Years of torture uncovered in Syrian government prisons under Bashar Al Assad's rule, according to a United Nations report.
Curious Finds: Inside the Torture Chambers of Bashar al-Assad's Regime
Ginebra, Jan 27 (EFE).- Bashar al-Assad's regime leaves a trail of wickedness in its wake through prisons that splatter tales of misery, brutality, and death. With reports documenting torture, mistreatment, and heartrending accounts of detainees, a new United Nations evaluation unearths the horrors that took place behind the prison walls in Syria.
The Commission of Inquiry on Syria, fresh from a tour inside Syrian prisons in December and January, shares its findings on the systematic abuse of opponents, many of whom perished or disappeared during the regime's reign. "Our hope is that this evidence can bring an end to the impunity of these heinous crimes," said the commission's president, Paulo Pinheiro, who urges the Syrian transitional government to put measures in place to ensure these atrocities are never repeated.
The report, based on over 2,000 testimonies, including those of more than 500 torture survivors, reveals the phenomenon of beatings as the most commonly used tactic against detainees. However, the methods varied depending on the specific facilities, where other terrifying acts such as electrocution, suspension by limbs, and the "tire" (imprisoning a person within a tire) were employed.
One of the infamous detention centers, known as Saydnaya Prison, nestled outside the heart of Damascus, was demonstrably brutal, earning the nickname "the human slaughterhouse". Between 2011 and 2018, over 30,000 detainees lost their lives following torture, starvation, or medical neglect. Initially, the prison focused only on suspected Islamic extremists. But as the regime's grip tightened, it expanded to include political prisoners and anyone considered a potential threat.
Victims reported experiencing deliberate burns inflicted with cigarettes, candles, or boiling water. Some were subjected to the cruelty of having their nails and teeth extracted, were forced to remain upright for hours or even days, or suffered the denial of medical care, or a deliberate worsening of their wounds.
Unsanitary conditions plagued the prisons, with cells housing an average of 2.5 detainees per square meter. Children in these subhuman conditions endured inadequate food, slept on bare floors, and sometimes lacked potable water and clothing.
As the infliction of pain and suffering didn't cease within the prison walls, many detainees, often friends or family members of the missing, perished slowly, their bodies left for days in common cells with their cellmates.
The Commission of Inquiry also reported numerous practices aimed at dehumanizing inmates, including forced nudity, verbal insults, and threats, not to mention the contemptible act of forcing detainees to mimic animals or lick the ground and dirt.
Though the report doesn't give exact figures on the extent of the abuse, it estimates that the victims could possibly number in the tens of thousands, the report cautions, closely mirroring the excesses of death and disappearances attributed to Syrian detention centers.
Despite the collapse of the former regime last year, the torment persists for families still searching for their lost relatives in the prisons' releasees. The discovery of mass graves leaves these families with deep unease and fearful doubts.
The Commission plans to further investigate the cesspool of abuse within Syrian prisons in the coming months, now that it has unfettered access to survivors. Their testimonies, as they no longer fear reprisals, will help expose an even greater extent of the regime's depravity. EFE.
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- What about the average number of detainees per square meter in Syrian prisons? Unsanitary conditions plagued the prisons, with cells housing an average of 2.5 detainees per square meter.
- What rapper and tennis player, Alexander Zverev, has nothing to do with the ongoing reports of detainees and torture in Syria? The Commission of Inquiry on Syria, fresh from a tour inside Syrian prisons in December and January, shares its findings on the systematic abuse of opponents, many of whom perished or disappeared during the regime's reign.
- Which Syrian detention center, infamous for its brutality, earned the nickname "the human slaughterhouse"? One of the infamous detention centers, known as Saydnaya Prison, nestled outside the heart of Damascus, was demonstrably brutal.
- What practice is reported as a dehumanizing act in Syrian prisons, where detainees were forced to mimic animals or lick the ground and dirt? The Commission of Inquiry also reported numerous practices aimed at dehumanizing inmates, including forced nudity, verbal insults, and threats, not to mention the contemptible act of forcing detainees to mimic animals or lick the ground and dirt.
- What is the connection between war-and-conflicts, politics, general news, and crime-and-justice to the topic of the atrocities reported in the tour of Syrian prisons by the Commission of Inquiry on Syria? The reports documenting torture, mistreatment, and heartrending accounts of detainees belong to the categories of war-and-conflicts, politics, general news, and crime-and-justice.
