Former pro-Assad militant's experience

The New York Times supplied exclusive insight into shabiha militant groups, the paid auxiliaries providing support for the Syrian Army, in an interview. Seventeen-year-old Abu Rami, who declined to reveal his full identity, joined his local militia last year to avenge a friend killed by rebel forces. Over the course of nine months, he killed countless times for President Bashar al-Assad’s government and gained a reputation as a cold-blooded assassin. He told the Times that members of pro-Assad paramilitary groups vary in motives. “Some fight for ideology, some for their love of Bashar, others for money," he said. He was paid 15,000 Syrian pounds per month, which is approximately minimum wage in Syria.  Shabiha who accepted missions outside their own neighbourhoods earned higher salaries, as did those who killed armed opponents. A confirmed kill reaped a 2000 pound bonus. On one assignment, Abu Rami's unit was directed to an apartment in the Tadamon district of southern Damascus, a frequent flash-point for clashes between government and rebel forces. They found a naked man and woman, whom he recognized as siblings from the neighbourhood and members of the Alawite Shiite sect to which the Assad family belongs. An attendant group of rebels, from the Jihadist Nusra Front, had just forced the brother to rape the sister. Abu Rami said his crew arrested the Nusra fighters and handed them over to Syrian intelligence. Tadamon became a full-fledged war zone last September, but the government recruited shabiha groups two months earlier to protect the Alawite minority against possible attacks. Initially, militiamen were hired to intimidate Sunni demonstrators at anti-Assad rallies after Friday prayers. “We didn’t do anything until they started to curse Druze, Alawites or Christians. Then we would act. At first we didn’t carry guns, just sticks and knives,” Abu Rami told the Times. When the Free Army and other anti-government fighters reached Tadamon, the rallies evolved into urban warfare.  The Times reports that the army deployed shabiha to man checkpoints on 6-hour shifts that soon became 11-hour shifts, fueled on energy drinks mixed with hard alcohol. In January, Abu Rami's older brother introduced him to Building the Syrian State (BSS), an opposition group that promotes dialogue over violence. Founded by a long-standing opposition figure Louay Hussein, BSS focuses on removing Mr. Assad by political, not military, means. Anas Joudeh, a 38-year-old Damascus lawyer who helped found BSS, told the Times that Abu Rami participated in a four-day discussion group on active citizenship, which brought together Syrians with divergent political views. The workshop aimed to foster an atmosphere in which people with extreme views could gravitate toward a middle ground. Joudeh said one activity involved writing down roles models based on their spheres of influence. Abu Rami put down Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, and Bashar al-Assad, but “after the first day of the workshop, he went back to that paper and tore it off the wall,” Joudeh recalled. The workshop prompted Abu Rami to reconsider his role and leave the shabiha. He now helps BSS run activities while studying for a high school diploma. “It was an astonishing result,” Joudeh said. “In just four days he experienced a dramatic change in both behavior and personality.” Abu Rami said some of his friends had urged him to return to the militia, but he stood by his commitment to BSS’s philosophical rejection of military means. “Al Nusra Front is becoming more powerful, and there are still those fiercely loyal to Assad,” he told the Times. “They won’t stop fighting until their last breath.” But “the life of a person isn’t worth the cost to buy a bullet,” he added. “I ended up tired of killing.” Additional source: New York Times