US: Syria is trying to cover up killings
Opinion: Putin is happy US is looking other way on Syria
State Dept.: Assad using crematorium to hide atrocities
Gasping for life: Syria's merciless war on its own children 07:51
Story highlights
- A State Department official says the regime could be killing as many as 50 detainees a day
- The US called on Russia to use its influence to stop the atrocities
Washington (CNN)The
US said Monday it believes the Syrian government has built a large
crematorium near the notorious Saydnaya Military Prison in an effort to
hide mass atrocities carried out there, and placed the onus on Russia to
rein in the regime.
Stuart
Jones, acting assistant secretary for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs
at the State Department, laid out newly unveiled declassified
intelligence in a series of photographs and said Russia, a supporter of
President Bashar al-Assad, must use its influence to stop Assad's
continued atrocities.
"Although the
regime's many atrocities are well-documented, we believe the building
of a crematorium is an effort to cover up the extent of mass atrocities
taking place in Saydnaya prison,"
Jones said. "We are appalled by the atrocities taking place in Syria"
with the "seemingly unconditional support of Russia."
Jones
said the regime could be killing as many as 50 detainees a day at
Saydnaya. In February, Amnesty International alleged that thousands of
people have been hanged at the Syrian prison just 45 minutes outside the
capital of Damascus in a secret crackdown on dissent.
Atrocities with "seemingly unconditional" Russian support
Amnesty's report, Human Slaughterhouse,
said prisoners are moved in the middle of the night from their cells
under the pretext of being transferred. They are taken to the grounds of
the prison, where they are hanged, likely unaware of their fate until
they feel the noose around their neck, Amnesty alleged.
The
"photos underscore the depths to which the Syrian regime has gone with
the support of ... Russia," Jones said. He wouldn't confirm whether the
US will take military action in response to the grisly discovery of the
crematorium.
"We're
not going to signal what we're going to do and what we're not going to
do," Jones said, but he added that the US would "bring evidence forward
to the international community."
Jones presented the evidence just a week after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Washington to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues, including the conflict in Syria.
"The
Russian government and Minister Lavrov have indicated to us that
they're interested in finding a solution," Jones said, adding that
"there is no solution without an end to these atrocities."
State
Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tillerson "was firm and
clear with Minister Lavrov that Russia holds tremendous influence with
Bashar al-Assad" and must act to rein him in.
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"Simply put, the killing and devastation has gone on for far too long in Syria," Nauert said.
Nauert
said "both men agreed the way to bring stability to Syria" is through
diplomacy, a lasting cease-fire that brings a reduction in violence and
ensures humanitarian access, steps that "will help create political
conditions on the ground for lasting solution to the conflict."
Jones showed a series of aerial photos taken from 2013 to 2017 that he said showed the construction of a crematorium beside the infamous prison.
The evidence on the crematorium was assembled through local
non-governmental organization groups, intelligence community assessments
and press reporting, he said.
Since
it began in 2011, Syria's civil war has claimed more than 400,000
lives, many of them civilians, Jones said. The regime's track record of
torture, sexual violence, air strikes, artillery strikes, barrel bomb,
and improvised unguided bombs or air-dropped IEDs, as well as the denial
of food, water and medical care, have all been well documented, Jones
said.
The Syrian regime has also
systematically targeted eastern Aleppo's hospitals and made a practice
of abducting civilians, Jones said. He said that between 2011 and 2015,
the regime has abducted between 65,000 and 117,000 people.
Tillerson: US-Russia relations at a low point 01:27
Jones
said the regime has also authorized the extra judicial killings of
thousands of detainees at Saydnaya, which is a 45-minute drive outside
of Damascus. It is just one of many detention facilities where prisoners
are being held, Jones said.
The
"continued brutality of the Assad regime" including its use of chemical
weapons, represents a continued threat to regional stability and to the
United States, Jones said. Given these abuses, "Russia must now with
greater urgency exercise its influence," Jones said.
Jones
said that despite the talks last week between Tillerson and Lavrov, he
"would not say they have mapped a way forward on how to address Syrian
atrocities or how to move forward on the Geneva process," which is meant
to help establish a political settlement to the conflict.
He
said the US has not shown Moscow the photos of the crematorium, but
that they have "an ongoing conversation with the Russians" about their
failure to condemn Syrian atrocities and the climate of tolerance that
creates.
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