Yes, in response to all sorts of objections and counter-accusations, it must be said that war crimes have been committed in the Syrian civil war not only by the regime, but also by many of its opponents. However, it is an established fact that the scale and systematic nature of the atrocities committed by the Assad regime cannot even be compared to those committed by ISIS*. The difference between them lies in the fact that ISIS was universally perceived as a notorious organization without any claim to civilization and respectability, while the Assad regime presented itself and its supporters as defenders of civilization against barbarism. Let those who do not understand this read the description of this «civilization». But why have we decided to publish this material? Let’s not forget that this regime would not have survived without the intervention of someone… And today, when you read the news about how those who once saved it are now brutalizing their own people at home, how the police are beating unarmed people, how there is nowhere to put those arrested after protests except by converting other premises into detention centers for immigrants, where they are not yet shot and tortured but the protesters are still harmless, you have to understand where all this is going and where it comes from. Now that the Russians themselves are timidly trying to fight for their rights and against their own tyranny, they need to understand who and why this tyranny has protected around the world, what methods it has supported, and is apparently morally prepared to use if necessary to preserve it. Does that mean we should seek it? Of course not. For it is thanks to people like Assad that such mass murderers have survived. But with whom do they hope to persevere?
On the Crimes of Assad and the Mass Burials of the Victims of His Regime (Syria, 2011-2017) This text tells the story of a trial in Germany against two Syrian intelligence officers who sought asylum in Germany and were accused of involvement in the torture and murder of Syrian activists and innocent civilians. Despite the large number of interested parties, including human rights activists, activists, journalists and victims, no one expected such extensive testimony at the 30th hearing in the case of Colonel Anwar Raslan and Sergeant Iyad al-Gharib. The hearing, which «Zaman Al-Wasl» managed to attend, lasted two days due to the extensive testimonies and began with lengthy debates between the defense committee and the judges about the need to reveal the identity of the witness and provide an opportunity to observe his facial expressions during his testimony to see how they correspond to what he is saying. The defense group referred to a paragraph of German law that supported their request, but the panel of judges responded with another legal text that allowed them to hide the witness’s face for his safety, thus resolving the dispute in favor of masking the witness’s face. On the morning of September 9, in the presence of the panel of judges, the prosecution and the defense, as well as Raslan and al-Gharib, and a group of lawyers and media representatives, the witness, identified in court as Z-30.07.19, entered the courtroom and spoke for several hours with a regional accent reflecting the region with which he identified himself. This allowed us to form an almost clear picture of the key identifiers of the witness’s identity (Zaman Al-Wasl preferred to withhold this information in accordance with the principle of witness protection). The judges were not so much interested in the witness’s identity itself or the content of what he would say, but rather in the consistency of his testimony with what he had previously told the German police in order to verify its authenticity. Accordingly, the witness’ first request was to inform the audience about the «funerals» in which he had participated. Z-30 began to outline the general picture of what he was doing during several years of the revolution (which he called a «crisis»), starting in the fall of 2011, when the two aforementioned intelligence officers were assigned to the «government department» in Damascus that specialized in burying the dead. At the beginning of their «work», the intelligence services accompanied them to the Tishreen and Harasta military hospitals to collect and bury the bodies. Later, however, due to an increase in the «workload» and for the purpose of «optimization,» the regime’s intelligence services gave Witness Z-30 an official assignment on letterhead with a signature and seal. He was provided with a vehicle (a 14-seater Nissan van, as he described it) with no number plates, adorned with two photographs of Bashar al-Assad (the witness referred to him as the «President») on the front and back, and this was sufficient for him to pass through various checkpoints without any problems. On average, four times a week, the witness would leave in the morning between 4 and 5 a.m. to gather his «brigade» from different districts of Damascus before they all went to the designated burial site either in «Najha» (about 18 km south of Damascus) or in «Al-Katifa» province (about 40 km north of Damascus). In these places (Najha and Al-Katifa), refrigerated trucks filled with corpses were sent before the arrival of the «brigade». According to the testimony of Z-30, the load of a refrigerated truck contained between 500 and 700 bodies, sometimes less with a load of about 300 bodies. The witness mentioned that one truck could deliver the load, but sometimes three trucks would arrive at the same time. This happened about four times a week, which means, according to the witness’ calculations, that the system buried an average of about 4,000 bodies per week. According to Z-30, the trucks carrying the bodies were often about 11 meters long, the size of a «container», and would arrive from military hospitals twice a week, as would the trucks from Saidnaya prison (which were also large and arrived at the burial sites twice a week), or from «civilian» hospitals such as Al-Mujtahid and Al-Muasat, although to a lesser extent, but smaller refrigerated trucks would also arrive once or twice a month. The witness described the «intense work schedule» and said that they worked «without rest or leave. His duty as a leader of the burial brigade was to register the number of bodies according to the divisions of the prisons from which they came. He gave the following example: 150 bodies arrived from one department, 200 from another, and so on. They then gave a list to the officer in charge of the burials. As the witness described the details, listing the names of the prison departments and the number of bodies they received, Colonel Anwar Raslan listened attentively, trying to write down some of the details of the testimony, while Iyad al-Gharib sat with his head held straight, trying to put on a medical mask. The judge asked the witness what exactly he was registering. The witness replied, «I registered the name and number of the division. The bodies arrived naked with division numbers and codes on their foreheads or chests. As for the Saidnaya prison, the situation was different, because the burial took place on the day of the execution». The judge asked for clarification regarding the bodies, asking if they came from Division Number 40 (which was headed by Hafez Mahlouf and where Iyad al-Gharib served before he deserted). The witness replied: «Yes, the State Security Directorate, the Al-Hateb Security Department, Division 40, the Palestinian Division, the Political Security Division, the Regional Division, the Patrol Division, Company 215, and Air Force Intelligence — the bodies came from all these divisions. The judge asked, «From which branch did the most bodies arrive?» The witness replied, «I often heard officers say, ‘Today the State Security Committee did some work.'» The judge asked, «What is meant by ‘did some work’?» The witness replied, «It means they sent a large number of corpses.» Despite the large number of divisions and bodies, there were only two burial sites — one in Najha, south of Damascus, and one in Al-Katifa, north of Damascus. According to the witness, trenches in the form of longitudinal pits, up to 200 meters long, 4 meters wide and 6 meters deep, were dug at these sites using rotary excavators called «baggers». The brigade would arrive at the burial site after the trench had already been prepared, and they would undergo a search to make sure there were no communication devices or cameras. Immediately afterward, they were confronted with a horrific sight and unbearable odors that cannot be conveyed in words, no matter how skilled the translator. This is what the witness told the German listeners.
From the witness’s account: «The doors of the (refrigerated) trucks were opened, and before our eyes was a sight I had seen countless times: ‘shhhhh’…the sound was similar to the sound of a gas cylinder being forcefully opened.» The witness was trying to convey the sound of the gas released when the refrigerated truck was opened, and the smell was unbearable, spreading over long distances and haunting everywhere for a long time. It could not be washed or removed: «The stench of corpses had taken root in my nose and never left. Although I tried all kinds of things — disinfectants, air fresheners, perfumes — nothing could overcome this smell. I couldn’t eat anything because of that smell, but after a while it became a part of me. «I pierced swollen bodies so that a stench came out. I saw oceans of blood, clouds of wriggling worms. I couldn’t eat for a long time after seeing it.» One of the judges asked the witness to describe the bodies and their condition in detail, while Colonel Anwar Raslan continued to listen attentively and Iyad al-Gharib, who had bowed his head, sat with his eyes closed. The witness said that the bodies were naked and covered with red, blue or dark marks. Many had their fingernails torn off on their hands and feet, and some had their genitals cut off (mentioning the case of the tortured child Hamza Al-Hatib). Many had their faces disfigured, as if they had been doused with a chemical substance to obliterate their features. Some had their bones beaten so badly that they were reduced to shapeless, slime-like masses. The corpses from Saidnaya prison were different from those from other departments and hospitals. Although they were naked like others, they had no smell because they were «fresh». In other words, they were sent for burial on the day of their execution. The hands of the prisoners (referred to as «corpses» in all the testimonies) were bound with iron or plastic handcuffs. Since they had no smell, the witness could approach the bodies from Saidnaya prison, unlike those from other places. These images still haunt him in his nightmares. The judge asked, «Did you come to the conclusion that they were executed on the same day?» The witness replied that the accompanying officer had informed him that they were executed in the prison at twelve o’clock or midnight, and since the burials began at five o’clock the same day, the bodies were still warm and the cold of death had not yet seized them. Some of them were still alive, and the witness and the entire brigade saw that they were still breathing. Therefore, the accompanying regime officer ordered the bulldozer to crush such «breathing» bodies. The witness said, «I saw it with my own eyes. When the judge asked for the names of the security personnel under whose command they worked, the witness’s lawyer objected to the question, arguing that revealing such information to the public could identify the witness and violate the conditions of his protection (Zaman Al-Wasl learned that the witness had previously mentioned the names of the security personnel in police investigation records). Returning to the burial process and its «methods,» Z-30 spoke about how the machine operator would lift and tilt the truck bed to unload the bodies. «Workers would arrive and begin to empty the truck by simply pushing and tipping the bodies. The truck would tilt and they would push the bodies so they would roll down into a pile in the trenches.» After the bodies were dumped into the grave, a bulldozer would level and compact the soil over the buried bodies. Only the areas filled with bodies were covered, while the rest of the long trench was left open, ready for more bodies to be dug when the entire trench was filled. And so on. The witness’s mission began at about four o’clock in the morning, when a person of a certain skin color (information not disclosed) set out for Najha, south of Damascus, not far from the Ebla Hotel, to reach the grave site, or further north to the grave site in the Al-Katifa area, near the headquarters of the Third Division. Both the cemeteries and the military facilities were off-limits for approach or photography. As for the van with Bashar Al-Assad’s picture, it would enter with passengers without any hindrance, as they had an «official mission» known to all who guarded the Najha and Al-Katifa cemeteries. Around nine o’clock in the morning, the witness and his brigade returned to Damascus smelling of corpses. Some wore medical masks during their «work,» while others even wore lab coats and gloves, and some worked with their bare hands. According to the witness, they were not provided with spare clothing or antiseptics. As a result, some workers in the brigade became ill and some even died of disease. The judge asked if there were other burial sites besides Najha and Al-Katifa. The witness replied that there were others belonging to the Fourth Air Force Division (at Mezzeh Airport). He explained that he learned about these graves from bulldozer drivers who were working at the same time at these graves and at Najha and Al-Katifa. Witness Z-30 spent more than 3 hours recounting the «mission» assigned to him by Assad’s intelligence services between 2011 and 2017. During this time, he described numerous horrific scenes and events. He was able to speak despite his exhausted tone, but at three o’clock in the afternoon he suffered a nervous breakdown when one of the judges asked him about the presence of women and children among the bodies he buried. He replied, «Yes, there were women and children, little girls and boys,» and recalled seeing a woman’s body hugging a dead child under a pile of bodies, their final embrace clearly indicating that they had died together. On that day, I could not bear it any longer, I was completely broken and crushed inside. After a while, the witness became uncomfortable during the hearing, his blood pressure dropped significantly, and the court had to adjourn the trial until the next session.
After the hearing was adjourned, the participants began to leave the courtroom one by one, and Anwar Raslan immediately left with the police officers assigned to guard him, while another police officer stood in front of Iyad Al-Gharib and ordered him to put his hands out to be handcuffed.
Iyad mumbled a word that the policeman couldn’t understand. I was standing two meters away from him, separated only by a low wooden table that was actually a high fence. When the policeman noticed that Iyad was looking in my direction, he told me to leave the courtroom because the hearing was over.
It ended so easily! But in reality, this hearing cannot be «over» as long as the Assad holocaust continues and the regime’s mass graves reveal their empty, insatiable mouths while the policy of impunity continues.