Confessions of A Sniper (5)

每日一看---Confessions of A Sniper (5)


今天終於來到第五部份了，也是比較精彩的地方(誤)，其實應該說，是最寫實的部份。TIME這位記者和狙擊手終於進入了他們的藏身處，文章裡描寫了居住環境的惡劣和噁心的屍臭，這是遠在好幾個海洋邊的我們經歷不到的。請珍惜身邊的一切吧！

A Free Syrian Army fighter fires his sniper rifle from a house in Aleppo, Aug. 14, 2012.
2012/8/14於阿勒波市，一名敘利亞自由軍從屋內向外射擊。

Instead, he has found a home with Liwa Suqoor al-Sha‘ba, an Islamist unit of the Free Syrian Army headquartered in Azaz, a town north of Aleppo in the vast band of countryside in rebel hands around the city. For the past few months he has been stationed in the northeastern neighborhood of Bustan al-Basha, a devastated wasteland emptied of all but three of its thousands of residents. “We cannot charge on [government] positions — if we do, they will eliminate us — nor can they advance on us,” he says. “It’s not that I’m tired, but I want something new. New territory. I’m sick of it here, I’m disgusted by it.” But he respects his adversaries, who he says have pinned the rebels down now for months.

於是，他以敘利亞自由軍的分支、同時也是伊斯蘭教派的利瓦肅奎‧歐沙巴為棲身之處。該分支把總部設在阿薩茲城，位於阿勒波北方；而阿勒波外圍廣闊的鄉野，則由叛軍控制。過去幾個月，這位狙擊手駐紮在巴斯坦‧歐巴沙東北部的鄰區；那是個經戰火蹂躪的荒地，原本數以千計的居民如今只剩三個。「我們無法取代政府的地位---要是我們這麼做，他們就會消除我們---相反地，他們也無法代替我們的存在。」狙擊手繼續說，「我不是累了，只是想試試新東西，新的領域。我討厭這裡，很讓人反感。」但他對這邊的對手仍有幾分敬意。他表示，這些人幾個月來制伏了許多叛軍。

He is always on the lookout for new sniper positions. “Are you ready?” he asks before running alongside me as we dash past regime snipers to minimize my chances of being hit. We walked through the deserted neighborhood, up darkened stairwells and through a maze of holes punched through apartment walls to avoid exposure on the streets. The Sniper kicked in locked apartment doors, moving through family rooms and kitchens with rotting vegetables as he searched for higher, better ground. He paused in one living room to feed fish in a tank. A few days later, he replaced the damaged locks on the apartments he had entered. In one flat, on the fifth floor, a blackened male corpse lay in what was a bedroom. The rubble strewn around the room from the gaping hole in the ceiling made it clear what killed the man. The stench was tear-inducing. Fat maggots crawled on the bloated corpse. Several rebels removed the body, wrapping it in a blue blanket. The next day the small group, along with the Sniper, returned, methodically removing the china from a dining-room cabinet and placing it in a dusty lounge room, before punching a small hole through the dining-room wall. The room looked out onto a government position in the shrubbery below and would serve as a new rebel outpost.

他一直在尋找新的狙擊點。「準備好了嗎？」語畢，我們並肩奔跑，快速衝過敵方狙擊手的射程範圍，以減少我被攻擊的機會。我們穿過廢棄的街區，來到一棟公寓，爬上一層層黑暗的樓梯，又穿過一個個穿牆的通道，有如迷宮。這些打出來的通道，是防衛用的。狙擊手踢了踢鎖住的房門，經過幾個客廳和擺著爛蔬菜的廚房，尋找更高、視野更好的射擊點。途中，他在一個有水族箱的客廳停下餵魚。幾天後，他把先前踢壞的門鎖換了。五樓的一間套房，有個發黑的男屍躺在算是臥室的地方。天花板鑿出的射擊孔與散落一地的礫石，清楚地說明了這名男性的死因。那股惡臭十分催淚，肥滋滋的蛆在膨脹的屍體上爬來爬去。幾個叛軍同夥移走了那個屍體，用藍色毛毯把它包了起來。用餐室的櫥櫃擺了個瓷器，隔天那一小群人回來，包括狙擊手在內，靈巧地把它移到佈滿灰塵的起居廳，好讓他們在用餐室的牆上鑿個小孔。這個房間看出去是政府機關的所在地，下方有個灌木叢，所以算是狙擊的最佳地點。

Still, on some days, the Sniper says, he doesn’t even fire a shot. He just watches and waits in nearly dark apartments with no power, alone with his thoughts. His victims, when he speaks of them, were all shabiha, progovernment paramilitary thugs — an easy term to dehumanize his enemies. But he knows that’s not quite true. He knows his childhood friend Mohammad was not a shabiha. He says he doesn’t know if it was his bullet — or one of his colleagues’ — killed him.

然而有幾天，狙擊手說，他連一槍都沒開。他只在斷電、幾乎黑暗的公寓裡監視、等待，獨自想些事情。當他提到那些被他殺死的人，都說他們是沙必哈(shabiha)，也就是親政府、願意替政府動武的無賴---這個詞輕易地貶低了這些人的身分，但他知道有時候並非如此。他曉得童年好友默罕莫德並不是沙必哈，可他不確定是自己的子彈---還是同伴的子彈---殺了默罕莫德。

Syrian men carry away a corpse at the site of twin blasts in Damascus, May 10, 2012. Two powerful blasts in quick succession rocked the Syrian capital during the morning rush hour, killing or wounding dozens. State television blamed the attacks on extremist terrorists.
2012/5/10在大馬士革，三位敘利亞男人把屍體抬離連發兩起爆炸的地點。這兩起爆炸發生於早晨尖峰時刻，撼動敘利亞首都，傷亡人數超過24人。敘國官方媒體歸咎這起爆炸為激進份子所為。