Rapes, torture, murder — a litany of abuses blamed on Assad’s forces

Paris (AFP) – Bashar al-Assad’s government has been accused of torture, rape, summary executions and other abuses since Syria’s civil war began in 2011.

Issued on: 12.12.2024 – 20:46Modified: 12.12.2024 – 20:43

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UN investigators said responsibility must be taken at the highest level after the hardliner’s downfall on Sunday. Here’s what we know about the extent of abuse:

– Caesar’s photos –

In 2013, a former Syrian army photographer known by the code name “Caesar” fled the country, taking with him approximately 55,000 graphic images taken between 2011 and 2013.

The photos, authenticated by experts, show tortured and starved corpses in Syrian prisons.

Some people had their eyes gouged out. The photos showed emaciated bodies, people with wounds on their backs or stomachs, as well as an image of hundreds of bodies in a warehouse surrounded by plastic bags used for burials.

Assad’s Syrian government said only that the images were “political”.

The Syrian military deserter known as Caesar testified before a US congressional committee and his photos inspired a 2020 US law imposing sanctions on the Assad government © SAUL LOEB / AFP

But Caesar testified before a US congressional committee, and his photos inspired a 2020 US law that imposed economic sanctions on Syria and legal proceedings in Europe against Assad’s entourage.

In Germany and Sweden, eight people suspected of crimes against humanity were arrested in July in an operation codenamed “Caesar”.

Germany, the Netherlands and France have since 2022 sentenced several high-ranking officials from the Syrian intelligence service and militias.

UN investigators say they have lists of the names of 4,000 government officials and agents responsible for abuses.

“The Torture Archipelago”

People gather at the famous Saydnaya prison in Damascus after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, hoping for news of their missing loved ones © OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP

Human Rights Watch (HRW) spoke in 2012 of an “archipelago of torture” where “electricity, burning with car battery acid, sexual assault and humiliation, nail pulling and mock execution” were practiced in government prisons.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in 2022 more than 100,000 people had died in prisons since 2011.

In 2023, the UN’s top court, the International Court of Justice, ordered Syria to end “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

rapes

In 2020, seven Syrian refugees filed a complaint in Germany, saying they were victims of torture and sexual violence, including rape, electric shocks to the genitals, forced nudity or forced abortion between 2011 and 2013.

The UN said there were systematic rapes and sexual violence against civilians by pro-Assad soldiers or militias in 2018. An investigation is said to have found that the rebels had committed similar but lesser crimes.

On 25 November 2024, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) stated that there had been at least 11,553 incidents of sexual violence against women, including girls under 18, by parties to the conflict since March 2011. About 8,024 may be accused by Assad. government and others mainly on the jihadist Islamic State.

‘Extermination’

In 2016, UN investigators said the Syrian authorities were responsible for acts that amounted to “extermination” and could be compared to “crimes against humanity”.

He pointed to the Saydnaya prison outside Damascus, which was described by Amnesty International in 2017 as a human slaughterhouse carrying out a “policy of extermination”.

The United States said there was a “crematorium” in the prison that was used to dispose of the bodies of thousands of inmates.

In 2022, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that approximately 30,000 people were killed in Saydnaya, some of them after being tortured.

– chemical weapons –

In April 2020, the OPCW chemical weapons watchdog accused the Syrian army of chemical weapons attacks in Latamne, northern Syria, in 2017.

In November 2023, France issued international arrest warrants for Bashar al-Assad, his brother Maher and two generals on suspicion of complicity in the August 2013 chemical attacks near Damascus, which according to US intelligence killed 1,000 dead.

Assad’s forces have also been accused of using sarin gas in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun in April 2017, as well as chlorine gas attacks.

Assad’s government has denied using chemical weapons.

Israel says it has staged strikes on chemical weapons sites this week to prevent the supply from falling into the hands of extremists.