SYRIA/UNITED KINGDOM: A UK-based Syrian activist is leading a campaign to document human rights abuses as the government intensifies its crackdown on what it calls 'armed terrorist groups'

Record ID: 280430

  • Title: SYRIA/UNITED KINGDOM: A UK-based Syrian activist is leading a campaign to document human rights abuses as the government intensifies its crackdown on what it calls 'armed terrorist groups'
  • Date: 13th March 2012
  • Summary: ABDULRAHMAN SPEAKING
  • Embargoed: 28th March 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Syrian Arab Republic, United Kingdom
  • City:
  • Country: Syrian Arab Republic United Kingdom
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA47SM3TGKR0B2ZR2U920MV2PQB
  • Story Text: The English city of Coventry is home to one of Syria's most prominent activists.
    Forty-year-old Rami Abdulrahman has been living in Coventry since 2002 after fleeing what could have been his fourth jail term in Syria. He had been in jail three times for his pro-democracy activism under the rule of the late president Hafez al-Assad.
    Since the uprising against Assad's son and successor Bashar began in March last year, Abdulrahman has been leading the Syria Observatory for Human Rights which documents evidence of human rights atrocities.
    Cited by virtually every major news outlet, the observatory has been a key source of news on the events in Syria. Most foreign media have been banned from reporting in Syria.
    Abdulrahman's three mobile phones plus his Skype phone are constantly ringing. On the other line are members of his network from various Syrian cities reporting deaths, torture, shelling, protests and mass arrests.
    His inbox is constantly updated with graphic video clips showing evidence of torture.
    "When we see these videos we can't help but cry, how do you think the people who see these events in front of their very eyes feel? How do the people feel who see women and children being killed, and see their loved one being tortured in front of them," Abdulrahman said.
    He said all the evidence are being compiled for when they finally bring Assad and his government to the international court.
    The year-long revolt against Assad's rule has grown increasingly deadly since it began as a peaceful protest movement, as rebels and army deserters clash with state forces who say they are fighting foreign-backed militants.
    More than 7,500 people have died in the crackdown against the uprising, according to the United Nations, while the government says about 2,500 security personnel have died.
    With infiltration attempts by Syrian agents, misinformation from rival opposition groups, threats from Assad supporters and even pressure from pro-Assad members of his own family, Abdulrahman's mission to document the violence is no easy task.
    His sources, some cultivated over many years, risk their lives to investigate incidents and call him with information.
    Six have already been killed, Abdulrahman said, but despite the danger the observatory's network of contacts has expanded to more than 200 people from 54 since the uprising began, he said.
    "When I hear them, I feel a great surge of energy that pushes me to work to bring about democracy in Syria, to end this catastrophe, even if I have to work 24 hours in order to bring democracy to Syria. These people give me a lot of energy, the ability to continue my work, despite the effort it takes, despite the long hours I and my family spend on this," he said.
    Abdulrahman, a Sunni Muslim, is acutely sensitive that his reports are seen as free from bias, given accusations against him of sectarianism, of being in the pay of foreign agents or of being swayed or infiltrated by Assad's security services.
    Sunnis are the majority in Syria, but the country has long been dominated by Assad's Alawite minority sect.
    Members of Abdulrahman's wife's family have been arrested and beaten, he said, while he receives threatening text messages.
    Some of Abdulrahman's family refuse to speak to him, supporting Assad out of what he said was fear or ignorance.
    One of his brothers has pictures of news outlets, which have featured negative coverage of Assad, on his floor to walk on in a sign of disprespect, Abdulrahman said.
    Even his own mother, he said, has all but disowned him.
    But he says the quest for justice emboldens him and the rest of his group.
    "I feel fear, because I am only human. I feel fear for my only daughter and my wife. But if that's how I feel, and I am here -- I don't think my life is more valuable than the lives of the children who are dying in Syria, or the lives of the men who die under torture in Syria, or the women who are killed by the Syrian intelligence," he said.
    Despite the intensity of the government crackdown, Abdulrahman is still hopeful that democracy will one day come to his homeland. But he laments what he says is the lack of help from the international community.
    "I have a lot of hope in these people who are sacrificing on a daily basis, who are being killed every day, this blood will bring freedom. The Syrians are the only people who haven't been supported by the international community. Russia hasn't supported them, instead it stood against them. America (the U.S.) hasn't supported the Syrians. Western countries talk a lot, but they haven't supported Syrian practically. But Syrians have continued their rebellion despite suffering thousands of deaths, thousands of missing people, and tens of thousands of prisoners," he said.
    On Monday (March 12), U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Assad to act within the "next few days" on U.N.-Arab League proposals to bring peace to the country.
    Russia and China have twice vetoed U.N. Security Council resolutions condemning Syria for the crackdown. Washington and Paris have said that a third resolution, drafted by the United States, was unlikely to produce an agreement among the five permanent veto-wielding council members.
    U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan feels his Syria mediation mission is on track even though violence continued to rage as he held talks with Assad in Damascus over the weekend, his spokesman said on Monday.
    END
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