Syrian Emergency Task Force partners with refugee photographer
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fifth in a series of articles detailing the efforts and involvement of two Lakeside High School graduates in the Syrian Emergency Task Force, which advocates for the safety and well-being of Syrian civilians during the country’s ongoing civil war.
The Syrian Emergency Task Force forged a partnership with a former Syrian Military Police photographer to expose the atrocities committed by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad against his own people.
The photographer was an officer of the Syrian Military Police and previously documented crime scenes or accidents involving Syria’s army before the country erupted into civil war in March 2011. His work was reclassified to document violence suffered by Assad’s opponents in Syrian jails. The SETF coordinated an effort with him to compile evidence of torture and war crimes committed by the regime.
The work resulted in almost 55,000 photographs of victims of torture detained in the country’s prisons between 2011 and 2013. The photographs have been authenticated by multiple independent commissions of inquiry. The photographer defected with help from
the task force in January 2014 and assumed the pseudonym Caesar.
The SETF was founded in
2012 by Mouaz Moustafa, a Palestinian refugee born in Syria. Moustafa graduated from Lakeside High School and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway before he began his professional career in Washington, D.C. Natalie Larrison, who is also a graduate of Lakeside and UCA, joined the SETF more than a year ago.
“I have met the families,” Moustafa said. “We have opened a court case in Spain on one of those cases. We identified 781 individuals out of the thousands who we know their families. We know what happens in prisons. It was just a matter of having the evidence that we can show to the world.”
Caesar testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in Congress, wearing a hood to conceal his identity, and pleaded with leaders in D.C. in July 2014 to take action in Syria. He recently spent a week in the United States to renew his pleas for action.
The visit marked his first semipublic appearance since
2014. Caesar was featured in a televised interview on CNN with Christiane Amanpour and translation provided by Moustafa.
Caesar was accompanied to D.C. last week by a fellow defector. They live in an undisclosed location abroad. The pair delivered a presentation on March
20 to human rights experts and reporters in a private meeting at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The SETF partnered with the museum to display photographs from Caesar’s collection. His work has been displayed by the United Nations in New York, the Foreign Affairs Committee and several cities in Europe.
Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., attended the museum’s event, which included a photo display, “Inside Syria’s Torture Machine.” He joined the committee’s Ranking Member Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., in reintroducing the “Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act” to impose sanctions on supporters of Syria’s Assad regime, encourage negotiations to end ongoing atrocities and support prosecution of war criminals.
“As the Syrian conflict enters a seventh year, there are
480,000 dead civilians and countless more that’ve been beaten, tortured and starved by Assad and his backers,” Royce said.
“This bill, which passed the House unanimously last year, will give the U.S. much-needed leverage to help stop the slaughter of more innocent Syrians,” Royce added.
SETF member Qutaiba Idlibi spoke at the meeting and discussed his experiences as a survivor of the Assad regime’s torture. He recounted farewell messages and expressions of love entrusted to him to share with the families of other victims.
“I plead with you to establish safe zones in my country that will stop the Assad regime’s planes and the Iranians from targeting civilians,” Idlibi read from a handwritten statement by Caesar addressing the American people and their representatives in Congress. “I hope for a safe zone that can protect women and children under constant attack.
“I hope that you stand with us to stop the machinery of death, so that the light of freedom can break the darkness of Assad’s prisons and dungeons. There are people that remain detained for six years in these prisons, awaiting your support. Do not let them down.”
Amnesty International published a report in August estimating 17,723 had died in prison in Syria since March 2011. As many as 300,000 are estimated to remain in custody as political prisoners in dozens of facilities across the country. Amnesty also suggested as many as 11,000 prisoners since the war began.
Moustafa is also a member of the Caesar Team, a group of volunteers working to identify the victims photographed by Caesar. Identification can be difficult due to the conditions of bodies at the time they were photographed.
The 55,000 photographs did not document 55,000 individuals, but amassed evidence of the deaths of thousands of Syrians. The Caesar Team has identified 781 victims and even provided evidence to some of their family members.
The Caesar Team is also working to bring legal proceedings for crimes against humanity committed in Syria. Judge Eloy Velasco of the Spanish Central Court of Instruction agreed on Monday to admit the first criminal complaint against Syrian security forces for crimes documented in Caesar’s photos. The SETF said in a statement it welcomed the move “as the first tangible step by the international community toward holding Syrian war criminals to account.”
The case involves the 2013 death of a 43-year-old delivery van driver with no known political connections. Photographs showed he was burned, beaten and starved in a Damascus prison.
The complaint was filed by the victim’s sister, who manages a beauty salon in Madrid. She has accused nine senior members of the Syrian Security and Intelligence Forces of state terrorism. The charges were investigated by the nonprofit Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers with support from former U.S. Ambassador Stephen J. Rapp.
“Today’s unprecedented decision by the Spanish National Court dispels the notion that regime officials can continue to perpetrate mass war crimes with impunity,” Moustafa said in a statement.
“This step toward justice would not be possible without the enormous sacrifices made by Caesar and his family and without the partnership of Guernica 37, the Commission for International Justice and Accountability and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Their continued support will prove imperative in developing the element of justice in our time.”
Caesar was scheduled to meet with advisers to President Donald Trump to follow through on a pledge to establish safe zones in Syria and take other steps to assist Syrian opposition.