Sunday 1 April 2018

Extracts from Jonathan Littell's 2012 Syrian Notebooks - Inside the Homs Uprising




 'When I returned from Homs, in early 2012, I was invited to brief the then French foreign minister, Alan Juppé. I outlined my most important observations. The main revolutionary forces still believed in a non-sectarian democratic Syria. The régime was doing its utmost to provoke cycles of sectarian violence while the Free Syrian Army was frantically trying to contain them. The revolution was struggling to contain its negative forces; if al-Assad was not overthrown soon - something that would only be possible with strong Western support, including the provision of sophisticated weaponry and possibly a no-fly zone over Syria - worse forces would emerge.
 Juppé completely shared this analysis; but alone, he added, without the participation of its American and British allies, France could do nothing. Inaction is always easy, but it is rarely a wise course of action. We have seen the results.'
 [Introduction to the Verso edition, pp14-15]


 'The revolutionary coordination committees are collecting proof that Gilles Jacquier was killed by the régime. The shabbiha running rampant in Homs; it's very hard for people from the opposition to enter these places. The university, to the west, is a military zone. Finally Syrian television mentioned mortar shells: D. affirms that the FSA does not have any mortars.'
 [Monday, January 16th, p25]



 'The public hospital in al-Qusayr, near the cemetery, is occupied by the security forces. There are snipers on the roof.
 A visit to a clandestine medical unit set up inside a house. The doctor who had been in charge, 'Abd ar-Rahim Amir, was killed in Rastan two months ago. He was cornered in a health centre by the military mukhabarat and executed.'
 [Tuesday, January 17th, p33]

 'Demonstration in the street, in front of the neighbourhood mosque, protected by the FSA and lit up by spotlights. 300 people? There's one every day. Opposition flags, drums, chanting and dancing, all of it very beautiful and joyful.

 M: "The demonstration is a dhikr [mystic Sufi ceremony]." But there were Christians as well. he introduces me to one, a thirty-four-year-old man, pro-opposition, who proudly shows me the cross he wars around his neck,. He says, "We've lived together for over a hundred years. It's Bashar, when he came to power, who stirred up problems between us. So that France and other countries would say, 'The Christians must be protected.' " '
 [pp36-37]

 'One man: "People are very afraid, they fear the Army." For him, the presence of the FSA makes not only our visit possible, but also the demonstrations, the burials. Previously, the security forces patrolled, entered houses, arrested people.'
 [Wednesday, January 18th, p42]

 'Arrival of an FSA officer, Abu Hayder. A friend of his had been wounded, by some shabbiha, during a peaceful demonstration in which he took part. He brought the friend to the emergency ward, but he died. At that time the hospital was still functioning. At the hospital, his dead friend was filmed, then shown on Dunya TV [private TV network of Assad's cousin Rami Makhlouf], and presented as an innocent demonstrator killed by terrorists. This lie revolted Abu Hayder and was the trigger for his desertion. At that time, there was no FSA in town.'
 [p43]


 'A soldier enters, wearing a balaclava, with a scarf knitted with the colours of a free Syria. He deserted three hours ago, he explains. He's a mulazim [lieutenant], based in Damascus., who came here on leave. He is still in uniform, a camouflage jacket. His brother, a mulazim as well, is in prison for refusing to shoot at demonstrators. He's afraid for his brother, and that's why he's wearing a balaclava. He wants to join the FSA. Quickly he shows his face, so we can see it corresponds to his card.

 Two friends told this officer what happens in the military prisons in the suburbs of Damascus, al-Qabun and Azzara. Officers are imprisoned there, for speaking out against the régime, or for refusing to shoot. They are separated by faith, and there is no intermingling. All faiths are represented, Druze, Alawite, Christian, etc.

 He comes from the Air Force, he was based at the military airport in Dumayr, a Damascus suburb. He confirms that helicopters were used against demonstrators, in az-Zabadani, with a 7.62 mm machine gun mounted in the door. At first it was just to frighten people, but later they fired for real.'
 [Thursday, January 19th, pp53-54]

 'The word Salafist means two things. The Muslims of the land of Sham [Syria] follow the path of moderation. To live well, they follow the example of pious ancestors, of a pious man from long ago who lived justly in Islam. That is the original meaning of Salafist. The other meaning, the Takfirist, jihadist, terrorist version, is a creation of the Americans and Israelis. It has nothing to do with us.'
 [pp54-55]

 'Ibn Pedro says the FSA has prisons in Baba 'Amr, where they hold some shabbiha. They put them on trial in "good due form. Those who have killed children are condemned to death." '
 [p55]

 'I am reading Plutarch [Greek Roman writer of the 1st Century CE], the only book I brought with me. "These things and others like them will, I venture, please readers more for their novelty and curiosity, than they will offend them for their falsity." '
 [p56]


 'Abu 'Abdallah was an electrical engineer, he studied for six years at the engineering university. He was fired from his job at the Homs refinery in the 1990s, because he refused to collude in corrupt practices. Now he helps the FSA with logistics.

 "I belong to the people who had no political consciousness. When I took to the streets, I didn't want to get rid of Bashar al-Assad. We just wanted a dignified life, to eat and be respected. But even practising my religion is a problem. If you meet people at the mosque, you'll be seen as an opponent.

 The Syrian people are raised like chickens in a hen house. There's no room for thought. You live under the régime of the Ba'ath and Bashar al-Assad is our president for eternity. You can't imagine any alternative."

 At first, Abu 'Abdallah was ready to accept anything to get rid of the régime. In the first months, seeing the massacres, he would have accepted a foreign intervention. Today he doesn't want to replace one evil with another.

 He thinks that France, the United States, the West let the repression continue without intervening in order to keep Syria weak and protect Israeli interests. They don't want a strong, democratic Syria, with a powerful Army.'
[Thursday, January 19th, pp57-59]

 'Visit to the underground clinic in Baba 'Amr. I talk with a doctor, Dr. Abu 'Abdu. He refuses to be photographed: if he is identified by Security, his family would be threatened.

 He shows me a video, found on Youtube apparently, in which we see two young men - one from al-Khalidiya, the other from Baba 'Amr - caught in al-Zahra by some shabbiha and decapitated alive, with a knife. Ultra-graphic film, a huge gush of blood when the knife slices. The killers put both heads on the ground and plant the knife next to them. The second head, on the ground, is still quivering. "You see this? How can we stop when they do this?" '

 "The government says ther is a problem between faiths, but it's the government that created this problem. Alawites come to the centre of town, they kidnap women, they fuck our daughters, and they film it. They put the videos on the web to say: 'See, we fuck Sunni girls.' For us this is very heavy, as Arab and Muslim people." '
[pp65-67]

 'Bassam is from the countryside around Aleppo. Seeing the régime's crimes - the rapes, murders, etc. - he decided a month ago to come to Baba 'Amr to join the FSA.

 "In Baba 'Amr, it's the safest place in Syria. The people go out at night, they're not afraid of snipers. Al-Assad's tanks will pass over our bodies before they get to you. We fight for our religion, for our women, for our land, and lastly to save our skin. As for them, they only fighting to save their skin.

 We don't kill any human being on the basis of religion. 'He who kills a soul not in legitimate self-defence, it's as if he killed all of humanity,' says the Qur'an."

 The men come from the Army, where they're ready to kill anyone. The Military Councilis trying to change these habits, so that FSA soldiers have good relations with civilians.

 In the hallway, the soldiers are cleaning their weapons. Purchases, bought from Lebanon. They teach me a phrase: Ash sha'ab yurid isqat an-nizam, "The people want the fall of the régime." Before we go to bed, one of the young men runs a vacuum cleaner through the room. Touching thoughtfulness.'
 [pp72-73]

 'Friday demonstration. It begins at the neighbourhood mosque. At the intersections, FSA soldiers keep watch. Some slogans are in English ("WE WANT INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION").

 We join the other processions of Baba 'Amr for a monster demonstration. Signs in English addressed to the Arab League. All along one side the women stay grouped. They applaud with enthusiasm, shout, yodel, and also chant slogans. Men wave their shoes. A level of joyful and desperate energy I have never seen before.

 G., a sympathetic Franco-Syrian gentleman: "If they didn't shoot at the demonstrators, all of Homs would be out on the streets."

 Volleys on the main street, just as people are leaving. The shots come from the east, from a bridge that leads to the Alawite quarter.'
 [Friday, January 20th, pp77-79]

 ' 'Abd ar-Razzaq Tlass mentions several massacres of demonstrators, including one on February 24th in Sanzamin. He says he never believed the régime's propaganda.

 "The Army should be neutral. We saw the opposite. The checkpoints shot at people. Dara'a was devastated."

 He wants a NATO military intervention. "If there's no NATO intervention, we'll call for jihad across the Muslim world." Abd ar-Razzaq Tlass explains that the idea is to put pressure on the West, so that the West will intervene before it becomes a regional war.'
 [pp80-84]

 'When someone is kidnapped or arrested, they pay to find out where he is, and sometimes to recover the body.'
 [p87]


 'A young soldier from the checkpoint, Fadi, is an Alawite. Fadi is from Jiblaya, a village near Tartus. He joined the FSA in July or August, in Homs. Because he saw the Army killing civilians, he said to himself, "I am not with them, I am with the people. It is not: Iam Alawi, so I am with Alawi. No. If they do wrong, I try to do right."

 Here in Baba 'Amr, there are five or six Alawites in the FSA. He has no problem. "I never heard: We want to kill Alawis. Only specific people who have committed crimes."

 Alawites take women hostage, and that makes him sick.'
 [Saturday, January 21st, pp92-93]

 'Visit with Imad to a neighbourhood next to the railroad.Twenty days ago, there were three very deadly days: the first day, eighteen dead, the second, nine dead, the third, seven dead. Shooting at the funerals caused many wounded.'
 [pp93-94]

 'The officers know girls who have been abused, raped, but the social rules mean the families will never let us talk to them. The shame is too great.'
 [p96]

 'Abu Ibrahim comes in, a nurse who was imprisoned in September. He worked at the National Hospital. Denounced for treating revolutionaries and arrested. He was whipped with a thick rubber cable and given electric shocks. Says his treatment was relatively OK: they didn't break his bones.'
 [pp98-99]

 'Abu Salim was a doctor with the military mukhabarat for the past two years.

 "What is the first mission of a mukhabarat doctor? To keep people subjected to torture alive so they can be tortured for as long as possible." '
 [p99]

 'Long story of Abu Salim. In Damascus, in the Regional Section, there are Arabs detained since 1985. Lebanese, two Jordanians, and one Algerian. They are incarcerated in the harshest conditions.

 One day Abu Salim was handcuffed to one of them, returning from the hospital, and found him briefly alone with him: "What's the problem with you?" - "I had a problem with the big boss" (Hafez al-Assad).'
 [p101]

 'Before, wearing a beard was in itself motive for indictment: "Ah, you're part of bin Laden's gang." Now they arrest a student: "What are you studying?" - "French literature." - "Ah, you're part of the Sarkozy gang, jama'at Sarkozy!" It's a true story: "You can meet the student." He was kept in prison for twenty-one days, three months ago.'

 Abu Salim affirms that even children are under surveillance. They asked his son which channels his parents watch. The parents of children who replied al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya, France 24, BBC, etc. were summoned.'
 [p103]

 ' 'Ali, another doctor, shows us his torso, crisscrossed with scars. He caught several bullets on October 28th. Some shabbiha, four men armed with Kalashnikovs and a machine gun, in a black KIA, entered the neighbourhood, greeting the FSA people in a friendly way, and then machine-gunned the demonstration.'
 [p104]

 'At the military hospital, Z and his brother's son 'Ali, were handed over to the men in charge of the cells, tied to beds, and tortured right on the beds, for over eight hours. Hit on the body and head with food trays. 'Ali died under the torture. An hour after 'Ali's death, he was finally operated on, an attempt to re-attach the still partly connected leg. From lack of care, his leg got infected; six days after his arrest, a military doctor decided they had to cut it off. He was already handicapped, his right leg was 17cm shorter than his left leg. Now it's the only one left.

 Muhammad Z. says, "He's the only person from here we know who left the military hospital alive."

 I return to the question of the torture. Z. explains. The torturers didn't ask any questions, just mouthed insults. "Ah, you want freedom, here's your freedom!" They also insulted their wives. During the torture, his face was covered with a blanket, and he couldn't see the people who were beating them.

 The torturers signalled their entrance in the room by rattling the door handle, and all the prisoners had to cover their faces with their blankets, under penalty of being executed.'
[Sunday January 22nd, pp108-110]

 'Around 2pm, in the centre of the suburb, a protest demonstrating against the report of the Arab League. They want the issue to be transferred to the Security Council.

 An officer is lifted on to people's shoulders and carried with his AK as the people chant "Long live the FSA!" He's a naqib who has just deserted. They also chant: "The people want international protection," "The people want a no-fly zone," "The people want the proclamation of jihad." '
 [p111]

 'Muhammad's two wives were captured at the end of December by the shabbiha, in the orchards. Muhammad is wanted. The shabbiha didn't find him at his country home, and took the two women hostage so he would give himself up. They were held for six days, freed when the Arab League observers arrived.

 Muhammad's wives were mistreated, says Muhannad, badly mistreated. No more details. Too many people in the room to insist.
 [pp115-116]

 'Abu Slimane: "Our parents submitted through fear. We broke down the wall of fear. Either we will win, or we will die." Makes a V sign with his fingers. Photo session, they all pose making Vs - but only for their cameras, not mine.'
 [p120]


 'A young soldier nicknamed The Cat leads us on foot to the home of some other activists. These guys are violently against the declaration of jihad: "Our revolution is not a religious revolution, it's a revolution for freedom. Declaring jihad would completely change the scope of the message of the Syrian revolution. Yes, people have chanted the slogan during demonstrations. But they're simple people, they don't undrstand."

 Our host, Abu 'Adnan, is a Communist lawyer who defends political prisoners. "Please tell the world we are not islamists." - "I am a Communist and I hate islamists."
 [Monday, January 23rd, pp130-131]

 'Gunfire broke out between the checkpoint soldiers and the FSA; the soldiers bound the civilian and used him as a human shield. He wasn't hit, but was executed afterwards.'
 [Tuesday, January 24th, pp132-133]


 'Ahmad: "I've travelled a lot, Russia, Romania, greece, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and I've never seen a government like this." His pharmacy was looted three times by soldiers.

 He talks about his uncle, a pilot. Air Force officers are closely watched. Several colleagues of his uncle wanted to desert, they were caught and killed. The uncle managed to flee, he fought a little with the FSA, now he is hiding in the village.'
 [pp134-135]


'First visible difference between al-Khaidiya and Baba 'Amr: the presence of women. In baba 'Amr, other than during demonstrations, they're almost invisible, whereas here they're everywhere, mingling with the men. It's from details like this you realise how conservative a neighbourhood Baba 'Amr is.
[pp137-138]

'A wounded man arrives in a car. Probably paralysed. Isn't bleeding much, the bullet is lodged inside. Hit the spinal column.

 Abu 'Abdu has seen this type of case often, 150 to 200 at least. Thinks the snipers aim for the spinal column. They're little bullets, sniper bullets, not Kalashnikov bullets. Has also seen many people wounded by what he calls explosive bullets, maybe dum-dums.'

[p139]

 'Big rectangular square. On one side, a large banner: "No to the imaginary opposition, a creation of al-Assad's gangs. The SNC unites us, factions disperse us." Clear allegiance to the Syrian National Council.

 A kid begins singing in an artificial, rasping voice, and the dances in rows begin.
 The leader: "We are not rebelling against the Alawites or the Christians. The people are one!"
 Everyone: "The people, the people, the people are one!"
 Leader: "We count only on God, not on the Arab League, not on the observers, not on NATO!"
 Everyone: "We count only on Allah!" (x3)'
 [pp142-143]



 'Abu Bilal explains that the funerals are no longer the way they used to be, they no longer turn into demonstrations: the cemetery is completely exposed, and the snipers on the Homs citadel shoot if there's a crowd. So they bury in small groups, quickly.

 Thus everything is hard to verify. This is what explains the difference between the numbers provided by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights(SOHR) and those we hear about here. For yesterday the SOHR says one dead in Homs. But our friends insist that in Bab Tadmur there were dozens. One building, targetted by the shelling, collapsed, and they're still pulling corpses out of the rubble.'
 [Wedenseday, January 25th, p147]


 'A woman in a niqab: "In this street, in every house there is a martyr. Soon it will be a year this has gone on. When is it going to stop. We can't even walk in the street safely anymore. We're people who work, but we can't even feed ourselves. Let our voices be heard!" '
 [p150]


 'Visit to the private hospital of Bab as-Sba'a. Three months ago they arrested a member of the staff who does blood tests, and accused him of doing analyses on FSA soldiers. They kept him for a month, and tortured him with electricity, pouring water on his body.'
 [pp150-151]


 'Muhammed is fourteen. His brother Iyad,twenty-four, was killed last week. He was walking with his family near the cemetery, the Army was advancing to enter the neighbourhood, and they began shooting. There was no FSA there.

 There is also his little brother Amir, four years old. Muhammed to his brother: "What do the people want?" - Amir, in his tiny voice,: "The people want the fall of the régime!"

 Muhammed hasn't gone to school for four months. Soldiers and shabbiha came and took four children away. At the time the children from the schools were going out to demonstrate; these four must have been denounced for having taken part.'
 [pp153-154]


 'Evening demonstration in Safsafi. Small, about a hundred people maybe on a little square, but the same intense energy as everywhere else. Everyone shows me his scars, bullet or truncheon injuries. Same slogan as every day: "No-fly zone, international protection." '
[pp158-159]


 'One of the men calls himself Abu Mout, the father of death. His three brothers are dead, and his mother took a vow to cook every day for the FSA soldiers, until the end of the revolution.'
 [p162]


 'This sniper also entertains himself by killing cats. He has already killed eight. There are about ninety soldiers in the school. The sniper is safe.

 Another kid shows us his hand, two fingers cut off by a bomb, and his belly, starred with little black dots, scars from one of the infamous nail bombs. He is thirteen.

 Yet another kid, also thirteen, with nail bomb scars on his legs.'
 [Thursday, January 26th, p166]


 'The doctor is actually a nurse practioner, a musa 'id fani.The doctors fled because of the systematic arrests. "Doctors have been targetted since the beginning of the events," he explains, like all his colleagues.'
[p170]


'Hysterical crowd. They're finished lynching a shabbiha they caught. We stop. A black pickup arrives with two FSA soldiers standing in the back, above a corpse, obviously the lynched shabbiha. It looks as if his head was smashed in with rifle butts. All around people are howling "Allahu Akbar!" '
[pp172 -173]



 'The mukhabarat and the shabbiha penetrated the neighbourhood, entering houses and arresting people. They attack by shooting indiscriminately, then advance with BTRs, the FSA can't withstand them. They entered a house and shot an entire family, twelve people.
 Three of the children had their throats slit, the others were executed point blank with a bullet in the head. Two children survived: 'Ali, a three-year-old boy, and Ghazal, a little four-month-old girl, wounded by a bullet. Two adults from the family also survived, they were at work when it happened.
 When Ra'id arrived there, the baby was babbling, but the three-year-old boy was in tears, terrorised, no one could calm him down. I saw it later on YouTube, it's even worse than the deaths. In any case it's always worse for the survivors than the dead, the dead don't feel anything anymore.'
 [Thursday, January 26th, pp176-178]

 'The imam talks about all the blood that's been shed in the neighbourhood:
 "It's our blood, all those souls killed are our children. But even so, we say to all our oppressors, all our tyrants, to all those who have succumbed to hubris: Whatever you do, victory will be ours." '
 [Friday, January 27th,p182]

 'Passage behind the demonstration of a dozen FSA soldiers. Immediately the crowd start chanting "Long Live the Free Syrian Army!" The kids run after them and swarm around them. A kid shouts to his father, "it's them, it's them, it's the Free Army!" Slowly they head toward the demonstration, and enter the crowd to the shouts of "Allah grant long life to the Free Army!" '
 [p184]

 'The funeral processions I've seen here don't express mourning or contemplation, but rage and the live pain of loss.'
 [Saturday, January 28th, p193]


 'Mazhar Tayara, twenty-four years old. A young, friendly Syria. He was killed, coming to the aid of the wounded, during the great bombing of Khalidiya on the night of February 3rd.'
 [p195]

 'There's an old Hajj sitting in a chair, smoking in the company of a friend, who tells us how he was tortured for twenty-one days by the mukhabarat, beaten, electrocuted, accused of complicity with terrorism, him, a sick old man.'
[p199]


 
 'Abu Hamza, surgeon, worked at the military hospital since 2010. At first he heard strange things in the emergency room. When they brought in wounded demonstrators, their hands were tied and their eyes blindfolded. The first time he saw it, it was April [2011]. The wounded, without any medication, were beaten with cables by military policemen and nurses. The victims were all men, sometimes fourteen- or fifteen-year-old boys. Several doctors took part in the tortures.

 I filmed wounds, traces of beatings with cables. There were two torture tools: an electric cable and strips of reinforced rubber.

 Another case he witnessed: some Air Force mukhabarat had confiscated two ambulances, and put two of their agents in each ambulance armed with Kalashnikovs. They went to the Homs cemetery. The Army began shooting at the people bringing the bodies to the funeral. Then the mukhabarat arrived with the ambulances, pretending to come for the wounded, took in the wounded and brought them to the military hospital. There, they took them to the prison. Abu Hamza saw the ambulances return, and recognised the Air Force mukhabarat by their special uniform and white sneakers.'
 [Sunday, January 29th, pp204-210]


 'Two women completely in black come to see us. Their house was burned down and they wanted to testify. Where they live, they are surrounded by Alawites on one side, Shiites on the other.Some men came around 2am, shot at the house, threw a grenade against the door, then a can of gas which they shot at, setting fire to the house. Half the house was burned down before they managed to put out the fire. They didn't see the men, but they were yelling: "We'll get all of you out of here, you Sunnis!" Think they were Alawites supported by Security. Their neighbours' house was also attacked. There were seven Sunni families in the street, all have left except these two.'
[Monday, January 30th, pp217-218]


 'We call Imad. Baba 'Amr is being shelled by twelve T-72s. Yesterday there were eight tanks, the FSA destroyed four of them. We call Hassan. He says twenty tanks since yesterday, and that they're completely powerless.'
 [p219]




'It's only after I left Syria, that things in Homs really went haywire. On the night of February 3rd, several shells fell in Khalidiya, very close to the Square of the Free men. Al, struck more or less the same place, the people who rushed to help the victims were killed or grievously wounded in turn. On Saturday 4th, the Army intensified its shelling of Baba 'Amr. The pounding of the neighbourhoods was intensifying every day, and the number of civilian victims  kept increasing.A modern army , equipped with assault tanks,, Grad rockets, and mortars of calibres up to 240mm, pounded Baba 'Amr street by street, house by house, in an orderly systematic way, for twenty-seven full days. British photographer Paul Conroy: "They're living in bombed-out wrecks, children six to a bed, rooms full of people waiting to die."

 The offensive of Bashar al-Assad's forces had begun, the day after a vote by the UN Security Council on a rather weak resolution, nonetheless firmly vetoed by Russia and China. American and European diplomats were bogging themselves down in rather ridiculous discussions about "humanitarian corridors" or some such proposition. The Qataris and Saudis were beginning to murmur that a more forceful intervention might be imaginable, notably through weapon deliveries to the FSA, but no one was listening.

 Of many I've named here, by their first name, an initial, or a name they chose for themselves, there will probably remain nothing beyond these notes, and their memory in the minds of those who knew and loved them: all these young guys in Homs, smiling and full of life and courage, for whom death, or an atrocious wound, or ruin, failure, and torture were nothing compared to the incredible joy of having cast off the dead weight crushing, for forty years, the shoulders of their fathers.'
 [Epilogue, pp241-246]
 

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