Destruction in Bab Amr, Homs, Syria. Photograph courtesy of Syria Freedom
A new report by former war crime prosecutors says claims that there is evidence that the Assad regime has systematically tortured and executed 11,000 prisoners since the uprising began in 2011.
The investigators examined 55,000 digital images, which were smuggled out of Syria by a defector and show the dead bodies of around 11,000 male prisoners. This evidence is likely to be the tip of the iceberg in terms of the numbers of those tortured and executed, with the information coming from just a single location and the majority of the photographs taken by a single photographer, known only as “Caesar”, who then defected.
Caesar said his role was to photograph the dead bodies both for their death certificates to be produced and to confirm that the executioners had carried out their orders. He said that he did not personally witness the torture or executions, but a number of the bodies show signs of significant starvation and beatings, with some missing eyes or showing signs of electrocution or strangling.
The report comes a day before peace talks are due to begin in Switzerland, and the investigators say that there is clear evidence of government involvement in the abuse, but Damascus denies any claims of human rights abuses.
The Geneva II talks are a UN-backed peace conference, that is the biggest diplomatic effort to end the bloodshed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011, and has since left more than 100,000 dead and millions more as refugees.
On Monday, the UN withdrew its invitation to Iran, Assad’s main ally in the region, after its refusal to support the plan for Syrian transitional government which is the basis for the talks.
