The pinnacle of a U.S.-based Syrian advocacy group on Monday mentioned {that a} mass grave exterior of Damascus contained the our bodies of a minimum of 100,000 individuals killed by the previous authorities of ousted President Bashar al-Assad.
Mouaz Moustafa, chatting with Reuters in a phone interview from Damascus, mentioned the location at al Qutayfah, 25 miles (40 km) north of the Syrian capital, was certainly one of 5 mass graves that he had recognized over time.
“100 thousand is probably the most conservative estimate” of the variety of our bodies buried on the web site, mentioned Moustafa, head of the Syrian Emergency Process Power. “It’s a really, very extraordinarily virtually unfairly conservative estimate.”
Moustafa mentioned that he’s certain there are extra mass graves than the 5 websites, and that together with Syrians victims included U.S. and British residents and different foreigners.
Reuters was unable to substantiate Moustafa’s allegations.
A whole bunch of hundreds of Syrians are estimated to have been killed since 2011, when Assad’s crackdown on protests in opposition to his rule grew right into a full-scale civil battle.
Assad and his father Hafez, who preceded him as president and died in 2000, are accused by Syrians, rights teams and different governments of widespread extrajudicial killings, together with mass executions throughout the nation’s infamous jail system.
Assad repeatedly denied that his authorities dedicated human rights violations and painted his detractors as extremists.
Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Koussay Aldahhak didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. He assumed the function in January – whereas Assad was nonetheless in energy – however informed reporters final week that he was awaiting directions from the brand new authorities and would “maintain defending and dealing for the Syrian individuals.”
Moustafa arrived in Syria after Assad flew to Russia and his authorities collapsed within the face of a lightning offensive by rebels that ended his household’s greater than 50 years of iron-fisted rule.
He spoke to Reuters after he was interviewed on the web site in al Qutayfah by Britain’s Channel 4 Information for a report on the alleged mass grave there.
He mentioned the intelligence department of the Syrian air pressure was “in control of our bodies going from army hospitals, the place our bodies had been collected after they’d been tortured to loss of life, to completely different intelligence branches, after which they might be despatched to a mass grave location.”
Corpses additionally had been transported to websites by the Damascus municipal funeral workplace whose personnel helped unload them from refrigerated tractor-trailers, he mentioned.
“We had been capable of discuss to the individuals who labored on these mass graves that had on their very own escaped Syria or that we helped to flee,” mentioned Moustafa.
His group has spoken to bulldozer drivers compelled to dig graves and “many instances on orders, squished the our bodies down to suit them in after which cowl them with grime,” he mentioned.
Moustafa expressed concern that graves websites had been unsecured and mentioned they wanted to be preserved to safeguard proof for investigations.
