A documentary gives an insight into sexual violence in prisons of the Syrian state. Apparently it is used in a systematic way. The legal persecution of the perpetrators is difficult, but not hopeless.
Batons, stun guns, hard objects of any kind: There is a huge Arsenal of weapons and tools, with which prisoners in 30 prisons of the Assad government to be tortured.
“You know, what happened here?” (“Do You Know What Happens Here?”) the documentation of those crimes, published by the Washington-based Non-governmental organization Syria Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC) recently. Following discussions with Survivors, it gives an insight into the methods of torture that are practiced in state prisons. “The use of rape and other forms of sexual violence in the prisons is Routine,” reads the summary.
The authors have analyzed 91 Interviews and came to the conclusion, “the fact that 56 of them contained references to sexual and gender-based violence, particularly rape, and other forms of sexual violence, torture of sexual organs and a lack of access to gynecological care in prison. These Interviews relate to the surviving boys, girls, men and women, and include 30 places of detention in Syria, from 2012 to the present.”
Variants of sexual and gender-based violence
As common practices, the documentation will refer to degrading Body searches, often in the presence of many officers, often of the opposite sex, accompanied by verbal abuse and offensive touching, threats of sexual violence, torture of sexual organs, accommodation in inhumane conditions, such as in massively overcrowded cells.
Sketch of the Sadnaya prison North of Damascus. There, too, shall be tortured.
The imagination of the torturers, the report says, there are no limits. A witness reported that she had been hung on the Breasts. Other stuff reported of rape by a plurality of guard – partially even in the presence of Relatives of the victims, such as those suspected of political Opposition.
The documented cases were on a “coordinated, widespread and systematic pattern of Violence”, the authors of the report.
Suspicion of systematic violence
It is striking how much the witness statements were in agreement with those collected by the UN human rights Council in 454 Interviews to sexual and gender-based violence in state-run Syrian prisons, Hannah Grigg, one of the authors of the SJAC report, in an interview with DW.
One of the most frightening findings of the reading is that the violence will be systematically used, as Grigg. “If you read one of these stories for the first Time, it is terrible. But when one reads one after the other, one realizes that many of the situations repeat on a regular basis. The prisoners are forced into a System of violence.”
On gender-based violence, is an important task, as Grigg. It stigmatized the Survivors, and they suffered after the return in your environment for years to come the consequences – often, without being able to talk about their experiences. Such a culture of shame hinders the efforts to Rehabilitation and restorative justice.
The SJAC hopes that the documented witness statements could help to identify perpetrators and pursue legally. So far, this has not proved to be a difficult – very much so, because Syria is a member of the International criminal court.
Torture by electric shock
In addition, previous Attempts, the court of justice have been blocked in the security Council. That is why some European countries have tried in recent years to pursue suspected perpetrators on European soil. But the view to bring high Syrian officials before the court, is skimmed.
In the year 2017, a group of Syrian refugees in Germany filed a lawsuit, in which several high-ranking Syrian officers have been named. In 2018, the German Federal Prosecutor issued an international arrest warrant against the Syrian air force intelligence chief Jamil Hassan for crimes against humanity.
First legal forays into Germany
Also, a former employee of the Syrian secret service have to expect in Germany with law enforcement. So in mid-February were taken from two former secret service officials in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and Berlin. The Federal Prosecutor accuses the two 42, and 56-year-old Syrians crimes against humanity.
One of the accused, Anwar R., was said to be involved between the end of April 2011 and at the beginning of September 2012, to torture and physical abuse. The other, Eyad A. should have done from the beginning of July 2011 and mid-January 2012 in the case of the killing of two people, as well as the torture and physical abuse of at least 2000 persons help.
Also reports of sexual violence by other political actors in Syria, the round. Can’t confirm the SJAC due to the limited scope of its surveys. The centre has, however, been reported in previous documentaries about rape by opposition groups – including the self-styled Islamic state””. The most recent Report, Hannah Grigg, describing a “very small piece” of sexual violence in the entire war zone.