Syria Rebel Defends Gruesome Video as Revenge
A Syrian rebel who was filmed apparently cutting out and eating the organs of a soldier has defended his actions as revenge for regime atrocities, Time magazine reported on Tuesday.
The U.S. news weekly said it had talked by Skype with the fighter, identified as Khalid al-Hamad, who appeared in a video that sparked outrage and condemnation, including from the Syrian opposition.
Hamad claimed he was driven to the gruesome acts by footage on the dead soldier's cellphone, showing him "humiliating" a naked woman and her two daughters.
The magazine said Hamad described participating in other acts of mutilating regime forces, including militiamen known as shabiha.
"I have another video clip... In the clip I am sawing another shabiha with a saw. The saw we use to cut trees. I sawed him in small pieces and large ones," Time quoted him as saying.
The magazine said Hamad, a Sunni like much of the opposition fighting against President Bashar Assad's regime, expressed hatred of member's of the leader's Alawite sect.
"Hopefully we will slaughter all of them," he told the magazine,
"They were the ones who killed our children in Baba Amr and raped our women," he said, referring to a neighborhood of the central city of Homs.
"We didn't start it, they started it," he added.
"Our slogan is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."
The video, in which Hamad leans over a uniformed body, cuts out organs and then holds one up to his mouth, has prompted an outcry around the world and thrown the mainstream rebel leadership on the defensive.
The National Coalition, the country's main opposition grouping, issued a statement saying it "strongly condemns" the act.
"The Coalition stresses that such an act contradicts the morals of the Syrian people, as well as the values and principles of the Free Syrian Army," it said.
"The Syrian Coalition reiterates its condemnation of such an act and stresses that it is a crime, regardless of the perpetrator.
"The culprit will eventually be tried in court in front of an honest and fair judiciary."
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay demanded rebel leaders take immediate action to prevent such "atrocious" acts within its ranks.
"The video that has just emerged from Syria, apparently showing a rebel leader cutting out and biting the heart of a dead soldier, depicts a truly atrocious act," she said.
"Mutilating or desecrating corpses during a conflict is a war crime.
"While it is not yet possible to fully authenticate the video, I urge the armed opposition groups in Syria must do everything in their power to halt such gross crimes.
"They must investigate this incident along with other alleged very serious violations by opposition fighters, including acts of torture and a succession of apparent summary executions and extra-judicial killings."
Pillay renewed her calls for the U.N. Security Council to task the International Criminal Court with investigating allegations of war crimes against rebel as well as government forces.
"I have repeatedly called for the case of Syria to be referred by the Security Council to the International Criminal Court, so that legal proceedings can begin against people believed to be responsible for serious international crimes, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, irrespective of whether they are on the side of the government or are in opposition to it," she said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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