(Zaman Al Wasl)- It might be traced back the history of Dummar, the northwestern district of Damascus, and its residents’ old, as well as, the ongoing conflict with the Assad Family. Given the neighbourhood’s strategic localization proximate to highly sensitive areas (The Presidential palace and its annexes, the military barracks). That, eventually, contributed to the “killing and killing only”, the regime’s decision and exclusive means of action dealing with the people of “Dummar”. Leading to the execution of 1000 people of the touristic town, under torture alone, by the Military Intelligence Division and its notorious 215 Branch).
As the name lists of the dead victim of torture were being distributed to the civil registry departments of the different Syrian provinces, the torture list of Dummar's detainees was not provided the reason was that the people of the neighbourhood - or those who remain of them – were the first, ahead of almost all of the rest of Syrians, to receive news of martyrdom of their beloved ones, and acquaintances.
Hamza, pseudonym, an activist and a member of the local council of Dummar, who documented the atrocities and violations in the neighbourhood, told Zaman Al-Wasl, that about 1000 detainees had been tortured to death by the Assad regime. However, there are about 200 other detainees from the neighbourhood of Dummar who have been added to the Name lists of detainees, although their data are still incomplete.
Based on Hamza's work in documenting the cases of the arrest and killing of his neighbourhood, Hamza asserts that, since the eruption of the revolution up to the moment, the number of confirmed deaths under torture has amounted to 700 prisoners out of the total number (1000 detainees), whereas the rest were martyrs, built on the live testimonies Hamza received from eyewitnesses detainees, who had miraculously escaped from Assad's prisons.
Amnesty accused the Syrian regime of carrying out a "policy of extermination", repeatedly torturing detainees and withholding food, water, and medical care.
Prisoners were also raped or forced to rape each other, and guards would feed detainees by tossing meals on to the cell floor, which was often covered in dirt and blood, the report said.
Amnesty has previously said that more than 17,700 people were estimated to have died in regime custody across Syria since the country's conflict erupted in 2011.
According to Hamza, half of the numbers of detainees from “Dummar” were executed by the regime, who had died under torture (about 350 out of 700) were confirmed by the testimonies of their relatives or former detainees who accompanied these martyrs and witnessed the moments of their deaths.
Furthermore, the documentation office of the local council of “Dummar” was able to officially confirm the death of 81 detainees from the neighbourhood, during the leak of parts of the file of the dissident military photographer "Caesar". The file which most of its photographs are still out of reach (about 55,000 photographs) . Therefore the possibility of finding out about more of “Dummar”’s torture victims by the documentation office is certain, Hamza stresses.
Hamza, who has devoted, passionately, his time and effort to the work on the file of the inhabitants of Dummar. He couldn’t hide the sorrow and grief remembering the names and stories of these victims, who were either relatives or neighbours acquaintance. The neighbourhood of Dummar had a reputation among the other neighbourhoods nearby Damascus, being characterized by a strong preservation of its traditions and human interrelationships and connections, which constituted the concern of the regime, that revolved around the divide-and-rule policy, that was translated later on into devastating brutality vis-à-vis Dummar.
Among the heart wrenching stories, only ever known by people who went through them, is the story of a woman from the neighbourhood, who was contacted by the regime’s intelligence, on the days of the Eid, to be handled her father’s documents, who was detained. When she reached, they told her:”your father is dead” and as if this shocking news weren’t traumatizing enough for the vulnerable being that she is, they also told her about her brother’s killing so that she mourns them both.
The regime has executed entire families under torture; among them is “Attiya” family, which has sacrificed over one hundred martyr under torture, also “Johdar” Family, whose 70 of its members were arrested as well executed. There are about 7 cases of the incarceration and torturing to death of fathers alongside their offspring . As to siblings, over 70 cases from the neighbourhood of “Dummar” are to be found. The number of siblings, who were incarcerated and executed behind the bars of the regime ranges from two to four siblings per case.
Hamza pointed the fact that about 90% of the people of “Dummar” who were tortured and executed, didn’t partake in any armed conflict against the regime. To add, that most of them didn’t even contribute in the revolution. Furthermore, some of them were even the agents and the supporters of the regime; they were nonetheless caught in the stream of the vicious revenge that was waged by section 215, against “Dummar” neighbourhood.
Among the public figures executed by the regime was “Cheikh Fares Khadhir” who made a recorded, public appearance, in order to preach supporting Bashar Assad, infusing his discourse with religious arguments, emphasizing the urgency to kill those opposing Bashar al-Assad . Cheik Khadhir organized and led a supporter’s march in the end of the year 2013, shortly after the regime took control over “Dummar”. What was remarkable is that “Khadhir” was arrested only a few months after, and was executed 2 days after his arrest, by the very regime of Assad that he served.
Among the Intellectuals that were tortured to death is the author and novelist “Mohammed Namr Al-Madani” who was an iconic culture's figure, with a distinguished social life. Hamza who saw him after being released the first time from his first incarceration, claims that, “Al-Madani” wrote the document of his execution with his own bare hands. Al-Madani provided more detailed information about an interrogator, who came along to calmly discuss with Al-Madani the regime’s willingness to bargain the revolutionists’ demands, then he gave him a pen and a piece of paper, asking him to write their demands down as he viewed them.
It seems that interrogator’s roguish and mischievous approach has persuaded "Al-Madani", in fact, he took the paper, noting down enthusiastically and sincerely, what every Syrian revolutionary was striving for, freedom, justice and the peaceful transfer of power... The interrogator then annexed that paper to the file of “Al-Madani” before releasing him.
"Adira" was the "reconstruction barrier" located on the Dummar bridge in the direction of “Qasiyun”, the headquarters of its operations and a platform for raids and continuous arrests directed against the district of Dummar, with the help of another officer known by The name "Abu Bashar.
"Adira" remained until 2015 the knife, which slaughtered the detainees of “Dummar”, directed by the officers of the branch 215, then he was transferred to another area, to continue his atrocious crimes. Nevertheless , rumours of the death of “Adira” while the same operation of the assassination of "General Hassan Dabol" in 2017 , were been
circulated . However "Hamza" asserted that the “Adira” is still alive and is still engaged in criminal activity. Hence, being able to arrest him and bring him back to justice, would be a priceless opportunity to bring up several
black boxes concerning section 215, consequently the rest of the military intelligence branches.
“Adira” was not only charged of raiding and arresting people, but also he was charged of executing some of the detainees even before they reaching the branch 215, despite the short distance that separates between the district of Dummar and the headquarters of the branch, which is about only 20 minutes.
Considering the immense size of the intelligence branch 215 -which “ Zaman al-Wasel” possesses an exclusive information about the name lists of the 7,000 detainees- At one stage “Dummar” detainees alone constituted 1/7 of the total number of detainees in the branch. The branch is periodically and systematically emptied either by killing or by transferring the detainees to another detention centres, that means, one out of every seven detainees in that branch was one of the Dummar's people.
Besides the individual assassinations, which exterminated most of Dummar detainees in Branch 215, the branch witnessed, in one year, a mass massacre in the full sense of the word called "Plague Massacre". Pulmonary plague was spread among the prisoners of the collective chambers. This plague was “treated” by Brigadier General Shafiq Musah, who issued an order to kill all the attained prisoners, that resulted in sentencing 45 of Dummar's detainees in this massacre alone.
*Beyond The Tragedy
Hamza's worrisome concerning the fate of his neighbourhood’s detainees, pushed him to pursue their news from any available source and to ask any prisoner who would come out alive, about the dummar's detainees. Among those who were contacted was the famous detainee “Omar Al-Shughri” who frustrated Hamza, by telling him to forget any hope of survival for the detainees of "Dummar" who were in section 215. He went on telling him about the tragedies of killing and torture is beyond the abilities of the human imagination. Given the example of "Shawisha" who killed alone, about 50 prisoners from Dummar.
(Shawish is a prisoner with extreme criminal tendencies, which the regime assigns as their agent, and as the chief of the collective cell, who controlled sleeping, eating, etc., and is the representative of the actual system inside the cell).
Following the decision of the regime to execute each one of the remains of the people of the neighbourhood, even if she/he was working in the humanitarian and relief volunteerism, the efforts were intensified in the summer of 2014 to pursue, detect, arrest and execute all members of the local council in Dummar, that consists of a civilian body of character and objectives. Eventually they were able to arrest and kill under torture, 9 of the members of this council, which was a backbreaking strike for the council. The remaining six members, including Hamza, had survived an inevitable fatale fate. Unfortunately, as a result, the efforts of documentation lost an important part of its momentum, yet they have continued working, maintaining the bare minimum, in order to preserve the rights of the martyrs of torture and the detainees, not to be forgotten, nor to be written off under negotiations and agreements.
These files should not be closed. The ones who are calling for the need to close it in order to stop the "bleeding" in Syria and achieve "reconciliation" are the ones who need to review their vision of both the revolution and the system together, those don’t encompass the spirit of the revolution, that is based on concept of lifting the injustice and therefore reinforcing the justice, nor does they realize the nature of the crimes committed by the regime.
As proof of the atrocious nature of the Assad regime, Hamza adds to the tragic weight of the detainees' file: "The families of the revolutionaries and the victims of torture, were coercively displaced from Dummar and from all of Syria, under death threat and assault, they were about 700 families. Additionally, there are the seizure of the property of detainees and victims of torture in Dummar. There are about 80 cases in which these properties were acquired either directly or through decisions of seizure and confiscation of their legal and internal reprisals.
One of these cases of snatching the property belonging to victims of torture, by one of the regime agent of the sectarian militants, coming from abroad, they took over the house of a woman whose husband was tortured and died under torture. These militants, also, took over a shop the woman used to live on its income.
The torture list has been obtained in association with the Syrian Violations Documentation Center.
It inclues names of 7953 victims of different ages, including 125 children and 63 females, who were killed by the Syrian intelligence services, either immediately after their arrest or after physical and psychological torture.
The death date of each torture victim is documented between 2011 and 2018
(307 victims in 2011 - 1,199 victims in 2012 - 2,120 victims in 2013 - 2276 victims in 2014 - 1413 victims in 2015 - 401 victims in 2016 - 146 victims in 2017 - 170 victims in 2018)
1- Damascus suburbs 1856
2. Daraa 1283
3. Homs 1253
4. Damascus 870
5. Hama 762
6. Idlib 585
7. Aleppo 473
8. Deir Ezzor 450
9. Latakia 154
10. Quneitra 110
11. Raqqa 50
12. Hasaka 44
13. Tartus 28 (mostly from Banyas city)
14. Swaida 23
10 victims of non-Syrian nationalities, 2 of the victims were not affiliated with any nationality.
Zaman al-Wasl hopes that all material, documentation and information provided in the detainees reports would be used for the purposes of legal actions, proceedings, litigation, matters and international levels before courts, tribunals and human rights organisations.
Death certificates have been sweeping the registry offices. Most of the detainees were tortured to death by the
Assad regime.
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At least 1000 detainees from Darayya, the western suburb of Damascus, were tortured to death in the Syrian security chambers, according to local activists who affirmed that the Intelligence Services had delivered the list of dead detainees to the civil registry office in the town.
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Sources assured that the Assad regime has been issuing death certificates for detainees tortured to death.
The 'Coordination of the Darayya People in the Diaspora' said on Friday that 68 death certificates were issued for prisoners tortured to death, included seven execuation cases in the Saydnaya military prison on 15-1-2013.
The Coordination has also documented names of 2809 detainees and 122 disappeared.
Activists and families are expected a new death list as about 3400 people were arrested from Darayya since the early days of the Syrian revolution and during the battle of Darayya between November 2012 and February 2013.
In August 2012, the regime forces backed by allied militias defeated the rebel forces and took control of the town. About 500 people were found executed by the regime in the bloody offensive.
According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, 81,652 Syrian citizens were forcibly disappeared at the hands of the Syrian regime alone between March 2011 and June 2018, while around 13,066 victims died due to torture at the Syrian regime’s official and non-official prisons in the same period of time.
Zaman al-Wasl and The Gathering of Free Syrian Advocates have obtained names of 145 detainees were tortured to death as the regime ordered the civil registry office in Hama province to issue death certificates for the detainees which ignore the reason of death.
The same order took place in Hasaka for 600 detainees who also died of torture.
The advocate group has submitted the list to the United Nations, saying the regime security centers are a place for a genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Mohamed Nour Hmaidi, head of the Syrian Justice Gathering and the former head of Public Prosecution in Idlib province, said the regime is seeking to conceal its crimes backed by Iran and Russia as Assad thinks the war is over.
The death certificates were part of the post-war plans, Hamaidi said as about 600,000 Syrian are believed to be behind the bars.
The U.N. said in its reports over Syrian detainees that the scale of deaths in prisons indicated that the Assad regime was responsible for “extermination as a crime against humanity”.
In mid 2013, a team of war crimes prosecutors and forensic experts, had analyzed 55 thousand digital photos taken and provided by a Syrian defector codenamed "Caesar," who, along with his family, is now living outside Syria in an undisclosed location, according to CNN.
The 8000-detainee list is not related to Caesar's photos.
The team members shared their findings in a joint exclusive with CNN's "Amanpour" and The Guardian newspaper on January 20, 2014.
Syria is not a member of the International Criminal Court. The only way the court could prosecute someone from Syria would be through a referral from the United Nations Security Council.
Zaman Al Wasl- Ethar Abdul Haq
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