Salon.com > Tracey Shelton

Syrian conflict exacts heavy toll on women

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 21:57:00 +0000

IDLIB PROVINCE, Northwest Syria — A group of young women sits huddled around a diesel heater sipping tea in a stone cottage in the village of Seyjar. Outside, their children use stick guns to play their favorite game of rebel fighters.

Just like mothers anywhere, they chat about their families and cooking — until a series of distant thuds stops the conversation: the sound of explosions. The mood suddenly tense, some whisper under their breath. “God is greatest” and “God protect us.” Others resume their discussion without a flinch.

An older woman sits in the corner, tears slowly rolling down her cheeks. Although everyone here has reasons to cry, only she succumbs today.

Another woman explains that women are suffering most from Syria’s war.

“Our husbands are always gone. We must deal with everything alone,” says Muna Basham, a 30-year-old primary school teacher and mother of four. “With no electricity, our work at home has become so hard. We must wash by hand and cook by fire. We must take care of children who have become obsessed by war. We’re not used to these things.”

Syria’s vicious propaganda wars

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:46:00 +0000

ALEPPO, Syria — Videos posted to the internet have played a key propaganda role in Syria's bloody civil war. The footage typically shows brutal attacks, beatings and mass executions. Many clips show rows of dead women and children.

But are these videos reliable?

Last month, a fighter in Aleppo handed a reporter his cell phone, shaking his head in disbelief. “Assad, Assad,” he said.

On the screen was a video of someone beheading a prisoner with a chainsaw. It had been circulating in Syria for at least a year. The footage itself is very real, but it is five years old, and was shot in Mexico. Drug lords carried out the crime. The video has been used by rebels in conflicts all over the world.

The sham videos can have very real effects, creating sympathy for one side or the other. Last week, the United Nations accused the rebels of war crimes, based on a YouTube video of fighters executing prisoners. This type of atrocity makes intervention less appealing to the West.

Not everyone hates al-Assad

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 12:00:00 +0000

ARIHA, Syria — They aren't much talked about. And they are rarely talked to. But supporters of the Syrian government exist.

While President Bashar al-Assad's hold on power appears to be tenuous after rebels landed a fatal blow on his inner circle Wednesday, there are many families across the country that continue to support him and his administration.

In one family, which GlobalPost spent several days with here in northern Syria, four of the five members still back Assad. On one recent night they all sat, anxiously, watching a state television report about “insurgents” closing in on Damascus.

As they watched, the sound of chanting began to fill their living room. A small parade of anti-government protesters passed by.

“Those for the regime will meet your graves soon!” the crowd of mostly teenagers and children yelled, waving revolutionary flags, during their nightly parade through the dark streets of Ariha, a town now held by rebel forces.

Adopt a Syrian rebel

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 02:27:00 +0000

IDLIB PROVINCE, Syria — Ahmed Assi dodges bullets and missiles on a regular basis.

The 24-year-old has been shot at, wounded, hunted down, imprisoned and tortured. He has spent many months camping in the Syrian mountains “Che Guevara style.”

But Assi is not a rebel fighter. He is a Syrian journalist — with a political agenda.
“I make my jihad by words, not by violence,” he said.

His mission is not just to tell the world about the plight of Syria's rebel forces, but also to raise money, which the rebels use to buy more of whatever they might need. Assi works for one of several dozen websites that have popped up in the last year to raise cash for activists and rebels working inside Syria to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

“We raise money for weapons, but armed conflict is not the objective — it is a necessity at this time,” explained Assi, who works with a team of volunteers on the shamfalcons.com website. “The real value of my work will be after the revolution. Information is more powerful than a bullet.”

Syria’s walking wounded

Wed, 30 May 2012 12:44:00 +0000

JABAL AL ZAWIYA, Syria — The pickup truck swerved around the corner as three frantic men stood on the back screaming,“Go! Go!” Bouncing painfully between their legs was a man drenched in blood.

He was one of seven injured in a series of tank blasts last week in the village of Deersonpol, in Syria’s northern Idlib province. Four others were killed instantly in the attack by government security forces. Of the seven to undergo the harrowing route to the nearest “safe” hospital in Deir Alsharky, 12 miles of bad road away, three survived, three died and the whereabouts of the fourth remains unknown.

There were many hospitals much closer to the scene, but these are government run, and the risk of execution or arrest, particularly for those arriving with battle wounds, is so high that citizens throughout the area endure these dangerous journeys every day.

“Most of the death cases we see are because of the distance,” said Dr. Mohammed, a neurosurgeon who treated the Deersonpol cases at his clinic in Deir Alsharky. “Most bleed to death along the way. Today we lost three from injuries that could be treated if we’d got to them in time.”

Libya’s escaped criminals

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:14:00 +0000

TRIPOLI, Libya — At the height of the Libyan uprising, the country’s prisons were in chaos.

Hundreds of guards had left their posts to help control the streets. Others simply fled for fear of reprisals by a population angry after four decades of oppression.

By Feb. 15 of last year, about a month into the uprising, the doors at most of the country’s prisons and jails began to swing open, allowing thousands of criminals to flee.

According to government officials, about 26,000 criminals — political prisoners were kept in separate facilities and remained in lockdown — were serving time when the escapes began. Almost 200 of those escapees were facing the death penalty for serious crimes, including murder.

“There was panic inside and outside the prisons,” said Dya Adin Badi, who, at the outset of protests last year, was in charge of seven detention facilities stretching from Ras Lanuf through Sirte to Misrata.

“The guards had fled. There was no security, no staff. We didn’t want a riot on our hands.”

New video shows possible Gadhafi torture

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:30:00 +0000

SIRTE, Libya -- An analysis of video obtained by GlobalPost from a rebel fighter who recorded the moment when Col. Moammar Gadhafi was first captured confirms that another rebel fighter, whose identity is unknown, sodomized the former leader as he was being dragged from the drainpipe where he had taken cover.

A frame-by-frame analysis of this exclusive GlobalPost video clearly shows the rebel trying to insert some kind of stick or knife into Gadhafi's rear end.

GlobalPost correspondent Tracey Shelton said there is some question as to whether the instrument was a knife from the end of a gun, which Libyans call a Bicketti, or a utilitiy tool known as a Becker Knife and Tool, which is popularly known as a BKT.

This latest video discovery comes as international and human rights groups call for a formal investigation into how the former Libyan leader was killed. In video clips that have emerged of his capture, Gadhafi can be seen injured but alive. Later he is seen with what appears to be gunshot wounds to his head and chest. According to the Geneva Conventions, however, abuse of prisoners under any circumstance is not permissable.

Footage of Gadhafi’s initial capture

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:13:00 +0000

In this exclusive footage obtained on the scene by Tracey Shelton of GlobalPost, Col. Moammar Gadhafi is caught by fighters for the new Libyan government.

The shock discovery of the former dictator, found cowering in a water drain on Thursday in his hometown of Sirte, was captured by Ali Algadi, a rebel fighter, with an iPhone just seconds after Gadhafi was dragged from the drain in which he was hiding. This is the earliest footage to emerge so far.

Although clearly injured, Gadhafi is still alive during the capture. His captors can be heard shouting, "Don't kill him! Don't kill him! We need him alive!" throughout the footage.

According to an official statement by the National Transitional Council, Gadhafi was shot before his capture and died from his wounds on route to Misrata.

Rebels recount Gadhafi’s last moments

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:21:00 +0000

SIRTE, Libya -- The capture of Col. Moammar Gadhafi, found cowering in a stormwater drain, marked a sudden and surprising end to the Libyan revolution on Thursday.

With injuries to his leg, torso and head, Gadhafi was found alone in the drain pipe, surrounded by the bodies of his guards who had been shot as they tried to flee Sirte from the west.

In video footage captured on the mobile phone of 21-year-old Ali Algadi, Gadhafi is seen being dragged from his hiding place, bloodied and dazed. Those present shout repeatedly, "Don't' kill him! Don't kill him! We need him alive." But the long-time Libyan leader was later confirmed to have died.

"I can't tell you how good it feels," said Algadi as he sat near the drainage pipe now decorated with anti-Gadhafi slogans. "When we came here we thought it was just snipers, that's it. Then one of the guys started yelling Moammar Gadhafi! Moammar Gadhafi! He had him by the leg and was dragging him from the hole. He was hiding like a rat."

Have Libya’s rebels committed war crimes?

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:01:00 +0000

TRIPOLI, Libya -- Libya's National Transitional Council, the country's new governing authority, must bring rebel forces under its control and stop what appears to be rampant arbitrary arrests and revenge killings, Amnesty International said today.

While the war crimes committed by Muammar Gaddafi and his forces are comparatively well known, Amnesty International said in a report that the rebels had also committed widespread abuses since the revolution began in February, including the execution of dozens of pro-Gaddafi prisoners. Hundreds of black migrant workers, assumed to be mercenaries, have also been detained and are being held illegally, the rights group said.

"The new authorities must make a complete break with the abuses of the past four decades and set new standards by putting human rights at the center of their agenda," said Claudio Cordone, a senior director at Amnesty International.

More than half the prisoners detained in Tripoli and Zawiya are believed to be foreign nationals. Most are believed to be migrant workers and not fighters. Migrant families have also been the target of harassment and discrimination, forcing many to leave their homes.

Libya: Rebels issue Gadhafi’s troops a deadline

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:32:00 +0000

TRIPOLI, Libya — Libya's rebels are finding solutions to the shortages of food and fuel here, and they have also issued a deadline for Col Muammar Gaddafi's troops to surrender from the former dictator's hometown of Sirte.

Rebel officials warned Gaddafi loyalists to lay down their weapons by Saturday or face attack from the 10,000 troops that now surround the city.

Rebel forces have been reluctant to advance further for fear of civilian casualties. The National Transitional Council has been struggling to instead negotiate a peaceful end to the conflict, but hopes of a final surrender are fading.

"Unfortunately, to preserve blood sometimes you have to shed blood," said deputy prime minister of the NTC, Ali Tarhouni, in a press conference in Tripoli. "The sooner we get this done, the less blood that will be shed."

Tarhouni said the situation in Libya's capital is stable and improving daily, but some frustration was beginning to show in the streets as shortages of fuel, food and water threatened to dampen Wednesday's Eid celebrations.

Where are Libya’s 50,000 missing prisoners?

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 15:30:00 +0000

TRIPOLI, Libya — Amid fears for the safety of an estimated 50,000 missing prisoners of the Gaddafi regime, Amnesty International has expressed grave concern over the lax measures to protect prison records in detention centers throughout the capital.

As prisons, government offices and personal residences of the former regime have been liberated by rebel forces, local residents have begun visiting in large numbers. Amnesty International said no measures have so far been taken to prevent the public from sifting through and removing vital prison records and files.

“Our biggest concern is that this crucial evidence of crimes committed in these places is disappearing,” said Amnesty International researcher Samira Bouslama. “For the courts and for the sake of those who have lost loved ones these files must be preserved.”

On Sunday afternoon, dozens of people could be seen rummaging through prisoner records at the notorious Abu Salim prison, where around 2,500 prisoners were liberated Wednesday. Some left with documents and files in hand.