The excavation of mass graves in Syria is set to begin, marking a critical step towards uncovering the truth about Bashar Assad’s regime and bringing closure to families of victims.
In the town of Najha, south of Damascus, forensic teams and international groups have identified tens of thousands of bodies believed to be buried under existing graves or in mass graves. The site alone could hold several tens of thousands of bodies, according to former US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues Stephen Rapp.
The task is daunting, with an estimated 150,000 Syrians still unaccounted for after disappearing into Assad’s prisons. Human rights groups and witnesses describe a regime notorious for systematic torture, mass executions, and brutal conditions that killed inmates from disease and starvation.
Rapp is working with organizations to document mass graves and identify officials implicated in war crimes. He plans to meet with new transitional government officials to discuss securing and excavating sites, gathering samples for identification, and preserving documents discovered in security branches and prisons.
Locals have taken matters into their own hands, digging up a mass grave in the village of Izraa in southern Daraa province, where remains of over 30 corpses were uncovered. Relatives who had hoped to find loved ones in prison were left heartbroken after discovering burned bodies.
As authorities establish a hotline for people and ex-prisoners to identify locations and secret prisons used by Assad’s government, the process of securing and cataloguing documents could take up to three months. Identifying those buried in mass graves is expected to take more than two years.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/syria-mass-graves-stephen-rapp-fea6c06369a866786fa5633900e22419