A young woman was found beheaded and mutilated, apparently by Syrian security agents, underscoring what witnesses and the UN human rights office said was a fearsome new tactic of retaliating against protesters’ families to snuff out the six-month-old uprising against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The slain 18-year-old, Zainab al-Hosni, is believed to be the first woman to die in Syrian custody since the uprising began in mid-March. Amnesty International said on Friday she had reportedly been detained by security agents to pressure her activist brother to turn himself in.
The violence serves as a grim reminder of how the Assad family has kept an iron grip on power in Syria for more than 40 years by brutally crushing every sign of dissent. The idea that the regime has eyes and ears everywhere resonates in a nation of 22 million where decades of autocratic rule have nurtured a culture of deep fear and paranoia.
Photo: Reuters
Witnesses and activists say retaliation against families of those involved in the uprising has ranged from threatening phone calls to beatings and even killings, as in the case of al-Hosni.
The UN human rights office said the harassment was even extending beyond Syria’s borders.
“Prominent human rights defenders, inside and outside the country, are reported to have been targeted,” UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in Geneva on Friday. “We are also concerned by reports of the targeting and attacking of families and sympathizers of the protesters by security forces.”
She offered no details and did not elaborate on the activists or their families being targeted outside the country.
The Syrian opposition movement has proved remarkably resilient despite a massive military assault using tanks, snipers and shadowy, pro-regime gunmen against demonstrators. According to UN estimates, more than 2,700 civilians have been killed in the crackdown since March and thousands more have been detained since protests began, riding on the wave of euphoria as popular uprisings toppled longtime dictators in Egypt and Tunisia.
Al-Hosni was from the central city of Homs, one of the hotbeds of the uprising. She was seized by men in plainclothes on July 27, apparently to pressure her brother Mohammed, who was organizing protests in the city, Amnesty said.
After her arrest, he was told by telephone that she would only be released if he stopped his activities, the New York-based group said. Her brother was eventually arrested earlier this month. On Sept. 13, his mother was summoned by security forces to pick up his body, which showed bruises, burns and gunshots, the group said.
At the same morgue, the mother happened to find her daughter’s body as well. The family said the teen had been decapitated, her arms cut off, and skin removed, according to Amnesty.
After Zainab’s burial last weekend, women held a protest in Homs, hailing her as the “flower of Syria” and chanting “Syria wants freedom” and “The people want the president’s ouster,” according to video footage posted on the Internet by local activists.
“They plucked the flower and she said, ‘After me, a bud will rise up.’ Rejoice in eternal paradise, Zainab,” a sign held by one of the women read.
The deaths of Zainab and her brother bring to 103 the number of people who have been reported killed in Syrian custody since the uprising began, Amnesty said.
Meanwhile, the EU agreed on Friday to widen sanctions against Syria by banning investment in the country’s oil sector. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton said the new measure seeks to reinforce the ban on Syrian crude oil imports agreed on Sep. 2.
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