Source:
The Sydney Mourning HeraldLiz Sly
May 31, 2011
BEIRUT: His head was swollen, purple and disfigured. His body was a mess of welts, cigarette burns and wounds from bullets fired to injure, not kill. His kneecaps had been smashed, his neck broken, his jaw shattered and his penis cut off. What finally killed him was not clear, but it appeared painfully, shockingly clear that he had suffered terribly during the month he spent in Syrian custody.
Hamza Ali al-Khateeb was only 13 years old.
And since a video portraying the torture inflicted upon him was broadcast on the al-Jazeera television network on Friday, he has rapidly emerged as the new symbol of the protest movement in Syria. His childish features have put a face to the largely faceless and leaderless opposition to the regime of the President, Bashar al-Assad, a regime that has angered the country for nine weeks, reinvigorating a movement that had seemed in danger of drifting.
Read more:
http://www.smh.com.au/world/tortured-youngster-becomes-rallying-point-for-syrians-20110530-1fczc.html
Reminiscent of Emmett Till and the savagery of man.
Video
here (Warning: Disturbing Images)