'No place for a human being': White Helmets official narrates horrors of Syria’s prisons

By Muhammed Enes Calli

ISTANBUL (AA) — Following the collapse of the Bashar Assad regime, Syrians are striving to rebuild their devastated cities and uncover the painful truths of their recent past.

As with many dictatorships, the Assad regime relied on torture and imprisonment to silence dissent.

One of the most infamous sites of abuse was Sednaya Prison, near Damascus, which became a symbol of the systematic torture that political opponents of the Assad regime faced.

Now, Syrian rescue teams are combing through Sednaya jail in an effort to locate and free detainees.

Their work not only aims to free those unjustly imprisoned but also to document the atrocities committed under the rule of ousted President Bashar Assad.

The abuses uncovered evoke chilling comparisons to the Nazi-era systems used to dehumanize and brutalize prisoners.

One of the groups on the ground at Sednaya and other prisons is Syrian Civil Defense, an organization also known as the White Helmets.

"It wasn't a place for a human being," said Ammar Alsalmo, a board member of the group. "Actually, if you enter Sednaya Prison, first of all, the form of Sednaya, the structure of Sednaya, is frightening."

After the haunting corridors and dank cells, the next thing that strikes a person entering Sednaya Prison is the stench, according to Alsalmo, describing how seven or even 10 people were packed into a confined space of just a square meter.

"The smell of Sednaya Prison, it’s just like you can feel it in that prison," he said.

"We ask ourselves, how do the perpetrators agree to have this, to manage this prison, and to kill people in this prison?

"What are their feelings? How can they complete their life, see their children, sleep, and play with their children?"

As of Monday, the White Helmets have helped free 20,000 to 25,000 prisoners from Sednaya.

- A number, not a name

"I haven’t been imprisoned in Sednaya," Alsalmo said, "but from what I’ve heard, the people who are released, they come out without memory. They forget everything."

Many of the prisoners who leave the prison no longer recall who they are, where they are from, and other key details that could lead them to their anguished family.

"What happened to them? When we ask about their names, about their families, they know nothing," said Alsalmo.

He recalled a man he met once on a street in Damascus after the regime's downfall, who would only utter his prison number when asked his name.

That number was all he had, Alsalmo said, explaining how in Sednaya, security forces would issue prisoners ID numbers in an effort to strip away their identity.

"He became a number. It’s so sad."

- The salt room

Alsalmo's team has documented more than 400 dead bodies and identified victims.

"It's the most terrible thing I saw in my life," he said, describing what he had witnessed at the Sednaya "killing machine" and "torture machine" — a system designed for death and suffering.

But one part of the prison stood out in its horror: the salt room.

In this salt-filled room, was used both to torture detainees and to store dead bodies without refrigeration.

It would be particularly excrutiating for prisoners with open wounds, which the salt would touch and cause greater pain.

Alsalmo explained that guards would sometimes "strip people of their toes" and put them in the salt room for several days of torture.

"It is completely terrifying."

- 'Syria is a big prison'

The issue of missing and disappeared persons in Syria has grown increasingly urgent, leaving thousands of families desperately seeking answers.

"Right now, this issue is rising in Syria because 200,000 people are considered missing or disappeared," Alsalmo said.

Many of these individuals were detained, arrested, or kidnapped by regime forces and allied militias.

"This is why people right now started to speak up," he added, explaining that for years, fear silenced many families.

"In the past, they couldn't speak because under the fear of the regime, they would be threatened by the regime to speak about their missing persons and accuse the regime."

Now, however, the situation is changing. "After the regime has gone, most of the families started to speak up and they started to search for their loved ones."

"They (families) need to know where they are if they are alive to be released and if they are dead, to know all the story, why they were killed, how they were killed, and where they were buried."

Efforts to locate the missing are uncovering a grim reality in the country.

"We received thousands of thousands of calls about a possibility of security prisons. Syria, you can say, is a big prison and there are a lot of secret prisons because not all the detainees have been taken to formal prisons," explained Alsalmo.

Reports of mass graves are also surfacing, adding to the devastating scope of the crisis.

"We receive thousands of calls about mass graves. The teams on the ground right now are documenting and collecting dead bodies, unknown dead bodies and identified dead bodies, from Aleppo, Hama, Homs, Damascus, from every city."

"There’re more hundreds of people right now. I’m talking about mass graves. People who died, who were killed," he added.

Alsalmo also described how tactics of violence persist as groups attempt to eliminate witnesses.

"The regime killed hundreds of detainees before they withdrew from Aleppo or from the resort. This is the methodology they used to kill."

"They don’t want to leave anyone alive, they want to kill and withdraw."

Efforts to identify victims are now focused on cataloging distinguishing features.

"We try right now to recommend them to have a photo of them, to have any feature of them. If there is a tattoo, if there is some feature, then we give them a reference number and bury them in a known place."

"So in the future, we can make identification between this victim and their family."