After the Alawite massacres in Syria, the challenge of gathering testimonies

LeMonde

6 days ago

To see them, it is necessary to cross the shaded Cheikh Hilal cemetery, pass a small mausoleum and walk among the tombstones toward the edge of a railway line where tanker wagons rust. There, beneath concrete slabs, lie 275 bodies, the vast majority unidentified. These are just some of the victims of the massacre of the Alawite community in the Syrian city of Baniyas and its surroundings, carried out between March 6 and 9 by Islamist factions linked to the Ministry of Defense, foreign jihadists and local armed men. The precise death toll remains unknown. The bloodshed occurred in the aftermath of attacks on government checkpoints by armed supporters of the former regime.
Occasionally, a small sign mentions the name and surname of a victim. While watching the security services bury the bodies, the young gravedigger at the cemetery recognized some of the dead. The others remained nameless and no one was allowed to identify them, creating an additional torment for Suzane Khalil, who mourned her husband and two sons, perhaps buried in the cemetery without her knowing for sure. Eyes darkened with grief, this education official welcomed us to her modest apartment in the Al-Qusour district.