DAMASCUS: In a distressing revelation, a rights group and former detainees have accused the Syrian regime under Bashar al-Assad of abusing and allowing detainees to perish at Tishreen Military Hospital in Damascus.
This military facility, it is claimed, was used to hide the torture of prisoners, who were rarely provided with adequate medical attention upon being transferred from detention centers, according to a report released by the Association of Detainees and the Missing in Sednaya Prison (ADMSP) on Tuesday, a rights group based in Türkiye.
The report, titled ‘Buried in Silence,’ outlines harrowing accounts of detainees enduring brutal torture, encompassing both physical and psychological violence, at the hands of security forces, as well as medical and administrative staff. The documented abuses span from the outset of Syria’s civil war in 2011 to 2020, and there is concern among the authors that such appalling practices persist to this day.
Abu Hamza, a former detainee, shared his experiences of being taken to the Tishreen hospital jail during his incarceration, where medical attention was rarely granted. He highlighted the fear among prisoners about going to the hospital, as many never returned, and those gravely ill were left to die within the hospital lockup.
ADMSP, an organization founded by former detainees from Sednaya, Syria’s notorious prison synonymous with torture and grave abuses, conducted the report based on interviews with 32 individuals, including former detainees, security personnel, medical staff, and leaked documents.
Previous reports by ADMSP have shed light on the grim reality within Sednaya prison, exposing the existence of “salt rooms” and primitive mortuaries designed to preserve bodies. The group has continuously accused the Assad regime of subjecting detainees to torture and execution without fair trials.
The grim onset of Syria’s civil war in 2011 triggered a series of events, with Syrian regime forces brutally cracking down on peaceful protesters, sparking a complex war that has resulted in over 500,000 fatalities and forced millions to flee their homes. Shockingly, up to one-fifth of this toll occurred within government-run prisons, as indicated by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group.
Heart-wrenching images of deceased Syrians, smuggled out by the defector known as “Caesar,” revealed the atrocities that transpired within Tishreen hospital, among other locations, where prisoners were severely mistreated.
One former detainee, Abu Hamza, recounted an incident where guards at the hospital prison subjected them to a brutal 15-minute beating. The ADMSP report further divulges that inmates who succumbed to torture or appalling conditions, primarily at Sednaya, were taken to Tishreen hospital and subsequently to “mass graves” near the capital.
Upon arrival at the hospital, inmates were held in the same room where deceased detainees were collected, and sick detainees were compelled to aid in the transportation of prisoners’ lifeless bodies. These accounts unveil a harrowing reality of abuse and neglect within Tishreen Military Hospital, painting a grim picture of the atrocities endured by detainees under the Assad regime.
