Reports of sexual abuse by Assad militias for families of its fighters

By Zaman Staff; Translation by Yusra Ahmed

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Killing, abduction, robbery, violations, sexual harassments or exploitations committed by members of the National Defence Forces (NDF), the official name for “Shabiha”, did not target the opposition’s people, as they reached to the regime’s loyal families, even families of the killed NDF’s members.

Zaman al-Wasl obtained a copy of very serious document, recent not long before, presented an investigation report against three influential people in the leadership of the National Defence Forces “NDF” in Hama.

The report forwarded to the Head of “NDF” in Damascus, mentioned that three people controlled the forces’ branch in Hama, had mistreated the relatives of killed members, especially women

The report identified Kahtan al-Halaq, the head of Martyrs’ office, Amjad Kafa, the building’s watchman, and anas Asaliyah, the manager of NDF’s building and an influential figure in the National Defence Forces.

The report literally said a story about a woman: “it took the lady 4 months to receive her killed-husband’s compensation, and the lady confirmed that Kahtan had sexually exploited her using her need for money to feed her children”

The report mentioned that another lady who was a wife of another killed member, was blackmailed by Amjad who annoyed her with inconvenient phone calls, claiming that he help her in accelerating the process to receive money.

The Head of the national Defence Forces in Hama confirmed that more than 20 women were subject to similar mistreatment and sexual exploitation especially Amjad Kafa, who deprived women from the financial compensation they deserve as wives of killed members.

Two influential figures: Asaliyeh and al-Halaq, had as well used women’s need for money to blackmail them, and when women did not obey their requests, they delayed process to get the compensation, according to the information in the report.

The three figures’ crimes did not stop on sexual exploitation, they even stolen money and fund allocated to the killed families, including even bread and food. Moreover, al-Halaq cheated some families and convinced them to give up the lump sum compensation equal to $1500-200 in order to help them in getting the monthly salary

In another investigating report from Salamiyah, a lady told her suffering with Kahtan al-Halaq, who treated her impolitely and rudely and kept denying her killed husband’s membership in the NDF, however Amjad Kafa tried to used the situation and confirmed to her that her husband was with them and he knew him, she gave him her phone number according to his request. But he kept phoning her and requesting meeting her outside, but she refused.

When the compensations delayed more than expected, she contacted many wives of killed NDF’s members, to discover that Kafa had done the same exploitation and blackmailing with many of them.

She convinced the ladies to go and report what had happened to them, and they were given guarantee and protection to do so and talk.