Syrians sift through disfigured corpses for traces of detained loved ones

By Mohammad Azakir and Firaz Makdesi

DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Using only the light of their cellphones, wailing men and women examined the disfigured bodies lying in a darkened mortuary of a hospital in Syria’s capital for signs of their relatives who had disappeared into Bashar’s notorious prison system al-Assad.

Dozens of bodies – blackened, decomposing and with missing limbs or heads – were found overnight by rescuers digging for hidden cells in Sednaya, a prison north of Damascus, where rights groups said torture and mass executions were common .

After Assad was overthrown on Sunday, people rushed to Sednaya and released several hundred prisoners clinging to life.

Rescuers then searched for underground cells where more could be languishing, with thousands of relatives staying overnight in jail in the hope their loved ones could be found.

None were found alive and no underground cells were found, rescuers said in a statement late Monday. But at least 35 bodies showing signs of torture were found on Tuesday and taken to Damascus hospital, said Ahmad Shouman, a local official.

“They are deformed. Cut into pieces. We cannot tell who is who,” he told Reuters at the hospital morgue, which, like much of Damascus, has been hit by power cuts due to the battle for capital.

All around him, people were shouting or covering their noses against the stench. “Look, his right hand is gone!” a man shouted as he looked into a bag. “What did all these people do wrong to die?” another wailed. A woman cried, stuck her finger in her face and slapped her own cheek.

Rima al-Turk was still looking for her brother Adnan, who was taken from their family’s front door by Syrian Air Force intelligence in 2013. She said he did nothing wrong.

‘They are all burnt corpses now. Corpses with their heads chopped off. That was the regime that ruled us,” she said.

Zaher al-Taqesh, a funeral director, said doctors and specialists were working to help families identify their loved ones.

“There are distinguishing marks, like a tattoo, a wound, any distinguishing mark,” Taqesh said. Others could be identified by their teeth, but more specialists were needed to continue the identification work, he said.

Other bodies were found elsewhere in the city. A member of the Emergency Response team affiliated with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel group told Reuters that bodies had been found at Harasta hospital, which also showed signs of torture.

The Syria Campaign, an activist collective that advocates for civil rights issues in Syria, on Monday called on international organizations to better support families as they learn that their loved ones have been killed in detention.

Those who found relatives at the mortuary on Tuesday were relieved to be able to bury them, but furious with those responsible for the brutal deaths.

“May God take vengeance on them,” said a distraught man.

(Writing by Maya Gebeily; editing by Philippa Fletcher)