Children play among bones as Syria faces ‘enormous challenge' of what to do about mass graves

Irish Times

14-06-2025

Yusuf is small because he is malnourished, the 12-year-old says. His hands are black from engine oil: he has been working as a mechanic since he left school, when third grade finished. He comes from a poor background, where people do what they can to get by. Now he has a new side hustle: being a 'tour guide' of the mass grave he lives next to.
Since the fall of
Bashar al-Assad's
regime six months ago, visitors regularly turn up to Tadamon, the
Damascus
neighbourhood that was the site of one publicised massacre, and many more that went undocumented, according to locals. The killing of 41 people there, in April 2013, became widely known when a
video
of the incident was leaked in 2022. It showed blindfolded and handcuffed civilians being shot dead after their executioner taunted them or told them to run, their bodies falling into a pre-prepared pit. Their killers – who were affiliated with the
Syrian
regime – then set the bodies on fire using burning tyres.
Yet, six months after the fall of the regime, the easily accessible site has still not been cordoned off or protected. Human bones are visible on the ground: though specialists came and took remains away, others keep being unearthed, locals say. Children even offer to dig new ones up for a price. Standing beside Yusuf, 11-year-old Sham says she is 'famous' because she also showed bones to journalists (I declined).
A British reporter paid Yusuf $200 to dig up a whole body, he claims ('liar,' other children around him interject). 'If you dig now here and remove this debris you would find five or six bodies,' Yusuf says, though he finds it upsetting and 'haram' [forbidden] that some people walk and drive over them. 'I was crying recently because I dug a lot of bodies and because of the smell,' he says, adding that he would like to see the remains removed and an 'amusement park' built instead: 'a place to play'.
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Yusuf points out one long bone lying on the side of a road through this urban area, still filled with decimated buildings. I later send a photo to an Irish doctor who tells me it is a femur. The children lead us to another part of the neighbourhood, where dozens more bones lie in a shallow pit.
Yusuf (12) holds up what he says is a human bone in Tadamon
A boy in a tank top approaches to say his uncle, Hani, was killed here. During the regime's rule, residents were not able to approach the area where massacres happened, knowing 'if someone went to the checkpoint it was the end', the boy says.
Another boy says killing was 'entertainment' for the regime. Tadamon used to be a 'fancy' area before the nearly 14-year war, his friend chimes in. The dead included Muslims the regime militants found praying, and a man whose car they wanted to steal, he adds.
Children at a shallow pit containing dozens of bones. Tadamon was the site of a publicised massacre in April 2013 and many more killings, locals say, that went undocumented
Three men, including an estate agent, have come to look at what was left of one building. Usama Scuri wants to see if he can sell what remains of his flat – he is in need of money. Mohammed Hazime thinks he could get as much as $20,000 for it. He says people will be encouraged to move back on to the street again if someone else does it before them, despite this being the site of a mass grave. There are other pressing concerns for local residents, though. They explain that there are no services – sewage, water supplies and schools are all needed.
Men sit and chat in Tadamon, Damascus
Murders, enforced disappearances and detention in horrific conditions were tools used to instil fear and control Syrians over the more than half a century that Assad and his father, Hafez, ruled the country.
Across Syria, as mass graves are searched for and found, concerns have repeatedly been raised that evidence is being lost amid a failure to preserve them. What will happen to the sites in the future is still not fully clear.
The necessary skills and resources will need to be built up before grave sites are opened … The ICRC has offered its support to ensure that these sites are managed appropriately. We know that the scale of the challenge they are facing is enormous
—
ICRC spokeswoman
More than 177,000 people
remain
'forcibly disappeared', according to the well-respected Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR). It revised its number upwards in March this year to include more than 160,100 people disappeared by the Assad regime, saying thousands of new reports and disclosures had been made, while new official records were uncovered after the regime fell. The SNHR says more than 202,000 people were killed by Assad regime forces between March 2011 and March 2025, along with upwards of 32,100 civilians by other parties to the conflict.
A bone lies on the ground in Tadamon
More than 45,000 people died from torture under the Assad regime, and they 'remain classified as forcibly disappeared as long as their bodies are not returned to their families. They are identified as victims who died due to torture based on testimonies from survivors, leaked security documents, and statements from families,' SNHR said. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has more than 30,000 open cases of people missing in Syria, a spokeswoman says, adding that they believe the real number to be much higher.
In an August 2024 report, the SNHR said 2,684 people were also under arbitrary arrest, detention or disappearance by Hay'at Tahri al-Sham, the Islamist group that led the rebel coalition that ousted the Assad regime last year.
The new Syrian government recently established national commissions focused on missing persons and transitional justice, though there is concern that the latter will only deal with crimes committed by the Assad regime. On a recent evening at a public square in central Damascus, family members of the disappeared held a vigil, holding up pictures of their missing loved ones and calling for all perpetrators to face justice.
Mohammed Hassan worries about the impact on his children of what they witnessed. He says at least 35 people from his family were killed in Tadamon. Photograph: Sally Hayden
An ICRC spokeswoman says international humanitarian law requires the remains of those who die in conflict to be handled respectfully and with dignity. 'This includes recovering, analysing, and identifying remains, when possible, to provide families with answers.' But the responsibility for managing grave sites lies with the new Syrian authorities, she says.
'Here in Syria, the necessary skills and resources will need to be built up before grave sites are opened … The ICRC has offered them its support to ensure that these sites are managed appropriately. We know that the scale of the challenge they are facing is enormous.' Syria does not currently have a functioning DNA laboratory, the spokeswoman added. Alternative methods they could use instead include forensic anthropological and odontological methods.
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Efforts are also complicated by the fact that bones from many different people are often mixed up together. The ICRC is supporting a forensic identification centre in Damascus, which is operating under the Syrian ministry of health. Speaking through WhatsApp messages, Dr Anas al-Hourani, the head of the centre, says they have four specialised doctors and have received more than 250 cases so far. He says the financial cost of the work is 'very large' and support will be needed for many years to come.
'We need material support and some equipment and to increase the number of doctors and workers,' he says. 'We need to prepare DNA laboratories in all governorates … and need to equip these centres with specialised staff and equipment and necessary materials due to the large size of work.'
Tracing the families of anyone found will also be a challenge. Al-Hourani says relatives would be reached through 'various media' after work on each mass grave is finished.
'Of course, it is difficult to open all the graves in one time and work on them. It is work that needs huge capabilities and a long time that extends for years. These sites must be protected so that they are not tampered with and gradual recovery must be done according to the existing capabilities.'
Twelve-year-old Yusuf says he finds it upsetting that some people walk and drive over Tadamon's mass graves
Veteran Argentinian forensic anthropologist Luis Fondebrider travelled to Syria as an external consultant following the regime's fall last December. Speaking on a WhatsApp call in May, he called the situation 'chaotic,' but said it had been in many of the other roughly 60 countries he had worked in too.
When it comes to investigating missing people and mass graves, Fondebrider said the reality is vastly more complicated than just pulling out a body and using a machine to test it – there are a 'lot of things to do before opening any grave'. For example, he said, there needs to be political willingness to create permanent institutions which have the co-operation of other institutions, and a centralised organisation of information.
'After a period of extreme violence … missing people are a critical issue and every society responds in different ways. The most important thing is to think of it as something that is not going to be solved in one, two or three years. This could take decades,' he said. Syrians have to lead the process themselves. 'We cannot impose from outside our priorities.' But 'in my experience … the process to open the graves, to investigate, to identify the bodies, to reach some justice, is beneficial not only for the families, but also for the society.'
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The biggest consequence of not progressing these efforts is 'impunity' – perpetrators will remain free to keep killing – plus a wider risk, that 'a society who doesn't remember the past is going to repeat that past'.
In Syria, a lack of faith in official processes initially spilt over into a desire for what many saw as community-directed justice, and revenge killings continue to be reported. In the first week after the regime fell, I stood in a huge, excited crowd in nearby Damascus neighbourhood Midan after word went around that the public execution of one of the men responsible for the Tadamon massacres would take place. The rumoured execution never went ahead, and it was not completely clear if the new authorities stopped it at the last minute or whether it had ever been scheduled at all.
Syrian authorities say they have
arrested
multiple people involved in the massacres. But public anger was provoked in February, when Fadi Saqr, a former leader of the regime-affiliated National Defense Forces, which was accused of carrying out the Tadamon massacre, visited the mass grave site accompanied by security forces from the new administration. That anger increased when it became apparent that he has continued to work with the new government since. Over tea in his home in Tadamon, one grandfather worries that the 'criminals' responsible are still walking freely. Down the road, men chat in the street beside a hardware store. Seeing foreign journalists approaching, they also proffer memories. One says he personally discovered the dead body of a woman beside that of a young child.
'The militants' methods of killing included throwing people off high floors of a building beside us.' Photograph: Sally Hayden
Mohammed Hassan (53) says at least 35 people from his own family were killed in Tadamon, including his brother, who had simply gone out to buy bread. Hassan believes hundreds of people of a Turkmen Syrian background were among the dead, murdered because the regime accused them of being backed by Turkey and wanted them to leave the area completely.
The militants' methods of killing included throwing people off high floors of a building beside us, Hassan says – the stairs were later destroyed, he points out, saying no one has since been up there. This whole area was inaccessible for local residents but 'after the regime fell we came and we found so many bodies here. Immediately the kids came here and played with the skulls ... No one came to protect it.'
He first gives a nickname, then says it is fine to publish his real name, saying he does not want to be afraid any more. Syrians need an 'international court of justice' to help them in their quest for accountability, he adds.
Hassan has five children – two boys, three girls. He worries about the impact of everything they witnessed during the years of war and dictatorship. 'They're playing, growing here. They've seen a lot. The Syrian people have seen a lot and it affects their psychological wellbeing. But for these kids it's better now compared to what they saw in the war. Generation by generation will get better.' Now, he says, everyone wants peace above almost everything, though many Syrians caveat that by saying true peace requires justice.
– Hani Alagbar assisted with this reporting.