{"id":136423,"date":"2024-12-13T03:52:56","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T20:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=136423"},"modified":"2024-12-13T03:52:56","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T20:52:56","slug":"we-wont-stop-until-we-find-them-all-joy-gives-way-to-grief-as-syria-buries-its-dead-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=136423","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We won\u2019t stop until we find them all\u2019: joy gives way to grief as Syria buries its dead | Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\"><span style=\"color:var(--drop-cap);font-weight:500;\" class=\"dcr-15rw6c2\">T<\/span>he streets of Damascus have been filled with celebrations since Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia last Sunday in the face of an unexpected rebel offensive, ending more than 50 years of his family\u2019s brutal rule over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/syria\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Syria<\/a>. But at a public funeral for Mazen al-Hamadah \u2013 before his disappearance in 2020 one of the most vocal survivors of torture in the regime\u2019s prisons system \u2013 the joy gave way to sorrow, as the country begins to grapple with the fact that many of the estimated 130,000 people missing may be lost forever.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">Thousands of people flooded the streets on Thursday, following Hamadah\u2019s body, wrapped in a traditional white shroud, as it was driven slowly from a hospital to the Abdulrahman Abu al Ouf mosque for funeral prayers. At a vigil afterwards in nearby al-Hijaz square, thousands of men, women and children cried and hugged each other, many carrying pictures of their own disappeared loved ones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">The initial euphoria of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/dec\/09\/inside-sednaya-torture-prison-syria-assad\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">finding missing people alive after rebels broke down prison cell doors<\/a> on their astonishing advance to the capital has faded; many anxious families have searched prisons and morgues, and combed through ransacked regime documents and records, and have found nothing. But even so, such a public outpouring of grief would have been unthinkable less than a week ago, when Syria was still a repressive police state.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"83c7b66a-e32a-4485-9f2f-86da6e187f81\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\" dcr-173mewl\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1fujct4\"><span class=\"dcr-1inf02i\"><svg width=\"18\" height=\"13\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 13\"><path d=\"M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Large crowds occupy the train station as the funeral cortege for Mazen al-Hamada passes al-Hijaz square.<\/span> Photograph: David Lombeida<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">Shahed Baraki, 18, sobbed softly as she clutched a picture of herself as a little girl with her father, Osama. A paediatrician, he was forcibly disappeared by soldiers at a checkpoint in 2012, when Assad\u2019s crackdown on peaceful Arab spring protests began to give way to a internecine 13-year-long civil war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">\u201cHe was picked up because he was trying to help people in our neighbourhood; he was found smuggling medicine. [The regime] told us he had died, years later, but we did not get back his body,\u201d Baraki said. \u201cWe still don\u2019t know what happened. He had kidney disease \u2026 we think they let him die slowly of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">Hamadah, who testified to politicians and audiences around the world about his detention and torture during the 2011 uprising, had long been a symbol of the crimes the regime committed against its own people. But in 2020, he shocked his family and the wider Syrian diaspora by retuning to the country from his new home in the Netherlands, a decision his brother Amer al-Obaid, 66, said he believed was coerced; the family believe Hamadah was told his loved ones would be killed if he did not stop exposing the regime\u2019s brutality and return to Syria. He was detained on arrival at Damascus airport.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"38cd6e88-5f19-4e7a-9ba0-e06ce140c29f\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\" dcr-173mewl\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1fujct4\"><span class=\"dcr-1inf02i\"><svg width=\"18\" height=\"13\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 13\"><path d=\"M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Mourners gather for the funeral ceremony of Mazen al-Hamada.<\/span> Photograph: David Lombeida<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">The activist\u2019s fate remained unknown until Monday, when his body \u2013 once again bearing signs of torture \u2013 was discovered in a morgue in Sednaya, the most infamous of Assad\u2019s vast network of security branches, detention centres and prisons. Doctors who examined Hamadah\u2019s corpse said that like many other detainees, he had been killed recently, before his captors fled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">\u201cThey knew Mazen would expose them again, so they killed him,\u201d Obaid said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">Obaid bid a final goodbye to his brother at the Najha cemetery on the south-west outskirts of Damascus, where a few dozen mourners gathered to witness his burial. Israeli jets, too high to see, roared overhead during the ceremony; the dull thud of a far-off explosion shook the earth, and fires of unknown origin burned in the distance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">\u201cIn some ways, I am happy. Mazen went through the cruellest torture imaginable and he died for us,\u201d his older brother said. \u201cWithout him, we would not be breathing fresh air and freedom now.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"b94224d9-2c37-42f1-81cd-773f58275b8e\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\" dcr-173mewl\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1fujct4\"><span class=\"dcr-1inf02i\"><svg width=\"18\" height=\"13\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 13\"><path d=\"M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">A man chants during the funeral procession of Mazen al-Hamada in Damascus.<\/span> Photograph: David Lombeida<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">For most families with missing loved ones, without even a body to bury, answers and closure are still out of reach. Justice will take years; in the meantime, the search continues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">In the military cemetery adjacent to where Hamada was buried on Thursday, Mahmoud Dahlil, 64, parked his car and walked through the broken gates of the vast, Brutalist-style site, shovel in hand. He wasn\u2019t sure where to start, but he knew what he was looking for.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">In 2022, it emerged that the military cemetery had been used to hide a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/03\/16\/world\/middleeast\/mass-graves-syria-war-crimes.html?smid=nytcore-android-share\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">huge mass grave containing thousands of bodies of murdered detainees<\/a>, according to several men who worked there. Dahlil said he had already looked all over the city for his four cousins, who went missing in 2012 and 2013. Now it was time, he said, to look under the earth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">\u201cThere are probably graves like this all over the country,\u201d he said. \u201cWe won\u2019t stop until we find them all.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/dec\/12\/joy-gives-way-to-grief-as-syria-buries-its-dead\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The streets of Damascus have been filled with celebrations since Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia last Sunday in the face of an unexpected rebel offensive, ending more than 50 years &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=136423\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=136423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=136423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=136423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=136423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}