SyriaNew evidence released showing deaths in Syrian state detention centers
Human Rights Watch has released new evidence that up to 7,000 Syrians who died in state detention centers were tortured, mistreated, or executed. The human rights organization says that holding Syrian government officials to account should be central to peace efforts. Observers were aware of the five large detention centers the Assad regime ran. Analysts estimate that more than 117,000 Syrian civilians were tortured and mistreated in these centers since the anti-Assad rebellion erupted in March 2011.
Hafez al-Assad, late president of Syria and father of Bashir // Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Human Rights Watch has released new evidence that up to 7,000 Syrians who died in state detention centers were tortured, mistreated, or executed. The human rights organization says that holding Syrian government officials to account should be central to peace efforts.
The National Post reports that HRW has identified nineteen victims from a mass collection of photographs known as the Caesar files. The photos were released by a Syrian military officer who recorded and chronicled systematic torture and deaths in Syrian regime custody for more than two years. The officer defected in late 2013 and took his photos and records with him.
Observers were aware of the five large detention centers the Assad regime ran. Analysts estimate that more than 117,000 Syrian civilians were tortured and mistreated in these centers since the anti-Assad rebellion erupted in March 2011. The Caesar files, however, offered concrete, recorded evidence of the brutal conditions detainees had to endure in these detention centers.
The new details were released earlier today (Wednesday) in Moscow, two days before the meeting in New York of the 17-nation International Support Group on Syria. The participants in the meeting hope to chart a path out of the five-year war.
HRW said some of the deaths have been traced to the five detention centers and two state hospitals. The seven location have long been known as places where the regime tortured and killed Syrians it suspected of opposing it. Those centers began their operations decades ago, after Hafez al-Assad, the current president’s father, came to power in Syria in 1970. One site, the 601 military hospital in the Damascus suburb of Mezze, served as the collection point for the mutilated bodies of the dead.
HRW notes that each case was studied by a forensic pathologist who examined multiple photographs of the victims. Evidence was found of starvation, blunt force trauma, wound infection, and in one case a gunshot wound to the head.
— Read more in Syria: Stories Behind Photos of Killed Detainees: Caesar Photos’ Victims Identified (Human Rights Watch, 16 December 2015)
