Amnesty International on Tuesday said that a military jail authorised at the highest levels of the Syrian government have overseen a “monstrous campaign” of secret atrocities.
It said this include the hanging of up to 13,000 people in five years.
It said that the secret mass hangings were carried out under a “calculated campaign of extrajudicial executions” by President Bashar al-Assad’s government at the Saydnaya prison near Damascus.
“Guards at Saydnaya oversaw weekly or sometimes twice-weekly hangings of up to 50 prisoners at a time, most of who were believed to be government opponents, “in the middle of the night and in total secrecy.
“Up to 13,000 prisoners were executed at the prison from 2011 to 2015.
“This happened following convictions by military courts after forced confessions, read the report, titled “Human slaughterhouse: Mass hangings and extermination at Saydnaya prison,” it said.
The Amnesty documented repeated torture and the systematic deprivation of food, water, medicine and medical care, saying the practices at the prison “amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Lynn Maalouf, Deputy Director for Research at Amnesty’s regional office in Beirut, said the campaign was “aimed at crushing any form of dissent within the Syrian population.”
“We demand that the Syrian authorities immediately cease extrajudicial executions and torture and inhumane treatment at Saydnaya prison and in all other government prisons across Syria.
“Russia and Iran, the government’s closest allies, must press for an end to these murderous detention policies,” she said.
Maalouf said that upcoming Syria peace talks in Geneva “cannot ignore these findings.
It would be recalled that Russia’s foreign minister says upcoming peace talks had been pushed back for late February.
Sergey Lavrov spoke at a meeting on Friday in Moscow with some opposition groups.
Rebel factions fighting to oust President Bashar Assad had declined an invitation to the meeting.
Lavrov says UN-mediated Geneva talks, previously set for Feb. 8, have been postponed until the end of the month.
He didn’t elaborate on the reasons for the postponement.
Lavrov welcomed this week’s Syria peace talks in Kazakhstan that brought rebel factions face-to-face with Assad’s representatives for the first time in the six-year conflict.
He also said that Russia has floated a draft of a new Syrian constitution in a bid to encourage debate — not an attempt to enforce Moscow’s will on the Syrians.(dpa/NAN)