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Syria’s Information Minister has claimed that foreign fighters captured on Syrian soil are not tortured. Speaking on the sidelines of the Syria peace talks in Montreux, Omaran Zoabi told journalists that people arrested in Syria are not tortured. He claimed there would be no need to do this.
Syrian opposition leader, Ahmad Jarba, has called for independent international experts to verify a report alleging torture by government forces of 11,000 detainees.
He said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was responsible for crimes against humanity in the war-torn country.
cntv.cn
23/1/14
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Torture en Syrie: Washington avait déjà vu une partie des photos accablantes....
ReplyDeleteLe gouvernement américain avait vu en novembre dernier certaines des 55 000 photos contenues dans un rapport révélé lundi et accusant le régime syrien de massacres à grande échelle et d'actes de torture, a indiqué jeudi le département d'Etat.
Il y a deux mois, l'administration américaine n'avait pas souhaité rendre publiques ces photographies, d'abord pour protéger l'identité de la source et ensuite pour pouvoir authentifier ces documents, a expliqué une porte-parole de la diplomatie américaine, Marie Harf.
"Nous avons appris l'existence de cette base de données de photos en novembre. On nous a montré, à nous, le gouvernement des Etats-Unis, certains extraits de ces images", a déclaré Mme Harf à quelques journalistes.
"Pour la sécurité de la source qui nous a apporté ces photos, et pour sa famille, nous n'avons pas rendu publique à l'époque l'existence de cette base de données", s'est encore justifiée la porte-parole.
Trois anciens procureurs internationaux ont accusé la Syrie de massacres à grande échelle et de tortures dans un rapport basé sur le témoignage d'un déserteur et commandé par le Qatar, pays qui soutient les rebelles syriens.
Le rapport avait été publié lundi par le journal britannique The Guardian et la télévision américaine CNN et basé sur le témoignage et sur des photos fournies par une source anonyme.
Il fait état de 11.000 détenus morts dans les geôles du régime syrien.
Le document s’appuie sur le témoignage d'un photographe qui affirme avoir déserté la police militaire syrienne avec, en sa possession, une carte mémoire contenant environ 55.000 photos de 11.000 prisonniers morts en prison entre mars 2011 et août 2013.
"Nous avons regardé ces images. Nous avons travaillé pour les authentifier et elles correspondent tout à fait à tout ce que nous avons pu voir par ailleurs du régime (du président syrien Bachar al) Assad", a ajouté Marie Harf.
Elle a encore assuré que les Etats-Unis n'avaient "pas de raison de penser que ces photos n'étaient pas authentiques".
Mais "au delà de ces photos (...) nous disposons d'énormément de preuves que le régime Assad a brutalisé son peuple, notamment en prison (...) a perpétré des crimes de guerre", a encore accusé la porte-parole.
Mardi, le département d'Etat avait déjà dénoncé des "images (...) horribles à regarder" et accusé "le régime syrien d'être responsable de crimes de guerre et de crimes contre l'humanité".
AFP
http://www.rtbf.be/info/monde/detail_torture-en-syrie-washington-avait-deja-vu-une-partie-des-photos-accablantes?id=8183517
24/1/14
US Sen. McCain says Syria torture photos no surprise, current peace talks 'joke'....
ReplyDeleteDAVOS- U.S. Sen. John McCain, who was himself the victim of torture many years ago, says he too has seen evidence of torture in Syria, and predicts little progress at peace talks now underway in Switzerland.
McCain, a Republican who lost the presidency to Democrat Barack Obama in the 2008 elections, called the so-called Geneva II talks aimed at finding a political solution to the war in Syria "just a joke."
In an interview this week, McCain said the thousands of photos released this week by Anadolu Agency, which are said to show systematic torture and execution by the regime of Syrian president Bashar Assad, came as no surprise to him.
McCain told an AA correspondent Thursday that he had been in Syria and had visited camps for those displaced by the war.
"I met with defectors from Bashar's army who told me how they were instructed to kill, rape and torture," McCain said. "I met with young women, for example, who had been gang raped. I met with young men who had been tortured. It did not come us a surprise."
McCain, who is 77, served in Vietnam in the U.S. Navy. His aircraft was shot down in 1967. He was held as a prisoner of war for five and a half years and tortured so severely that, to this day, he cannot raise his arms above his head.
The senator said unacceptable acts had been committed by both the Syrian regime and the opposition in Syria.
"But these are generally random acts committed by the opposition," McCain said. "But what Bashar Assad is doing is a planned systematic intimidation and terrorizing the population."
He also criticized what he called the lack of leadership by the United states, and advocated enforcing a no-fly zone over Syria.
Criticizing the lack of United States leadership in Syria and the current US government he said, "Of course what is most disappointing we would like to hear from the president of United States. He never talks about Syria. He never talks about Iraq. All we know he wants to get out from Afghanistan. We are paying very heavy price for."
He said that he has been advocating a "no fly zone" and an area that people would receive humane treatment and be protected for more than two years criticizing that the current US administration had even "refused to give anything minimal assistance" to Syria. And he said he wished Obama would help arm and supply those fighting Assad, though the senator opposed the sending of American troops to Syria.
But McCain said he had low expectations for the ongoing peace talks, though he did hold out some hope for a ceasefire and the delivery of humanitarian aid. Such an agreement might even benefit Assad, McCain said, by allowing him to free up his forces to go on the attack in other areas. The momentum, McCain said, is now with Assad.....................http://www.aa.com.tr/en/headline/278507--us-sen-mccain-says-syria-torture-photos-no-surprise-current-peace-talks-joke
24/1/14