PHOTO: Aleppo Central Prison, May 2014


The UN Human Rights Council has declared “massive and systematized violence” — including torture, rape, and killing —- against detainees by the Assad regime, and has called for urgent measures to remedy the abuses.

The Council based its report, submitted last week, on 621 interviews and documentary evidence. It found:

Detainees held by the Government were beaten to death, or died as a result of injuries sustained due to torture. Others perished as a consequence of inhuman living conditions. The Government has committed the crimes against humanity of extermination, murder, rape or other forms of sexual violence, torture, imprisonment, enforced disappearance and other inhuman acts. Based on the same conduct, war crimes have also been committed.

The Council also found abuse of captured regime soldiers by some rebel factions, including summary executions after “illicit trials”, and deaths of abducted individuals. It specially named Jabhat al-Nusra for detention facilities and mass executions of regime soldiers in Idlib Province in northwest Syria, as well as condemning abuses by the Islamic State.

However, the bulk of its report was about regime abuses:

Since March 2011, a countrywide pattern emerged in which civilians, mainly males above the age of 15, were arbitrarily arrested and detained by the Syrian security and armed forces or by militia acting on behalf of the Government during mass arrests, house searches, at checkpoints and in hospitals….

In the accounts collected from over 500 survivors of Government detention centers between March 2011 and November 2015, almost all described having been the victims of and witnesses to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment. Over 200 former Government detainees witnessed one or more deaths in custody.

Most of those killed were men, but women and children as young as 7 also perished.

The report goes into detail about the torture witnessed by interviewees, and it also document poor, unsanitary conditions including lack of food, disease, and a failure to provide medical care. It says that prisoners were denied contact with families and adds:

Many detainees were subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence, and exposed to humiliation and degrading treatment. Prisoners wer. subjected to threats of sexual violence against female relatives.

The report concludes, “It is apparent that the government authorities administering prisons and detention centers were aware that deaths on a massive scale were occurring.”


SUMMARY

In the Syrian Arab Republic, massive and systematised violence – including the killing of detainees in official and makeshift detention centres – has taken place out of sight, far from the battlefield. This paper examines the killing of detainees occurring between 10 March 2011 and 30 November 2015. Its findings are based on 621 interviews, as well as considerable documentary material.

Detainees held by the Government were beaten to death, or died as a result of injuries sustained due to torture. Others perished as a consequence of inhuman living conditions. The Government has committed the crimes against humanity of extermination, murder, rape or other forms of sexual violence, torture, imprisonment, enforced disappearance and other inhuman acts. Based on the same conduct, war crimes have also been committed.

Some anti-Government armed groups established makeshift places of detention where captured Government soldiers were ill treated, and executed. Others were summarily executed following illicit trials. Some individuals taken hostage have died while held by armed groups.

Jabhat Al-Nusra has set up detention facilities in Idlib where deaths in detention were documented. The terrorist group also conducted mass executions of captured Government soldiers. Both Jabhat Al-Nusra and some anti-Government armed groups have committed the war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, and torture.

ISIS subjected detainees to serious abuses, including torture and summary executions. Detainees were frequently executed after unauthorised courts issued a death sentence. ISIS has committed the crimes against humanity of murder and torture, and war crimes.

Accountability for these and other crimes must form part of any political solution. The situation of detainees is critical, and represents an urgent and large-scale crisis of human rights protection. Urgent steps must be taken by the Syrian Government, armed groups, external backers, and the wider international community to prevent further deaths.

Read full report….