A Change of Guard

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Tuesday 24 November 2015

Letter from Raqqa: 'A prison guarded by men in black'

Letter from Raqqa: 'A prison guarded by men in black'
A resident of ISIL-controlled Raqqa dreams of his hometown prewar and pre-ISIL.

Diana Al Rifai | 23 Nov 2015

This is the street where Ghareb al-Omawi's home was in Deir Az Zor, before he moved to Raqqa [Ghareb al-Omawi/Al Jazeera]
  
Syria's Raqqa province was taken by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group in late 2013 and its main city declared its capital. What was once a busy and bustling city is now a place where people live under a brutal and oppressive regime.

A resident of the city reflects on daily life under ISIL.

Ghareb al-Omawi is a name I made up and use on my social media accounts, such as Facebook, a fter the eastern region of Syria, from Raqqa to Deir Az Zor, fell under ISIL's control. Ever since, our life has changed forever.

Daily life in Raqqa has become more like a large prison guarded by masked men in black. We often wake up in the morning to the sounds of warplanes roaming the skies.

The drones almost never leave the city's skyline. They are accompanied by warning sirens that ISIL has set up in the city.

Now the children of Raqqa are no longer scared of bombings. They are even able to distinguish the type of warplane hovering above us, and whether it belongs to the regime, the Russian army, or the US-led coalition.

Women no longer scream as they used to when they first heard the sound of the warplanes.

We can now tell who the newcomers are in our city, when we see the panic, fear and anxiety on their faces as they hear the sound of warplanes.

Every day I leave my home and roam in and around the streets of Raqqa. With mixed feelings of fear, nervousness and disgust, I try to document atrocities committed by ISIL in the city.

I started documenting ISIL crimes after they arrested one of my close friends and later killed him on charges of spying for the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

I began publishing news about the daily events that occurred in areas under ISIL control. I also covered many violations, such as arrests, crucifixions and stonings.

Before the war, or the revolution, as I prefer to call it, against the dictatorship of the Bashar al-Assad regime, I was studying agricultural engineering at the Euphrates University.

No one cares about all those getting detained in Raqqa; no one asks about those innocent civilians taken by ISIL.

I used to spend my time like the rest of the Syrian youth; I had hobbies like football and swimming, and enjoyed going on dates.

When the revolution broke out in March 2011, I started taking part in the peaceful protests in Deir Az Zor in eastern Syria.

The peaceful protests lasted for about three months, and the number of demonstrators eventually reached 500,000 in the city's main square.

The regime forces began to crack down on protesters, targeting many youths. Residents responded with civil disobedience, setting up barriers and disrupting transportation routes in the city.

This prompted government forces to deploy tanks, heavy machinery and a large number of ground troops.

In the meantime, my family and I fled to Raqqa, which was better off than Deir Az Zor. We fled because we were afraid of the brutal shelling and the massive crackdown by the Syrian government.

I tried to go back to university, but I received a letter from one of my friends that shocked me and basically ruined my future. The letter said: "A dismissal order from the university has been issued against you for political reasons."

He did not provide me with more information regarding the dismissal order, and with this decision, I was denied the right to continue my studies. Until this day, I dream of going back to university.

In March 2013, the FSA liberated Raqqa from government forces with the help of fighters from al-Nusra Front, an alliance that later collapsed. Events escalated very fast, and by early 2014, ISIL controlled the city of Raqqa after fierce battles with FSA fighters, who later withdrew.

ISIL began to raise their black flags over their headquarters. They carried out many arrests,  began to steal from governmental organisations, and brought down everything related to the Syrian national identity in preparation to build their own "Islamic State".

ISIL built their so-called state by using methods similar to those employed by the Syrian government, including arrests and killings.

However, the brutality of ISIL's crimes surpassed the regime's, as they began crucifying, cutting off hands, stoning and publicly flogging people.

Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL] group parade through Raqqa in June 2014 [ Raqqa Media Center of ISIL/AP ]

ISIL has enforced strict rules against smoking cigarettes. Anyone arrested for smoking is immediately flogged in public with up to 40 lashes for the first offence, and flogged and put in jail for the second offence.

If they get caught a third time, they are flogged, fined, put in jail and exiled from the city.

Recently, arrest campaigns have increased, mostly targeting youth for behaviours such as smoking, wearing tight pants or shaving their beards. For women, the main charge is violating the Islamic traditional dress.

Having watched the situation deteriorate, I decided with a group of experienced activists and journalists to launch a project called Sound and Picture , which documents human rights violations committed by all the armed factions in the Syrian war.

This project, which gives a voice to the people who live in ISIL-held areas, has two sections: a media section and a documenting section.

I work in the media section, and our task is to either secretly receive or personally capture footage of whatever violation is taking place or about to take place. We then instantly post it on our pages. What we do is dangerous.

I cannot speak about the process we go through to receive or capture such information, as it could get us into serious trouble.

The violations committed by ISIL are beyond cruel, and some people have completely ignored this fact. No one cares about all those getting detained in Raqqa; no one asks about those innocent civilians taken by ISIL.

When we focus on our work with the determination of exposing all ISIL violations, the feeling of fear goes away.

We have hope that one day our work will set us free and bring ISIL to justice. That is what we want to show to the world.

Raqqa's new bridge was partially destroyed by a Russian air strike last week [Photo via Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently]

Source: Al Jazeera

2 comments:

Anonymous said...


In the book of Revelation of the Hebrew bible, it stated that four angels are bounded in the Euphrates River. It stated that at the End of Days they should be released. And that time is drawing very near for them to be release. I assume those angels are bad angels that will be released to do their bidding.

The bible stated that one-third of the angels in heaven rebelled against Yahweh and lost their positions of honor became rebels. And not only that, they taught men the technology of warfare. Plus, they married daughters of men and produced hybrid children known in Khmer's tongue as, Yeak or Giants. And because of the fallen angels and their hybrid children the earth became full of violent. Yes, the Giants did eat normal people if the people cannot satisfy their furious appetite. Because of that Yahweh God had to judge the earth with a Flood.

Middle East was where the civilization of men started. And this was where Garden of Eden was located. This is why there is such a ruckus over the Temple Mount between Jews and Muslims and the world (UN) for that matter. Seven Empires were birth forth from this region of the globe. And I believe that the Islamic State is the revival of the Ottoman Empire, based in Turkey. Temple Mount is where Yahweh throne is and Satan wants to usurp the right to establish his throne there also. You see, the conflict between Islam and Israel is about power struggle between Allah and the God of Israel. And this effects the whole world. How other nations view Israel has consequences on who side they are on.

The Bible stated that God will destroy those nations that gave Israel much misery, past and present. You ain't witness the full extent of God's wrath yet how he will deal with those Muslim countries.

Blessed the the Holy One of Israel!


Gog



Anonymous said...

if the USA is really serious about getting rid of ISIS/ISIL , it would have done it months ago , but these terrorists serve the obama and pentagon ... they are proxy tools to try to get rid of assad which the bankers of wall streets , israel and saudi don't want in power.... Obama is using the excuse that assad murder his people as O is doing everything he could to destabilize syria to remove assad from power-- including arming the ISIS and allowing them to sell oil from oil fields they captured to the G20 country...Pol pot did the same to khmers... where was the US ? instead it supported the khmer rouge in their fight against the viets ... russia was able to destroy most of ISIS troops in a few weeks , now pentagon is trying to save face by claiming that russia is only targeting some enemy of assad not much damage done to ISIS... then they show the footage of russian pilots destroying ISIS oil tanks and claimed it that it was the US who did it.. eventhough that footage was released days earlier by the russian pilots...