17 Jan 2012

Syrian defector reveals human rights abuses

A Syrian politician who has recently defected from President Bashar al-Assad’s regime speaks for the first time about the “tragic situation” on the ground in the beleaguered country.

Imad Ghalioun, a parliamentary member who represented the city of Homs – perhaps the most violence-stricken city in Syria since the uprising began in March – was critical of continuing human rights abuses.

He defected to Egypt with his immediate family two weeks ago, after convincing President Assad that he was travelling on business.

“Syria is witnessing a revolution of youth. The people went to the squares to demand their freedom, but they were faced with violent and oppressive response which lead to the death of many people, and that exacerbated the situation,” Mr Ghalioun said.

“The regime is insisting on the security solution. This is why we have disasters in some cities like Homs, which has been divided by the regime into different isolated areas by checkpoints.

“Nobody can move because of the snipers and continuous shelling, and there are no services, and no area can help any other area.

“The camera and words cannot describe the tragic situation there. The children in the city are going through terrible daily fear. I saw lots of cases of frightened children screaming at night, not being able to sleep because of bombardment. Homs now is a city under siege witnessing continuous violations of human rights.”

Not speaking with one tune

The UN has estimated that more than 400 civilians have been killed in the last three weeks since Arab League observers entered Syria on a mission to stop the regime-led violence. More than 5,000 civilians have died since March.

President Assad has continuously repeated the view that his security services are not battling anti-government protesters, but terrorists and Salafist fundamentalist groups.

The camera and words can not describe the tragic situation there. Imad Ghalioun

But Mr Ghalioun denied that this is the reality on the ground, and revealed he had been asked to peddle the theory for the Syrian press and media.

“They used to ask us as members of the people’s council (parliament) to do some interviews, and I did some of it with some TV channels, to be honest,” he said.

“Usually they ask politicians to say that what is going on is a conspiracy and we should talk about reforms, without accepting the opposition point of view.

“As politicians, we were asked to speak with one tune, and that’s absurd, because 250 members of the parliament can not have one opinion.”

‘Dominant force’

But Bashar al-Assad alone is not responsible for the suppression of Syrian demonstrators. Every section of society has long been controlled by the mafia and by businesspeople under the president’s patronage, according to Mr Ghalioun. And as such, the security forces are not leading the violent crackdown, as many had believed.

“There is one dominant force controlling the security services and the army, and this force is connected to the corrupt businessmen and economic figures that are in control of the finances of the state, and all economical projects in the country.

“This military and security and economic mafia is like a lobby that gives the orders. So to say that the army gives the orders is not accurate or true. The soldiers are forced to do what they are doing, and who refuses to do so joins the Free Syrian Army.

“There are many soldiers who want to defect because no body likes to kill his own family or his own people.

“So providing or creating safe areas will give lots of them the chance to refuse the orders and refuse the killings.”

On Monday, Syrian opposition activists said 12 people had been killed, despite a call from the UN secretary general for President Assad to “stop killing and listen to his people.”

There were reports of continuing clashes in the area of Zabadani, 30 miles from the capital Damascus, which Arab League monitors visited on Monday.