Report reveals torture of Syrian detainees

Widespread torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Syria is at a level not seen in decades, a report issued by Amnesty International Wednesday indicated. Meanwhile, Syrian insurgents fought for control of the last quarter of Idlib, a northern rebel stronghold city, as the first anniversary of the anti-regime uprising approached. The fighting in central neighborhoods of the Sunni Muslim city of Idlib, near the Turkish border, was similar to last month's fighting in the opposition Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs, which government forces reclaimed two weeks ago, activist groups said. Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad bombarded Idlib using tanks, helicopters and artillery, rockets and mortars in the barrage's fourth day, activists said, forcing hundreds of people to flee for Turkey and Lebanon. Syrian troops planted land mines near the Turkish and Lebanese borders, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. The land mines have already caused civilian casualties, the rights group said. The Amnesty International report, "I Wanted to Die: Syria's Torture Victims Speak Out," documented 31 torture methods and other abusive tactics used by security forces, army and pro-government militias against detainees. "Testimonies we have heard give disturbing insights into a system of detention and interrogation which appears intended primarily to humiliate and terrify its victims into silence," said Ann Harrison, interim deputy director for Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa program. The scale of torture and abuse was at a level reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s, when Assad's father, Hafez Assad, ruled, Harrison said. "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," she said. Many victims told Amnesty International the beatings began on arrest and continued when they arrived at the detention centers. Several survivors said they were hoisted off the floor and beaten. Witnesses told Amnesty International electric shock torture, gender-based torture and other crimes of sexual violence also were used. Amnesty International said its repeated calls for the matter to be referred to the International Criminal Court have been rebuffed by politics. In light of the failure to secure an ICC referral, the organization said it wanted to see the U.N. Human Rights Council extend the mandate of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria and reinforce its capacity to monitor, document and report, with a goal of prosecuting those responsible for crimes under international law and other gross violations of human rights. Amnesty International said it also wanted the international community to accept a shared responsibility to investigate and prosecute crimes against humanity in their national courts, and called for the formation of joint international investigation and prosecution teams. Syria's semi-official Addounia TV showed scenes of Idlib destruction, which it blamed on "foreigners and terrorists," and broadcast interviews with residents praising the Syrian army for protecting them. Fighting also erupted around Homs and in the northeastern Euphrates River city of Deir al-Zor, opposition groups said. Syria's restriction on foreign news coverage made it impossible to independently assess the fighting. Arab League Secretary-General Nabil al-Araby and Amnesty International both said Tuesday the regime's killing of civilians amounted to crimes against humanity. They both called for an international inquiry. Russia pledged to continue selling weapons to the Assad regime. "We have specialists in Syria and we cooperate militarily with Syria," Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov told reporters in Moscow. "This is not a secret," he said. "We have good, solid, military and technical cooperation with Syria. And today, we don't have a basis to reconsider this military cooperation." Assad, who blames the uprising on a crime wave by foreign-backed terrorist gangs, Tuesday set nationwide parliamentary elections for May 7. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland dismissed the vote as insincere and pointless. "Parliamentary elections for a rubber-stamp Parliament in the middle of the kind of violence that we're seeing across the country is ridiculous," she said. The vote was to have taken place in March but was postponed after February's referendum on the country's new Constitution that let new political parties run. U.N.-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan said Tuesday he was waiting to hear from Syrian officials about the "concrete proposals" he offered to Assad last weekend to end the bloodshed. "Once I receive their answer we will know how to react," Annan said in a statement. "The killings and violence must cease. The Syrian people have gone through a lot and they deserve better."