out almost 55,000 photographs detainees were tortured and executed in the regime intelligence branches in prison. he is the namesake of the civilian protection act. he continues to be a key witness against criminals within the regime as well as the voice of conscience on behalf of the hundreds of thousands who remain detained by the regime. we are honored to have you with us today and now we are going to take a moment to turn the cameras off for the

the first witness is omar, former detainee in the regime and the vast network of prisons. he spent nearly two years in detention in syria and intelligence branch to 15 working on are the bodies of dead torture victims that later appeared in the photos of the file. while detained, he learned most of his family and village were killed. after breach to 15, 04 was moved to the president of the worst place on earth where he survived for a year before finally being released. he eventually traveled to europe and arrived in sweden where he has resided ever since. today he's a member of the team

and the assyrian emergency task force. with that, we will hear from him and then we will move to the second witness. ... >> schools and hospitals and bakeries have all been targeted. all day everyday. civilians live in fear of the regime. russia and iran. we cannot forget why so many people have come to this place. the very same detention i say for over three years. the regime, takes another city, it becomes like - every men

women and children, the hyundai, or end up in detention centers. what i'm going to tell you in the coming few minutes, is a story. a true story. my father left me industry to my hometown. in march, before he departed he whispered a few words my ears. guess what it was. i asked for freedom, and i was tortured. i was confused and i didn't understand. i'm 16 years old. i didn't truly understand the

situation. and what is going on. i was as like every other kid on this planet, i think it's like somebody protect you. about the police, that's what i thought even in syria. especially, my father was an officer. retired in 2009. but it was my dad was an officer, he protected me. and that's with the police should do. in prison they turbocharge me and forced me to stay that i've killed. but it's not that easy. he had to pull onto my fingers first before i give this false confession. i was only 15 years old. when the guard put scars on my

body and when my life peace experience became almost too much to bear. as with 50 years old when i wish to god i remembered one more thing from prison. something was different. i didn't know what was going on but we got less torture and more food than the guard is not screaming anymore not burning our bodies with their cigarettes and their giving as food. when i got out of prison, i try to realize what happened. into the state, and this month when i was in prison, i got more than food than usual. what was happening outside. everybody around the world, talk to me about prisoners. and what is going on in syria. that is why, we have to speak.

that's why we have to do anything even just try on twitter. it gives hope for a lot of people. i just published yesterday on social media that i will - they also say, it is amazing, something that happened, have to do something. that is happened before. what you know about your own experience tell that. it will change anything. this show them. i remember one tuesday a beautiful tuesday when i was in prison the ninth of june, 2015. i've been there for three years and all kinds of torture and i was starving. the guard opened the door and he said omar, the only time that

they say your name as they are going to kill you. it took me for my room. i killed somebody was next to me and asked me to go on the outside of the room. i looked at his face, he was my best friend at that time. the guards took me and put me in room 48 hours every single hour, day and night, i watched the guards, and he would ask me a question. how do you want me to kill you. be creative. i was forced to give 68 answers. not all of them was nice. he wanted to enjoy killing me. they pulled me out of the room and they took me in the car, and the blindfold my eyes and my hands tied behind me and they put me in the street facing the ground. the officers walked slowly behind me and i'm scared.

because i don't want to see how they are going to kill me. i do not want to know. he just got silent. and i heard load, aim, it took a million years for me between loaded name. and then he said shoot. in the died. for the first time. i never done before. didn't know how it would feel or what would happen. have any of you died before do you know how it feels to die. i thought well, finally life. i woke up to life. now it is happened. they come to take me, or the guy who was supposed be released. they killed him. the put my name on his face. and then took me outside prison

because it is monday to be executed. it took masi with his name because my mother paid him a thousand dollars. to get me out of prison. she didn't know how the memo wanted me to be alive in the killed my father and my siblings. and that happened in her village in syria. when the regime taken area, most will die or get arrested. that's what happened to them. what i mentioned, the mental torture is serious. nothing will help you understand. because of the charge you, if you don't express you don't understand it. it's the same thing, if we don't help them. the people of syria are suffering. it is not pain. in his fear. the fear not being able to see the children, the fear being

arrested and captured and tortured to death. it is not torture, is worse, is waiting torture is the worst. sometime, it seems impossible but as someone said, the way seems impossible until it is done. you have to do something. i will conclude by saying the words, it's an animal. i hope you all agree with that. i do pretty thank you. >> is a powerful testimony. lesson questions for you in a moment. we will turn now, to our second witness. he is the head of the syrian civil defense were commonly known as the white. he manages a network of over 2800 volunteers who saved about hundred 20000 lives in syria. he is originally from their is a

father of two. the floor is yours. >> first of all thank you for giving us this opportunity to talk about what is happening. speaking in native tongue. what was said by both caesar and omar, is a very harrowing influence of the horrors their face by the syrian but i will speak about the different perspective. i am the head of the syrian civil defense, populate known as the white almonds.

this organization of 2500 men, and 300 women, have dedicated their lives to saving others. when the bombs rained down we rushed to save lives from under the rubble what question did them upright we have saved more than 120,000 lives. in syria. 282 volunteers have been killed in the line of duty. deliberately targeted by the syrian regime in russia. we rescue people regardless of their ethnicity religion gender or politics and we have rescued our own family members complete strangers, and even a regime soldier. our motto expiration comes from the universal teaching found in the car on the reads whoever saves one life, is as if they

have saved all of humanity. yet for all of the lives we have saved, death is defeating us. every syrian that we have saved, there are five that we have lost. if only we had some of the bombs, we can save almost every single one. [speaking in native tonguel]. >> i'm here today to convey the voices of the millions of civilians wake up everyday hearing death. once an idyllic rural province known for its olives and cherries have been turned into on earth. since russia's intervention into 2015, the number of internally displaced people have doubled to a million. relentless our environment to retake areas like aleppo has forced millions to evacuate. now there is not another is led, numerals led to sleep nearly

4 million civilians are trapped. there is roughly the size of the state of rhode island. his prewar population of 300,000 has increased by more than tenfold. [speaking in native tongue]. since the beginning of the defense regime, by russian airpower and iranian militias. [speaking in native tongue]. has launched a systematic campaign targeting all infrastructure, water points, hospitals, white helmet centers. food markets, schools bakeries, have all been targeted and bombed. nearly everything that could help civilian survived, has been destroyed in the vast majority of people are struggling to practice and have basic food and shelter medicine. i was just weeks ago there no words to describe the apocalyptic orders i witnessed their . numbers are number no longer useful as a former cannot be quantified so i will tell you a story.

i saw father there standing on the side of the road with a sign, reading, i will sell my kidney pretense. can you imagine being so desperate to just provide shelter for your family. i did not come here to talk about humanitarian needs. senators, want to be very clear in this hallowed institution, what is happening in syria is not an earthquake or hurricane that can be sold with humanitarian aid funding. no amount of money and stop a single bomb falling over a child's bed. no amount of money can return a single displaced family to the home. we deeply appreciate the u.s. government support to the white helmet to nurture support in making sure the syrian people needs are met. the more funding to us will not solve the problem either. the ambulances, we purchased with your funding, are being pursued by russian drones and deliberately bombed. if russia has destroyed millions

of dollars worth of our u.s. funded equipment. when you give us more money, what you are telling us is that you will not stop the atrocities and said you must purchase mark ambulances to transport more injured civilians, order new cranes to lift the dilapidated concrete to save more families. mark protective clothing to deal with chemical attacks . raising funds to relief the suffering does not work any better by giving painkillers to pet cancer patient. what is needed is the political will to act and to protect civilians the overwhelming majority of the suffering results from one cause the absolute and beauty was that syrian regime in russia bumped civilians from the sky and yes we have other evils two. the thousands of iranian people known for their brutality and other extremist groups, who have similarly terrorized civilians but it is the unimpeded aerial

bombardment which is the primary cause of death and destruction and displacement of civilians. the area bombardment is a primary cause of the refugee exodus which has empowered far right parties. narrow bombardment and the west and willingness to stop it, is a primary recruitment tool for isis and terrorist groups. so today i ask you, to use your powers to end the root cause of all of the suffering but taking real action to clear the skies above syria. since 2011, we've been all of the reasons why interventions to protect civilians is impossible. but he was considered the consequences of not acting. the consequences of the world in action cannot be confined to serious borders. meeting the most basic humanitarian needs will cost billions a month, millions more refugees will play syria d'arc and the boardwalk can contain

them. an entire generation of children will be left uneducated. extremist groups will prevent chaos and future global coalition, and trillions of dollars to defeat new threats. does this sound more possible. does this cost sound more reasonable than actual to stop the atrocities being committed now. turkeys intervention last month, chef of the myth that the use of force to stop hostilities might cause further excellence can. in fact the opposite happened. after turkeys brief military intervention last week, there was complete stop in aerial attacks . in turkey cannot do this alone. they need your support and leadership. the enforcement of the national peace fire bio of the means necessary will create the conditions for real internationally backed. it including accountability for all perpetrators mass atrocities and war crimes. price to believe in the values of the historian religion but

for march 2011, the values of democracy, practiced in this building everyday, and it can be practiced in syria to read with support of the people around the world, we can rebuild our country in a free peaceful democratic syria that operates beyond the evils of the regime and extremist. i do not wish to sit here in 2025 and detailing the suffering of yet another unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in syria. to speak of several hundred thousand more lives lost 2 million still without a home, and paying tribute to hundreds more by thomas who have been killed saving lives. and as we the tenth year of war, the world has run out of words. now is the time for action. thank you. >> thank you very much for both of you have been given very powerful testimonies. >> had to say those questions

are valuable when you hear the testimony of them who are extraordinary at such a young age to have to recount sit so many times relive it. and the tremendous work with the white helmets. i sat here is the chairman of the foreign relations committee we approved to stop us on when he was using chemical weapons. and i had a limited value because it was only pursued to give up those weapons that we knew at the time. i pass legislation to help the thin, syrian forces that we thought independence we thought it could ultimately change tide of their own country. this point, i hope that your testimony and caesar's testimony

before you, pricks the conscience of this nation. there are some things we can do. we can immediately seek implementation of the caesar act. we can begin to create a consequence for those who are committing these horrific acts. walmart testimony do we need. when more visualization do we need. we can do something like the administration changing his decision to zero out the resettlement of syrian refugees to the united states. refugees who are the most thoroughly vetted of any group of me come to the united states. carl the trump administration could start refugee settlement is a message to the world who need to take care of those who are playing. and tomorrow, we started an effort of a surge in

international efforts to hold those accountable and to seek a true cease-fire an implementation of it. these are things that take political will. it is a will that is not been forthcoming from our country. it's not unique to this administration either. so i hope that this testimony that is everything i could ask you about, assistance from humanitarian organizations, i could ask you about with us we could do what you have said it so fluently. giving more money to buy more ambulances that will get bombed by the russians, is not going to solve the horrific violence. so for myself, i will seek to find ways in which we can prick the conscience of our colleagues, and of this administration and of others who can ultimately cast a garish

light upon these horrific acts of violence into seek the movement that begins with change the course of events. because that was what we ultimately seek to serve to change the course of events for the better. both here and abroad. and i appreciate your testimony. i have no questions. >> thank you. senator perdue. >> to say listening in this moment of luxury, or safety here in the united states capital, they were chagrined and or by what you told us today. i do have a question, want to allow you to speak more. i agree but senator menendez, is not about american politics, it's about human life in syria. what you went through, omar, as

a 15 -year-old, shocks me. i want to thank you for being here and having the guts to be here. and i also want to thank you for the white helmets in your leadership. fully uphold these people accountable. and we have to stop the killings. you mentioned clearing the skies. some of the supported no-fly zone in syria. that would've saved thousands of lives. and the syria civilian protection act became law in december . agree with senator menendez, we need to implement that. when asked both of you, but can we do to help all these people accountable. russia, uae is now recognized and these are things the u.s. can have influence on pretty were not walking away. none of us on the walkway from syria and our responsibility it

in that the world. the un in 2016 created the general assembly, the international mechanism. tell us your personal opinions about what we need to do now. to help make this end and hold these people accountable. omar. >> owner: thank you senator. i think before we think about pulling accountable we have to stop them. because, it is still going on. people are dying every day and i still like, when i get contacted, any person he says me like tortured and limited. starvation is horrible. we have to stop them and if not, the leader of the free world, it will take an action by nine of the u.s. does not have a great relationship with europe, they

don't have it cut if we are going to support turkey, not for turkey itself and right now feels like the only thing that you can do because there is no attention to send the truth and i understand that. and b not a good idea at all. but to you, your calves their own lives. if nato, support them in providing efforts and stopping the killing. what are talking about how much they like. even if turkey is coming inside of your country. it's only way to survive. it doesn't matter who will protect us, just protect us. just protect his . pulling accountable, there is no one paying in the war. i even in the preview of my father being killed by the soldiers to make that.

picture pretty my father's picture, my father looks like any other human being on earth. i loved him. he loved me. so there is evidence of them being killed. and now we have five legal cases prosecutions against the crimes in syria. it's in germany and spain and france and norway and sweden. we have to support them and stop one here in the united states because they have more power in europe. been doing any prosecutions. interments just two days ago started with two guys have been arrested through the courts. they have to start now. and the kind of not doing enough when it comes to prosecutions. i don't think germany has more ability to do that than the u.s. the u.s. is waiting for something. i don't know what. i don't know what's going on.

still u.s. can do more than what it is doing right now. and really bad. i just know what you're saying. i know i have ten seconds. i will try to make it possible. but when i was not rushed to 15. one of the almost two years there, the guards everyday, would come every day and asked for somebody who speaks english. take this person and then translate to some people who only speak english. and the prisoners used to translate credit i was working in the isolation room. with dead bodies. and burned a number in his head. i was writing december. before taking pictures when using people to go out.

they translate once and then there killed. i saw this person going to this room and they die and then i understood. it's include urgent and syrians, americans should do something to protect these people there. the reason americans, if you don't care if somebody doesn't care what's going on in the syrian, there are americans die. american citizens, we have to do anything in the power to speak like an american. i feel it is amazing that we can hope, the signed fraction two. thank you. >> go ahead.

[speaking in native tongue]. >> the russians intervened in 2015 and they used to be choked 24 times the security council . [speaking in native tongue]. [speaking in native tongue]. >> the first thing that the united states and the international community need to do is to take all of the conversations for the future syria for saving the syrian people out of security council because in the security council, everything gets vetoed by the russians . even the issue of delivering assistance to people are desperate need across the

borders. they have been vetoed last month by the russian government. [speaking in native tongue]. [speaking in native tongue]. >> rushes vetoed anything it just merely condemns the war crimes that are being commended is a regime rfi russia. as we saw in 2017, the russians used seven vetoes just to stop the work of a joint investigative mechanism which confirmed the use of chemical weapons by the regime in syria.

... ... ... >> translator: and allow me to say that if russia uses its veto

and stops the humanitarian assistance across the border in all of the funding to the un would be in direct support in the criminal regime and iranian militia. thank you very much for being here. i can't add much to talking about the fact anything we say pales in comparison to what the two of you have experienced but i do want to ask some questions because i think it helps me to e able to witness people we want to respond to this crisis. so, this is probably for you, critics of the cease-fire would argue the territorial gain that has been made by its side and

they did nothing to address the humanitarian crisis. first of all wealth of cease-fire hold and second, what will happen to those that are currently if assad and the iranians are successful? >> translator: we have been warning of the humanitarian crisis that will result back before the agreement.

>> and we know russi russia is a guide by any they signed in syria. [speaking in native tongue] this cease-fire will end the same way every other has ended in syria. they are a tool that is used by the russians and the regime in order to reorganize the situation on the ground to change the deployment of forces and to be able to at a later date resume the unimpeded bombardment of civilians turkey

took a very bold step in intervening to stop the assault on civilians and it is unable to enforce the civilian protection mechanism on its own. that is the work of the turkish government and is not my analysis. turkey has asked the international community, a united states and nato for more support to support its efforts in northwest syria and it's something we've been asking for for many years for the no-fly zone in civilian protection. >> in just 60 days, 1 million people were forced out of their homes and displaced by the

latest offensive and there's still 200,000 who are without any shelter. >> [speaking in native tongue] if that is the scale of the crisis we have seen so far it is impossible for us to even imagine what would happen if as you said the regime was successful in retaking. when we talked about sending more humanitarian assistance to those that have been displaced

they could return to their homes. >> [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: after that we need to go back to the un and then force them to apply the correct interpretation of the u.s. security council resolution 2254, which has been misinterpreted because of the pressure from the russian government. [speaking in native tongue] the constitutional committee which has come out of the 2254 resolution is not a solution for the crisis in syria. the people never went to the

streets or called for a new constitution. the problem is not with the constitution but with who is implementing the constitution. >> [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: the solution is a stop to all of the hostilities, accountability for all those who've committed war crimes in a governing transitional body which can allow the syrians to have been displaced.

receiving the nobel peace prize because after all of that, he's committed and signs the peace agreement with opposition. for any kind of price or peace because all he's done is commit crimes against his own people and he should be held accountable for that. i believe this committee will do everything we can to try to support that. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you to the witnesses. sincere thank you. your testimony today is going to become very public in the world.

with that, we are adjourned. the

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [indiscernible conversations] >> following the senate foreign relations committee hearing, political dissidents joined director m. night shyamalan held and other humanitarian activists at a press conference. [indiscernible conversations]