Permanent Scars

Asad’s campaign of torture, rape, and war crimes in Syria’s prisons

Matthew Rycroft
Jul 27, 2017 · 3 min read

Today I will walk through the doors to the United Nations Security Council chamber for another meeting on Syria. And as I do, I’ll be thinking of another chamber — a torture chamber. I’ll be thinking of Asad’s torture chambers and prisons, and the women who survived them.

Nearly two years ago, I walked through those doors to the United Nations Security Council and, together with my 14 fellow Ambassadors, we unanimously passed Resolution 2254. That resolution, among other things, demanded the release of all men, women and children detained in Syria. Since then there has been almost no progress on that demand. It’s yet another international obligation that the Asad regime is in breach of.

Instead, we have seen tens of thousands of Syrians still held in detention centres and military prisons across the country. Men, women and children have become prisoners of war, and are subjected to torture beyond our worst nightmares. Thousands have died within those walls, many suffering the most gruesome death possible, as we have seen through reports this year from Amnesty International and others. Amnesty detailed weekly, almost ceremonial, hangings of up to 50 people at a time.

Sadly, the reports haven’t stopped coming. This week I read a new one by the organisation Lawyers and Doctors for Human Rights (LDHR).

It made me feel sick.

The report investigated the experiences of women who survived their time in Asad’s detention centres. LDHR found rampant use of torture and sexual violence, and classified some of the brutal acts as war crimes.

‘Harrowing’ doesn’t adequately describe the horrors spotlighted in the report. Nor does it do justice to the bravery of the women who endured such horror. This report does more than just document their ordeals; it gives the women who survived a voice.

They were all arrested and detained at different times, in different places, for different lengths. But their collective experience contains the same stories of rape, sexual violence and brutal torture at the hands of agents of the Syrian regime.

The Sednaya Military prison located within Syria, subject of the report by Amnesty International’s Human slaughterhouse: Mass hangings and extermination at Saydnaya prison, Syria report

The details are an affront to humanity and difficult to write, but we cannot turn our backs on the horrors of Syria. We can’t chose to close our eyes and cover our ears. That will not make them disappear. Whether you are sitting in front of your smartphone or in a chair around the Security Council table, we all must confront these realities. Only then can we bring peace, safety and justice to what has become of Syria.

The women had extreme torture inflicted upon them. Beaten all over, lashed with wires and cables, burned by cigarettes, hung upside down, and electrocuted. Others suffered horrific sexual violence at the hands of Asad’s guards. One woman described her first hours in an Asad regime prison: she was gang-raped by five men.

Photo from the report published by Lawyers & Doctors for Human Rights.

These terrible acts have left these women permanently scarred, now suffering through constant emotional and psychological pain. While lash marks, burns, and stab wounds may have slightly faded, the scars on their memory have not.

“You die in a second of arrival,” one woman said about the detention centres.

Those who have made it out of these prisons have technically survived, but they are left as ghosts of their former selves.

I encourage everyone to read this report, and face the demons that exist inside Syria. The 36 pages offer reminder after horrific reminder of what a Syria with Asad at the helm looks like. And a reminder of why there needs to be a transition away from Asad to a government that can protect the rights of all Syrians, unite the country and end the conflict.

More than anything the report should act as a moral and humanitarian imperative. A call to action for those with the power to change things. To end the suffering of Zahira, Amina, Rima and thousands like them across Syria. To hold to account all those guilty of such despicable crimes.

And to end the war.

Matthew Rycroft

Written by

Ambassador & Permanent Representative, UK Mission to UN, New York @UKUN_NewYork, @foreignoffice. Security Council, foreign affairs, international development

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