Syria: Mass Graves Cast Dark Shadows on Past Rule

The chairman of a Syrian interest group based in the USA has claimed that there is a mass grave near Damascus containing at least 100,000 victims of the former government of President Bashar al-Assad. Mouaz Moustafa, head of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, stated that al Qutayfah, about 40 kilometers north of the Syrian capital, is one of five identified mass grave sites. Moustafa expressed that this is the most conservative estimate for the number of bodies buried there and suspected that among the victims are not only Syrian citizens but also Americans, Britons, and other foreigners. However, journalistic confirmation of these allegations by Reuters is still pending. Since the beginning of the civil war in 2011, hundreds of thousands of Syrians are said to have been killed. Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez, who ruled the country autocratically for more than five decades, are accused by Syrian civil rights activists and the international community of serious human rights violations. Assad himself has consistently denied such allegations. The current Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, Koussay Aldahhak, made no comment on the new accusations. Observers suspect that the fall of Assad is related to a lightning offensive by the rebels, which ended the long-term rule of the Assad family. The work of Moustafa and his colleagues helps to shed some light on the still open wounds of Syria.