Syria images reveal ‘crimes against humanity’

Defector’s pics provide ‘damning evidence’

Thousands of photographs smuggled out of Syria by a military defector codenamed Caesar have provided new evidence of crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said late on Wednesday.

The rights watchdog conducted nine months of research into more than 28,000 photos that appear to show at least 6,786 detainees — many showing signs of torture or starvation — died in detention or after being taken from detention to a military hospital.

The group identified 27 of the deceased during research into what has become known as the “Caesar files”, named after the Syrian former military worker whose job was to chronicle the deceased detainees for more than two years.

At the time, the images provided a startling new glimpse into the horrors of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The photos were researched and crossreferenced with available evidence by HRW. Family and friends of the deceased as well as former detainees were also interviewed to verify the authenticity of the photos.

“We have meticulously verified dozens of stories, and we are confident the Caesar photographs present authentic — and damning — evidence of crimes against humanity in Syria,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director at HRW at the launch of the research report.

“Many of the former detainees who were held in these nightmarish conditions told us they often wished they would die rather than continue suffering. They begged countries involved in seeking a peace process to do everything they can to help the people still being held in Syria.”

The report was released as the International Syria Support Group meets in New York this week to discuss a peace process and political transition in Syria. HRW said the group should make the fate of thousands of detained people in Syria a priority and seek accountability for “widespread abuses” in the country.

Most of the 6,786 victims were detained by five intelligence agency branches in Damascus between May 2011 when Caesar began copying files and smuggling them from his workplace, and August 2013, when he defected. The Syrian Network for Human Rights has documented the arrest and detention of more than 117,000 people in Syria since March 2011. There is only one female face among the photos. Of the male bodies, doctors who have examined the images have told HRW that more than 100 appear to be children.

Throughout its research, HRW said it found evidence of “widespread torture, starvation, beatings, and disease” in government detention centres.

Photographs showing 19 victims were shared with forensic pathologists from Physicians for Human Rights who found evidence of several types of torture, starvation, suffocation, blunt-force trauma and in one case a close-range gunshot wound to the head.

“We have no doubt that the people shown in the Caesar photographs were starved, beaten, and tortured in a systematic way, and on a massive scale,” Mr Houry said. “These photographs represent just a fraction of people who have died while in Syrian government custody — thousands more are suffering the same fate.”

All of the 27 families or relatives interviewed by the group said they spent months or years searching for information about their loved ones and some paid huge sums of money. Just two received death certificates. None have received the bodies.

“Just about every detainee in these photographs was someone’s beloved child, husband, father, or friend, and his friends and family spent months or years searching for him,” Mr Houry said.

Ahmad al-Musalmani was 14 when he was detained for having an anti-regime song on his phone on Aug 2, 2012. His uncle Dahi al-Musalmani paid US$14,000 (505,000 baht) in bribes to secure his release, but he was unsuccessful. When the Caesar photographs were released he searched for Ahmad among them.

“I went directly to the folder of the Air Force Intelligence, and I found him,” he told HRW.

“It was a shock. Oh, it was the shock of my life to see him here. I looked for him, 950 days I looked for him. I counted each day. When his mother was dying, she told me: ‘I leave him under your protection.’ What protection could I give?”

Rehab al-Allawi worked assisting internally displaced people. Hers was the only photo of a female. She was about 25 when a military police unit arrested her on Jan 17, 2013.

Her family paid more than $18,000 to officials in the military and security services to try to get her back, to no avail. She was recognised in a picture by her family and a fellow former detainee after the photos were released.

Caesar is believed to have worked for the Syrian military police for 13 years and has testified before the US House of Representatives. His identity remains protected. Mr Assad has denied the abuses.