Torture in Syria

(January 21, 2014)

A big report on torture in Syria came out, so the BBC Arabic did reports and had lots of guests debating about it.

Here is a lady from Amnesty International (or Human Rights Watch) in the BBC Arabic studio:

And here is part of the report they showed:

The report shows evidence that the Syrian government has tortured and killed 11,000 people that had been sequestered in their prisons.

The BBC Arabic held a debate between a man speaking for the Syrian government, and an Arab man who is a member of the International Criminal Court, Hadi Shalluf.

I was only half listening; but Hadi Shalluf kept mentioning Darfur, and he said that no matter what, Russia is going to veto anything to hold the Syrian government accountable. He was speaking through a phone link.

This was a live debate. The man from the Syrian government had a straight answer for everything: "we are fighting a war on terrorism. we are fighting a war on terrorism. we are fighting a war on terrorism." Here he is:

I don't think he said anything else!

This was a follow-up to a previous and very disturbing report the BBC Arabic had shown about Syria, which just so happened to also be coupled with a crisis on the streets of Washington DC.