Tortured youngster becomes rallying point for Syrians

[ejbr]

Source: The Sydney Mourning Herald

Liz Sly
May 31, 2011

BEIRUT: His head was swollen, purple and disfigured. His body was a mess of welts, cigarette burns and wounds from bullets fired to injure, not kill. His kneecaps had been smashed, his neck broken, his jaw shattered and his penis cut off. What finally killed him was not clear, but it appeared painfully, shockingly clear that he had suffered terribly during the month he spent in Syrian custody.

Hamza Ali al-Khateeb was only 13 years old.

And since a video portraying the torture inflicted upon him was broadcast on the al-Jazeera television network on Friday, he has rapidly emerged as the new symbol of the protest movement in Syria. His childish features have put a face to the largely faceless and leaderless opposition to the regime of the President, Bashar al-Assad, a regime that has angered the country for nine weeks, reinvigorating a movement that had seemed in danger of drifting.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/tortured-youngster-becomes-rallying-point-for-syrians-20110530-1fczc.html

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Reminiscent of Emmett Till and the savagery of man.

Video here (Warning: Disturbing Images)

[snagglepuss]

1. OMG there are no words.

:mad: :cry:

[awoke_in_2003]

2. he was just a kid...

our species is no better than any animal.

[femrap]

3. Animals are better, imho.

I couldn't look at his picture. May the Syrian people find justice and freedom.

[tblue37]

4. Considering that evidence of such torture of a child is bound to inflame

the protesters, it seems to me that the only thing that could lead the brutes to torture a child like this for a month is that they couldn't stop themselves--because they really, really enjoyed it. I honestly believe that torturers who do this sort of things are getting off on it. They must be.

[dickthegrouch]

5. Off to the Hague with them

This is when I would suspend my normal insistence on non-violence and sentence his killers to exactly the same death he suffered, and force the entire chain of command to watch.

[defendandprotect]

6. k/r -