McCain smells a rat in Syria deal

Senators John McCain (left) and Lindsey Graham Saturday

U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Saturday released the following statement on the U.S.-Russian agreement on Syria:

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"What concerns us most is that our friends and enemies will take the same lessons from this agreement – they see it as an act of provocative weakness on America's part. We cannot imagine a worse signal to send to Iran as it continues its push for a nuclear weapon.

"Without a UN Security Council Resolution under Chapter 7 authority, which threatens the use of force for non-compliance by the Assad regime, this framework agreement is meaningless. Assad will use the months and months afforded to him to delay and deceive the world using every trick in Saddam Hussein's playbook. It requires a willful suspension of disbelief to see this agreement as anything other than the start of a diplomatic blind alley, and the Obama Administration is being led into it by Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin.

"What's worse, this agreement does nothing to resolve the real problem in Syria, which is the underlying conflict that has killed 110,000 people, driven millions from their homes, destabilized our friends and allies in the region, emboldened Iran and its terrorist proxies, and become a safe haven for thousands of al-Qaeda affiliated extremists. Is the message of this agreement that Assad is now our negotiating partner, and that he can go on slaughtering innocent civilians and destabilizing the Middle East using every tool of warfare, so long as he does not use chemical weapons? That is morally and strategically indefensible.

"The only way this underlying conflict can be brought to a decent end is by significantly increasing our support to moderate opposition forces in Syria. We must strengthen their ability to degrade Assad's military advantage, change the momentum on the battlefield, and thereby create real conditions for a negotiated end to the conflict."

Syrian opposition dots the i’s and crosses the t’s

Ghalioun (left) and Jarba

Syrian opposition leaders have told the UN Security Council, which they met for the first time Friday, they are prepared to take part in the Geneva-2 peace conference if it can get President Bashar al-Assad’s commitment to the provisions of Geneva-1.

They were referring to the key provision in the June 30, 2012 Geneva-1 communiqué calling for “the establishment of a transitional governing body that would exercise full executive powers.”

“Ahmad al-Jarba, the president of the National Coalition of the Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces gave U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry what he needed, that is, an announcement by the opposition that it is ready to attend peace talks,” reported CBS News' Pamela Falk, who presided at their press conference, “and, although there were conditions that they wanted met, they were all within the framework agreed to in Geneva" in June 2012.

“The significance of the trip to the UN cannot be underestimated," Falk reported, "because few people in the international community had heard much from the Syrian National Coalition, and they were able to present their side of the conflict.”

Falk is president of the UN Correspondents Association, which hosted the Syrian delegates’ press briefing after their informal UN Security Council meeting.

The United Kingdom gave the opposition the opportunity to address the Security Council through what are known as “Arria-Formula” consultations.

According to a description posted on the Security Council’s website, Arria-Formula meetings allow the Council to meet “with persons whom the inviting member or members of the Council believe it would be beneficial to hear and/or to whom they may wish to convey a message.”

In Jarba’s words:

It was an historic opportunity to convey our people’s legitimate aspiration to freedom and democracy.

We urged the international community, represented by the Security Council, to assume its responsibility in putting an end to this humanitarian catastrophe.

Specifically, we called for the following:

• That the Council requests the regime to implement Geneva-1, including the peaceful transition of power
• That the Council insists on finding a straightforward way –including through Syria’s borders -- to deliver humanitarian and relief aid to people in need
• That the Council refers the regime to the International Criminal Court so it can investigate the war crimes committed in our country.

We unambiguously urged Russia to stop helping the criminal regime kill our people. We also urged the Member States to lean on Russia and Iran to stop sending weapons and mercenary fighters from Hezbollah, Iraq and Iran to kill our women and children.

We supported all regional and international initiatives for a political solution in Syria. We also expressed our readiness to enter into negotiations based on the implementation of the Geneva-1 Declaration and the establishment of a transitional governing body that would exercise full executive power – inclusive of security and military powers. This means Assad is outwith Syria’s future.

Answering a question from BBC News on the opposition leaders’ meeting with Secretary of State Kerry, Burhan Ghalioun told the press conference:

Our relations with Washington are longstanding, especially as regards our Syrian people’s aspirations.

The Secretary’s position was unequivocal in that America will remain supportive of the Syrian people and will not allow the regime to score any victory.

At the same time, the Americans were clear in their support of (our) participation in the Geneva-2 negotiations.

For our part, we told the Americans the Syrian opposition has been supportive of all international initiatives, including participation in Geneva-2 negotiations – this, in order to fulfill the Syrian people’s aspirations, but not to reach a compromise with the existing regime.

We told the Americans: The opposition is not after any post or after sharing government positions. It is after enabling the Syrian people to elect their representatives posthaste.

We said as soon as Geneva-2 was proposed, the regime and its allies launched an all-out offensive against rebel positions, using all sorts of heavy weapons, and tapped unlimited support from Russia and Iran as well as from Hezbollah forces and Iranian and Iraqi Shiite militias.

This proves the regime has no genuine intention to uphold the Geneva principles. It simply wanted to win the fighting on the ground so it could go to Geneva-2 and formalize its triumph.

That’s why we suggested the following:

• For Geneva-2 to gel, the negotiations should start with a moratorium on the use of such heavy weapons as warplanes, ballistic missiles, Scuds and chemicals  -- weapons meant to kill people en masse. The moratorium on heavy weapons does not mean a ceasefire.
• Lifting the sieges clamped on cities to starve them of food and medicine.
• Allowing relief aid to reach all Syrian regions in need across all Syria’s borders.
• A statement by the regime, which continues to label the opposition as a terrorist organization, that the purpose of the negotiations is to switch to democratic governance based on the people’s will.

Press here for a three-part video documentary of the press briefing hosted by the United Nations Correspondents Association.

Obama the Hutu and Putin the Tutsi

File photo of Rwandans escaping the genocide

It is not enough for the UN to organize “funeral wakes and shed crocodile tears” for Syria at the Security Council (see yesterday’s post).

Telling us as it did, that “we have not seen a refugee outflow escalate at such a frightening rate since the Rwandan genocide,” is not helpful either.

Columnist Rajeh el-Khoury, writing today for the independent Beirut daily an-Nahar, says in part:

It is more useful for the UN to do something concrete to stop this infamy, which is worse than the massacres and genocide committed in Rwanda almost 20 years ago.

The Rwandan disaster took place in Africa’s jungles, relatively far from the world’s public eye.

But the daily massacres in Syria are being aired straightaway to every home around the globe.

Still, the Syria “Massacre’s International Department” is keen to see the pace of the killings continue unabated.

American apathy and Russian bigotry are the two faces of one and the same despicable, heinous and criminal policy.

Political solutions were foiled at the Arab League, then by a Russian veto at the UN Security Council, and since at the “Geneva Conference” farce… But the UN finds nothing better than wail the 100,000 Syrian deaths and the estimated killing of another 5,000 every month.

In Rwanda, the Hutus and Tutsis slaughtered each other as Bill Clinton stood idly by and just watched the slaughter.

Using a political metaphor, Obama represents the Hutus and Putin the Tutsis.

Both have no qualms about watching the slaughter until Syria is totally destroyed.

In the process, the largest number of Islamic extremists and jihadists would be killed alongside as many Iranians, Iraqis and Hezbollah Lebanese as possible, which would also wear down Iran.

Suspicions of a foul play on Syria also filter through this other think piece on the “Game of Nations” penned by wordsmith Samir Atallah for the Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat:

Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe in 1989, and two years later in the Soviet Union.

Some read in the two downfalls the End of History; others declared the end of the Cold War.

Russia was a bankrupt nation ruled by an addict called Boris Yeltsin while China’s economy was still predominantly rural.

But the march of history never stops and history variables are unpredictable.

The past decade saw the collapse of the U.S. economy, which was partly pulled down by the Iraq adventure.

It also witnessed the rise of China to economic giant status.

That’s when the Russians sought to take advantage of America’s enfeeblement and Europe’s fatigue and make a comeback on the international stage, using their Soviet forerunners’ wiles: the Cold War.

In a sense, the Cold War means waging hot wars away from your homeland – Vietnam, Angola, Cuba, the Balkans, the Middle East, Indonesia, Lebanon, Korea and scores of other places. That’s what the two sides do, but always covertly.

The Russians perceived in America’s exit from Iraq, her failure in Afghanistan and her financial meltdown a suitable window to recoup the role of equals in a bipolar world.

Realizing the West was shutting them out from Africa after the change in Libya, the Chinese chose to warm up to their traditionally hated partners, the Russians.

A golden opportunity came knocking with the explosion in Syria, an old Moscow lover despite her flings with the Americans in Lebanon and Iraq.

At the UN Security Council, the Russians pulled their veto sword from its sheath in anticipation of a duel.

They were surprised to find a bystander instead of an adversary. They found Obama playing the old Soviet role -- passionate verbosity and hot air.

In this crisscross painting of the battle scene, Putin visited America’s two principal military allies in the region, Israel and Turkey.

People who expected Obama to change tack in his second term saw him replace Hillary Clinton with John Kerry.

American ambulation and cogitation supplanted the ragged Russian footwork.

In the tug-of-war, nuclear Iran played the role of nuclear Cuba with cold, limited and timid Russian backing and American cautioning.

While the Russians and Americans weighed their moves, and China pondered the words of her Security Council representative, 100,000 Syrians were killed and 10 million displaced.

The quintessence of the conflict changed from Hama to Qusayr, the MiGs destroyed a quarter of Syria, the Middle East toppled over and the ultimate peril of sectarian conflict ignited.

The Big Powers don’t change. Everything outside their borders is a “game.”

Syria averaging 6,000 refugees and 165 deaths daily

Two Saudi mobile bakery trucks to produce 70,000 Arabic pita bread loaves a day

On royal orders, the “Saudi National Campaign to Support the Syrian Brethren” yesterday started operating two massive mobile bakery trucks at two Turkey-Syria border crossings.

Each of the trucks has the capacity to produce 35,000 Arabic pita bread loaves a day for distribution to displaced Syrians in Turkey and contiguous Syrian areas.

One truck was parked at the Bab al-Salam border gate, the other at the Bab al-Hawa crossing.

In New York, three UN officials told the Security Council the conflict in Syria has caused the world's worst refugee crisis for 20 years, with an average of 6,000 people fleeing every day -- and another 5,000 killed every month -- in 2013.

UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres said refugee numbers had not risen "at such a frightening rate" since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

He was speaking to the UN Security Council, which also heard UN assistant secretary general for human rights Ivan Simonovic say that 5,000 Syrians are being killed each month.

UN aid chief Valerie Amos said at least 6.8 million Syrians needed urgent help.

Since the uprising in March 2011 as many as 100,000 people have been killed, almost 2 million have fled to neighboring countries and a further 4 million have been internally displaced. In addition, at least 6.8 million Syrian require urgent humanitarian assistance, half of them children.

GUTERRES

Guterres said two-thirds of the nearly 2 million refugees registered with the UN had fled Syria since the beginning of the year -- an average of 6,000 a day.

"We have not seen a refugee outflow escalate at such a frightening rate since the Rwandan genocide almost 20 years ago," he told a rare public briefing to the Security Council.

Guterres said the impact of the refugee crisis on neighboring countries was "crushing," but said the acceptance of Syrians by countries such as Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq was "saving hundreds of thousands of lives."

And he said the "danger that the Syrian conflict could ignite the whole region" was "not an empty warning.”

Lebanon and Jordan are currently the two most affected countries, hosting over one million refugees between them.

“Measures must be taken now to mitigate the enormous risks of spillover and to support the stability of Syria's neighbors, so as to keep the situation from escalating into a political, security and humanitarian crisis that would move far beyond the international capacity to respond,” he said.

SIMONOVIC

Simonovic told the meeting some 5,000 lives were being claimed in Syria each month, demonstrating "a drastic deterioration of the conflict.”

"In Syria today, serious human rights abuses, war crimes and crimes against humanity are the rule," he said.

“Government forces carry on with indiscriminate and disproportionate shelling and aerial bombardments, using among other weapons tactical ballistic missiles, cluster and thermobaric bombs, all causing extensive damage and casualties if used in densely populated areas,” Simonovic said.

AMOS

Ms Amos said $3.1bn was still needed to provide aid in and around Syria for the rest of the year, and she accused both sides in Syria of "systematically and in many cases deliberately" failing in their obligation to protect civilians.

"We are not only watching the destruction of a country but also of its people," she said.

Ms. Amos said while UN agencies continue to deliver assistance, gaps in the humanitarian response remain as access to many affected areas such as Homs and Aleppo is difficult due to security concerns or government restrictions.

“While we know where those considered most vulnerable are located, humanitarian organizations are still not able to get regular, consistent and unimpeded access to millions of affected people,” she said, adding the government has also imposed bureaucratic procedures which have impeded humanitarian workers to access affected areas.

“Some locations remain inaccessible due to active fighting or insecurity. However, there are other areas, sometimes only a few kilometers away from our offices -- including in Damascus and Homs -- where we are not granted authorization to enter.”

Ms. Amos noted that the situation inside the country has worsened, with reports indicating an “open and blatant violation of the rules of war, with total disregard for human life and dignity, in a climate of generalized impunity.”

Denial of access to Qusayr

Denial of humanitarian access and safe passage to civilians trapped in fighting in violation of the laws of war has been a recurring issue during the Syrian armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said in a report on the eve of the UN Security Council meeting.

A recent Human Rights Watch investigation into the government and Hezbollah attack on Qusayr, near Homs, found the government’s refusal to allow humanitarian organizations access to the town appears to have contributed to several dozen deaths because no safe evacuation routes were available to civilians, and wounded people were denied adequate medical care.

“Many lives in Qusayr might have been saved if the Syrian government had allowed aid organizations to do their job,” said Ole Solvang, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. “When people are dying every day, Security Council members should be calling for humanitarian access, not hiding behind political negotiations.”

Several governments and high-level UN officials called on the Syrian government to grant humanitarian access to Qusayr during the fighting in May and June. But the Security Council did not issue a statement on access until the fighting was over due to obstruction by Russia. Russia also blocked a subsequent Security Council statement on Homs where the government is imposing a siege on opposition-controlled areas…

Human Rights Watch interviews with witnesses from Qusayr, including three doctors who had reached Lebanon, indicates that several dozen civilians and wounded may have died from lack of medical treatment in the town and during the evacuation, or during possibly unlawful government attacks on those trying to escape…


On May 19, Syrian government forces, supported by a significant number of Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon, began a major offensive to retake Qusayr, a Syrian town of about 30,000 people on the border with Lebanon. Opposition forces had largely controlled the strategically important town since July 2012.

For two weeks, government forces subjected the town to intensive bombardment and enforced a siege, preventing food, medical supplies, and other necessities from reaching civilians who remained in the town.

In the months leading up to, and particularly during, the two-week battle for Qusayr, government forces maintained a siege on the town, preventing food, water, fuel, and medical supplies from entering. The lack of electricity and potable water in the town exacerbated the situation…

Dr. Qassem al-Zein, one of the few remaining medical staff in the town during the siege, told Human Rights Watch they tried to bring medical supplies into town through the government checkpoints, but government forces always confiscated the supplies. Cars attempting to smuggle in supplies were attacked on several occasions, he said...


The government’s refusal to allow access to the town by the International Committee of the Red Cross, or other independent humanitarian actors who could have facilitated evacuation of civilians and treated the wounded, appears to have contributed to several dozen deaths… 

Several witnesses told Human Rights Watch about a failed attempt to evacuate 50 wounded civilians and fighters by car in the evening on May 25, for example. About five kilometers north of the town government forces opened fire from a checkpoint, killing 13 people. Those killed included a father whose child lost both legs in the attack…




Information from witnesses indicates that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of civilians and wounded remained in Qusayr on June 4, the day before government forces took control of the town…



Dr. al-Zein told Human Rights Watch he believed the group fleeing Qusayr and neighboring villages consisted of at least 10,000 people altogether, including 1,300 wounded. Others put the total number as high as 15,000.

After rumors started circulating in Qusayr that opposition forces would soon have to abandon the town, civilians started leaving in large numbers on the afternoon of June 4…

Local residents who evacuated on June 4 and 5 said government forces attacked the evacuating groups.



The groups of fleeing civilians, wounded, and fighters came under intensive attacks as they tried to cross the Homs-Damascus highway… during the night of June 7.



The number killed during the evacuation is unknown and estimates vary widely. An activist who is collecting names of those killed during the evacuation provided Human Rights Watch with a list of the names of 29 people killed at the crossing alone. Dozens are still missing, however, according to the activist.

According to medical staff and others, at least 13 people who had been wounded previously died due to lack of medical care, food, and water during the evacuation…



In one case, Walid Khaled Sharouf, an 18-year-old who was wounded in Qusayr by shrapnel in his chest during an airstrike in May died while attempting to flee because he did not get a needed blood transfusion.



Witnesses told Human Rights Watch about two incidents in which convoys evacuating wounded, civilians, and fighters struck anti-vehicle landmines that government forces planted on secondary routes. One man who was helping to evacuate people to the hospital in Yabroud on June 9 told Human Rights Watch:

There were about 30 cars in our convoy. This was the only road that the FSA [opposition Free Syria Army] could use to evacuate wounded. When the first car exploded on a landmine, the drivers in the other cars panicked, trying to turn around their cars. Two more cars hit landmines. A tank shell hit the fourth. All the people in the cars died, both wounded and fighters… 

Homs, like Qusayr, gets a mean Russian blow

Map by the Institute for the Study of War

Russia five weeks ago blocked the draft text of a UN Security Council declaration of alarm over the blockade of Qusayr (see my June 2 post).

Within days, the town close to the Syrian-Lebanese border fell to the combined forces of the Syrian regime and Iran’s Lebanese Hezbollah.

This week, Russia blocked the draft text of a UN Security Council declaration of grave concern about the civilians trapped in the besieged city of Homs.

This probably means Moscow expects regime and Hezbollah forces to imminently route opposition rebels from Syria’s third largest city, which they have been pummeling for nearly 10 days.

Regime and Hezbollah forces control parts of Homs, while several neighborhoods in the center are opposition strongholds.

Council statements must be agreed unanimously.

Australia and Luxembourg circulated in the council last Wednesday this draft statement on Homs, which Moscow obstructed the next day:

The members of the Security Council express their grave concern about the estimated 2,500 civilians trapped in Homs as a result of the recent heavy fighting.

The members of the Security Council call upon the Syrian Government to facilitate immediate, safe and unhindered access, in accordance with the United Nations guiding principles of humanitarian assistance, for relevant humanitarian, including UN, actors, to reach civilians in Homs, in urgent need of assistance, in particular, medical assistance.

The members of the Security Council call upon all parties in Syria to do their utmost to protect civilians, including allowing them to leave Homs and avoid civilian casualties, recalling the primary responsibility of the Syrian Government in this regard.  They emphasize that those responsible for violations of applicable international law will be held accountable.

Russia’s UN Mission said it proposed an alternative statement, which called for immediate access to Homs as well as the predominantly Shiite government-controlled towns of Nubul and Zahra that opposition fighters are seeking to take.

An eye-opener on the regime’s renewed offensive in Homs is a news analysis by the Institute for the Study of War authored by Elizabeth O’Bagy, which you can read in full here.

It states in part:

Although the opposition is thoroughly entrenched in parts of Homs city, much of the countryside has been cleared of rebel presence and the frequency of government checkpoints has grown…

Activists in Homs city said all cellular lines were cut early on June 29 before airplanes pounded rebel-held districts in the city. Before government troops could advance, intense shelling with artillery, mortars, and tanks followed the two-day-long air campaign.

Throughout the week, rebel forces have engaged in intense clashes with government troops in Khalidiya, Hamidiya and the Old City. Government forces are attempting to push into rebel-held districts from all sides, and are choking rebel supply lines into the city…

"This is the worst campaign against the city since the revolution began," said an activist in the rebel-held old quarter of the city. Rebel commanders reinforced this message, adding that the regime has significantly accelerated its operations in Homs province in the past week, and has brought substantial forces to bear, aided by both air superiority and Iranian, Hezbollah, and Iraqi irregular forces.

Although rebel fighters are sufficiently entrenched in Homs to ensure a prolonged fight for the city, the opposition currently lacks the requisite arms and supplies to hold off the offensive for an extended period of time.

The delaying action in Homs is strategically significant because it gains the opposition time in Aleppo, but if the regime is able to consolidate its hold in Homs city and the countryside, it may be able to secure its lines of communication in ways that make its ultimate offensive in Aleppo more effective.

The factor that will most limit the regime’s ability to redeploy assets from Homs to Aleppo will be holding cleared terrain, which can be time consuming and troop intensive.

In addition to ongoing operations, the Syrian government has also been attempting to shore up its military success in Homs province by repopulating the towns and villages that come under regime control with Alawites.

In al-Qusayr, citizens from the 23 neighboring Alawi villages have been encouraged to relocate in al-Qusayr into the homes of those who fled during the fighting. This has also been seen in other predominantly Sunni towns…

By resettling Alawites into formerly Sunni villages and towns, the Syrian government is attempting to create new demographic realities that help ensure that the countryside does not fall again into rebel hands. Moreover, surrounding key cities with supportive communities allows the Syrian government to use these villages as a base for staging operations against remaining rebel strongholds and helps create conditions more conducive to regime victory in Homs city itself…

Overall, the Syrian government’s campaign in Homs sheds light on two important markers of overall regime capability: its difficulty with launching sequential campaigns without an operational pause, as well as the challenges it faces from launching multiple, simultaneous offensives in Aleppo, Homs, and Damascus in ways that protract each fight… 

With the battle for Homs raging on, the Syrian National Coalition yesterday elected Ahmad Jarba, 44, as its new president after a close runoff vote held in Istanbul.

Jarba, who represents the faction of veteran secular dissident Michel Kilo and has Saudi connections, obtained 55 votes – three more than defeated businessman Mustafa Sabbagh, Qatar’s pointman in the opposition.

The 114 members of the coalition also elected three vice presidents -- Suhair Atassi, Farouk Tayfur and Salem Muslit.

Badr Jamous was voted secretary general of the umbrella organization officially recognized by the Arab League and dozens of states and organizations as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

HRW visits Assad torture chambers in Raqqa

Clockwise from top left, HRW's Lama Faqih, HRW researchers in Reqqa and "bsat al-reeh" 

Human Rights Watch released this statement today

(New York) – Government security branches in Raqqa city hold documents and potential physical evidence indicating that detainees were arbitrarily detained and tortured there while the city was under government control. Human Rights Watch researchers visited the State Security and Military Intelligence facilities in Raqqa, now under the de facto control of local armed opposition groups, in late April 2013.

Local opposition leaders with the support of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces and neutral international experts should safeguard potential evidence of torture and arbitrary detention in security forces centers in opposition-controlled areas, Human Rights Watch said.

“The documents, prison cells, interrogation rooms, and torture devices we saw in the government’s security facilities are consistent with the torture former detainees have described to us since the beginning of the uprising in Syria,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Those in control of Raqqa need to safeguard the materials in these facilities so the truth can be told and those responsible held accountable.”

In the State Security facility, Human Rights Watch researchers observed on the ground floor and in the basement, rooms that appeared to be detention cells.

Among the documents were what appeared to be lists of security force members who had worked there. Human Rights Watch researchers also saw a “bsat al-reeh” (بساط الريح) torture device in the facility, which former detainees have said has been used to immobilize and severely stretch or bend limbs.

Several former detainees held at other intelligence facilities in Syria have described to Human Rights Watch how security guards used “bsat al-reeh” torture devices in detention facilities across the country. They tie a detainee down to a flat board, sometimes in the shape of a cross, so that he is helpless to defend himself. In some cases, former detainees said guards stretched or pulled their limbs or folded the board in half so that their face touched their legs, causing pain and further immobilizing them.

Among the reams of documents and case files Human Rights Watch researchers saw in the Military Intelligence facility in Raqqa were some that appeared to list all of Raqqa’s college graduates, suggesting that they were of interest to the security branch by virtue of their college education. Researchers also observed three solitary confinement cells and one group detention cell in the right half of the first floor of the facility.

Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed five people formerly held by Military Intelligence in Raqqa, who said that security forces detained and interrogated them there. They said that the security services questioned them about lawful activities, such as participating in peaceful demonstrations, providing relief assistance to displaced families, defending detainees, and providing emergency assistance to injured demonstrators. They believed that they were detained for these lawful activities, making their detention arbitrary.

Four said that officers and guards in the facility tortured them. They identified Mohammed al-Ahmed, also known as Abu Jassem, as the person responsible for their interrogations, and in some cases, abuse. Raqqa residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch said opposition fighters killed Abu Jassem during the battle for control of Raqqa, which came under opposition control during the first week of March.

In addition to the State Security and Military Intelligence branches, three other facilities in the city of Raqqa – formerly managed by Criminal Security, Political Security, and Air Force Intelligence – are now also controlled by armed opposition groups.

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly documented widespread violations by Syrian government security forces and officials, including enforced disappearances, torture, and arbitrary and incommunicado detentions of peaceful protesters, activists, humanitarian assistance providers, and doctors.

Based on information from former detainees and defectors, Human Rights Watch previously identified the locations, agencies responsible, torture methods, and, in many cases, the commanders who were in charge of 27 detention facilities run by Syrian intelligence agencies across the country where torture has been documented. The systematic patterns of ill treatment and torture that Human Rights Watch has documented point to a state policy of torture and ill treatment and therefore constitute a crime against humanity.

The de facto authorities in opposition held areas still face many challenges and competing priorities. Some are still subject to attack by Syrian government forces and are struggling to provide basic services to local populations. Nevertheless, there is an urgent need to safeguard potential evidence in these and other former security force facilities that could be vital to future domestic and international accountability processes, Human Rights Watch said. This evidence could also help to clarify the role intelligence forces played in abuses in Syria.

Documents and material in these facilities could vanish or be destroyed if not promptly secured. Destruction or mishandling of these documents and material will weaken the possibility of bringing to justice those responsible for serious crimes. In addition, their loss could encumber future truth seeking processes and prevent the comprehensive documentation of crimes committed by the Syrian government. Truth commissions can be valuable complementary tools to criminal justice for preserving historical memory, clarifying events, and attributing political and institutional responsibilities.

The de facto authorities in Raqqa and local opposition leaders should coordinate the collection and storage of this potential evidence from security force branches now under their control, Human Rights Watch said. They should seek the support of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces and neutral international experts, including those with expertise in collecting forensic evidence and in working before criminal tribunals.

The armed opposition groups that have taken control of these facilities should secure them while allowing civilian opposition leaders, with outside support, to organize the removal of materials and photographing of physical evidence that is not movable.

Authorities should also create a central repository in a secure and undisclosed location to receive and store this potential evidence until proper criminal investigations can be undertaken. If possible, copies of relevant materials should be made and stored in a separate location in case originals are destroyed or lost.

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly urged the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Other countries should join the mounting calls for accountability by supporting a referral to the ICC as the forum most capable of effectively prosecuting those bearing the greatest responsibility for abuses in Syria. On January 14, a letter was sent to the Security Council on behalf of 58 countries calling for an ICC referral. The Security Council has taken no action in response.

“Learning the truth about the role intelligence services have played in spying on and terrorizing Syrians will enable them to guard against these abuses in the future,” Houry said. “But for Syrians to learn the truth once the conflict ends, it is vital even under the tough conditions of war to preserve the potential evidence of the security forces’ role.”

(The statement goes on to quote former detainees describing torture in Raqqa)