The United States has released images of a prison in Syria where there is a crematory which is believed to have been installed to dispose of the bodies of prisoners executed in the civil war that has been raging in the country. Nikki R. Haley, the American ambassador to the United Nations, has described it as a cover up of mass murders committed by the forces of Bashar al-Assad in prison.
The ongoing conflict in Syria
New York Times reports that the conflict in Syria is into its seventh year and human rights groups have accused the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and their allies of killing thousands of prisoners and disposing of their bodies in mass graves or via cremation.
The Trump administration has now brought forth evidence in support of that. It has accused the Syrian government of systematically incinerating the corpses of executed inmates at the Sednaya prison complex north of Damascus to wipe out tell-tale proof that could be used to prosecute war crimes.
The intention of the United States to highlight the information to the international community was to pressurize the regime because the United Nations will be holding a fresh round of Syria peace talks in Geneva and the accusations are meant to put pressure on Russia, the main foreign ally of Syria, to maintain a distance from Assad.
As Nikki R. Haley remarked, “The rest of the world recognizes the horrors of the Syrian regime, it is time for Russia to join us."
Will Russia fall in line?
The reactions of Russia and Syria are not new.
President Bashar al-Assad continues to deny any misdeeds, and he treats the unrest as a struggle against terrorism that was created by his Western and Arab enemies. As to the evidence of satellite photographs of the crematory inside a prison that were revealed by the United States, some of the human rights groups believe that they were not concrete proof because some of them have been there for a pretty long time and cannot be considered conclusive evidence.
Stuart E. Jones, the acting assistant secretary of state, has admitted that the United States had not yet given the satellite images to the Russians. However, the failure of Russia to condemn atrocities committed by Syria is always on the agenda for discussion. The civil unrest in Syria has displaced thousands of families who have migrated to neighboring countries as refugees.
Thousands more have been killed in the violence and while trying to escape to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea route. The survivors in Syria are compelled to lead miserable lives with little or no food, medicine or basic facilities.