Rights Group Reports Sex Assaults by Syrian Troops

By Dominique Soguel

WeNews correspondent

Relief effort for Syrian refugees on the Syria-Lebanon border. Credit: Mustafa ?zt?rk on IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation/TURKEY's Flickr page, under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

(WOMENSENEWS)?Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are using sexual violence against men, women and children in detention and during raids in opposition strongholds, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Friday.

?Sexual violence in detention is one of many horrific weapons in the Syrian government?s torture arsenal,? said Sarah Leah Whitson, the organization?s Middle East director, in a press release. ?Syrian security forces regularly use it to humiliate and degrade detainees with complete impunity.?

She added that, ?The assaults are not limited to detention facilities ? government forces and pro-government shabiha militia members have also sexually assaulted women and girls during home raids and residential sweeps.?

In the report, the organization said soldiers and pro-government armed militias ? locally known as shabiha ? have also sexually abused women and girls as young as 12 during military sweeps of residential areas.

The report is based on interviews with former detainees, sexual violence survivors, defectors from the Syrian security forces and the army, first responders, women?s rights activists and family members.

Much of the research on sexual violence in Syria relies on statements by individuals who have fled the government?s crackdown on dissent and spiraling violence.

One group trying to document the sexual abuse in the country is Women Under Siege, which was spearheaded by Gloria Steinem. The organization?s website uses crowd-mapping to track Syrian reports of rape and other forms of sexual abuse.

The women?s organization draws on a wide range of testimonies, including fathers speaking out for their daughters, doctors for their patients and confessions of former soldiers.

The Syrian government tightly restricts access to journalists, researchers and aid workers, making such reports extremely difficult to verify.

?It?s a sinkhole of fact checking,? wrote Women Under Siege Director Lauren Wolfe along with Syria researcher Jackie Blachman-Forshay in a blog post in late May. ?But, for the sake of our humanity, we believe we have to mark all of this down and try.?

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