An inside view of the Mezzeh prison, near the Mezzeh Air Base and military airport in Mezzeh neighborhood, western Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 11, 2024. ​
An inside view of the Mezzeh prison, near the Mezzeh Air Base and military airport in Mezzeh neighborhood, western Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 11, 2024. DIA Images/ZUMA

-Analysis-

PARIS – The stories of survivors from Saydnaya Prison defy comprehension. This prison, described as a “human slaughterhouse” by Amnesty International, symbolizes the entire repressive system on which the Assad regime, father and son, was built. Syrians everywhere are now searching for information about their missing loved ones; lists of prisoners and the deceased are being shared on Facebook after being discovered in the prisons that have finally been opened. The emotions are overwhelming.

But why are we surprised? Certainly, the strength of a survivor’s story or the image of a child born in prison who has never seen natural light is enough to shake anyone. But we already knew so much; we were aware of the magnitude of Assad’s death machine— and the world did nothing.

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Sarah Hunaidi, a young Syrian author and activist exiled since 2014, said on X that she had nothing left to say to those who watched Syrians die all these years. “Our pleas were ignored. The UN is a joke, Gaza and Syria prove it. I only speak to Syrians now, to hell with the world.”

Sadly, she is largely right, as the massacres in Syria over 13 years of civil war have been meticulously documented by NGOs and legal experts in the hope of triggering a response.

Testimonies of torture

The most significant moment was undoubtedly the revelation of the Caesar Report. Caesar is the code name of a Syrian photographer who worked for the security services and was tasked with photographing tortured and executed detainees.

He fled, taking with him 45,000 photos that have been authenticated and used in reports by the UN and other international organizations. They have also been used in a few rare trials of torturers in France and Germany.

Testimonies were not lacking. The writer Samar Yazbek, an Alawite intellectual like Assad, recounted that when she supported the uprising in 2011, she was taken to a torture center to show her what awaited her if she continued. She understood the message and fled to Paris.

Her account of the torture room is chilling — and that was 10 years ago.

​The bodies of victims of Assad regime, show signs of torture, discovered at Sednaya prison transferred Al-Mujtahid Hospital mortuary, Damascus, Syria, Dec. 11, 2024.
The bodies of victims of Assad regime, show signs of torture, discovered at Sednaya prison transferred Al-Mujtahid Hospital mortuary, Damascus, Syria, Dec. 11, 2024. – DIA Images/ZUMA

But no means of action

What could be done? This is the fundamental question of our world: We have made human rights a universal doctrine, but we lack the means to enforce them.

Since 1945, and the “never again” mantra after the Nazi camps, the international community has built institutions and mechanisms designed to protect human rights. But these means of action collide with state sovereignty and the cynicism of the same international community.

The UN Human Rights Council is the best example: Predators are elected there to better paralyze its functioning.

Intervention has once again become a dirty word.

In the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the concept of “the duty to intervene” began to gain traction. But in this fractured world, intervention has once again become a dirty word, largely due to the 2003 invasion of Iraq by George W. Bush’s administration.

The result is that the world is condemned to know without acting, or only acting on the sidelines. And when by miracle the doors of the prisons open, they reflect back to us the image of our helplessness.