Summary

Mass graves uncovered in Syria after Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow reveal evidence of systematic atrocities, with over 100,000 people tortured and killed in what a top war crimes prosecutor described as the worst abuses “since the Nazis.”

Assad’s regime operated a “machinery of death,” involving mass disappearances, torture, and secret burials.

Rebel forces freed thousands of political prisoners, but many remain missing.

International efforts aim to document war crimes, though Assad, now in Russia, is unlikely to face trial.

  • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    106
    arrow-down
    33
    ·
    edit-2
    17 hours ago

    Really? Nothing else since WWII has been this bad? I can think of three off the top of my head! Syria’s neighbor is doing a holocaust right now. It’s like they’re pretending that nothing bad has happened since the Nazis were defeated.

    • perestroika@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      5 minutes ago

      It’s going to take some time (and digging) to find out.

      However… events that unfolded in Cambodia will almost certainly have exceeded what is going to be discovered in Syria.

      Most likely the same can be said about things that happened in Indonesia.

      Events that continue to happen in North Korea may possibly exceed - once the place collapses and access becomes possible - which may take a century - what Bashar and his father managed to organize.

    • RunawayFixer@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      43
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      15 hours ago

      I agree with your point but I think the Palestinian genocide is a bad example. Imo better examples from the top of my mind: the Rwandan and Cambodian genocides likely were far worse both in absolute numbers and as a % of the population, and the policies of Maoist China got many more people killed.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        arrow-down
        9
        ·
        12 hours ago

        The Palestinian genocide is happening right now, is my point. We don’t have to crawl through history to find atrocities.

        Indonesia after the CIA coup is another good example, or Iraq when we killed over a million people. This stuff is way more recent than WWII.

        • RunawayFixer@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          12
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          edit-2
          7 hours ago

          And the Palestinian genocide and your other examples aren’t “worse” in any metric (yet). The use and misrepresentation of those examples just tells us that you’re a tankie who engages in whataboutism and spreads untruths to build a narrative.

    • Hubi@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      76
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      17 hours ago

      There are 100.000 bodies in a single mass grave. And that is just one out of five. That’s kinda in a league of its own.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            10
            arrow-down
            9
            ·
            14 hours ago

            Estimates are far higher than the official death toll - it’s hard to count bodies buried under the rubble.

            • blazeknave@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              25
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              11 hours ago

              Stop. Let the people of Syria be recognized for the horrors they lived through. Wtf is wrong with you?

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                8
                arrow-down
                16
                ·
                10 hours ago

                I will not allow Palestinians to be erased! Or any of the other mass murders of over 100,000 people! This disrespects every atrocity that has happened since the end of WWII, by saying those ones either aren’t real or don’t count.

                • teije9@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  7
                  ·
                  4 hours ago

                  so because theres already a genocide no other genocides can exist? Yes, the Palestina genocide is bad, but that doesn’t mean posting about any other genocide is hate towards Palestinians.

    • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      15 hours ago

      Yes, nothing.

      No one here is claiming what Israel is doing isn’t horrible (hell, you’re the only one bringing it up). But, this is worse. Wild how there can be more than one bad thing and one being worse doesn’t make the other one not bad, isn’t it?

      • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        edit-2
        13 hours ago

        Don’t argue with a .ml user when they move the goalposts to be “America bad” without any context. It’s a losing battle.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        14
        ·
        14 hours ago

        This isn’t worse! The official death toll is a massive undercount, the real death toll is probably in the same order of magnitude.

    • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      28
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      17 hours ago

      You mean the country that is claiming Syrian sovereign space like the Golan Heights for their illegal settlements since the 90s?

    • Valmond@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      16 hours ago

      How “whatabout” that.

      Stop trying to shove this news under the carpet with your “I know worse but I won’t tell you!!1!”

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        14 hours ago

        I’m trying to point out that history didn’t start and end in WWII, and pointing to something just as bad happening right now.

        • Valmond@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          4 hours ago

          Oh, I didn’t see that you’re an “ml”

          Whatever works in your fantasy world and makes you happy 🤷🏼‍♀️

    • Eheran@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      17 hours ago

      The Russians never stopped doing such things. Before, during and after WW2.

    • FantasticDonkey@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 hours ago

      I sympathize with the message you want to bring across, what they do in Israel could never be the worst since the Nazis because they’re like us, they’re the only dem… I can’t even write that out because it’s such a propaganda lie, but yeah I get that.

      On the other hand let me just agree with the other guy that there are just shitty and shittier dictatorships in the Middle East. Some of them are aligned with the US, some with Russia, all of them are corrupt motherfuckers who belong in jail. Arab leaders have collectively betrayed their people and who knows if that region will ever be free of imperialist forces.

      • fxomt@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 hours ago

        Jail would be a mercy for those bastards. Fuck anyone who supports any dictator here.

    • fxomt@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      edit-2
      10 hours ago

      No one was saying that?

      I’m arab and even everyone that i know agrees the Ba’athists are straight up arab fascists.

      • Mrkawfee@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        4 hours ago

        So, Arab regimes in Egypt and Jordan are not?

        They’re all engaged in human rights violations but Syria wasn’t a US client state so it gets the Hitler treatment.

        • fxomt@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          edit-2
          4 hours ago

          Lmao, I literally never said that. I hate all the Arab dynasties just as much as Bashar, if not more. and Sisi is a moron.

          Quit your whataboutism. Assad is bad. Dictators are bad, no matter if they are pro or anti US.

          • Mrkawfee@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            21 minutes ago

            If they are pro US and kiss Israel’s ass their brutality is swept under the rug or whitewashed.

            You’ll never see articles like this for Sisi or King Tomato because the colonial powers are hypocrites. That’s my point.

            • fxomt@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              13 minutes ago

              Sisi and king Abdullah (i assume that is “king tomato”) are morons, but they’re not even as close to the monster that is Assad. also, most westerners probably have a shallow understanding of middle eastern politics, and only knew Assad by name. but after the revolution, the horrors of his regime are finally becoming known globally. This is huge for everyone, especially for Syrians and us Arabs.

              Don’t try to sympathize with monsters, dude.

    • fxomt@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      9 hours ago

      Are americans just not able to not bring up US politics in articles literally unrelated in any way? I’m pretty sure massacres, concentration camps, kidnappings, child soldiers, rapes, and ethnic cleansings are a little worse than trump’s 4 year term.

      All of that, just for wanting freedom and democracy. But it seems you people have a persecution fetish. Kinky.

      PS: I don’t support republicans, they are fascists, and i’m not saying that trump’s term will be all fine and dandy, but it doesn’t even compare to this.

    • Furball@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      14 hours ago

      I feel bad for people like you sometimes. I promise you the republicans are not going to create mass graves with up to 500,000 dead

      • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        7 hours ago

        Robert Kennedy wants to bring back Polio.

        The Trump presidency will be littered with corpses.

      • SelfProgrammed@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        14 hours ago

        I would much rather be surrounded by the people you’re surrounded by than keep hearing those exact promises out of the people I’m surrounded by.