Syria is using 31 methods of torture and ill-treatment to create a "nightmarish world" for those detained during the year-long uprising against president Bashar al-Assad's government, Amnesty International said.
Many Syrians taken into custody by the security forces said they were beaten on arrest and then faced further abuse from sticks, rifle butts, whips and fists or braided cables when arriving at detention centres, a practice sometimes called the "haflet al-istiqbal" or "reception," according to the London-based human rights group.
The abuse became harsher when detainees were interrogated with methods including the "tyre," where victims are forced into a vehicle tyre, lifted up and beaten with cables or sticks, according to accounts in a 42-page report published today.
The testimony "give disturbing insights into a system of detention and interrogation which, a year after protests began, appears intended primarily to degrade, humiliate and terrify its victims into silence," Ann Harrison, Amnesty interim deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in the report.
Amnesty said the situation resembled the “nightmare” of Syria in the 1970s and 1980s. At that time, the country was ruled by the father of today’s president Bashar Assad.
The report was released as the United Nations announced that it would shortly deploy human rights monitors to neighbouring states to collect evidence of atrocities in Syria. Access to the country itself is almost impossible for observers.
Amnesty based its conclusion on testimony gathered from Syrians in Jordan - including 25 who said they had been tortured and later fled the country. Other methods of torture included electric shocks, electric prods and rape in front of other prisoners, the group said.
“The testimony presented in this report, taken in the context of other human rights violations committed against civilians in Syria, is yet further evidence that torture and other ill-treatment in Syria form part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population - carried out in an organised manner and as part of state policy and therefore amount to crimes against humanity,” its report concluded.
At least 276 people had so far died in custody, it said, with security forces effectively given impunity to torture despite it being outlawed by a new constitution.
“The experience for the many people caught up in the massive wave of arrests over the last year is now very similar to that of detainees under former president Hafez al-Assad - a nightmarish world of systemic torture," Ms Harrison said.
She said the International Criminal Court “represents the best option of securing real accountability for those responsible for the grave crimes that have been committed against people in Syria.
“But while politics makes that prospect difficult in the short term, Syrians responsible for torture - including those in command - should be left in no doubt that they will face justice for crimes committed under their watch. It is therefore essential that the Commission of Inquiry is strengthened and allowed to continue its work,” she added.
More than 7,500 Syrians have been killed during the fighting while another 32,000 have fled to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, according to the United Nations.
Syrian forces are sowing minefields along the country's borders, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.
Bloomberg