(Zaman Al Wasl)- Torture footage of kidnapped citizens from the southern Daraa province has sparked the residents' anger who believe that the state of civil peace with neighboring Sweida province is fraught.
Activists said an armed group operating in the adjacent Swedia province has tortured the detainees, such a practice confronted by condemnation of the people of Swedia, the main stronghold of the Druze community, who have accused the Syrianregime of sowing discord and stirring up sectarian strife.
The torture means that showed in the video were quite similar to the ones the regime used to leak in order to deliver messages of obedience and lessons on its ability to violate their dignities as long as Syria is under its rule.
Atef Huneidi, one of the local notables, said these videos were meant as fuel to the tension between the people of Sweida and Daraa, which, for years, has been a tactic to “divide and conquer”, spreading discord within the region. The videos, which have been strongly condemned by everyone in Sweida, are an attempt to distort their image through the actions of a minority whose loyalties lie elsewhere. “Most of them are criminals, released from prisons with amnesty decrees specifically to incite sedition. The state is responsible for these gangs.”
The Druze stronghold of Swedia, which made up three percent of Syria's population before 2011, has been spared the same scale of devastating violence, fighting and mass detainment that has rocked communities elsewhere in the country over the course of Syria's nine-year war.
Bashar Al-Haj Ali, former diplomat, said that the kidnapping gangs in Sweida work for the regime first and for Hezbollah and Iran’s militias second which seeks to incite sectarian conflicts among the people of the south to establish its complete control over the region. He confirmed that Hezbollah’s militia recruited a significant number of people from Sweida, to ignite a civil war in the Huran region, the proof is in the fact that the kidnapped were released without ransom or extortion, contributing only to the simmering anger. He however believes that the people of the two governorates are smarter than to fall for such a scheme, since previous attempts have failed.
Al-Haj Ali called for a community committee to follow up on the issue, appealing to all civil bodies and activists to swiftly pull out the weeds of discord. In an attempt to contain the situation, a group under the name of “the Plain and the Mountain” was created in Huran, including a group of active members abroad.
According to articles 500 to 508 of the Syrian Penal Code issued in 1949 and Legislative Decree No. 20 issued in 2013 by the regime, kidnapping cases are related to honor crimes.
“The Statue of the International Criminal Court defines war crimes as ‘serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflicts and serious violations of laws and customs applicable in armed conflicts not of an international character,” according to lawyer Hassan Al-Aswad.
Article 7 of the ICC Statute states that any of the following acts is considered a crime against humanity when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack: Murder; Extermination; Enslavement; Deportation or forcible transfer of population; Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; Torture; Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity.”
Al-Aswad said that "the kidnappings, torture and murders that took place in Syria are punishable in domestic and international laws, especially since in 2012 the ICRC has classified the conflict in Syria as a non-international armed conflict, but after Russian, Turkish and American intervention, it has become International character.” He also claimed that these armed gangs are run by regime intelligence services, especially the Military Security Branch in Swedia and led by Brigadier General Loay Al-Ali.
Rawi Salameh, a lawyer from Swedia who prefered to use a pseudonym, said the ‘incendiary’ nature of the videos, especially at a sensitive time in the tension between Daraa and Sweida. “All kidnapping gangs in the governorate have become known, but the regime does nothing. The situation in Swedia is not managed according to the law, but rather through regime gangs that call themselves factions."
Hassan Hariri, advisor and member of the constitutional committee and the drafting committee, said that this kidnapping phenomenon is caused by the security services to cause discord between the two neighboring provinces, which primarily serves the Iranian regime and its supporters, keen on spreading chaos in the region for its expansion projects. Hariri called on intellectuals and opinion leaders in the two provinces to expose the perpetrators of these heinous crimes and to keep the communication between the two sides going in order to contain any attack and address its effects immediately.
Zaman Al Wasl
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