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Syrian diary
Dedicated to our friend
A soldier of the Syrian Army
Amir Abu Jafar
And to all citizens that died at the hands of terrorists
Some time has already passed, but it's still difficult
to understand everything that we have seen
It all seems like a surreal delusion,
like a strange picture that should not exist
There was a beautiful, nice, peaceful country
and in front of our eyes - we worked there for 7 months.
In front of our eyes it was simply blown to pieces.
We met with many people in various towns: soldiers, civilians.
I don't even know how many of them are still alive, will they see tomorrow.
Our documentary is a point of view on the situation in Syria
seen by those that are already doomed.
Anybody who has been to Syria, that knows Syria,
knows that it's very peaceful here. Nobody judges nobody.
We all live alike.
Everybody has their faith. This.. This is not a problem.
We have jews in Damascus.. A whole district.
Nobody bothers them. Nobody.. They are very close to us.
Our people like any people, it's it doesn't matter wh.. just..
The important thing is that you are a human being. It's that simple.
But we're not used to this. It's the first time this is happening.
We are surrounded by real nature: rivers, waterfalls, trees.
This beauty is included in the human being itself. It's love, kindness.
(Iyad, military operator) Syrians love this way of life. That's what freedom ment to us.
But then the crisis came and people with instructions from the West
started to use "Freedom" and similar deep and beautifult words
to destroy the beauty in which we were living.
(Saer Darwish, fighter) We started to kill local people in the morning. Many.
We entered houses and even shot people that were still sleeping.
Then we gathered them in a room and started recording on our phones,
blaming everything on the military
until we heard that the army was coming our way.
Some of us ran away and some opened fire at the soldiers.
I don't know what they want.
(Bessam Abu Haidar, soldier) I bet you there is not a single educated person among them.
What do they want? Freedom?
They destroyed the entire city. Ask any of them what type of Freedom
is in butchering and killing people. That's Freedom to them?
Every day somebody dies. Every day rockets fall.
(Nadya, Bessam's wife) There are many injured, but even more dead.
We are afraid to let out our children.
They want to go out and play, like before, but we don't let them.
We're afraid something will happen.
We're afraid when they go to school, the fighters often shoot at schools.
I'm afraid to go to the market.
I'm walking and thinking: "What if they kidnap me"
We just want to sleep without fear.
Now we sleep with a gun nearby.
We close all doors and check the yard every half-an-hour..
What if somebody has thrown in something or placed explosives?
I sleep and fear that they will come and capture us,
*** us in front of my husband and then kill us.
There was an explosion 7am. Children were going to school.
Their parents were driv ing them.
There was a school bus there, completely burned out.
There were toys everywhere. Many kids died.
How can you fight for the freedom of your country by killing children?
(Evgenij Lebedev, assisstant director)
Especially considering how vile.. savage and.. cruel.
We were returning from school...
May the lord revenge for us.
What are we guilty of? What?
The one who blew us up, what gain did he get from it?
Now he's burning in hell.
We continue to study this humanitarian issue
We support the opposition and political changes in Syria
Both churches and mosques have the same word in Syria - Temple.
Everybody is welcome in, regardless of religion.
A soldier from our escort is muslim,
but he prays together with a christian caretaker.
Where and how are irrelevant,
what's important is the return of peace to Syria.
There was big fight here.
They tried to split two zones, a christian and a muslim.
The people refused and were attacked. They couldn't leave.
(Yara Saleh, journalist Al-Ahbaria)
We saw a man from Libya and several from Saudiarabia
They don't know what is faith.
They say that they are muslim, but they don't know what it is.
They don't know anything. Fake muslims.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...
We had many of these cases:
We catch a guy, he's holding a rifle,
he's shaking his head and repeating "I didn't do anything"
We take blood samples and find drugs.
Often we find powder or pills in their pockets.
Another case: A guy comes at us, shooting.
We take cover, shoot back, hit..
He keeps walking, doesn't feel anything.
That's after using a substance.
Whoever takes these drugs doesn't understand what he's doing.
He doesn't recognize anyone, is able to kill his father, brother.
He doesn't know where he is or even what he is.
They say they do it for the faith.
Killing and cutting the head of an "infidel" is a big honor.
That brings them closer to god. There are some people like that.
They kill peaceful people and say "Allah Akbar"
to clean their conscience, if they indeed have one,
And to prove to others that they are on the right path
The fighters think like this:
"When I die, I will go to heaven and have many virgins."
I'm not talking about the leaders, I'm talking about normal fighters.
They don't know anything. One of them once told me:
"You're a journalist and you know more than me.
What will happen when all this ends?"
I told him "Look, let's be realistic:
The Americans never liked us. Obama doesn't like us.
Israel doesn't like us. They don't care about our people.
Look at what happened in Afghanistan, Iraq."
He said "I know", so I said "Well, then why do you
take their money? You really think they want your freedom?"
He said "No. We don't take their money."
I said "Ok, so who gives you the money"?
- "The Sheikh." - "And who gives him money?"
- "I don't know." - "Ah, so you didn't think."
Next time I told him:
"You can rest assured that they always have an agreement."
He asks "What does 'agreement' mean? Really.."
Then I said, "Nothing. It's not important, forget it."
What can you explain to such a person?
And he's not alone.
Another one said: "I've been to all prisons for robbery and drugs."
- "Ok, and what do you do now?" - "I believe that God has forgiven me."
- "Did you ask him for forgiveness? How do you know this? Who told you?"
- "The Sheikh. He told me that I was forgiven, but now I had to fight for him."
I killed three of my friends. I cut their throats
because they told me they were traitors.
Then we placed explosives in houses with dead people
and made it look like the army had bombed the place.
There are not kids. Not even people.
They see life and faith different.
They are not people. Nobody knows how they think.
Nobody knows how they think. What do they want?
They want freedom. What freedom?
Killing people is freedom?
Cutting.. people up like chickens, like sheep is..
How can you cut people up? What kind of faith is that?
How can you cut people up?
And smile and dance...? What faith is that?
I'm 50 years old.
I've been to many places. I've seen many things.
The kind things that are happening here right now
I have never seen, not even heard of.
And you don't even know where they came from.
The Syrian government must stop shooting at protesters and allow demonstrations.
We were filming dead bodies on the streets and in hospitals.
In the hospital we were told that everybody that had been captured
by these fighters had been ***.
Children, adults and even seniors.
Their cruelness is limitless.
People even started to buy grenades, we were told.
These are not single cases, many told us the same story:
They buy hand grenades so if stopped by some freedom army
they could simply blow themselves up.
Because nobody wants to end up in the hands of these..
Fiends.
Simply "leaving" is easier.
How do I know that they took orders from abroad?
When they kidnapped our crew outside Atalto it was first said
by the National Syrian Council. This council is only called Syrian.
First it was placed in Turkey, then Qatar.
They ordered to make two videos:
One with us three and another one with one of their officers.
All the things they made us say had previously been sent abroad
by satelite phone and returned in a revised version.
I was transcribing the text from the telephone to paper
since almost none of them can write.
So, basically, the number was foreign. More than 10 digits.
Saudiarabia and Qatar were involved in negotiations with the government.
So. You're getting orders from Saudi- arabia and Qatar. You're what? Syrian?
I don't think so.
There are Syrians that don't have.. that are.. weak.
With a bit of money you can.. work with them.
And they are no longer Syrian.
That was the first question:
"Where are you from, what's your religion?"
Our operator, for example is christian.
They forced him to pray like muslim.
They gave me a hidjab and told me to cover up.
I asked "If you're fighting for freedom, why don't you respect mine?"
"Why don't you let me dress and say what I want?"
They said "No, you can't go without the hidjab."
They tried to kill us for our words.
They don't work for our people.
To the contrary, they will kill us. They will kill our children.
They will take our lives.. in.. in..
It's a type of politics, this..
We are all interested in the deve- lopment of the situation in Syria.
Maybe our views differ, but our goals are similar.
Once we were filming at night,
we even had a night-vision camera.
We went to that combat line..
The cleanup operation has moved into an active phase.
You can hear the fire exchange. The soldiers are moving
from house to house, care- fully choosing their steps ...
Turn it off!
We're moving in almost complete blindness through ruined houses.
We take a strategic position in a highriser
from which we can see the whole district.
A bit later a bullet passed a few centimeters from my head.
Snipers are firing, that's what what most scary.
The fact that they missed this time is sheer luck.
Five centimeters lower and I wouldn't need a haircut.
We can't move on.
We have to stay and wait until the situation calms down.
We move out at dawn.
The target house is 1 km away.
The first feeling was a chill down my spine.
I jumped down the stairs. The colonel came running after me.
He was even more worried than me.
He started asking if I really got hit
I said I was fine, that they've missed.
Two days later, we got to know that he had been shot by a sniper.
First they tied up our hands.
Every day they whipped us with belts, beat and kicked us.
They even tried to *** me.
Then they killed the assisstant operator because in his phone
they found photos of a Syrian flag and soldiers.
The Sheikh had decided that we all deserved death. But him first.
They took him out together with our driver Hussam.
They blindfolded him, he heard shots.
They took off his blindfold and said:
"See, you will be punished in the same way if you lie.
You must give us information that we don't already know."
The shot him with 60 bullets. Two full magazines.
These fighters, whenever they enter various districts,
the first thing they do is to set up an execution.
It doesn't matter who.
They kill the guy, record it on phones and upload to the net.
That happened in the Sirian district in Aleppo:
They took two bypassers and cut them up in front of everyone.
The other citizens are then hit with a psychological sense of fear.
They see a throat being cut and imagine themselves in that place.
So the peaceful citizens run, they leave their houses.
Those that can.
They say that the Syrian media lies, right?
Ok, so we lie. Everybody knows that we lie.
So let us lie.
Why do you need to kidnap us, kill us?
Why do you need to bomb our offices?
If we really lie and nobody believes us,
like they say on Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabia, REN-TV,
Then why are you so afraid of us?
The problem is that we don't.
The fighters are doing many bad things and we show it.
That's why they hate us. That's why they want us dead.
All journalists on the side of the government are targets.
When you are with the army, you are the main target.
If my face is ugly, I would hate looking at myself.
Thus I think that it's best that the arabic countries,
considering their national, humanitarian political and military commitments,
got involved and did everything necessary.
They day we were returning, only out of the people we knew
35 people had died.
Inofficial data says that over 9000 sodiers have been killed
and I'm not even talking about civilian losses
at the hands of these, so-called, Freedom Fighters.
(Ahmad Badruddin Hassun, High muftij of Syria) The provocators want one thing.
They want to segregate the people by religions and
split the country in small pieces.
There is no unity in the opposition.
Some want to create a secular state, others a closed religious one.
The third ones take up arms and destroy the country.
They all fight with each other, with the people and with the authorities.
This opposition is controlled from abroad.
They don't have political goals.
Their purpose is creating chaos.
I have invited everyone, even the foreigners to negotiate.
They refused. Their purpose is to take the power.
They all say the president must go, and then we can negociate.
The question is: Who will they be negociating with?
When I was going with you, once.. twice.. horror, horror.
In the districts where.. Where the bandits are, there is no life..
They broke everything.. They kicked everyone out.
They steal everything they can. Break everything...
They make this movies and claim the army did it.
They want to tell the world that the army is to blame.
Everything bad - the army. Everything good - freedom fighters.
They want to tell.. They claim the people are supporting them.
This is not true.
Remember what happened to the ancient city Troy?
The word "Freedom" in our case is also a troyan horse.
It destroyed freedom and peaceful life like Troy.
But nature gives us strenght I know that good will win.
Whatever happens, we'll live peacefully, loving each other.
Because we belong to this holy ground called Syria.
That's what we live for.
(Hanni Azishad, mother) I haven't seen my son in two months now.
He called and said he would come home in the morning,
But my mother's heart felt something bad.
He didn't come home. I called - silence.
Later I got to know what happened:
His squad was defending the main mosque in Aleppo.
They were surrounded by fighters and snipers.
Then they tried to blow up the gates.
They blew up the walls and entered from behind.
We are christians, but my son said he will defend it
because it's a Temple, a holy place.
He even fought barefoot to honor the traditions
Despite the shells and broken glass.
He got hit by two bullets. His friend was hit in the leg.
He took him out and put him in an ambulance,
refusing to go himself.
When he ran back, he was shot again.
He was killed at the stairs of the mosque.
(Estel Azishad, sister) I told him I praid for him.
And he corrected me: "Pray for Syria first, then me."
His country was always first for him.
I haven't seen him in a long time.
I called him, told him to please come home,
that I missed him, that I wanted to see him.
But I didn't get to see him again.
One day we were going with the soldiers.
Not on the streets, through yards, houses, kitchens.
In one of the houses we found this one poor man.
He lived thanks to the army.
His relatives were dead, the soldiers brought him food, water.
When he saw soldiers, he sprung up.
He was blind on one eye, but when he saw soldiers
he always said "Welcome" to every one of them.
Even if there were ten: "Welcome, welcome".
This man was found dead.
These animals shot him with 17 bullets.
On the walls they wrote: "For your long tongue."
Thus they basically provoked all christians in Syria.
Maybe they saw a TV next to him and killed him for it.
I just have one question to the fighters:
If there is a God that created everything
and all holy scriptures say that all humans are equal,
then why do you kill us?
Why do you say it's in the name of freedom, of God?
What did I do? Why am I a target?
Why do you kill peaceful people? Soldiers? What for?
*** is a joke for them. It's easier to kill a human than a sheep.
They don't have feelings, hearts. They only think of themselves.
They think they should kill more, so that we fear them more.
Enough of death. We're tired of it.
We setup a post on the road to Homs.
We stopped an Alavite family.
We arrested the father and *** his 6-year-old daughter.
Then the coordinator called, he gave a place and a gun from Turkey.
He sent me to blow up a counterintelligence house.
I killed 7 soldiers.
Then I took an axe and started chopping up one of them.
I wanted to see if he had blood.
How can you call these people "peaceful opposition"?
Freedom Fighters?
It's madness, what they are doing.
I believe that anybody thinking that should come to Syria
and see for themselves how calm it is where the army is.
Meaning, the army is protecting the people.
I get the feeling that the other side is made up of real freaks
that have nothing holy, nothing behind their souls.
They can betray their country just like their own parents.
Look at these clips. Would you want these democrats ruling your country?
Walking down the streets, playing with your children?
Look at their faces. Do they look good or bad,
considering what they have done.
Would want to see these freedom fighters in your city?
Fighting for your freedom, safety and democracy?
They called from an unknown number: "You're Ramez' brother?"
Take your dog back, we killed him in the area of Vadi-saeh.
When I saw my father and brother I didn't believe it.
There were dozens of bodies
and they were shooting at them to prevent us from picking them up.
One of the survivors, saved by the army told us that
the fighters had put them up against a wall to kill
when suddenly a car intervened. Those were my father and brother.
They shot and wounded them, pulled them out of the car
and ran over their heads while they were still alive.
I'm still trying to recover - they were still alive.
Whatmore, they killed the son in front of the father
and then ended him as well.
One of the victims was a pregnant woman.
They cut up her stomach and played football with the baby.
It's unimaginable. It doesn't fit in the head.
They are raping women and killing children.
For what?
I can't even imagine it.
You know Bessam, he is very kind, despite the sorrows.
He loves our four girls, loves to play with them.
But now he rarely comes home. They miss him.
He leaves early and comes back late.
We worry. They have even put a prize on his head.
I call him often, but he rarely answers - working.
Then he calls backs and calms me down,
says he won't come for lunch.
He's afraid something would happen to his boys when he's out.
He loves his country, he's even ready to sacrifice himself for it.
Syria is more important for him than parents, children, wife.
I understand and support him.
I'm ready. We're ready to lose husbands, children, brothers.
We're ready to join the army ourselves to return the peace we lived in.
When I go into combat I see death, but I'm not afraid,
because it's an honor to sacrifice myself for my country,
like my father and brother.
The most important part is to return the peace we once lived in.
I wish to see Syria like it was before. Peaceful.
I want it to win this world war.
The path up a mountain is difficult and tough.
We lose friends and family to save Syria
and to reach the top from where no other peak will be seen.
It's my great dream: to live together peacefully.
Like always.
We've been to six places in six days, all empty.
They told us there was not a single woman in the town,
only bandits.
We were being led to another town at night
when a light grenade exploded and the army opened fire at them.
I fell to the ground and waited for it to stop.
Then the army shouted: "Yara, we know you're there!"
"We hope you're all-right!"
I was like: "I thought I would never see my mom again!"
"I'm free!"
I got up and ran to them.
When I saw our flag: red, white, black and two green stars,
I thought "I'm finally free!"
I couldn't walk.
An officer picked me up and carried me away. I was crying.
The officer said "Don't worry, Abdallah is already with us."
I jumped up and was instant- ly hugging my operator.
I said the driver, Hussam, was still with the Syrian Freedom Army.
It hurts me to say that, because they are not Free, nor Syrian, nor an Army.
The officer said, "I will free him whatever it takes!"
And he did it.
I've returned...
Dad, I've returned...
I want to say just one thing: "Lord, bless the Syrian Army!"
They are our family.
This army.. it's the people.. we're all family.
How else can you understand it? There's a brother, a son.
This is our people, it's not an army, it's our people,
they're just working in the army, like others work in other places.
We're really just one family.
We lived, we live, and, bless the Lord, we will live.
I bet you that we will live.
It's just really impressive when people see a helicopter,
They just run out with flags and wave and cheer.
When you look at these soldiers in combat,
it seems that they are emotionless and stiff.
They are concentrated and very serious,
ready to sacrifice themselves to not let the fighters through
or to save a friend.
They are strong and brave even though some are very young.
Even wounded plead to return to combat.
When an operation is over, you can't recognize them.
Seemingly the same people, but they play around like kids.
They joke, they play, they sit down and drink tea.
It's a tradition we have. They send the youngest to find water,
another to get sugar, a kettle.
They smile and laugh like nothing had happened.
I look at them and can't believe it's the same brave soldiers.
Every evening they say fare- well as if it was for good.
They live from one day to the next.
Nobody knows when he'll die.
So the goodbyes are like if they were the last.
Amir was my friend, we spent the war together.
We fought togher, we worked together, we relaxed together.
He has three kids. He was a very brave warrior.
He wasn't afraid to participate in any operations,
but was very kind and calm.
He joked, he helped the refugees.
They sent us on a mission to Aleppo.
On the way, he felt that he would die.
He told me: "Look after my wife and children. I smell death."
I told him to stop messing around, but he started to sing sad songs
and said "I will sacrifice myself, I will not return to Homs."
Two days later, he was kidnapped.
Last time we saw each other was in Damascus.
He called and said he would be nearby and wanted to meet.
We met and I didn't recognize him. He had always been kind and happy,
and here he was black as a storm cloud, full of negative energy.
I thought back then, "What if he is sensing something?",
but I pushed that thought away.
Two days later they called and told us that he had been captured
and that they are demanding money.
We were thinking how to help, how to do anything for him,
but an officer told us
that when they capture soldiers, they never return alive.
(Zeinab, Amir's wife) I called him, he didn't pick up.
Then I called Bessam, who told me he went to buy something.
I called him again, an unknown voice answered.
It said "I'm witht the Free Army, we have captured your husband.
Either you give us a million liras or we kill him."
Then they turned off the phone.
I called my uncle, told what happened.
They called me several times, mocking my feelings.
We tried to negotiate, we prepared the money, but they didn't answer.
We talked several times, discussed money,
then they turned off the phone.
The next day they called and said they had left him outside Aleppo,
telling us to go and get him.
We found him with the head cut off, next to three other soldiers.
They beat him, tortured him and then, while he was alive,
they put him up on a saw table and sawed off the head.
It's a big loss for me, but why killing him like that?
Not even animals do this. They are completely savage.
Before killing someone they always first cut off hands, feet, arms..
Slowly, carefully. Then the neck.
I have no words to explain how it's possible to do that.
He was very kind, lived by God.
So kind that he gave things away even when he himself needed help.
Loved people. Loved to help everyone.
He loved me, our three kids, my parents.
I hope the Lord won't forgive them for my husband.
I hope he takes their closest so that they feel what I feel.
The Syrian Freedom Army destroyed our quiet, peaceful lives.
God won't help them. He will punish them.
The transition to demo- cracy in Syria has begun
and it's time for Assad to get out of the way.
Author: Anastasia Popova
Operator: Mikhail Vitkin Assistant director: Evgenij Lebedev