Shameful

This video is almost a month old, but I watched it for the first time tonight. It is disturbing and humiliating to see this happening in Syria today. I don't understand what type of reforms Assad and his supporters are talking about, or who they think they are kidding, when a man is humiliated and abused in this way in Assad's Syria. There is no possibility of remaining impartial when we are faced with such brutality, and no justification is possible.

I'll translate this as much as I can, there is no context to the video, but the soldiers are described as members of the elite, special assignments unit, that is loyal to Assad. It was posted by Sham SNN on Youtube on the 16th of October, and is dedicated to the Arab League.

The man is being asked to smile and laugh to the camera. He is told to state his name, and then when he does so he is slapped brutally. In the video he is also told to say that he is happy for them to have sex with his sister, and that he has purchased drugs and weapons. Near the end of the video he complains that he is an asthmatic, and that he needs his inhaler. The man who was filming him at the start, and who is now standing next to him, gives him the inhaler, and asks him if he has "repented". The prisoners says "yes" and the soldier tells him that this is Ramadan, and that if he is a good Muslim then his promise means something. The video ends with the prisoner being slapped so hard that he falls to the ground.

Shameful and deeply disturbing. This is the kind of footage that the regime and its supporters do not want the world to see.