The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Tuesday that Minister Asaad al-Shaibani met with the Tadamon massacre investigation team, stressing the government's commitment to justice for the victims.
On the other hand, Zaman al-Wasl raises questions about the lack of transparency and the team's own secrecy.
The massacre, carried out by members of the former regime's army in 2013, was filmed in 26 clips, but only one of them was published "by mistake"! These videos have been in the possession of the University of Amsterdam and the investigation team for years, through researchers Ugur Ümit Üngör and Ansar Shahoud.
Here, several questions arise:
- Why is the university concealing the remaining clips?
- Why has the name of the person filming the massacre not been revealed?
- Why were the clips not shown to the families of the victims, who still do not know the fate of their loved ones?
- When was the investigation team formed, and by whom? We have never heard of it!
What has been published so far represents only a drop in the ocean of this crime, which must be exposed in its entirety. This must be done in ways that respect Syrian privacy and the Syrian context, and not be monopolized under the pretext of "academic research," as the victims are not archival material.
Among the unpublished clips, as described by the British newspaper The Guardian: "Seven veiled women are shown being brutally murdered. One of them screams for help, and the response is, 'Get up, you...'" before she is dragged by the hair and shot. Two others are kicked to death, while the rest silently face their fates."
Demands for Justice and Accountability
Refusing to publish the clips constitutes a second crime. Zaman al-Wasl demands that the team immediately disclose them and enable families to identify their loved ones. If the university refuses to comply, legal action must be taken to compel it to hand over the evidence to the Syrian state, out of respect for justice and the memory of Syrians.
As for the primary suspect in this massacre, Fadi Saqr, questions remain about his fate and accountability.
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