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December 11, 2024 | 02:31 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The collapse of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in Syria reveals another fact. Several prisons bear witness to Assad's cruelty towards his vocal opponents. One of the most famous is the Sednaya prison located near Damascus.
Syrian rescuers were searching through the Sednaya prison to find and free detainees. The team also uncovered abuses that occurred during Assad’s regime.
Raed al-Saleh, the director of Syria’s Civil Defense organization, known as the White Helmets, said that Sednaya Prison was “hell” for detainees. “[Sednaya] doesn’t give the impression that it is a prison. It is a human slaughterhouse where human beings are being slaughtered and tortured,” said al-Saleh as quoted from Al Jazeera.
He added that the rescue team saw bodies inside ovens, saying daily executions took place in the complex.
Opposition fighters entered the facility on Sunday morning and freed thousands of detainees. For critics of al-Assad, Sednaya Prison symbolizes the brutality of the Baathist government. The end of this prison marks a new chapter for Syria.
According to the White Helmets, 50 to 100 people are executed daily in the prison. Most of the imprisoned are political prisoners who oppose the al-Assad government.
Amnesty International's 2017 report stated that murder, torture, enforced disappearances, and extermination have been widespread in the prison since 2011 when the war broke out in the country. The human rights organization found that these practices constitute crimes against humanity.
Syria has another 100 detention facilities according to the United Nations report, along with a number of unknown secret facilities. Besides Sednaya, another infamous prison is Tadmor located in the desert of the ancient city of Palmyra.
According to Al Jazeera, about 157,634 Syrians were arrested between March 2011 and August 2024. Of this number, 5,274 were children and 10,221 were women.
Thousands more were abducted by Syrian security services during the rule of Bashar Al-Assad's father, Hafez, who came to power in 1971. His son, Bashar Al-Assad, took over the country after Hafez's death in 2000.
Many Syrians are still imprisoned underground. Authorities have asked former soldiers and prison guards to provide passwords to opposition forces to open the underground electronic doors. Thousands of detainees are believed to still be trapped underground.
The Syrian White Helmets group also offers a cash prize of US$ 3,000 or around Rp47 million to anyone who can provide information to help uncover secret facilities.
Atrocious Torture of Bashar Al-Assad's Regime
Detainees are tortured in unimaginable ways. The Syrian regime uses several techniques to punish its opponents. Detainees are whipped, deprived of sleep, and electrocuted. Women and men are routinely stripped naked, blindfolded, and even raped.
In addition, three specific torture methods have become notorious in Syria for completely breaking a detainee's back. The first is known as the 'German chair,' where prison guards make the detainee sit on a chair and bend them backward until their spine snapped.
The second is called the 'flying carpet,' where victims are placed on a foldable wooden board. Guards then lift both sides of the board, bringing the knees and chest of the victim together, causing severe back pain.
Lastly, prison guards often tie detainees to a ladder and then push the ladder while watching the victim fall on their back. This action is repeated multiple times.
Reasons for the Regime's Arrest of Many Syrians
The detention of thousands of Syrians is carried out to terrorize and intimidate them into submission to Bashar Al-Assad. Before the Syrian uprising in 2011, people in the country used to say, “ the walls have ears,” referring to the regime's intelligence surveillance system and spy networks.
Anyone who made critical comments about the regime was at risk of disappearing into one of its prisons.
AL JAZEERA
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