Syria’s Mass Graves: The Challenging Endeavor of Locating and Identifying Victims

A dry area of land, located in Adra, a north-western suburb situated under 10km (six miles) from Damascus’s bustling city center, is enclosed by cement walls. Upon entry, to the left, personnel from the White Helmets humanitarian group are observed conducting searches for mass graves. In recent days, videos have surfaced online depicting mass graves containing individuals who were tortured to death in Syria’s infamous prisons by Bashar al-Assad’s government. Within Adra, the White Helmets discovered a small opening containing multiple large white plastic bags filled with human remains. A message plainly states: “Seven bodies, eighth grave, unknown.” The group was extracting the discovered remains, including skulls and bones. DNA samples were gathered. The remains were then placed into black body bags for the purpose of documentation and subsequent analysis. Ismael Abdullah, a rescuer, indicates that they bear a substantial responsibility. He states, “Thousands of people are missing. It is going to take time – a lot of it – to get anywhere near the truth about what happened to them,” He adds, “Today, after receiving a call about possible mass grave here, we found on the ground the remains of seven civilians.” He further mentions that all requisite steps were taken “so in the future we can identify those people who were killed”. This team is part of a limited group trained in documenting and gathering forensic evidence. Over 100,000 individuals are believed to have vanished in Syria since 2011. Within the last week, the rebel faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which removed Assad following over 50 years of his family’s governance, has unsealed prisons and detention facilities throughout Syria. Human rights organizations have determined that over 80,000 of those missing have died. An additional 60,000 individuals are thought to have succumbed to torture, as reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based conflict monitoring group. Residents are increasingly reporting the locations of mass graves throughout Syria, a trend also observed by the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), a non-governmental organization based in the US. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch asserts that these graves require protection and investigation. In Qutayfah town, situated further north-west of Damascus, the SETF suspects the presence of a mass grave potentially holding the remains of at least 100,000 individuals killed by the Assad administration. A local inhabitant, who observed the interment of bodies throughout Syria’s civil war, recounted that the bodies were placed in refrigerated containers transported by security forces. The ground would be filled with bodies, after which the area would be leveled by bulldozers, he informed the BBC. Abdul Kadir al-Sheikha, Qutayfah’s religious leader, observed one instance of such a mass burial. He stated that he was requested by secret police to oversee the interment. He attempted to perform religious rites for the deceased and offered prayers. He conveyed that within this 30 sq m space, a minimum of 100 individuals were interred. Following this, he was not contacted by the police again, he noted. Mr. Sheikha remarked, “They called them terrorists who didn’t deserve burial. They didn’t want anyone to witness what they were doing,” Another witness, who was compelled to participate, recounted that the secret police stopped individuals from approaching mass grave locations or even observing from their windows during the burials. The witness indicated that numerous similar mass graves are present in the Damascus suburbs. In Husseiniyeh, along the route to the Damascus airport, satellite imagery reveals alterations in the terrain of areas where mass graves have been uncovered. With the collapse of the Assad regime amidst the swift rebel offensive, thousands of Syrian families hastened to prisons and detention centers in pursuit of their disappeared relatives. These families seek resolution and the opportunity to respectfully inter their deceased. At a particular detention facility, hundreds of identification documents belonging to Syrians held by Assad’s security forces were strewn across the ground. A woman continued her search for her brother, who vanished in 2014. A father sought his son, detained in 2013. The search persists among all involved. However, the identification and safeguarding of mass graves, along with the identification of the remains within them, represent challenges that few Syrians are presently equipped to handle, necessitating urgent assistance from international experts.