:00:00. > :00:10.Now on BBC News, it's time for HARDtalk.
:00:11. > :00:18.Welcome to HARDtalk Mark. I am Sarah Montague. There are very few, if
:00:19. > :00:24.any, journalists, in the Syrian town of Raqqa. Almost anything we know of
:00:25. > :00:30.what life is like under Islamic State comes from the group Raqqa is
:00:31. > :00:34.Being Slaughtered Silently. It was set up by students to document what
:00:35. > :00:38.Islamic State is doing and to counter the propaganda. Among its
:00:39. > :00:43.members is my guest today, Hussam Eesa. It is a story of extraordinary
:00:44. > :01:13.and brave resistance, but one that comes at a huge price. Hussam Eesa,
:01:14. > :01:18.welcome to HARDtalk. Your group, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently,
:01:19. > :01:24.it is not a big group. It is small in numbers. Yet, you have paid a
:01:25. > :01:29.very high price for what you have been doing. What are the numbers of
:01:30. > :02:13.members, family, friends, who have been killed.
:02:14. > :02:25.And yet the size of the group is how many?
:02:26. > :02:34.You are here to pick up a prize for your journalism from the Media
:02:35. > :02:37.Awards. It is interesting. It isn't necessarily journalism. Is that how
:02:38. > :03:11.you see it, journalism? By the new have chosen to fight the
:03:12. > :03:15.regime with journalism. -- but you have chosen to. Have you chosen to
:03:16. > :03:27.fight in other ways? Have any view ever picked up a weapon?
:03:28. > :03:35.OK, well, let's go back to the beginning. Actually, before RBSS was
:03:36. > :03:36.set up, it was you and a group of friends initially protesting against
:03:37. > :04:05.Bashar al-Assad. And you were excited when the
:04:06. > :04:31.protests started and by the idea of revolution?
:04:32. > :04:35.But, what were you doing at the time? You weren't a journalist
:04:36. > :04:52.student at the time, were you? So, then came the protest all two,
:04:53. > :04:59.which you joined, and you were excited at the idea that Bashar
:05:00. > :05:03.al-Assad would go. -- protests. What went wrong? It was in the years
:05:04. > :05:40.after that, 2012, 2013, that Islamic State fighters began to appear.
:05:41. > :05:47.So, you think it was in President Assad's interest to have Islamic
:05:48. > :06:02.State form and be a different opposition?
:06:03. > :06:11.OK. Well, let's come back to that. Take me back to the point at which
:06:12. > :06:17.you decided to set up Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, which was when
:06:18. > :06:19.the beheadings started in Raqqa. What did you and your friends decide
:06:20. > :07:27.to do? And how did you go about it? I know
:07:28. > :07:36.much of it was through taking a mobile phone and videoing what was
:07:37. > :08:21.happening on the streets. But, what is interesting, in a way,
:08:22. > :08:23.is that, while so-called Islamic State, Daesh, was putting their
:08:24. > :08:26.videos of beheadings on line, you were trying to document far more
:08:27. > :08:32.mundane and ordinary things, like our hospitals were getting help and
:08:33. > :09:17.people were getting food to document this society. -- like how hospitals.
:09:18. > :09:22.Because, what had been happening as a result, partly of their videos,
:09:23. > :09:32.was that they were attracting a lot off of foreign fighters. -- lot of.
:09:33. > :09:34.Can you remember when you started seeing people from Europe, people
:09:35. > :10:04.from other parts of the world, appearing in Raqqa?
:10:05. > :10:13.And there were many of them, were there?
:10:14. > :10:52.Was IS being fuelled, was the power of Islamic State, so-called Islamic
:10:53. > :10:54.State, coming from the foreign fighters, from wherever they were
:10:55. > :11:13.coming from, rather than from Syria? But in terms of what Islamic State
:11:14. > :11:17.were doing in Raqqa, was it people he knew? Were the Syrians just as
:11:18. > :11:36.responsible as the foreign fighters? What did you see at that time in the
:11:37. > :11:37.city of Raqqa? Did you yourself see beheadings, Rusev evictions that
:11:38. > :12:08.were ordered? -- crucifixions. And you and your friends would see
:12:09. > :12:13.what was going on in the street, these stonings, and your friends
:12:14. > :12:23.were also recording beheadings and crucifixions?
:12:24. > :12:29.Can you give us a sense of what it was like when you came home and
:12:30. > :12:45.spoke to your friends about some of these awful things you had seen?
:12:46. > :12:48.But why? What was it that made you feel there was something you could
:12:49. > :13:26.do? But for you and your friends to go
:13:27. > :13:29.out and record things knowing that you are going to take that video
:13:30. > :13:32.home and put it online, if you had been stopped by anyone from IS, you
:13:33. > :14:09.could have lost your life. And it was when you're founding
:14:10. > :14:17.member, your friend, was first arrested, and his laptop taken, that
:14:18. > :14:18.they had information about the rest of you, and that made you very
:14:19. > :15:02.vulnerable, didn't it? But what was strange, especially
:15:03. > :15:08.strange, is when you decided to leave Raqqa and went to Turkey, you
:15:09. > :15:10.were getting messages from IS, 20? Saying we've got you, we're going to
:15:11. > :15:42.get you? -- went you? And yet you still, they followed you
:15:43. > :16:11.there with their messages? And then they were both killed in
:16:12. > :16:16.Turkey? Can you tell us about that? Was particularly gruesome, not least
:16:17. > :16:20.because it was somebody they knew, somebody they thought of as a
:16:21. > :17:15.friend, and then stabbed them 80 times and beheaded them.
:17:16. > :17:22.And you now have left Turkey. It is not safe. You are living in Europe
:17:23. > :17:24.will stop do you feel safe now, would you still feel they could kill
:17:25. > :17:42.you? -- in Europe. And they are worried about you
:17:43. > :17:50.because of what you are still posting online? I wonder, you have
:17:51. > :17:54.had so many close friends, people you knew very well and have gone
:17:55. > :17:58.through so much with, who have been killed because of this. Does it make
:17:59. > :18:00.you feel like giving up, or does it make you feel that you have to carry
:18:01. > :18:44.on even if you don't want to? And what is the latest information
:18:45. > :18:50.that you have about Raqqa now? Because IS, Daesh, are under
:18:51. > :18:54.pressure. They have been losing territory, and even Raqqa now, there
:18:55. > :18:58.are Syrian regime troops on the outskirts to stop what information
:18:59. > :19:55.do you have about what life in Raqqa is like now?
:19:56. > :20:04.It is one of the things your group does, report not just on IS, Daesh,
:20:05. > :20:07.but also in the regime, barrel bombs, and air strikes by Russian
:20:08. > :20:15.forces and the US. When you think about what might happen, although
:20:16. > :20:16.you are very critical of President Assad, do you think ultimately he
:20:17. > :20:46.would be the lesser of two evils? Do you feel betrayed to the West? --
:20:47. > :21:09.by the West? Given all you have said about
:21:10. > :21:14.Islamic State holding onto Raqqa, President Assad not taking it, can
:21:15. > :21:18.you imagine a point at which you will want to go back to back? --
:21:19. > :21:31.Raqqa? So can you see any way out of this
:21:32. > :22:10.dire situation? And in Raqqa now, what is life like
:22:11. > :22:12.for your family? What is it like just in the everyday business of
:22:13. > :23:03.getting food, living, working? And the 18 of your group inside
:23:04. > :23:07.Raqqa, the ten of you outside, do you still feel you are making a
:23:08. > :23:08.difference and that you could ultimately take a difference for the
:23:09. > :23:45.people in Raqqa? Hussam Eesa, thank you for coming on
:23:46. > :24:18.HARDtalk. Hello. Good morning. After a dry
:24:19. > :24:24.date for most on Tuesday, Wednesday sees some patchy and mostly light
:24:25. > :24:27.rain spilling up across south-west England and South Wales into the
:24:28. > :24:28.mainland towards the Humber. To the