These were the last words an officer in the Special Tasks branch at Mazzeh airport in Damascus said to activist Zaid al-Haraki (who uses this alias to conceal his identity from the Syrian régime) before the officer began torturing him.
After the war ended in South Syria, members of the opposition agreed in July 2018 to the terms of a settlement sponsored by the Russian Military Police, which supports Syria's President Bashar al-Assad. Left with no other choice, they thought that doing so would protect them from the régime's security forces, which had recaptured the region.
According to the settlement, displaced Syrians could return to their cities and the Syrian régime was obliged to release hundreds of detainees, address mandatory military service issues, reduce arrests and violations, as well as improve services in those areas. Under the settlement, members of the opposition and defectors from the régime would also have the right to remain in Daraa and other regions, provided they surrendered their weapons.
However, more than two years after the agreement, the settlement has failed to achieve its goal of ridding the towns bordering Jordan and the occupied Palestinian territories from any régime-supporting Iranian presence. Moreover, régime forces have failed to fully enforce its influence in the governorate of Daraa.
According to the settlement, displaced Syrians could return to their cities and the Syrian régime was obliged to release hundreds of detainees, address mandatory military service issues, reduce arrests and violations, as well as improve services in those areas. Under the settlement, members of the opposition and defectors from the régime would also have the right to remain in Daraa and other regions, provided they surrendered their weapons.
However, more than two years after the agreement, the settlement has failed to achieve its goal of ridding the towns bordering Jordan and the occupied Palestinian territories from any régime-supporting Iranian presence. Moreover, régime forces have failed to fully enforce its influence in the governorate of Daraa.
The city, which was the cradle of the Syrian revolution, continues to experience chaos and insecurity as clashes between régime forces and the remaining opposition pockets continue, with multiple assassinations, instance of torture incidents and other violations being committed against the opposition, and a complete absence of protective measures or supervision over the parties’ implementation of the terms of the agreement.
Al-Haraki, a native to Daraa, said: “I was headed to the city of Izra'a on 14 April 2019 carrying the settlement card which I thought was an official document that allowed me to move around freely and safely. Suddenly, a vehicle of the Syrian régime's Air Force Intelligence department kidnapped me in al-Hirak city, East of Daraa.”
Al-Haraki continues: “I was taken to the Special Tasks branch located at Mazzeh airport in Damascus. There, they interrogated me about my connection with the Free Army factions of the opposition and about my activism.”
Al-Haraki added that when he said he was part of the settlement and that he carried its card, which made his arrest “arbitrary, and the interrogation illegal or legitimate,” he was given the aforementioned response. “It was a clear statement by the officer that the Syrian régime is using this settlement at this stage to punish those who opposed it or carried arms against it once it gets a proper security grip over the area.”
Al-Haraki described one of the methods of torture to which he was subjected: his arms were bound in metal chains attached to the ceiling, and he was left suspended for several hours. During his nine months of detention, he witnessed the deaths of three fellow detainees as a result of psychological and physical torture. One of them, Mohammed Mahmoud Badran from Douma, was accused of liquidating prisoners from Syrian régime forces during the eastern Ghouta battles between the régime and opposition factions in 2018.
On December 18, 2019, Al-Haraki was released by the Syrian régime under an amnesty issued by the Security Committee in Damascus. He was subsequently conscripted into military service in the régime army.
Al-Haraki says: “I was sent to the fronts in northern Syria with a number of my colleagues. We received orders to liquidate everyone. They made us believe we were fighting ISIS only to find out that we were fighting civilians.”
Al-Haraki wanted to defect but did not succeed, until he received news that his brother, a defector from the régime's army who had agreed to the 2018 settlement, had been killed under torture in Saydnaya prison in Damascus on June 29, 2020.
Al-Haraki says: “I was shocked and almost lost my mind. I applied for leave of absence to go home, and that's when I decided to defect and never return to my unit.”
Al-Haraki, a native to Daraa, said: “I was headed to the city of Izra'a on 14 April 2019 carrying the settlement card which I thought was an official document that allowed me to move around freely and safely. Suddenly, a vehicle of the Syrian régime's Air Force Intelligence department kidnapped me in al-Hirak city, East of Daraa.”
Al-Haraki continues: “I was taken to the Special Tasks branch located at Mazzeh airport in Damascus. There, they interrogated me about my connection with the Free Army factions of the opposition and about my activism.”
Al-Haraki added that when he said he was part of the settlement and that he carried its card, which made his arrest “arbitrary, and the interrogation illegal or legitimate,” he was given the aforementioned response. “It was a clear statement by the officer that the Syrian régime is using this settlement at this stage to punish those who opposed it or carried arms against it once it gets a proper security grip over the area.”
Al-Haraki described one of the methods of torture to which he was subjected: his arms were bound in metal chains attached to the ceiling, and he was left suspended for several hours. During his nine months of detention, he witnessed the deaths of three fellow detainees as a result of psychological and physical torture. One of them, Mohammed Mahmoud Badran from Douma, was accused of liquidating prisoners from Syrian régime forces during the eastern Ghouta battles between the régime and opposition factions in 2018.
On December 18, 2019, Al-Haraki was released by the Syrian régime under an amnesty issued by the Security Committee in Damascus. He was subsequently conscripted into military service in the régime army.
Al-Haraki says: “I was sent to the fronts in northern Syria with a number of my colleagues. We received orders to liquidate everyone. They made us believe we were fighting ISIS only to find out that we were fighting civilians.”
Al-Haraki wanted to defect but did not succeed, until he received news that his brother, a defector from the régime's army who had agreed to the 2018 settlement, had been killed under torture in Saydnaya prison in Damascus on June 29, 2020.
Al-Haraki says: “I was shocked and almost lost my mind. I applied for leave of absence to go home, and that's when I decided to defect and never return to my unit.”
In a report titled “On the Ruins of the Second Settlement” published on 8 January, the “Daraa Martyrs’ Documentation Office” (DMDO) reported the assassination of 83 military dissidents who had accepted the settlement, in addition to 31 others who did not agree to it.
While similar to the agreements signed in the same year in the eastern Ghouta in Damascus countryside or the northern countryside of Homs, Daraa's agreement had one main difference, which was, according to Syrian journalist Basil al-Ghazawi, the régime's reliance on figures considered to be in the opposition at the time, to promote these pacts.
Al-Ghazawi, who is native to Daraa, said: “The régime had deceived everyone. Some of those who were on the fronts fighting the régime had come to see the settlement as their only safety raft. But less than a month later, everyone felt deceived as detainees were not released; defectors’ settlement was not respected; mandatory military service issues were not addressed; services were not provided, and régime abuses did not end as arrests continued.”
Al-Ghazawi added: "Assassinations, arrests and violations were not new to the régime, as they have always happened, before and after the settlements. People of Daraa have been killed by air shelling, internationally banned weapons, such as napalm, and thousands were arrested. What is new now is their silent death; death under the banner of treaties and conventions."
The DMDO echoed al-Ghazawi's testimony, saying in its report: "2020 witnessed the demise of many martyrs and victims and a significant increase in the frequency of assassinations in conjunction with the continued arrests, forced disappearances of civilians and fighters of the 'settled' factions as well as defectors who joined the settlement."
During the interview, al-Ghazawi listed the régime's most significant violations of the agreement since 2018. These included the erection of over 40 check-points for the Fourth Division West of Daraa, although the agreement stipulated the army's withdrawal to the pre-2011 barracks. Added to this was the non-disclosure of the fates of pre-settlement detainees, the barring of thousands of employees from returning to their jobs, the security forces’ harassment of people, and the recruitment of the young men of Horan—the province where Daraa is located—into militias of the security branches of the régime.
Lawyer and jurist Asim al-Zoubi, Director of the Documentation Office at the Ahrar Horan Assembly foundation, said that his local organisation had documented the arrest of 1,293 people by Syrian régime forces since the beginning of the settlement through October 2020. Of those, 183 were arrested while trying to illegally migrate to opposition areas in northern Syria to escape the Syrian régime's failure to comply with the settlement agreement.
“The Office also documented 528 operations and assassination attempts that resulted in 378 deaths and left 230 wounded, most of whom were former members and leaders of opposition factions. Syrian régime intelligence is behind the majority of these operations. We revealed this in an investigative report we had published,” al-Zoubi said.
On 7th December, following criticism of the settlement, Syrian régime forces concluded a new settlement in Daraa. Similar to the 2018 pact, the new agreement guarantees that those wanted by the régime would not be prosecuted, and removes the names of men who did not join the compulsory or reserve military service from the lists of régime checkpoints in the area.
The new settlement followed an upsurge in clashes in Daraa after the assassination of opposition leader Adham Karad and the Syrian régime's disregard of the commitments set out in the agreement.
It was the outcome of meetings between the central committee that is authorized to negotiate on behalf of Daraa's people, officers from the Syrian régime, and Russian forces, under direct supervision of representatives from the National Security Office in Damascus, which is considered the highest security department in the Assad régime. A judge from the régime's side, present during the signing of the new settlements, is tasked with handing over new settlement documents sealed by the Ministry of Justice, allowing their holders to move across checkpoints without being prosecuted, under Russian guarantee.
A senior member of the central committee responsible for negotiating with Russian and régime forces in Dara'a, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, said: "The lack of tangible results from the first settlement was the motivation for the new settlement. There are no results so far as the security files of many people have not been written off yet. Moreover, many have not been returned to their jobs and the file of the dissidents of the Assad régime has not been resolved yet. The new settlement was concluded to cover those gaps and address these dossiers; but we are yet to see any tangible outcome."
In recent days, tensions have escalated as the régime pursues six individuals it says are connected to ISIS. The régime has given Daraa's central committee till Thursday January 28th to hand them over, failing which it will launch airstrikes against the region in collaboration with Russian fighter jets.
According to opposition figures, the wanted six are free from these accusations, and the régime's threats are a violation to the settlement pacts, both old and new.'
While similar to the agreements signed in the same year in the eastern Ghouta in Damascus countryside or the northern countryside of Homs, Daraa's agreement had one main difference, which was, according to Syrian journalist Basil al-Ghazawi, the régime's reliance on figures considered to be in the opposition at the time, to promote these pacts.
Al-Ghazawi, who is native to Daraa, said: “The régime had deceived everyone. Some of those who were on the fronts fighting the régime had come to see the settlement as their only safety raft. But less than a month later, everyone felt deceived as detainees were not released; defectors’ settlement was not respected; mandatory military service issues were not addressed; services were not provided, and régime abuses did not end as arrests continued.”
Al-Ghazawi added: "Assassinations, arrests and violations were not new to the régime, as they have always happened, before and after the settlements. People of Daraa have been killed by air shelling, internationally banned weapons, such as napalm, and thousands were arrested. What is new now is their silent death; death under the banner of treaties and conventions."
The DMDO echoed al-Ghazawi's testimony, saying in its report: "2020 witnessed the demise of many martyrs and victims and a significant increase in the frequency of assassinations in conjunction with the continued arrests, forced disappearances of civilians and fighters of the 'settled' factions as well as defectors who joined the settlement."
During the interview, al-Ghazawi listed the régime's most significant violations of the agreement since 2018. These included the erection of over 40 check-points for the Fourth Division West of Daraa, although the agreement stipulated the army's withdrawal to the pre-2011 barracks. Added to this was the non-disclosure of the fates of pre-settlement detainees, the barring of thousands of employees from returning to their jobs, the security forces’ harassment of people, and the recruitment of the young men of Horan—the province where Daraa is located—into militias of the security branches of the régime.
Lawyer and jurist Asim al-Zoubi, Director of the Documentation Office at the Ahrar Horan Assembly foundation, said that his local organisation had documented the arrest of 1,293 people by Syrian régime forces since the beginning of the settlement through October 2020. Of those, 183 were arrested while trying to illegally migrate to opposition areas in northern Syria to escape the Syrian régime's failure to comply with the settlement agreement.
“The Office also documented 528 operations and assassination attempts that resulted in 378 deaths and left 230 wounded, most of whom were former members and leaders of opposition factions. Syrian régime intelligence is behind the majority of these operations. We revealed this in an investigative report we had published,” al-Zoubi said.
On 7th December, following criticism of the settlement, Syrian régime forces concluded a new settlement in Daraa. Similar to the 2018 pact, the new agreement guarantees that those wanted by the régime would not be prosecuted, and removes the names of men who did not join the compulsory or reserve military service from the lists of régime checkpoints in the area.
The new settlement followed an upsurge in clashes in Daraa after the assassination of opposition leader Adham Karad and the Syrian régime's disregard of the commitments set out in the agreement.
It was the outcome of meetings between the central committee that is authorized to negotiate on behalf of Daraa's people, officers from the Syrian régime, and Russian forces, under direct supervision of representatives from the National Security Office in Damascus, which is considered the highest security department in the Assad régime. A judge from the régime's side, present during the signing of the new settlements, is tasked with handing over new settlement documents sealed by the Ministry of Justice, allowing their holders to move across checkpoints without being prosecuted, under Russian guarantee.
A senior member of the central committee responsible for negotiating with Russian and régime forces in Dara'a, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, said: "The lack of tangible results from the first settlement was the motivation for the new settlement. There are no results so far as the security files of many people have not been written off yet. Moreover, many have not been returned to their jobs and the file of the dissidents of the Assad régime has not been resolved yet. The new settlement was concluded to cover those gaps and address these dossiers; but we are yet to see any tangible outcome."
In recent days, tensions have escalated as the régime pursues six individuals it says are connected to ISIS. The régime has given Daraa's central committee till Thursday January 28th to hand them over, failing which it will launch airstrikes against the region in collaboration with Russian fighter jets.
According to opposition figures, the wanted six are free from these accusations, and the régime's threats are a violation to the settlement pacts, both old and new.'
