Amnesty Bericht Syrien 1983

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an amnesty international briefing

Human rights violations:

Political arrests and preventive

detentions under 20-year-old



ana

First issued November 1983

Amnesty International Publications1 Easton Street

London WC1X 11D.1

United Kingdom

AI Index: AIDE 24/13/83ISBN: 0 86210 065 8

Copyright Amnesty International Publications. Original langu age English. All rights reserved. No part

of this publication may be reproduced. stored in a retrieval system. or transmitted in any form or by any

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Printed by Redesign, 9 London Lane, London Et



HIS brie fing is part of Amnesty International's worldwide campaign for the international protectio nof human rights.

Throughout the world thousa nds of people are in prison because of their beliefs. Many are held withoutcharge or trial. Torture and executions are widespread. In many countries men, women and children have disappea red after being taken into official custody . Still others have been put to death without anypretence of legality: selected and killed by governments and their agents.

These abuses—taking place in countries of widely differing ideologies— demand an internationalresponse. The protection of human rights is a un iversal responsibilit y, transcending the boundaries ofnation, race and belief. This is the fundamental principle upon which the work of A mnesty International isba sed.

Ma ny thousands of people have been arbitrarily arrested and detained withoutch arge or trial in Syria since the country's state of emergency came into force morethan 20 years ago. There have also been reports of torture, disappearances andextrajudicial executions carried out by the security forces .

The targets of these human rights abuses have come from a wide range of back-

grounds and have included a former President, former governm ent ministers, tradeunionists, traders, doctors, lawyers and students—and even a number of children.

On 26 April this year l su bmitted a memorandu m on its concerns to the SyrianGo vernment and subsequently offered to publish any comments it had. No responsewas received. A 72-page Rep ort from mne sty Interna tional to the Governme nt of th eSyrian rab Republic based on the memorandum was published on 16 November.The following material is based on the report.

In

Amnesty Internatio nal is a worldwide movement independent of any government , political persuasionor religious creed. It plays a specific role in the international protection of human rights:

it seeks the elease of prisoner s of conscience These are people de tainedfor their beliefs, colour, sex, ethnic origin, language or religion who have

not used or advocated vio lence;it works for air and prompt trials or all po litical prisonerc and on beha lfof political prisoners detained without charge or trial;

it opposes the death pen alty and orture or other cruel, inh uman ordegrading treatment or punishment of all prisoners wit hout reservation.

Amnesty International is impartial. It does not suppo rt or oppose any government or po litical system,nor does it support or oppose the views of the prisoners whose rights it seeks to protect. It is concernedsolely with the protect ion of the human rights involved in each case, regardless of the ideology of thegovernment or the beliefs of the victims.

Syrian security forces have practised

systematic violations of human

rights, including torture and political

killings, and have been oper ating

with impun ity under the coun try's

emergency laws.

There is overwhelming evidence

that thousands of Syrians not

involved in violence hav e been

harassed and wrongfully detained

without chance of appeal an d in

some cases have been tortured;

others are reporte d to have dis-

ap peared or to have been the vic-

titns of extra judicial killings car ried

out by the security forces.

Amnesty International, as a matter of princip le, condemns the torture and execution of prisoners byanyone, including opposit ion groups. Governments have the re sponsibility for dealing w ith suchabu ses, acting in conformity with international standards for the p rotection of human rights.

Amnesty Internat ional does norgrade governments according to their record on human rights: insteadof attemptin g comparisons it concentrates on trying to end the specific viola t ions of human rights ineach case.

•

Amnesty International has an active worldwide membership, open to anyone who supports its goals.Through its network of members and supporters Amnesty Internation al takes up individual cases,mobilizes public opinion and seeks improved internatio nal standards for the protect ion of prisoners.

Mijali Nasrawin . . . in his 13th year

of preventiv e detention withou t

charge or tri al. A lawy er, aged 44,

and a form er member of the N ational

Command of Syri a's ruling Ba'th

Party , he is held in al-Mene military

pr ison, Dama scus, and is one of a

group of people who either serve d in

or were connected with the previous

Syr ian Government and were arrested

reportedly for refusing to cooperate

with the present rulers. During the

early part of their imprisonmen t they

are reported to have been tortured

and denied medical treatment.

Amnesty Internationa l's work is based on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Theorganizat ion has formal relat ions with the United Nations (ECOSOC), UNESCO, the Council of Europe,the Organizat ion of African Unity and the Organization of American States.

for iner 12 years and another 300 held

for between two and nine years.

On ce arrested, political sus pects face

indefinite incommu nicado de tention and

Pattern of arrests/W s new repor t on Syria describes a

pa ttern of arbitrary arrests by the secu rity

forces using the State of Emergenc y Law

which has been in force throughout the

count ry for mor e than 20 years. Syrian

cit izens are liable to arb itrary arrest or

abduction and no one can depend on the

pro tection of the law, the report says.

A/ h as collected the names of over

3,5(X) people reported arrested and

detained without trial in a two-year

pe riod up to Dec ember 1981 . Arrests on

th is scale result from the power security

forces have to seize any suspect at any

time without immed iate refere nce to a

cent ral aut hority.

The organiza tion has received repo rts

of relatives being hel d hostage while

security forces sough t political suspects.

Suc h hostages have included wives and

you ng children —and in one case three

relatives were held hos tage in det ention

for six years before being released in

1980.

Those arrested may be held without

charge or trial for year s—at the end of

Octobe r, was w orking for the release

of 17 p eople held in preventive detention

possible tortu re. Even their whereab outs

may rema in secret.

,41's report list s 23 meth ods of ill-

treatment and torture reported by forme r

de tainees, including electric sho cks,

burnings, whippings with braided steel

cable, sexual violations and the forcing

of detainees to watch relatives be ing

tortured or sexually assaulted.

Ext rac ts from testimonies by 12 former

de tainees who alleged torture are cited in

the report. They include a 15-yea r-old

schoolboy who said he had been whipped

and that his interrogator had threatene d

to gouge out his eyes if he did not rev eal

his father's whereabou ts.

Another former de tainee desc ribes a

sound-proofed torture cha mber in

Aleppo equipped with torture tools ,

inc luding electrical appa ratus, pinc ers,

scissors, a machine used for sexu al viol-

ation and an imp lem ent for ripping out

finger-nails .

Persistent allegations

- 1he extent, consistency and deta il of

the allegations which AI has received

persistently over the years —some sup-

po rted by medical evidence—lead s the

organiza tion to concl ude that torture is

frequent ly inflicted in the course of inte r-

roga ting arrested individu als, both in

order to ext ract a conf ession and as a

punishm en t.

Al is concerned also about reported

dis app earances in Syria as well as

abou t political killing of selected indi-

viduals or groups by the security forces

who have also rep ortedly been respon-

sible for the killing abroad of several

oppo nents of the Syrian Government .

1he repor t cites six cases of alleged

mass po litical killings said to have been

car ried out by the authorities between

Ma rch 1980 and February 19 82.A/ be lieves there is an urgent need for

the Syrian authorities to contr ol, super-

vise and monitor the act ivities of the



2 SYRIA BRIEFING SYRIA BRIEFING

sectiruY forces, V. hose noviers under the

country's emergency legislation have

he en wArd tor Aidespread idolmions UIhuman rights

Security forcenetw orks

State ofEmergency

Law

al-Men e prison, Damascus, and fled to

Iraq. Seven of his relat ives were arrested

immediately afterwards —four were held

for up to a year and three were held for

six years befor e being released.

More recently , four bro thers, 'AM al-

Qassim, 'Abd al-Majid andSatoh, were deta ined in J une 1980 while

Military Intelligence searched for theirbrother, 'Abd al-Jalil, who had fled the

country. At the time of the 41 report's

go ing to press, they were reportedly still

in detentio n— but the rest of the family

did not know their whereabou ts.

Detention witho uttrial

Ka me l Hussein, former Syrian ambassa-

dor to Fran ce and m ember of the Regiona lCom mand of the Syrian Ba'th Part y

. . . he has be en held under preYentive

det ention sin ce mid-I971.

Dr Nour al-Din al-Atassi, former Pres i-

dent and Prime Min ister of Syria andSe cre tary Gene ral of the Syrian Belli

Party, has been heldwithout charge ortrial for more than12 y ears at a l-Meznmilitary p rison, Dam ascus. He is one of

17 detained former governm ent officialswhos e release 4 1 is at pr esent seek ing—all have been held under pre ventivedetention s ince ate 1970-early 1971.

any respons e and partly for fear of

reprisals by the local security forces.

-The thousands of arbitrary arrests

and dete ntions of political suspec ts

in Syria have bee n carried out unde r

the State of Eme rgency IAD SEE)

which has been in force since March

1963.

Under this law "all powers of

internal and external security" are

put at the dispos al of a Martial Law

Governo r (the Prime Minister) who

is appo inted by the Pre sident. The

Martial Law Governor delegat es

emergenc y functions to the Minister

of the Interior, who in turn fulfils

the role of Deputy Martial Law

Governor .

The se two officials may iss ue "written

orders" for, am ong other things:

"The placing of res trictions on free-

dom of ind ividuals with respec t to meet-

ings, residence, travel and passage in

spe cific places or at pa rticular times.

Pre ventive arrest of anyone suspected of

endangering public security and order.

Authorization to investigate persons and

pla ces . Delegation of any person to per-

form any of these task s" (Article 4a of

the SEL).

entand torture

Th ere are several security force net-

works in Syria, ea ch with its own

branches, detention cells and inter-rogation centres throu gh out the

co untry, and eac h po ssessing its

ow n intelligence se rvice.

These networks ope rate indepen -

dently and ther e appear to be no

clear boundarie s to the ir areas of

jurisdiction.

For example, the activities of al-Muk hah arat af'Askariyya Military

Inte lligence) have not been limited to

matters affecting the armed forces but

have inc luded the arrest and interroga tion

of me mbers of prohibited political parties

and , after April 1980 , of mem bers of

medical and enginee rs' associ ations.

Th e Sar aya al D ifa an al-Thaw ra(Brigades for the Defenc e of the Revol-

ution), hea ded by the President's brother,

Rif'at al-Assad, and said to have betweenI 5, (XX ) and 25,0 00 members, are bas ed in

Dam ascus pri marily to protect the Presi-

dent—but they were reportedly active in

Aleppo during house-to-hous e search es

in March 1980 and are also alleged tohav e taken part in a mas sacre of prisoners

at Palmyra (Tadmur ) prison in June

1980.

l'he Sa raya al D tfa' are described by anumber of Syrians as being above the

law of the land and answerab le only to

Rif'at al-Assad.

Al has received reports that me mbers

of these forces are reg ularly sen t abroad

to monito r the activities of Syrian politi-

cal exiles and to impede such activities

throu gh haras sment and even vio lence.

Arresting age ntsArticle 4a therefore permit s wide powers

of arrest and preventive detention to be

delegated to members of the security

forces—w ho carry out most arrests of a

po litical nature in Syria.

3

my body, mv head and my legs with a

hraided cop per cable until I passed

out He threw wate r on me to revive

me and continued to beat me. They

ca rried me bac k to the cell as I could

not move. On the third day they

applied electricity. Hies: tied me down

on a piece of wood cut into the shape

of a human and used electricity to

torture me."

(Student from Aleppo detained from7 A ugust to 3 September 1980.)

"Th ey raised my feet and caned

the m until they bled . kicked me,

strapped and blindfolded, from the

top of the stairs to the bottom .

applied electricity to the sens itive parts

of my body."

(S hopkeeper from Aleppo detainedfrom 5 to 26 May 1980.)

"My hands and feet were tied and

my feet whipped until they became

swollen. My torturer threa tened togoug e out my eyes if I did not tell

them where my father was .

(15-year -old schoolboy held for two

days in August 1979.)

"I was stripped naked. I was put in

t he dul lah and caned. My wrists were

then tied and I was hung up and

whipped on my back and all ov er my

body. . . Next day I was strapped to

a w oode n apparatus nicknamed Bisatal-Rih (flying carpet) and caned and

whipped. I was bea ten on the toes

until my nails fell out."

(A tra der detained from January to

Apri l 1980.)

"Th e torture room is square and is

situat ed inside another room which is

sou nd-proo fed . . . In side there is an

electrical apparatu s, a Russian tool

for ripp ing out finger-na ils, pincers

and scissors for plucking flesh and an

app aratus called al-'Abd al-Asw ad(the black slave) on which they force

the to rture vic tim to sit. When

switched on, a very hot and sharp

metal skewer enters the rear. . . ."

(Student from Aleppo detained from

28 July 1979 to 8 March 1980.)

However, al though the Martial LawGovernor is invested with "all powers of

internal and externa l security" by the

SEL, he does not appear to have over all

control of securi ty branch activities and

it is not at all clear to wh at extent security

force com manders are answ erable to

him or to their respective min istries—the

Min istries of the Interior and of Defe nce.

Most repor ts receive d by Al sugges t

that wherea s in theory these com manders

are direct ly respons ible to the ir ministries

and via them to the Mar tial Law Gov-

ern or, in prac tice they answer onl y to the

Presiden t, via the Presidential Security

Council.

Th is body is chaired by the P resident

and appears to be the means whereby the

heads of the security forces receive the ir

orders.

rbitraarrests anddetentions

De nial of right s

during de tention al proc edur esAlth ough Syria's state ofemergenc yhas produ ced a numbe r of spe cialme asuresan d led to a n expans ion ofexecutive powers w hich are not part

of nor mal crim inal proc edure, the

SEE does not suspend existing le galor administrative procedure s—the

security forces are s till legally bound

to operate within the limits of existing

laws and es tablish ed procedu reswh en arrestingand detaining suspects.

For exa mple, under the SyrianCod e of Crimina l Procedu re anyonewho is arrested has the right tosee

an d keep a copy of th e arrest warrant.

In practice, howev er, in mos t cases

of political impriso nm ent that havecome to A 's attention, no warrantor othe r authorizing docu ment was

pro duc ed at the timeof arrest.

In a few cases, form er detaineeshave told A/ they were shown a list

with their names on it—b ut this

usu ally took pla ce after the actual

arres t, during interrogation.

A/ believes hat details about arrest smade by the various ocal branches ofthe security forces are seldom for-

warded immediately to a central

authori ty and a re sometim es delayedfor weeks or months.

The impuni ty with which security

forces may arrest any sus pects at

an y time and hold them withoutim mediate refere nce to a centra l

auth ority has led to a pattern of

arb itrary arrests an d th e routine

infringe ment by thos e forces of the

fundamental rig hts of peo ple in

custody.

The extent of such violations may

be gauged from reports received by

AI hat rela tives— including young

children—have been arrested by

security forces and held hostage

wh en suspects thems elves cou ld not

be found.

In December 1974 Ham ud Qaba ni, amin ister in th e previou s governm ent who

had been arrested inJune 1971, escaped

from the military hospital attach ed to

AI believes that Article 4a of the SU L

is use d to detain arbitrarily a wide range

of people, including non-violent critics

of the gov ernment.

In many cases such de tentions have

lasted months or severa l years.

At the tim e of going to press , Al was

working for the release of 17 people who

had been in preve ntive dete ntion for over

12 years and of ove r 300 similarly

detained without trial for be tween two

and nine years.

A/ knows too of a n um ber of cases oftried political prisoners who have been

kept in pri son after the expiry of their

sentences on the specific ins tructions of

the Deputy Martial Law Governo r or

President.

Zuhair al-Shulak, a Syrian lawyer fromDam asc us who was reporte dly senten ced

in 1971 to five years' imprisonment by a

state securi ty court, remained in prison

after com pleting his sentence and was

eventua lly released only in April 1980.

Al believes that in many cas es the

actual decision to pro long the detentionwithout trial of arrested individuals is

tak en not by a central authority in

Dam ascus but by loc al security force

commanders .

For me r detainees have tol d the o rga n-

iza tion that the security forces, to help

them prolong periods of detention, have

blank Preventive De tention Orders signe d

by the Deputy Martial Law Governor to

whic h the names of detainees may be

added after arrest.

The dates on these ord ers are report-

edl y filled in at the time of the de tainee's

release, understat ing the leng th of time

spen t in detention.

Th is means the vast majority of non-

violent political detainees are held with-

out trial under the authori ty of the

secu rity forces without any cha rges

against them or any further legal

proceedings.

Their families and lawyers may appea l

to the local comm ander of the s ecu rity

force , the Deputy Martial Law Governor

or the Presi dent, but there is no legal

right to claim wron gful dete ntion and

challenge the lawfu lness of the arrest.

Fam ilies of de tainees have told A/ they

were reluctan t to appro ach high er auth-

orities partly because they did not expect

Detain ed security suspect s are not

brought to court and there appear s

to be no established procedure

whereby a detainee canapp eal to an

outside au thority against ill-treatm ent

during detention.

Allega tions of torture or ill-

treatmen t are therefore made only

af ter the detainee has been released,

which is often months or several

years after the even t.

Ever sinc e its 1978 mission to Syria,

when it expressed concern in detail about

allegations of to rture to the Syrian auth-

orities, A/ has continued to receive

reports of torture or ill-treatm ent of

prisoners by the security forc es.

Th e following are extract s taken from

separ ate statem ents made to Al by 12former detainees, arre sted and detained

at various times since July 19 79.

"They tied my hands behind my

bac k and put me in the dullah la sus-pended tyre throu gh whic h the

prisone r is forced ). They beat my legs

un til I passed out. I cou ld not wa lk.

On the seco nd day they tied my feet

and hung me upside down from a tree

for abo ut two hours. One of them the n

cam e back and whipped me all over

In most cases brought to Ai's attention,

people arrested by the secu rity force s

have not been t old, on a rrest, the official

reaso n for the arrest. At first, whi le still

in custody of the arres ting autho rity, the

detainee is kept inc ommunicado, often

in solitary confinement.

There appea rs to be no clear limit

under the procedures followed during

the state of emergen cy to the length of

time de tainees may be held incommun i-

cado— this may last days, several months

or even yea rs.

By Octo ber this year, Riad al-Turk,

First Secretary of the proh ibited Com-

mu nist Party Political Bu rea u, had beenhel d in communicado without charg e or



4 SYRIA BRIEFING

trial for three years, since his arrest

on 28 October 1980. lie is all eged to

have heen tortured and twice taken to

intens ive care units in Dam ascus hospitals

for treatment. Al the time of going to

press, his family did not know his

whereabouts.

I.ormer detainees hase reported

was during the early stage ot

incommunicado detention that

were ill treated or tortured

worldwide campaignheir transfer from a prison in the town

Of Deft al-Zor, eastern Syria, to an

unknown destination three months after

their arrest in M arch 1980. Thei r where-

abouts have bee n unknown to their fam-

ilies tor the past three years.

that it

then

thes Extra judicialki llings

Disappe areddetainee s

Ars report cites six cases of alleged

mass political killings said to have

been carried out by the security

forces between Ma rch 1980 an d

Fe bruary 1982.

They include the reported killing

on 27 June 1980 of between 6(X) and

1,(X)0 inmates of Palmyra Prison

suspected of belonging to the banned

Muslim Brotherhood. The force

responsible for the a lleged massacre

is said to have included 350 com-

mandos of the Sar aya al Dila .

Fhe report refers also to thousands of

killings in February 19142,whe n the auth

orities announced that their forces had

crushed an uprising in the town of

Ilarna. According to various estitnates,

betsseen 10,000 and 25,(XX) people died

before order was restored.The four other cases refer to reported

killings in the towns of lisr al -Shughur

in March 1980; Sarmada in tub/ 1980;

Aleppo in August I 980; and Hama in

April 1981.

/1/ has not been able to investigate

fully the precise circumstances ot the

killings alleged to have been carried out

by the security. forces in these cases—hut

it is deeply conce rned about the pattern

and increasing number of such reports.

In earlier years, the organization asked

the Syrian Government to set up a corn-

mission of inquiry to investigate the facts

and make puhlic their findings, but the

government did not respond to such

reques ts.

Since early 1980, A/ has received

reports about the "disappearances"

of detainees following the ir arrest

by the security forces, in many

instance s following the sealing off

of whole areas of tow ns, hou se-to-

house searches and widespread

arrests of the inhabitant s.

Detainees have frequentlY been

taken away in lorries to unknown

destinations, and their families and

lawyers hase in many cases remained

ignorant of their whereabouts for

weeks, months and sometim es years.'fins h as given rise to fears that they

may have bee n ill-treated or tortured

or that they may b e dead.

Attempts by relative; or lawyers to

discover the whereabout s of newly

arrested detainees are often hindered by

the fac t that prisoners are held incom -

municado for prolonged periods and

that they are regularly transferred from

one place to another.

Officials have also frequently denied

that the person concerned had been

apprehended or was in custody, and have

refused eit her to investigate such cases

of "apparent kidnapping" or to report

fully the results of an investigation.

A/ has the names of 38 youths who

are reported to have "disappeared" after

Human rights are a human responsibility. Whenever t hey are viola ted people are the victims. They and theirfamilies need pract ical help.

The protect ion of human rights is an inter national responsibility. This principle is accepted by major

world bodies such as the United Nations; gov ernments ar e now publicly accountable to the worldcommunity for protect ing the rights of their own citizens. That ac countability includes accepting the rightof international organizat ions to ask questions and expre ss concern when people 's rights are curtailed.

Amnesty International works on the basis of the universal human rights standards which the internationalcommunity ha s proclaimed. If a state is violating those Standards, Amnesty Internationa l comes to thedefence of the vict ims.

Amn esty Internatio nal began in 1961 with a newspape r article, "The ForgottenPrisoners" , by British lawyer Peter Benenson. He urged people everywhere to beginworking impart ially and peacefully for the victim s of political persecution. "Open yournewspaper any day of the week and you will find a report from somewhere in the worldof someone being imprisone d, tortured or executed because his op inions or rel igion areun acceptable to his government," he wrote. Within a month more than a thou sandpeople from various countries had sent in o ffers of prac tical help. They were ready tohelp collect information on cases, publicize the m and appro ach governments. Whatstarted as a brief publicity effort became a growing international movement.

Amnesty International now has more than 500,000 members, supporters and subscribers in over 160countrie s and territories. They come from all walks of life, ref lect ing a wide variety of points of view. Mostare organized into small local groups. There are now more than 3,000 groups in Africa, Asia, the Americas,Eu rope and the Middle East. Each group works on behalf of prisone rs held in co untries other than its own—emphas izing the need for ntern ational hum an rights work. No group or member is expected to provide

information on their own country, nor do they have any respons ibility for ac tion taken or statements issuedby the internation al organizat ion concern ing their cou ntry.

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ter mit,

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1 his photograph , taken after the authorities had announced that their forces hadcrushed an uprising in the town of Hama in February 198 2, shows buildings reduced

to rubble in the anc ient quarter of Nedr a. Most of the quarter is reported to have b een

destroyed by artillery fire and tanks during the first four days of fighting. A/ has

received information alleging tha t Saraya al-Difa troops summ arily executed a num-

ber of Hadra residents on 19 February.

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In its memorandum to the Syrian

Government of 26 April 1983, Al

mad e the following recommendations.

I. That steps be taken to enforce

existing legislation which requires the

production of arrest warrants and

provides those arrested with direc t

app eal machinery against wrongful

arrest; that the Syrian Government

consider revoking all provisions for

the prev entive detention of political

prisoners and that, until preventive

detention is ab olished , the nam es of

ind ividuals arrested or released b e

published regularly in the press; hat

in all cas es relatives be informed

Nam e

pre vent abuses by the security for ces

be carried out and an impartial inves-

tigation be initiated in to complaints

abo ut abuses or exc esses by the

sec urity forces and allegations of tor-

ture or ill-treatment; that those

responsible for the infliction of tor-

ture be brought to trial and adequate

co mpensation be m ade to the victims.

4. Thal a full and impartial inv esti-

gation be instituted into all cases

mentioned in 4 's mem orandum of

al leged "disappearance" and extra-

jud icial execution; and that the find-

ings of the investigation be made

pub lic and those responsible punished.

Ad dre ss

immediately of the arrest of the

prisoner and the place of detention ;

that current detention cases be

reviewed in order to release all thos e

detained for the non-violent exe rcise

of their huma n rights.

That legal provision be made

for any arrested individual to have

immediate access to a lawyer; that

close relatives be notified of the a rres t

and allowed to visit the detainee

within 48 hours of arrest and that

reg ular visits be permitted throughout

the detention period.

That an examination of current

legislation and practice designed to



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Transcript of Amnesty Bericht Syrien 1983