Moment to turn the cameras off. Caesars testimony, and thank you all for attending today. The committee turned the cameras back on to hear from two syrian vivors of the civil war. They spoke about their bashar alassads prisoners and how americans should strive to make the voices of syrians heard. Portion is about 40 minutes. Minutes. Hear from our second panel. Our first witness is omar hes a detainee in the rashad regimes vast network of prisons. He spent nearly two years in 215 bodies of mbered the dead, tortured victims but later photos in the caesar file. Most of his family and village killed. After branch 215 omar was moved worst ison dubbed the place on earth where he survived for a year before finally being released. Eventually travel to europe and arrived in swede wherein hes resided since. Of the s a member syrian eam and the Emergency Task force. With that well hear from him and then move toward our second witness. To members of this committee for inviting me. Talking to you right now, people are scared in the idlib province. Children are dying. Bombardment. Nstant schools, hospitals have all been targeted. Every day, civilians live in fear of the horror of the regime. Russia and iran. During the humanitarian attack idlib we cannot forget why so have come to this desperate place, to the very detention i faced for over three years. And the regime advanced overtakes another village, it ghosts. Like cities of in a sentiment, women and children either die, flee, or up in Detention Centers like me. Going to tell you in a coming few minutes is story. Story. My father left me on the streets hometown. In march, of 2011, before he departed he whisper add few in my ears, guess what it was . [inaudible] i was tortured. I was confused, i didnt why. Rstand i was 15 years old. Didnt truly understand the on, ation, and whats going and i was, as like every other kid on this planet, they think like somebody who protects you. Hats what i thought, even in syria. Especially that my father was an officer. Retired in 2009, but i felt officer. Dad was an he protected me and thats what should do. In prison they tortured me and y torturer forced me to say that i have killed, i had weapons. That easy. t come e had to pull my finger and nails out of my fingers first give this false confession. Years old when the years old was only 15 when my Life Experience become nearly too much to bear. 15 years old when i wished to die. One good thing from prison. One month something was different. I didnt know what was going on we got less torture and more food and the guards werent screaming anymore. Our bodies burning cigarettes. They gave us [inaudible] out of prison, i what happened on prison , when i was in and got more food, what happened outside. Around the world talking about prisoners and in prison. G on speak. Why we have to thats why we have to do try on , even just twitter, this gives hope for a of people. I just published, that ill be with caesar, and people, are of two kinds. Say its amazing, happened , thats before. Hey know more than what you know about your own experience. Change ot going to anything. Remember one tuesday, that beautiful tuesday, when i was in of on, it was the ninth june, 2015, i had already been in prison for three years and of torture all kind and i was starving, the guard said, the door and he omar, the only time they say your name in prison is when they to kill you. They took me from my room, they next to body who was me, took me outside of the room, his face, it was my best friend at the time, the run for 48 e and hours an every single hour, day of theht, when the watch guard, he comes and asks me a question. Want me to kill you . Be creative. I was forced to give 68 answers, all of them was nice or good enough for him to enjoy me. Ing al 48 hours they pulled me out of the room, took me in the car, blindfolded my eyes, my hands tied behind me and they put me street facing the ground. He officers walking slowly behind me, and im scared, because i dont want to see how me. Are going to kill i didnt know. He walks. Death, and then just gets silent. Nd load, aim, didnt go that quickly, it takes a billion years for me to feel between oad and aim, and it takes a shoot. Me, then he set and i died. For the first time. I never died before. I didnt know how it felt or happen. Going to have any of you died before and die . Xplain how it feels to i was just looking, wow, up, lly, after life, i woke still alive. Killed in the y room, the guy they took me, they killed him, they put my name on and they took me utside of prison because, they took me outside of prison with his name because my mother paid to get me an officer out of prison. She didnt know how but my mom alive, after that, they killed my father and my siblings, and that happened our village in syria. Regime take an area, you will die, flee or get arrested. Them. What happened to what i mentioned just was the mental torture, you experience, regime. Same i didnt talk about the physical torture, e physical ou dont understand, if you dont experience it. So people in idlib, its the same thing, if we dont help them. Of syria are suffering. They may be they fear not being able to feed their children. They fear being arrested, captured and tortured to death. Not torture that is the worst. It is awaiting torture that is the worst. Sometimes it seems impossible, but as Nelson Mandela said, it always seems impossible until it is done. You have to do something. I want to quote your own said, assaden he is an animal. I hope you all agree with him. I do. Thank you. That is powerful testimony. Thank you. We will have questions in a moment. We will turn to our second witness. He is the head of the syrian Civil Defense, more commonly known as the White Helmets. He manages a network of 2800 volunteers who have saved over 120,000 lives in syria. He is originally from idlib ed is a father of two from idlib and is a father of two. The floor is yours. [speaking foreign language] translator thank you for giving us this opportunity. What was said by caesar and omar gives a harrowing glimpse of the horrors faced by the Syrian People, but i will speak about a different perspective. Saleh,me is raed al im the head of the Civil Defense commonly known as the White Helmets. This organization of 2500 men and 300 women have dedicated their lives to saving others. Down, webombs rained rushed to dig lives from under the rubble. Since our formation in 2013, 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 and russia. We rescue people regardless of their ethnicity, religion, gender and politics. We have rescued our own family members, complete strangers, and even assad regime soldiers. Our motto and inspiration comes from universal teachings in the car around that read, whoever saves one life, it is as if they have saved all of humanity. Yet for all of the lives we have saved, death is beating us. For every syrian we have saved, there are five that we have lost. Bombs, we could stop the we could save almost every single one. I am here today to convey the voices of the millions of civilians in idlib who wake up every day fearing death. Rural once an idyllic, province known for its olives and cherries has been turned into hell on earth. Intervention in 2015, the number of internallydisplaced people has doubled to 8 million. The relentless aerial bombardment and use of siege to take areas like aleppo has forced millions to evacuate to idlib. Now there isnt another idlib, nowhere else to flee to, so nearly 4 million civilians are trapped. The area is roughly the size of rhode island. Its prewar population of 300,000 has increased by more than tenfold. Since the beginning of the idlib regimeve, the assad backed by proxy militias has attacked infrastructure, water points, hospitals, White Helmets enters, food markets, schools and bakeries have all been bombed. Nearly everything that can help syrians survive has been destroyed, and the vast majority of people are struggling to access basic food, shelter and medicine. Just weeks ago. There are no words to describe the apocalyptic horrors there. Numbers are no longer useful, as the harbor can no longer be quantified. So i will tell a story. I saw a father in idlib standing on the side of the road with a sign reading, i will sell my kidney for a tent. Can you imagine being so desperate to just provide shelter for your family . I did not come here to talk about humanitarian needs. Senators, i want to be very clear in this hallowed institution. What is happening in syria is not an earthquake or Hurricane Deck can be solved with humanitarian aid funding. No amount of funding and stop a single barrel bomb falling over a childs bed. No amount of money can return a single displaced family to their home. We deeply appreciate u. S. Government support for the White Helmets, and urge your support in making sure the Syrian Peoples needs are met, but more funding to us will not solve the problem either. The ambulances we purchased with your funding are being purchased by russian drones and deliberately bombed. 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 instead we much we must purchase more ambulances, order new cranes to lift collapsed concrete crushing families, and by more protective clothing to deal with chemical attacks. Raising funds to alleviate the suffering does not work any better than giving painkillers to a cancer patient. Needed is the political will to act to protect civilians. Of therwhelming majority suffering results from one cause, the absolute impunity by which the Syrian Regime in russia bomb civilians from the sky. Yes, we have other peoples other peoples, other evils, iranian proxy groups who have similarly tear a lot terrorized civilians. But it is the unimpeded aerial bombardment that has caused destruction and displaced civilians. It is the primary cause of the exodus to europe that has empowered farright parties. The unwillingness of the west to stop it is the primary recruitment tool of isis and terror groups. So today i ask you to use your power to end the root cause of all the suffering by taking real action to clear the skies above syria. Been told, we have all the reasons why intervention to protect civilians is impossible. But who has considered the consequences of not acting . The consequences of the worlds inaction cannot be confined to syrias borders. Meeting the most basic humanitarian needs will cost billions a month. Fleeons more refugees will syria to europe. No border wall can contain them. A generation of children will be uneducated. Extremist groups will foment in the chaos, necessitating future global coalitions and trillions of dollars to defeat threats. Plausible . Ound does this cost sound more reasonable than acting to stop the atrocities being committed now . Turkeys intervention last month shattered the myth that the use of force to stop hostilities might cause further escalations. The opposite happened. After turkeys brief intervention last week, there was a stop of the aerial attacks. But turkey cannot do this alone. It needs your support and leadership. The enforcement of a National Ceasefire by all means necessary will create the conditions for real internationallybacked peace talks, including accountability for all perpetrators of mass atrocities and war crimes. I still believe in the values of the Syrian Revolution called for in 2011, the values of democracy practiced in this building every day, and which can be practiced in syria too. With support of people around the world, we syrians can rebuild our country into a free, peaceful, Democratic Syria that of thes beyond the evils regime and extremists. I do not wish to sit here in 2000 25 detailing the suffering of yet another unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in syria. Speak of several hundred thousand more lives lost, millions still without a home, and paying tribute to hundreds more White Helmets who will have been killed saving lives. 10th year ofhe war, the world has run out of words. Now is the time for action. Thank you. You, veryisch thank much. Both of you have given very powerful testimony in our committee. Mr. Chairman, i have to say that questions are not valuable when you hear the testimony of gare, who is extraordinary at a young age to recount it. I sat here as chairman of the Foreign Relations committee for a time and we approved an aumf usingp assad when he was chemical weapons, and it had a limited value because it was only pursued to give up those weapons we knew about the time. I passed legislation to help the Syrian Forces, independent Syrian Forces we thought could ultimately change the tide in their own country. I hope that your testimony and caesars 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, and begin to create a consequence for those who are committing these horrific acts. What more testimony do we need . What more visualization do we need . Do Something Like the administrative the administration changing its decision to zero out the resettlement of Syrian Refugees to the United States, refugees who are the most heavily vetted of any group who may come to the United States tomorrow the trump inistration could start the United States. Tomorrow the Trump Administration could start a syrian refugee settlement as a message to the world that we will take care of those who are fleeing. We could start and tomorrow we could start a surge in International Efforts to hold those accountable and seek a true ceasefire and an implementation of it. These are things that take political will. Been a will that has not forthcoming from our country. And that is not unique to this administration, either. So i hope that this testimony, ask is riveting i could you about assistance for humanitarian organizations, i could ask you about what else we could do, but you said it so aptly. Giving me more money to buy more ambulances that will be bombed by the russians is not going to stop the horrific violence. Will seek to, i find ways in which we can prick the conscience of our colleagues end of this administration, and of others who can ultimately cast a garish light upon these horrific acts of violence, and to seek a movement that begins to change the course of events. That is what we ultimately seek, to change the course of events abroad, and i appreciate your testimony. I have no questions. Chairman risch thank you. Senator purdue. Well, to saye that sitting in this moment of luxury and safety in the United States capital, that we are ored byed and horr what you told us today would not do you honor. I do have a question. I want to allow you to speak more. I agree with senator menendez, this is not about american politics, this is about human life in syria. Ast you went through, omar, a 15yearold, shocks me. I want to thank you for being s forand having the gut being here, and i want to thank you, sir, for your White Helmets leadership. But we have to hold these people accountable and we have to stop the killing. You mentioned clearing the sky spirits some of us supported a nofly zone in syria that would have saved thousands of lives. The caesar syrian production act protection act became law in december. We need to implement that. Whatt to ask both of you, can we do to help hold these assad,accountable, russia . Uae is now recognizing them. These are things the u. S. Can have influence on peer none of us are going to walk away from syria and our responsibility in that part of the world. The u. N. And 2016 created the international mechanism. Tell us what we need to nd and to make this e hold these people accountable . Before we think about Holding Russia or iran accountable, we have to stop them. This is still going on in syria. People are dying every day. Contact with any person, he tells me torture is unlimited, starvation is horrible. We have to stop them, and have the leader of the free world speak up for these people and take action. Doesntay be the u. S. Have a great relation with turkey, europe doesnt have it, but if we are going to support turkey, we are going to support turkey for the Syrian People, not for turkey itself. And right now it seems like that is the only thing you can do, because there is no intention to send in troops. I understand that. But europe has their own allies in syria, they can support them. Do you have the nato alliance, you can support them by providing material assistance in stopping the killing. Turkey, a lot of syrians talk about how much they like what turkey is doing, even though turkey is coming into their country, it is the only way to survive. It is the only way to be protected. It doesnt matter who protects us, just protect us. Just protect us. I even have a video of my father being killed by the soldiers who made that. Pictures,brothers and just to make it clear, my father looks like any other human being on earth, normal dad, i loved him, he loved me and my brothers as well. There is evidence of them being killed. And now we have five legal cases, prosecutions against the war crimes in syria, and it is in germany, france, norway and sweden. We have to support these cases and we have to start here in the United States, because the u. S. Has more power in europe more power than europe and doing any prosecutions. Just and germany two days ago have started their prosecutions, two guys have been arrested and they are going to start now. You guys are not doing enough when it comes to prosecutions. I dont think germany has more ability to do that than you. The u. S. Is waiting for something. I dont know what. Im not an expert. I dont know what is going on, but still the u. S. Can do more than what it is doing rig