Syria regime burning victims’ bodies to hide identities, rights group warns

The Syrian Centre for Justice and Accountability (SCJA) has accused the Syrian regime forces of deliberately burning the bodies of their victims in remote areas in the south of the country in an effort to hide their identities.

“The systematic, careful nature through which the perpetrators destroy the bodies, along with the presence of high-ranking officials, suggest that this may reflect a broader practice of the Syrian government to destroy evidence of their crimes and deny the families of their victims their right to know the fates of their loved ones or receive their remains,” the Washington-based rights watchdog said in a report entitled ‘Leave No Trace’. 

The centre said it had analysed 13 videos dating back to 2012 and 2013, that showed bodies burnt and transferred into mass graves in the southern province of Daraa.

Four videos showed members of the Military Intelligence Services and the armed forces from the 9th Division transporting at least 15 dead bodies, documenting their identities on camera, dumping them in a small pit and pouring gasoline on them to set them on fire.

The centre cross-checked the footage with satellite imagery monitoring trucks transporting the bodies.

In one video, an officer is seen taking photographs of the faces of the dead before another pours gasoline on the face and hands then kicks a body into a pit and sets it on fire.

“This process is repeated for every single body in the exact same order, indicating the systematic nature of the practice and suggesting that this may not be the only time this group of officials has carried out such an operation,” the report said.

The report suggested the 15 bodies, all of them in civilian clothes, belonged to civilians and military defectors who had been shot dead by regime forces during a raid on a house in December 2012 in the Daraa governorate.

The centre obtained the video clips from an activist who said he received them from an opposition group that ambushed and killed the soldiers who burned the bodies, including a member of Military Intelligence who was responsible for filming the victims before setting them on fire.

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