Human rights defender, anti-extremism researcher and journalist, Abdalaziz Alhamza is fighting against Islamic State of Iraq (Isis) for democratic freedom in Syria.
Alhamza is cofounder and spokesman of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), a hidden citizen journalism effort, and a group that works to expose the human rights abuses carried out by Isis forces occupying the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, who use it as its de facto capital.
Alhamza and RBSS work to counter the suggestion that citizens of Raqqa have welcomed the presence of Isis and, speaking at WIRED2016, Alhamza told how RBSS has become one of the few reliable sources of information from the city. Thanks to their efforts using technology, they are reporting what's really happening from inside their city.
Telling his story, Alhamza said he became addicted to peaceful demonstrations aged just 22 when he was arrested and tortured after protesting against the Syrian government in March 2011. He then began recording the demonstrations and uploading the videos online.
“People started watching,” he said, “and I saw the power and the breadth of citizen journalism.”
Alhamza's story starts in March 2013 when Raqqa was liberated from control of the Syrian Army as rebel forces took over.
"They said 'tomorrow is going to be more beautiful'. However, the schools and universities stopped working and children lost their chance to get an education, and instead of going to schools, they started to join radical groups," Alhamza explained.
“The first time I ran into Isis was February 2013; a masked man entered my university. He tried to recruit us to join and managed to convince one of my friends. Later that year I found out on Facebook that my friend was dead. Today, that recruiter is the highest ranking Isis officer in Syria.”
"In January 2014, Isis returned to Raqqa and took over the city. Isis fighters came to Alhamza's house looking for him while he was at work."
"Lucky I was not home or else I would be dead," he said. "I escaped to Turkey and later to Germany where I continue to work today.”
After this time, Alhamza decided not to stay silent. He decided to act, and in November 2014 founded RBSS to show the reality of life under Isis. RBSS started with just six members and the next day a few lost their lives due to their involvement. One member, and friend of Alhamza, was executed in a public square in Raqqa by Isis just three weeks after joining; he was someone Alhamza refers to as “a nice guy who dreamt of a free country, and nothing more than that”.
“Isis thought by killing [our friends] they could scare us, but we decided to continue,” Alhamza added. “After that, Isis did many things to stop us. They set up CCTV cameras around the city and tweeted that they would catch us, but a colleague of mine in Raqqa took photos of the cameras for us."
Despite this, Alhamza and the RBSS found a way to transport information from Raqqa to the outside world, and thus became the main source of information for the international media.
Much to the anger of Isis, before RBBS’ efforts all the information you could find online about Raqqa was propaganda, said Alhamza. But now, everyone can read about Isis’ atrocities.
Read more: Citizen journalism is playing a crucial role in Aleppo – but it comes at a cost
“Isis thought that by public executions, they will intimidate us, but we continue to fight. They also attack us digitally and try to silence us by sending us viruses and hacking our social media accounts. But I speak here on behalf of my organisation, RBSS, and millions of Syrians who want a free country.”
Alhamza lost many friends and family members due his involvement in RBSS, due to several attempts by Isis to execute members and anyone associated with them, through bombings and beheadings. But each after each atrocity, the members stood strong and continued their fight against Isis.
“Again and again, we decided to continue to fight for those who had lost their lives,” said Alhamza. “It made us stronger than before”.
Alhamza currently lives in exile in Berlin. He and RBSS continue to fight against Isis and to try to stop them from spreading through the use of media campaigns inside the city of Raqqa, using social media and smuggled photos and videos.
The group also has a magazine they secretly circulate inside of the city, with the same cover as Isis’ magazine, to try to reach the largest number of civilians, and target children and their parents so they are aware of the risk of joining Isis.
“We don’t want to have another generation of Isis fighters in the future,” he said. "This is the reason why we are fighting their ideology today, this is the only way to defeat them.”
On 25 November 2015 in New York, Alhamza received the Committee to Protect Journalist's International Press Freedom Award, on behalf of RBSS. He also received the 2015 Foreign Policy Global Thinkers Award - in the Chroniclers category.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
