West relies on Rami for info on Syria
22 Oct 2013 5:17 AM IST
The bald, bespectacled 42-year-old operates the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights from his house in the cathedral city of Coventry - and a review of recent media coverage suggests its running tally of killings and clashes is the most frequently cited individual source of information on Syria’s civil war for the world’s leading news organizations.
‘He’s just everywhere,’ said Joshua Landis, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. ‘He’s the go-to guy for figures. I can’t think of anybody who comes close.’
Abdurrahman, who says he makes his living from a local clothing shop, says the Observatory relies on four unnamed activists in Syria and a wider network of monitors across the country to document and verify clashes and killings. But as the Observatory has increasingly found itself at the center of Western reporting on Syria’s civil, some say his figures - and his sources - need more scrutiny.
Opponents say Abdurrahman is in cahoots with the opposition forces bankrolled by Gulf Arab states, skewing casualty figures to keep the spotlight off rebel atrocities. Others contend that Abdurrahman is in league with the Syrian regime. They accuse him of overplaying incidents of sectarian violence to blacken the reputation of those trying to topple President Bashar Assad.
Still, one prominent critic says it boggles the mind that a man living in Coventry is somehow able to count and categorize the dead in Syria hour by hour, every day of the week.
‘Something is going on which is quite fishy,’ said As’ad AbuKhalil, a professor of Middle Eastern politics at California State University Stanislaus.
Abdurrahman was working on four hours’ sleep when he met The Associated Press at Coventry’s drab-looking train station earlier this month.
He’d planned to get to bed by 10 pm the previous night, but rebel infighting in the Syrian border town of Azaz meant he stayed up until 2 a.m. monitoring developments. He got up again at 6 a.m. to check for overnight updates.
Abdurrahman, born in the Syrian city of Banias, says government harassment of his family first sparked his interest in human rights work. He left for Britain in 2000, moving to Coventry, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of London, where the revenue from the clothes shop helps support him, his wife, and their young child.
He launched the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in May of 2006, saying the activists he met while in Syria formed the group’s core. Counting the words out with his hand, Abdurrahman said his modus operandi was: ‘Document, verify, and publish.’
‘He’s just everywhere,’ said Joshua Landis, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. ‘He’s the go-to guy for figures. I can’t think of anybody who comes close.’
Abdurrahman, who says he makes his living from a local clothing shop, says the Observatory relies on four unnamed activists in Syria and a wider network of monitors across the country to document and verify clashes and killings. But as the Observatory has increasingly found itself at the center of Western reporting on Syria’s civil, some say his figures - and his sources - need more scrutiny.
Opponents say Abdurrahman is in cahoots with the opposition forces bankrolled by Gulf Arab states, skewing casualty figures to keep the spotlight off rebel atrocities. Others contend that Abdurrahman is in league with the Syrian regime. They accuse him of overplaying incidents of sectarian violence to blacken the reputation of those trying to topple President Bashar Assad.
Still, one prominent critic says it boggles the mind that a man living in Coventry is somehow able to count and categorize the dead in Syria hour by hour, every day of the week.
‘Something is going on which is quite fishy,’ said As’ad AbuKhalil, a professor of Middle Eastern politics at California State University Stanislaus.
Abdurrahman was working on four hours’ sleep when he met The Associated Press at Coventry’s drab-looking train station earlier this month.
He’d planned to get to bed by 10 pm the previous night, but rebel infighting in the Syrian border town of Azaz meant he stayed up until 2 a.m. monitoring developments. He got up again at 6 a.m. to check for overnight updates.
Abdurrahman, born in the Syrian city of Banias, says government harassment of his family first sparked his interest in human rights work. He left for Britain in 2000, moving to Coventry, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of London, where the revenue from the clothes shop helps support him, his wife, and their young child.
He launched the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in May of 2006, saying the activists he met while in Syria formed the group’s core. Counting the words out with his hand, Abdurrahman said his modus operandi was: ‘Document, verify, and publish.’
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