Exclusive from our correspondent with Syrian refugees in Turkey: As we were sitting in the lobby of our hotel after breakfast, a man approached and greeted us. Slim and pale faced, stubble showing, eyes sunk into his face, he looked tired. It was Mustafa, who had travelled from Istanbul to meet us.
We sat in a corner of the hotel’s empty restaurant while Mustafa was asked to give us his story. As he spoke our smiling faces turned serious as we listened to the harrowing first hand account.
“It was the 10th of Ramadhan after fajr. My dad, who was 73 years old, came home from the Masjid. Me and my brother sat outside the house a little distance away. Suddenly we saw on top of the hill 120 soldiers descending onto our house.
“My mother, father and wife were on the first floor; my two kids on the ground floor; and my brother’s wife and three children on the third floor. We saw this and ran towards the house. They entered and started to throw tear gas towards the children. They came for my brother and father. They executed my father in front of us and tortured both me and my brother. They shot my brother in the arm and laughed as he bleed in agony. They took his brother away and the next day the news came of his death.”
With tears in his eyes, Mustafa started to choke as he went on. “They oppressed us for two hours… The women…” He broke down. He told us how his wife and sister-in-law had been raped for two hours.
“Just like you, we are human? Are we not? Why would someone say this? Why should someone feel as though they have no basic human rights?” He went on, “If two dogs forcefully applied themselves on one female dog, the whole village would cause a stir. So how about when 15 soldiers force themselves on one woman to rape her? What is the world doing? And just think, this is happening everywhere, everytime.”
Sitting by his side, I could sense a level of seriousness in listening to just the first few words of this man’s discussion.. “Just like you, we are human? Are we not?” Why would someone say this? Why should someone feel as though they have no basic human rights?
“The world has reported 10,000 killed, we believe it to be at least 30,000… But what about the 50,000 orphaned, the 20,000 widowed and the 80,000 being tortured in the prisons today?”