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REUTERS / Shaam News Network / Handout
Smoke rises from Bab Sabaa neighborhood of Homs on Monday.
Syrian President Bashar Assad’s deadly crackdown on opposition to his regime is turning once peaceful protesters into “terrorist people,” an activist hiding in a city shattered by an army bombardment told msnbc.com.
Sami Ibrahim, of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, was reacting to an open letter written by New York-based Human Rights Watch, claiming opposition members were carrying human rights abuses such as kidnappings, torture and executions.
Ibrahim spoke Tuesday by satellite phone from Homs, a rebel stronghold until it was hit by a sustained bombardment by government troops, forcing the Free Syrian Army to withdraw earlier this month.
He said people had witnessed their wives being raped, children killed, people being tortured to death in prisons and shelling of civilian areas by tanks.
“This will cause a lot of awful reaction,” he said.
“We are dealing with humans and they have feelings,” Ibrahim added. “Thousands of people, they will change into terrorist people.”
“What he [Assad] is doing is generating a generation to go to the dark way, to go to the darkness. The Assad regime, this criminal dictatorship, transfers the people from normal people, peaceful people, to another side we cannot control,” he said.
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The Syrian Network for Human Rights is not politically aligned, but has been documenting abuses mainly committed by Assad's forces since the start of the uprising just over a year ago.
Syria's rebel fighters are desperate for arms and ammunition. Members of the Free Syrian Army were forced from Idlib - one of the last rebel strongholds. ITN's John Irvine reports from outskirts of Idlib, the north western city which rebels surrendered last week.
He said the opposition was trying to be “very careful” about human rights and tried to convince people to “control their feelings,” but not everyone listened.
Ibrahim, who said he would be tortured and killed if found by Assad’s forces, said Human Rights Watch had “made a mistake” in issuing the statement because the Assad regime’s violence was ultimately responsible for the backlash and it should instead by pressing for international action against the Syrian government.
In its letter, dated Monday and addressed to the “Leaders of the Syrian Opposition,” Human Rights Watch said it was concerned about the “increasing evidence” of abuse and urged the opposition’s leadership to work to stamp it out.
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“While the protest movement in Syria was overwhelmingly peaceful until September 2011, since then Human Rights Watch has documented apparent crimes and other abuses committed by armed opposition elements,” the letter says.
“These crimes and abuses include the kidnapping and detention of security force members, individuals identified as government allies or supporters. They also include the use of torture and the execution of security force members and civilians,” it adds.
The letter says some attacks against Shiite and Alawite communities appeared to be “motivated by sectarianism.”
Human Rights Watch noted that a United Nations commission had found evidence of abuses in February. The commission’s report included information supplied by Assad’s regime.
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The letter said it recognized that it was not always easy to identify those involved in the abuses and that they might not follow the orders of opposition groups such as the Syrian National Council.
It also said that criminal gangs claiming to be opposition members might be responsible.
However, in its letter, Human Rights Watch said the Syrian National Council’s military bureau in particular should “condemn and forbid these abuses.”
Emails to the Syrian National Council seeking comment Tuesday did not immediately receive a response.
Mousab Azzawi, the London-based chairman of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, said there had been reports of abuses by opposition members, but that they were often difficult to verify.
Azzawi told msnbc.com by telephone that one recent case that the Network had verified was of three Assad militia members who were executed by opposition fighters in Homs on March 9. He said the three men had been part of a larger group of Assad “thugs” who had been raping women in Homs as a form of punishment.
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Regarding human rights violations generally, he said that “we cannot accept them under any circumstances, regardless the perpetrator.”
The Network includes doctors, lawyers and academics in Syria who follow up reports and attempt to corroborate allegations of abuses with a view to holding those responsible accountable to the International Criminal Court.
Azzawi said Syria was on the verge of a full-scale civil war that would see many more abuses committed by both sides.
But he said he was “a bit optimistic, to a small extent” that this would not happen because the leaders of the peaceful uprising “are refusing the principle of civil war.”
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Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
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Well, this is how a revolution is started. If the regime there was stupid, and it would seem so, it will get violent against demonstrators, that in turn will generate more discontent and more demonmstrators. This opens the door to extremists who will answer violence with violence. In the end the people will get rid of the idiot that is in control and put some one else in his seat , who will probably be worse that the idiot they got rid off. All by themselves, without foreign interference.
Either that, or Assad's military will manage to hold together some semblance of order as they last vestiges of civil order are worn away, turning Syria into another Somalia; just a capital with an army, surrounded by ungovernable territory, supported entirely by foreign assistance.
But that gloomy outlook aside, were Assad to fall, there's actually a fair chance of a democratic solution. This is an event in the Arab Spring, after all, and this did all start with protests demanding democracy.
Not terrorists "rebels" you can only beat people so long before they fight back.
This aspect of the less than squeaky clean 'activists' has been reported some considerable time ago by a non affiliated very knowledgeable journalist who lives in lebanon by the name of Robert Fisk. He reported 'activists' executing their alawite and christian neighbours - so it is fair to say they were not turned onto this conduct be the sustained crackdown, but were already inclined to it. He also described them as Islamist, rather than Islamic - an important distinction. Of course, Fisk does not spare the Assad government in his criticism - but the whitewash job of the opposition by US media is not to be found in his reportage. Of course here in this reportage, the activists mouthpiece response, we see the usual excuses trotted out - criminal gangs, or some kind of explanation that they were driven to it. They all do it.
Just to let the readers know the bombs which were hurled in Damascus and Allepo over the weekend targeted ONLY the Christian residential areas. So, I'm seriously wondering who the hell the peaceful Syrians the author of this article is referring to are?
Kind of how it was in the area where I grew up; Dearborn, Mi.
When they are in groups, they single out someone alone, and attacked like animals. Even though they were Christian as well, they seemed to target kids from Christian schools, not exclusively though. Jews were another favorite for them.
I did what I could several times to stop beatings. It seems that whenever you were not afraid of them, they backed down, even groups of 15 and the like. Bunch of -------- !!!!!
I would just pick the toughest one out, usually one that was watching closely as they liked the less experienced get a "taste". You just have to know who that is by instinct, and let him know that if it does not stop, you will screw him up beyond recognition no matter who or how many are attacking you. They have to know they will have extremely injured as well. Then they would back down.
Nice spin. Peaceful citizens who are forced to defend themselves against a Barbaric, MURDEROUS Dictator are now 'terrorists." I guess that's what Mess-NBC will say, if it ever comes to that in America. Here we call it "Fighting for FREEDOM!"
Alan, your comment is an excellent example that the term "terrorist" is relative and depends on what side of the war/political stance you support.
I heard Russia is supporting Assad. Is this true? If so, why would Russia do this? Why would Russia even be interested in Syria?
And I thought the Cold War was over, sometimes I wonder ...
And to answer your question, yes, unless I am mistaken they are on Assad's side, so they are helping him stay in power. As to why, I guess it is about having the most allies possible, and there is oil there too, and market trade, same as any other country. You could ask the same question about Cuba among others.
KEVIN-749492 Russia ihas been a freind to the syrian for 40 years just like isreal is our spoiled baby . and NATO is taking over all of the Russian friends states, and they feel pressured by Nato , so they have to defend Syria and rightfully so , because the SAUDIES AND QATARIS ALQUIDA'S supporters want the assad and Iran out of the , because theyare the only two countries that are not the sunni muslim brotherhood , and they hate Alquida AS MUCH AS WE DO . and here you go buddy with the peacefull rebels my foot.
I've known a lot of Syrians. It's part of their mentality.
Russia and China are playing both ends against the middle - and I have no doubt there are Russian troops actively participating in the fomentation and supply of heavy arms to Syria.
There is no way Assad can stay in power: too many murdered. It's not like the days when his father murdered thousands and continued raping and plundering the country. Bashar will hopefully end up like Mussolini: strung up in the town circle.
I just hope we stay out of that one. No matter what, wars always cost lives, Afghanistan and Iraq has cost many american (and allies) lives, and iraqi and afghan lives. Even if the intention was good, like say capture a dictator like Saddam Hussein, the problem again is that it costs lives, and the U.S. and allies will always be blamed for the lost of iraqi and afghan lives, even when the deaths were caused by local insurgents, and groups who came from neighboring countries to "help". Of course they get blamed even more when the deaths are "collateral damage" from NATO operations. So it is best to let people in these countries overthrow their own government if they want to, many will probably be killed, like in most civil wars, but at least it will be their choice.
If we ever have to go to war again (which I hope we won't), may it be a full fledged war, where our soldiers are not muzzled (as they have been in Iraq and Afghanistan) and expected not to shoot their guns when a Taliban guy is using women and children as shields (while himself shooting at the NATO soldiers), when this happens you have to decide either I don't shoot or I get killed, you can try to run but you'd probably not go very far.
It is not fair to ask the soldiers to be Saints, police forces, and babysitters, while half the people they are supposed to protect hate them, spit on them, and throw feces at them. Let them be soldiers, and don't put them in an Iraq or Afghanistan type of situation ever again.
I hope our troops still in Afghanistan will be allowed to come back home soon, because even if they leave in 2013 or 2014 the situation over there will still be the same, we can't change people against their will.
I meant "either I shoot or I get killed". Sorry.
These Sunni rebels from Homs and other places in Syria are not turning into terrorists because of the Bashar regime.They have been wahabized for years and trained for this kind of insurrection by Saudi Arabia and Qatar.Azzawi is just rewriting history for a media ready to swallow anything from the rebels.Also,we have been told that the Bengazi,Libya,activists too were mostly engineers,lawyers,college teachers,and other intellectuals.Reality,however,turned out to be entirely different.
actually the terror is coming from Saudi Arabia (salfeen, Wahhabi ideology and Qatar which is supporting Muslim brother hood organization, these are the real two evil in the middle east.(Muslim brother hood and salfeen) a big example Egypt and Tunisia and Libya, these countries under these evil or the devil right now.