Mass Hangings, Torture That Destroyed Hope: Syria’s ‘Human Slaughterhouse’

New Delhi:

As a 13-year-old rebellion overthrew the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, the rebels released prisoners held up for years in government prisons near Damascus, Hama and Aleppo. Among these prisons, the most notorious is Saydnaya, often referred to as a “human slaughterhouse”.

According to a 2021 report by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, over 1 lakh people have been executed or have died in prisons of the Syrian regime. Out of them, more than 30,000 were killed in Saydnaya alone. An Amnesty International investigation found that “murder, torture, enforced disappearances and extermination carried out at Saydnaya since 2011 have been perpetrated as part of an attack against the civilian population that has been widespread, as well as systematic, and carried out in furtherance of state policy”. The report said violations at Saydnaya “amount to crimes against humanity”.