Desperate families look through body bags in search for loved ones in Syrian morgues
Across Damascus, there's a desperate search for the missing, with family members looking through the morgues themselves in the hope - and fear - of finding their loved ones.
Wednesday 11 December 2024 10:52, UK
For years now, we've been told of the mass detentions, disappearances and murders of anyone even remotely opposed to the Syrian regime of Bashar al Assad.
But what we are seeing now is the daily proof, if it was needed, of a campaign of suppression and murder that was conducted on an industrial scale.
Jubilation that the regime has been toppled is now turning to grief as the bodies of those killed at the hands of Assad and his henchmen are being discovered and slowly, very slowly, identified.
Emerging from the gloomy interior of the morgue's refrigerator room at Al Mojtahed Hospital in Damascus, a body is wheeled on a gurney towards the examination area.
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They're trying to identify who the dead man is. All they know is that he has been murdered.
Across the capital, there's a desperate search for the missing. There's no authority here, so family members are searching through the morgues themselves.
We watch as they open body bags to take pictures of the victims - trying to work out if they are relatives.
Beside them the refrigerator door has been opened, and stacked inside are over 30 people, assigned a number, zipped up in body bags.
The identity mark of the unclaimed dead is displayed on the bag. They are the unknown victims of this regime.
Nearby, family members pull open silver refrigerated lockers looking for bodies, before hospital staff yell at them to clear the room.
They're praying they will at least find who they have lost, and perhaps, find closure at last.
As people post pictures of the bodies on social media, news spreads and more family members arrive.
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When the bodies are identified, the families can take them away. We film as a white body bag is placed on the knees of family members waiting in the back of their car.
The scenes we witness are absolutely chaotic. People here are desperate for absolutely any news.
People push and shove their way through the hospital entrance, struggling to get inside to catch a glimpse of the dead. It is, simply put, desperate stuff.
'They are hindering the team's work'
Forensic specialists work to identify the bodies, but it's difficult for them trying to work amid this mayhem.
"Just yesterday, we received a total of 35 bodies, transferred from Harasta hospital, it is said they were detainees from Sednaya prison," Dr Mohamad Jafran tells me.
"They arrived in the evening, were examined, numbered, photographed, and the photos were sent to the families for identification and recognition procedures.
"The problem we're facing is the interference from the families, as they are hindering the medical team's work," he continues.
He and his colleague wear white hazmat suits, masks, and gloves as they move bodies into a room for further examination.
For some here, it's the news they wanted but dreaded hearing - they wanted to know what happened.
'Tyrants with no honour'
The extended family of Mazen al Hamada gather in grief, quietly sobbing in a corner of the hospital complex.
Mazen was a prominent and even famous anti-regime activist who they say had escaped to Germany, before being persuaded to return by the Syrian government with an amnesty.
Mazen was arrested and, as they have just been told, murdered in captivity.
"A gang brought him under the pretext of reconciliation, saying they wouldn't do him any harm, and it was all lies. They handed him over to the regime," his sister Iman Bseis Hommada told me.
"What can I say? Criminals, war criminals, tyrants with no religion, honour, morals, or conscience, who don't belong to humanity… What can I say?"
With so many dead, and so many missing, trying to find and identify everyone will be a Herculean task.
A woman comes up to me and starts unzipping her purse, she pulls out a picture: "My son, my son," she says to me, "I haven't seen him for 12 years".
"Nothing, no phone call."
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For families like her, the search has become a full-time preoccupation.
The detention and murder of anyone even opposed to the Assad regime appears to have been conducted until the very end.
Hurriedly rushed to a waiting car by his family, the body of Ahmed al Khatib. His family says he was arrested 24 hours before the regime fell.
He was one of the last to die. There were hundreds of thousands before him.