Human Rights Watch raise their voice against Syrian intelligence agencies
July 03, 2012 12:15
Human Rights Watch has disclosed on Tuesday, in their latest reports, that the intelligence agencies of Sryia have established numerous torture camps in many cities across the Country. The report claims that the torture centres mistreat the detainees who are subjected to severe punishments including beaing with batons, cable wires, spilling acid on the skin, pulling out fingernails, and even sexual assaults at times.
The human rights group based in new york has observed at least 27 such torture centres where they conducted interviews of over 200 people who all complained of physical abuse of different kinds. A 31 year old detainee, in Idlib region, had complained that he was forced to undress publicly. He also said “After I was undressed, they started squeezing my fingers with pliers and then started punching staples in my fingers, ears and chest. Staples punched in the ear caused excrutiating pain but I was not allowed to remove even one staple unless I opened my mouth and spoke”.
The number of the torture camps has been on the rise since March 2011 when the intelligence agencies had started a crackdown on pro-democratic protesters against Bashar al-Assad.
Several tens of thousands of people have been detained as of yet by the Department of Military Intelligence Agencies, Air Force Intelligece Directorate, Political Security Directorate and General Seurity Directorate. Human Rights Watch has documented more than 20 methods of torturing the detainees that go beyond mistreating to the point of being a crime against humanity.
HRW demanded that United Nations Security Council should refer the country to the International Criminal Court and that suitable targeted action against the responsible officials should be sanctioned. In the 16-month duration of the Sryian conflict, at least 10,000 people have been killed.