Witness accounts tell level of Syrian regime's brutality on pro-democracy protestors

ANKARA (A.A) - As a deadly crackdown on protestors against the Syrian president escalates despite international condemnation and threat of sanctions, witness accounts reveal the dimensions of Damascus regime's handling of the crisis in its most brutal and cruel manifestations.  According to U.N. estimates 3,500 civilians have been killed and over 20 thousand people have been jailed in the eight-month-old uprising against Bashar al-Assad. "The prisons were so crowded that we were forced to stand on feet all the time. Ones who stand next to a wall were lucky because they could get an hour of sleep leaning against the wall. There were even prisoners who did not eat to avoid going to the restroom," Abu Mohammad, a Quranic teacher from Qaboon, Damascus, told the Anadolu News Agency.  Mohammad, who was briefly held in detention for taking part in the protests said there were children between 14-17 years of age in prisons. "Detainees screamed the whole place down under torture. Torturers meted out their brutality even to those kids. Even those who had committed no crimes confessed to one to stop it," Mohammad said.  "I was not a rebel before I was detained. I had thought that all of this was a western plot. But I have seen in the prison that the regime is trying to oppress everyone to hold on to power," Mohammad said as he told the story of another prisoner who was threatened by the security forces that they would rape his wife and daughter unless he turned himself in.     Ahmet Al Hamawi, an MD, is another victim of the Assad regime. His four-year-old daughter was shot dead by a sniper while playing outside their house. "I kept her body in the fridge for a week before I could bury her in our garden," Hamawi said. "People had to bury their relatives in the gardens, parks and mosque yards."