps the same of limited media access.
second, do not you think that the opposition committed quite fatal mistake in considering every person who is not with them, who might not be even with the regime, as an enemy! are we happy to see Syrians killed by themselves. you would say many things about me, I do no matter. the painfulthing is that i read in May 2o11 reports from NYT in Khalidya in Homs about a woman whose husband is a bucher telling the NYT correspondent that she wished she cut the syrian soldiers and sell their meat!!!!!!!!!!
pls, if you think the regime is lying and the opposition do not trust it, quite large number of poeple in syria who are not Shabiha!!!!, also do not trust the opposition based abrod. I cried once listening to a professor like Ghalioun so naivly talikg to ahmad Mansour in " Without Borders" . It is not the way a Sourbone Profesor talk . If the regime made massacre, as you say, the opposition is responsible for not opening their hand for the other syrians. They left the air for extrimists in KSA and the Gulf.
If they wanted to make me feel safe, they should stop considering me on the basis of my ideas.
It's interesting to see all the Conspiracy Theorists coming out about how this is a western led uprising, how much disinformation is being peddled by the western media, etc. granted the first casualty of war is the truth, the real truth is to simplistic for some to grasp. That an oppressed people are rising up against their oppressor and being slaughtered in the process. If the Syrian government had nothing to hide, they wouldn't be hiding it from the rest of the world by restricting proper press access. So when some people complain that the telling of the story is slanted, it's the regime that really does not want to tell their side of the story, and apparently for good reason...because to one wants to incriminate themselves. So for those of you who continue ti insist that this uprising is come western or Zionist master plot, go back and play in the sandbox.
you are being led by the noose around your neck by the western media
the UN has been allowed in
their are observers on the ground
this is war between shabia and al queda
what is unfair is syria arms the shabhia and you arnm the al queda
that is what china said today
stop the violence
bring to justice the culprits
no forced regime change
the message is loud and clear
I am 15 and I may be speaking out of line here, but i think we should not be talking about mr. Simnovics credibility, but instead we should be speaking of ways to maybe help these poor people.
too bad the politicians do not have the brains nor the courage
when hitler marched through europe everybody was mum
finally they woke up
today there is a new hitler who has invaded and killed millions since 1948
and the world is indifferent
they are providing weapons to the most brutal terrorists in the world
who are committing war crimes
and yet they praise them and transfer the blame
thinking the world is stupid to believe them
The ONLY way to STOP tyrants commiting and continuing their genocidal behavior is the clean clear whistles of missiles and bombs playing magnificent musical shrills as they head speedily towards their well deserving targets in the monsters dens !
tyrants who killed innocent children in Iraq ,Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya
the screams of those dying children must have been like an orchestra playing your favourite music to your ears
It's high time for the benefit of Syrian people who are suffering hardship at the hands of dictator Al-Assad and his despotic regime, that the United States alongwith Otan invade Syria and topple Al-Assad's regime.
I think you should be joking
is occupation and colonizaion the solution? pls if yu are so worriedabout syrian and so much Humane, show aspects of this humanity inpalestine. Israel atacked the ships of freedom ad killed peopel no one is folowing this! Sudan is separated and the resident their is wanted for IC, yet you re not worried about the sudanese after separating the country.
better for the american polcy makers care about the psyche of their soldiers and bringthem back from overseas bases.
Iwill for ever resect america as a great country in aspects like education, medicine, technology. I respect what this nation has given usall, but I will never be foolished by the american adminstration which is a ally to Israel, my enemy.
Don you asked "can anyone last on a throne this long without torture and mass abuse of human rights?" I believe we just celebrated the Queens Diamond Jubilee.
good one jeff. This queen has had 12 prime ministers who write the few words she is allowed to say once a year infront of parliamnet.
the throne I am talking about is the throne of power
the queen is just a ceremonial servant loved and admired by the people, if the syrians had what the british have today they would be celebrating, dancing and singing for their cultural, economical, social and political achievements in the street of damascus while the world envies not killing each other what the reality shows today.
Where are the Assads hiding? The Dictator recently made his first speech since January (after countless months of bloodshed in "his" land). Strip the Mrs. of her Louis Vuittons; the Dictator of his bespoke suits; put them together in the hell-hole that the rest of "their" people are living in; fire off a few missiles and see how long they can survive. Remember-not long ago another dictator was found squirming and begged for mercy in his rat hole.
this is all western backed plan....if they managed to intervene in toppling gadafi why cant they do the ame in syria...infact assad has killed many pple more than what they used to call gadafi regime...this shows u that the western powers are after something....(riches)they dont care at all,,if it was america or britain u would have seen how they were going to react..i remember when twintowers were bombed,u were all crying like babies....
Torture of the worst kind? And "torture of the best kind" is what the US practices?
President Assad has no scruples. As long as he is protected by the two permanent security council members, Russia and China, Assad feels he can survive all attempts to remove him from power and abuse all norms of decency. That is the irony! The United Nations is supposed to ensure that countries are free from tyranny. Ordinary Syrians are being butchered everyday as the United Nations looks on helplessly! How long will this situation be tolerated by the international community? Putting him on trial at the Hague or giving him permanent exile in Russia or China would be other options!
This happens in every war ...
What's happening there is the worst thing I've ever seen before. I've just seen some of the footage, and what the ****? This is going way over the edge, I wonder how it could get even worse as they're at the limit already with the actions they're doing against humanity right now. It's too shocking. And there's no way they could make it even worse, but only carry on. Why's there no worldwide military intervention? Or are we not doing anything as it's too late already? Seriously start to intervene them. **** peaceful actions. They aren't listening to it neither. Just go all in with the military power we've got and intervene the bad-asses in Syria right now. I've never been so hurt before about knowing what problem's some countries have. This is way over the top. If I compare Syria with Iran, North Korea etc than Syria's cruelty is 100 times as worse as any problem which has happened in the past few decades. Start to ******* intervene. Every minute leaders are speaking, lives are lost and kids are getting raped in Syria by the government. Why don't you intervene?
Legal Disclamier: In no way does the West participate or support torture in any shape or form. However if a prisoner is sent to the Middle East or Gitmor on a Gulf Stream, and information is obtained under duress, we are not responsible for his or her safety. In the many cases that a non-friendly Middle Eastern Country is seen or perceived abusing human rights, we in the West reserve the right to call them out on those abuses. If you do not comply with the wishes of the Western World, we reserve the right to declare war on you. If you are of a different color, we reserve the right to use atomic weapons on you. If Syria wishes to move the attention towards Iran or China, you should send cheap oil to Houston, or a multi-billion cheque to 1600 Pensylvania Avenue, Washington. You have sixty days to comply or America has the right to impose another American-styled democracy within the Middle East.
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