After years of ban… journalists return to document what Al-Assad did in Syria policy
The fall of Bashar al-Assad did not only mark the return of Syrians to their country, but it was also the beginning of the return of foreign journalists to Syria to monitor the post-victory atmosphere and document the crimes committed by the regime against its people over the course of half a century.
According to the “Observatory” program, journalists flocked to Damascus from all sides to follow the historical moments of transformation that Syria entered after nearly a decade and a half of the revolution that faced all kinds of repression and abuse.
Saydnaya Prison in the Damascus countryside was of interest to visitors from inside and outside the country, as Syrians were searching for their relatives who had been missing for years, and journalists were searching to document the crime, the ugliness of which shocked many around the world.
Also in the morgue of Damascus Prison (Al-Mujtahid Hospital), people were examining the burnt and torn corpses with their phone lights, searching for their loved ones who had been absent from Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Prison trauma
Despite the overwhelming joy of the Syrians over the victory of their revolution and the liberation of thousands of prisoners from Saydnaya, Mezzeh Military, and Palmyra prisons, the scenes of corpses and lists of detainees whose fate was unknown were a source of great sadness for their families, who did not stop searching.
For 13 years of the revolution, the Syrian regime refused to open its doors to international or independent investigation committees that were examining the fate of tens of thousands of prisoners who were believed to be in government custody.
But the testimonies of those who survived the prisoners gave a very bleak picture of the situation in Syrian prisons. The organizations estimate the number of people who died inside Assad’s prisons at 100,000 during the past 13 years.
A UN report also spoke about what it called the “human slaughterhouse” that the government prepared for its opponents in Saydnaya, which was witnessing mass extrajudicial killings.
In the period between 2011 and 2015, the regime carried out mass hangings in Saydnaya on Mondays and Wednesdays of every week, hanging 50 civilian opponents each time, according to the report, which estimates the number of those killed during this period at 13,000.
Journalists return to Syria
However, these shocking scenes that emerged from inside the prisons did not prevent the Syrians from celebrating their victory and the restoration of their country, which they thought they would not see in the foreseeable future, at least.
Things turned upside down during 11 historic days that ended with the opposition forces taking control of the capital, Damascus, and Assad’s escape on a private plane to Moscow, which received him as a refugee.
Overnight, the international media and social networking sites became full of images of Syrians celebrating the overthrow of the regime from the heart of Umayyad Square, which for years remained the monopoly of the regime and its supporters.
From inside Syrian state television, the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad was officially announced, causing international and regional media correspondents to flock to Syria in groups and individuals.
Al Jazeera Media Network journalists were at the forefront of those who entered Damascus after having lived for many years as a main target for Assad, who banned the entry of international journalists until Syria was classified as one of the most dangerous areas for the lives of journalists in the world.
