Graves discovered in Syria reveal evidence of lethal machinery operated under Assad, claims chief prosecutor.
Unraveling the Syrian Horror: Unearthings of State-Sanctioned Terror
QUTAYFAH, Syria - On a chilling December day in 2022, former US war crimes ambassador at large Stephen Rapp, delved into the cold, bare soil of Qutayfah and Najha near Damascus, revealing the gruesome evidence of a state-run "machinery of death" under toppled leader Bashar al-Assad. In this heart-wrenching crimescape, Rapp unearthed what he believed to be over 100,000 tortured and murdered individuals since 2013.
Speaking to Reuters after his excavation, Rapp revealed, "This is anything but ordinary; we've never seen anything quite like this since the Nazis." With a career spanning Rwanda and Sierra Leone war crimes tribunals, Rapp worked tirelessly with Syrian civil society to document these heinous transgressions, readying the ground for potential trials.
"The machinery of death" operated seamlessly, from the secret police snatching the unsuspecting from their streets and homes, to the jailers and interrogators starving and torturing them to the brink of death, to the truck drivers and bulldozer drivers trying to hide their grisly cargos. Undoubtedly, this system was orchestrated by thousands of individuals, all part of a state-sponsored terror machine.
Syria's death toll since 2011 has been astronomical, with hundreds of thousands estimated to have been brutally murdered since Assad's crackdown on protests. Accusations of extrajudicial killings, including mass executions and chemical weapons use, have long dogged the Assad family, with both Bashar and his father, Hafez, violently repressing any dissent.
While the fall of Assad may have marked the end of this state-sponsored terror, the search for truth in Syria is a long, grueling process. In order to obtain DNA matches, families are required to provide DNA samples from at least three relatives, matched against skeletal remains found in these mass graves.
As the International Commission on Missing Persons in The Hague notes, there are likely over 66 unverified mass grave sites in Syria, with more than 157,000 people reported missing to the commission. The implications of these frightening numbers are still reverberating, both for those unceremoniously buried and for the families who mourn and search for answers.
While governments, including the United States, continue their efforts to ensure accountability for these atrocities, justice seems to elude the Syrian people. The key to change lies not only in the evidence uncovered but in the collective resolve of the international community to bring those responsible to justice.
[Satellite imagery and recent events are omitted to maintain brevity, but they do provide additional context and support the information presented in the original article.]
- In the realm of general news, the excavation site in Qutayfah and Najha, Syria, has become a haunting testament to the all-encompassing politics of war-and-conflicts as evidence unveils state-sanctioned terror under the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
- The crime-and-justice world continues to grapple with the magnitude of the horror in Syria as thousands of individuals, implicated in state-sponsored terror, remain at large, evading accountability for their heinous transgressions against the Syrian people.
