Arrest, pursue and kill! The official paper that formerly belonged to a division of Syrian military intelligence in the city of Deraa in early 2012 clearly spelt out the commands. Researchers working for a non-governmental group located in Washington, D.C. were given access to those orders as well as a number of films that revealed an effort to conceal killings. Videos depict the burning of corpses and their placement in mass graves in the southern province of Deraa. The films from 2012 and 2013 were examined by the Syrian Justice and Accountability Center. They double-checked them using satellite images that were observing the vehicles that were delivering the dead. Four films showed rows of corpses being doused in gasoline and dumped into a fire pit.
The videos were filmed by Syrian military intelligence officers and senior officers of the 9th Division’s 34th Armored Brigade in Deraa. An excavator belonging to the Syrian military was used to dig a mass grave not far from a military checkpoint. The perpetrators believed no one outside of their circle would ever find out the crimes they had committed.
The video footage, according to SJAC researchers, were found after rebels later attacked a vehicle carrying the Assad supporters who were there. The recordings, according to Mohammad Al-Abdallah, the SJAC’s founding director, gave clear visual proof that the Syrian intelligence apparatus had a comprehensive procedure in place for documenting mass crimes based on the orders of the high leadership. ‘ It appears that intelligence personnel conducted the paperwork in a methodical way of manner. The methodical method of recording, the digital camera, the transfer of data to a central laptop, and the animosity of higher officers against the filming by their subordinates but inability to tell them to stop are all glaring signs that the filming was being commanded by higher officials’.
The so-called burn-pit videos seem to confirm the practice of documenting mass executions and attempted disposal of the bodies as part of a macabre bureaucratic policy. They add to horrific evidence previously leaked by a former Syrian military intelligence photographer, codenamed Caesar, who escaped Syria with a thumb drive containing 1,000 photographs of executed detainees. Each victim provided a number and then surreptitiously disposed of.
Videos from Deraa proved that there was a clear hierarchy commanding atrocities on a massive scale, and that individuals carrying out these orders had become cruelly accustomed to the task. Reports published in April implicated regime forces in the murders of dozens of people in 2013. Mobile phone footage depicted summary mass executions of civilians by Syrian military officers in Tadamon.
Al-Abdallah hopes to establish evidence that could be used for war crimes prosecution in the future. ‘Exposing such crimes definitely gets in the middle of normalizing attempts and reminds the world of such crimes’. Some of the military intelligence officers involved in this gruesome act were killed in a subsequent rebel ambush. Those that ordered the executions and burning of the bodies are still believed to be serving in Assad’s military.
Al-Abdallah and his team are following up on additional leads that have resulted from the publication of video evidence. The photos, videos, and written orders detailing executions, mass burials, and incineration of bodies hark back to a phase of the civil war. But shedding light on their existence and exposing those who ordered and carried out the apparent war crimes could send a loud and unmistakable message.
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