Defector claims to prove the atrocities

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Barakat, a top official of Baath Party defected recently from Syria to Turkey.

Director of the “Crisis Table” of the Baath Party in Syria, Abdulmajeed Barakat defected from Syria to Turkey two weeks ago, bringing official documents with the original signatures of high-ranking Syrian Interior Ministry officials.

Barakat claimed hundreds of documents he smuggled from the Baath Party prove the atrocities of the Syrian regime against civilians in Syria.

Some of the documents Barakat has include the official logo of the Syrian administration with the signature of the interior minister. Some documents contain records of the protests and military operations in different provinces of Syria which were reported by high-ranking security officials in these provinces.

One of the documents was written to the governor of the restive city of Homs by a high-ranking Syrian Interior Ministry official. The document explains the measures to be taken in Homs before the visit of the Arab League observers.

An advance team of Arab League observers had visited Syria between December 2011 and January 2012 with the mission of monitoring human rights violations in Syria.

Barakat said he had been leaking information to the revolutionaries from the Crisis Center of the Baath Party from the beginning of the revolution, but he had to run away once he felt he had been discovered by the authorities of the Syrian regime.

Barakat claimed the documents he smuggled contained information about the special military raids and operations organized by the Syrian security forces against civilians living in cities like Homs, Dera, Hama and Idlib.

Barakat said he will hand over all the documents he has to United Nations officials.