Rare Video Evidence of Torture in Syrian Hospitals
Video from FRONTLINE
The video does not show actual torture but it does show the implements used, like rubber hoses and electrical wires. The secret taping does show patients with tight rusty chains around their legs chained to hospital beds and wounds across a patient's chest from recent beatings.
As Channel 4 acknowledges, and as has been true throughout the conflict, it is difficult to verify some reports because of restrictions on independent journalists. But there have been widespread reports of the abuse and torture of activists within state-run hospitals — including this 39-page report by Amnesty International [PDF] documenting abuse in three cities — that this grainy footage appears to substantiate.
The UN has similar footage to corroborate the reports of torture of hospital patients. Syrians under siege have created makeshift field hospitals. Many of these have been raided and government forces have killed the patients and the doctors.
There seem to be no good optons for Syria but one woman, Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter has ideas. She proposes a controlled intervention.
One Woman’s Proposal to Halt the Violence in Syria
The plan you’ve proposed is modeled around the need to create no-kill “buffer zones” along Syria’s borders with Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. How would those make a difference on the ground?
Dr. Slaughter:
The first thing to say is the international community should support the Arab League and Turkey in assisting the Free Syrian Army [a loosely organized rebel force made up of disparate groups, including Syrian Army defectors] to create as many safe zones as possible alongside Syria’s borders, and defend them before the Syrian Army tries to overrun them.
Any [protection] would be better than no protection at all, which is where we are now. But the goal is an ink blot humanitarian strategy, whereby by establishing some peaceful no-kill zones — where it’s not just the opposition not being killed; it’s no killing period – around population centers, there is the possibility of their growing and spreading, particularly if local army forces would not in fact fire against them.
The idea is that you start with a few, and you make them in places where all Syrians are safe. And then if Assad tries to overrun them, you provide some weaponry. If [Assad] is going to use heavy tanks and mortars, you could even use drones to take those out.
So the point is to put in motion enough assistance to allow a humanitarian alternative to what’s happening now.
What the world is doing or not doing now is not working. A laissez-faire response to a humanitarian disaster will not work. Assad will continue to slaughter and torture his own people.