A mass grave containing the bodies of at least 100 000 people tortured by the government of fugitive President Bashar al-Assad has been found near Damascus.
Reuters reports this.
The head of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, Muaz Mustafa, said that the site in Al-Qutayfa, 40 kilometers from the capital, was one of five mass graves he had identified.
There are more such huge graves than the five already found, Mustafa says. He claims that along with the Syrians, there are supposedly victims from the US, the UK and other foreigners. There is no confirmation of this data yet.
According to the human rights activist, the bodies were transported to the burial sites with the help of the Damascus Municipal Funeral Home. Staff helped unload the bodies from refrigerated trucks.
“Bulldozer drivers repeatedly, on orders from [the authorities], compressed the bodies so that they would fit, and then covered them with earth,” Mustafa said.
He emphasized that mass graves are currently not protected, but they must be preserved, as they are valuable evidence for the investigation.
Syrians, human rights activists and foreign governments accuse Assad and his father, Hafez, of extrajudicial killings, including executions in prisons. Experts estimate that since 2011, the Syrian government has killed hundreds of thousands of its citizens who opposed Assadʼs policies. He has denied human rights abuses by his government.
- Earlier, Syrian militants released prisoners from Sednaya prison, which is called a "human slaughterhouse." It is considered one of the symbols of the repressive machine of the ousted regime of Bashar Assad.
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