Four Corners: Feb 20

On Monday Four Corners will screen a report from Channel 4’s Jonathan Miller showing how the Syrian Government has turned on its own people, systematically arresting, interrogating and torturing ordinary citizens in an attempt to stop any form of protest or criticism.

The report aired in the UK in December.

As unrest grows in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad continues to insist the violence is being driven by criminals and gangs of bandits, encouraged by forces outside Syria.

Now reporter Jonathan Miller travels to Syria to investigate what’s really going on inside the country. There, he finds a government that employs what can only be described as a “torture machine” to stop dissent. His report features devastating video evidence of men, women and children being subjected to brutal beatings, whippings and more elaborate torture. They tell how, after being detained by the police, they are passed through various levels of interrogation overseen by the secret police, or Mukhabarat.

Much of this brutality has been captured on mobile phones by Syrian civilians and activists, and uploaded to the internet every week, because they are desperate to show the world what’s happening. But the most confronting images come from videos that have been filmed by the torturers themselves.

The report takes us to Syria and Lebanon where we hear from victims and activists who have experienced or witnessed torture at the hands of President al-Assad’s forces. Their stories, and the video evidence of torture and killing, build a dossier of systematic abuse conducted by the Syrian government.

Responding to the issues raised in the story, Four Corners presenter Kerry O’Brien speaks with a leading expert in the region about Syria’s future and the consequences if Bashar al-Assad were to leave office either through force or his own choice.

Monday 20th February at 8.30pm on ABC1.