Thousands of people gathered in the streets of Damascus to celebrate the fall of the Assad regime. UN Independent Commission of Inquiry: Former Syrian Government Systematically Used Torture Human Rights
Meanwhile, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria has released a new report based on years of investigations detailing how the former Syrian government systematically used arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearances to silence dissent.
These acts constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes. The Commission called them “among the worst systematic violations of international law committed during the conflict.”
End Impunity
The overthrow of the government and the release of prisoners from torture chambers have significantly changed the situation in the country and given Syrians hope for a better future.
“We are at a critical juncture. The transitional government and future Syrian authorities can now ensure that these crimes are never repeated,” said Commission Chair Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro. “We hope that the findings of our report, based on nearly 14 years of investigations, will help end impunity for such abuses.”
The report, “Web of Agony: Arbitrary Detention, Torture, and Ill-Treatment in the Syrian Arab Republic,” is based on more than 2,000 witness statements, including more than 550 interviews with torture survivors. The report is the most comprehensive analysis of abuses by the former government.
The Agony Continues
Despite the Assad regime being toppled in December, the agony continues for tens of thousands of families, the Commission’s experts say. Many Syrians have not found their missing relatives among the released prisoners. In addition, new mass graves have been discovered across Syria, leaving many people fearing that their missing family members may be found among the dead.
The report stresses the need to preserve evidence, archives and crime scenes, including mass graves, until they can be examined in detail by experts and forensic exhumations can be carried out.
In December and January, two Commission teams visited mass graves and former government detention centres in the Damascus area, including the infamous First Military Prison (Sednaya), the Palestinian Military Intelligence branch (235) and the Air Force Intelligence offices in Mezza and Harasta. They found that while much of the evidence and documentation in the detention facilities had been destroyed, significant volumes of documents had survived.
“For Syrians who have not found their loved ones among those released, this evidence, along with the testimonies of released prisoners, is their hope of revealing the truth about their missing relatives,” said Commission expert Lynn Welchman.
“We welcome the new authorities’ commitment to protecting mass graves and evidence,” she added.
Severe torture, painful death
The report details torture and cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment inflicted on detainees, including children, by former state forces. Methods included severe beatings, electric shocks, burning, nail pulling, tooth damage, rape, mutilation, denial of medical care, and psychological torture.
Survivors and witnesses described how prisoners suffered slow, painful deaths from injuries, malnutrition, and disease. Rations were meager, prisoners were not always given water or adequate clothing, and they had to sleep on cold floors. Corpses were sometimes left in communal cells for days.
The tiny, windowless basement cells still stank of a strong, unpleasant odor when the Commission began its first on-site investigations, according to the Commission’s experts. They all matched the descriptions hundreds of survivors had given the Commission over the past 14 years.
Experts to Investigate Further
Experts plan to deepen their investigations in the coming months. “Cases referred to national courts outside Syria, relying on the principle of universal jurisdiction, have led to important convictions of mid- and low-level perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said Commission expert Hanni Megally.
“We now hope to see robust national justice initiatives in which survivors and families can play a central role. We stand ready to assist, together with Syrian human rights and family associations, as well as our UN partners, including the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIM) and the Independent Institute for Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic (IIMP),” she added.