Detainees who were recently released told the organisation of beatings and harsh conditions in detention, raising fears for the safety of hundreds of others being held, including at least 499 people who were arrested on Sunday in house-to-house raids in the southern town of Dera’a.

 

Widespread arbitrary arrests have also taken place in recent days in other towns and cities around the country, including Qamishly in the north-east, az Zabadani and Madaya (west of Damascus), Duma (near Damascus) and the coastal town of Latakia.

 

Among the many arrested are political and social activists, including ‘Omar Qashash, an 85-year-old former political prisoner, 77-year-old lawyer Hassan ‘Abdel ‘Azim of the Democratic Arab Socialist Party, and ‘Abd al-Rahman Hamada, a 20-year-old student taken from his home on 30 April by security forces who were searching for his brother Wa’el. Wa’el Hamada and his wife Razan Zaitouneh, a human rights activist and leading human rights lawyer, respectively, have gone into hiding.

 

Most are held at unknown locations without any access to visits from their families or lawyers, adding to fears for their safety.  Two men who were detained last month in the coastal city of Banias told Amnesty that Syrian security forces had used rifle butts to hit them and many other detainees on the neck and collarbone.

 

One detainee said that after being stripped and beaten he was made to lick his blood off the floor. According to him, he and others detained with him had been beaten with sticks and cables as well as kicked and punched. Held without food for three days in overcrowded conditions in one detention centre, he said they had to resort to drinking dirty water from a toilet.

 

Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director Philip Luther said:

 

 

Amnesty has obtained the names of 54 people killed on Friday, bringing to 542 its figure for the total number of protesters, bystanders and others who have been killed during six weeks of pro-reform protests. The actual number of deaths is almost certainly higher.

 

The high number of deaths has been attributed to heavy-handed tactics by Syrian security forces, who have shot live bullets directly into protests and funeral processions and used tanks to shell residential buildings. The military last week laid siege to Dera’a, cutting off electricity and water supplies.

 

On 29 April the UN Human Rights Council condemned the ongoing grave human rights violations in Syria and called for a UN fact-finding mission to investigate. President Al-Assad’s government has accused “armed terrorist groups” of leading a violent uprising and of being responsible for the deaths of nearly 80 members of the security forces.

 

Amnesty has not been allowed to visit Syria since the protests began. The international media has also been severely restricted; foreign journalists have generally not been allowed into the country. Al-Jazeera confirmed to Amnesty today that its journalist Dorothy Parvaz has not been seen since arriving at Damascus airport from Qatar on 29 April.