{"id":27879,"date":"2011-06-19T20:10:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-19T17:10:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T21:00:00","slug":"why-is-the-world-silent?\u201dsyrian-refugees-speak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arraee.net\/?p=27879","title":{"rendered":"Why is the world silent?\u201dSyrian refugees speak"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Neil Sammonds, Amnesty International\u2019s Syria researcher on the<\/p>\n

Turkish-Syrian border<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Little is known of the life of the thousands of Syrians who have<\/p>\n

recently fled to Turkey, and are now living in camps in Yayladagi and<\/p>\n

Altinozu in the south-east of the country.<\/p>\n

Not one civil society activist or journalist is known to have been<\/p>\n

able to enter the camps. Knowing that, and with Turkey virtually shut<\/p>\n

down for the national elections today, I chose to head for one of the<\/p>\n

hospitals in the regional capital Hatay where one can sneak in to talk<\/p>\n

to injured Syrians.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

By all accounts, the Turkish government and people have received,<\/p>\n

hosted and treated an unspecified number of Syrians extremely well.<\/p>\n

Officially there are up to 7,000 Syrians now here in Hatay province<\/p>\n

but many believe the actual figure is much higher.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are said to be up to 10,000 within a few kilometres of the<\/p>\n

border on the Syrian side, waiting to be able to go back to their<\/p>\n

homes or to cross into Turkey if the violence moves further north.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Strangely however, the Turkish government is hiding its hospitability<\/p>\n

by denying access to the camps and making it a gamble on getting in to<\/p>\n

see Syrians in hospitals.<\/p>\n

I entered the hospital, walked past the security guard as if I was a<\/p>\n

regular and eventually, in a room with three single beds, I found the<\/p>\n

people I had been looking for.<\/p>\n

These three Syrian men, all from the Jisr al-Shughur area, have been<\/p>\n

wounded in the recent clashes with security forces. I sensed their<\/p>\n

unease each time the door opened but they told me their stories.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of them, a 40-year-old farmer from a village 2km from Jisr<\/p>\n

al-Shughur who did not want to give his name for security reasons, had<\/p>\n

been shot in the leg by security forces while tending to his land on 4<\/p>\n

June. The army took him to a hospital in the nearby city of Idleb.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A doctor with tears in his eyes told him he was forbidden to treat<\/p>\n

him. Security forces took him to a military interrogation office<\/p>\n

nearby.<\/p>\n

He was blindfolded, with hands tied tightly behind his back and badly<\/p>\n

beaten with rifle butts and kicks all over his body. The marks are<\/p>\n

visible on his face and all over his body.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile they beat me, they asked me if I belonged to the Muslim<\/p>\n

Brotherhood, or if I was on the payroll of [Lebanon\u2019s former Prime<\/p>\n

Minister] Saad Hariri,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n

An official went through his mobile phone and made a note of all the<\/p>\n

names and numbers on it, and a a high-ranking officer later demanded<\/p>\n

to know the names of the people organizing the protest.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

After thumbprinting papers he didn\u2019t understand as he is illiterate,<\/p>\n

he was released on 7 June and made it across the border to Turkey the<\/p>\n

same day.<\/p>\n

Despite the volatile situation in his home country, he insisted that<\/p>\n

he will go back to Syria. \u201cThere\u2019s no more fear,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The second man in the room, a 31-year-old building worker from Jebel<\/p>\n

al-Zawyah, had been shot in the leg by security forces while taking<\/p>\n

part in the Friday protests on 3 June.<\/p>\n

Thousands of people from neighbouring areas took to the streets on<\/p>\n

that day, he said. Security forces were everywhere \u2013 on the road,<\/p>\n

perched on top of buildings. As the protesters approached a youth<\/p>\n

camp, the army suddenly opened fire.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

He fell to the ground and security forces dragged him away to a nearby building.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey asked me \u2018Who is your god?\u2019 \u2019Allah\u2019 I said. \u2019No, say Bashar\u2019<\/p>\n

they said. They hit me with a stick on the back of the head and I fell<\/p>\n

down and lost consciousness. They must have thought I was dead and<\/p>\n

left me among some trees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

When he came to, the security forces had left and local people took<\/p>\n

him to a hospital in Idleb.<\/p>\n

Like the farmer I spoke to, he said he was interrogated and asked for<\/p>\n

names of other protesters.<\/p>\n

After his release, he reached Turkey where his wound has been treated<\/p>\n

and he now moves on crutches.<\/p>\n

Abu Taha, 29, a Red Crescent ambulance worker from Jisr al-Shughur,<\/p>\n

described to me how he was shot in the back by security forces while<\/p>\n

attending to an injured person in the centre of the town.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luckily for him, the bullet passed out on the other side.<\/p>\n

On Saturday 4 June, the funeral for Basel al-Masri was held, he said.<\/p>\n

The town centre was packed with funeral-goers and around midday,<\/p>\n

security forces opened fire on the crowd.<\/p>\n

Many were killed and injured, he said, adding that some people started<\/p>\n

shooting at the army from the roofs of government buildings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was clear that the snipers were not locals \u2013 we all know each<\/p>\n

other in my area. They wore plain clothes with grenade belts on their<\/p>\n

chests. They have to be from the regime to make it look as if there<\/p>\n

are armed groups,\u201c he said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whoever the men shooting at the army were, the consequences for people<\/p>\n

in the area have been dire. Abu Taha gave a chilling description of<\/p>\n

the fate of some small villages in the area.<\/p>\n

He said that on Friday 10 June, a number of tanks arrived in Kem<\/p>\n

al-Rumanah, a small village in the border area with only 50 houses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tanks fired at the houses; once they were destroyed, some 300<\/p>\n

shabiha militia soldiers entered. They killed or kidnapped anyone left<\/p>\n

behind, stole any possessions they could and burnt crops. They have<\/p>\n

done this in several villages,\u201c he said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes the rest of the world want the end of the Syrian people? Why is<\/p>\n

the world silent?\u201d he asked me repeatedly.<\/p>\n

Several other Syrians came in and out of the room while I was there.<\/p>\n

They all spoke of Syrians being united and peaceful, with only the<\/p>\n

regime wanting divisions between communities.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Neil Sammonds, Amnesty International\u2019s Syria researcher on the Turkish-Syrian border \u00a0 Little is known of the life of the thousands of Syrians who have recently fled to Turkey, and are now living in camps in Yayladagi and Altinozu in the south-east of the country. Not one civil society activist or journalist is known to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"jnews_post_split":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZPZx-7fF","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arraee.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arraee.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arraee.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arraee.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arraee.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.arraee.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arraee.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arraee.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arraee.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}