Spiraling violence and Assad's desperate tactics
torturing children. The Assad regime, desperate to put an end to the growing wave of anti-government protests, has apparently decided to emulate one of the more odious practices of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. One way to instill even more fear in people is to terrorize their children. Saddam’s security forces used to kidnap children – some as young as 8 or 9-year old – from restive areas or rebellious tribes, then torture and kill them and return the mutilated bodies to the families. The point was not to hide the dead victims, but rather to have family and relatives view the grotesquely disfigured bodies so that they – family and relative – could spread the word about the regime’s determination to squash any opposition.
The New York Times reports that an online video showed a 13-year-old boy, Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, who was arrested in Jiza, a village near the southern city of Deraa, at a protest on 29 April. He was tortured, mutilated, and killed before his body was returned to his family.
Video posted online (requires a sign-in because of the graphic nature of the images) shows Hamza’s battered, discolored face. His skin is scrawled with cuts, gashes, deep burns, and bullet wounds that would probably have injured but not killed, the New York Times reported. His jaw and kneecaps are shattered, and his penis chopped off.
UNICEF called on Syria to investigate reports of “horrific acts” of violence against children detained during the current wave of unrest in the Arab country. The agency said it was “particularly disturbed by the recent video images of children who were arbitrarily detained and suffered torture or ill-treatment during their detention leading in some cases to their death.”
The Israel diversion
The Palestinians commemorate two days as black days in their national history: 15 May is naqba (catastrophe), marking the birth of the State of Israel on 15 May 1948, and 6 June is naqsa (setback) – marking the beginning of the Six Day War on 6 June 1967, a war in which the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan were routed by Israel. These days are marked by marches, demonstrations, and speeches.
There was one place were these two commemorations never took place: along the Israeli-Syrian border. After the 1973 war, Syria and Israel signed a series of force-separation agreements, facilitated by Henry Kissinger’s “shuttle diplomacy.” One thing you could say for Hafez al Assad:
