DAMASCUS: Syrian rescuers searched a jail synonymous with the worst atrocities of ousted president rule, as people in the capital flocked to a central square on Monday to celebrate their country's freedom. Assad fled Syria as rebels swept into the capital, bringing to a spectacular end on Sunday five decades of rule over a country ravaged by one of the deadliest wars of the century. He oversaw a crackdown on a democracy movement that erupted in 2011, sparking a war that killed 500,000 people and forced half the country to flee their homes. At the core of the system of rule was a brutal complex of prisons and detention centres used to eliminate dissent by jailing those suspected of stepping out of the ruling party's line.
On Monday, rescuers from the Syrian White Helmets said they were searching for secret doors or basements in Saydnaya prison, looking for any detainees who might be trapped. "We are working with all our energy to reach a new hope, and we must be prepared for the worst," the organisation said in a statement. Aida Taha, aged 65, said she had been "roaming the streets like a madwoman" in search of her brother, who was arrested in 2012. She said she went to Saydnaya, where she believes some prisoners are still underground. "The prison has three or four underground floors," Taha said. "They say that the doors won't open because they don't have the proper codes." "We've been oppressed long enough, we want our children back," she added.
In central Damascus on Monday, despite all the uncertainties for the future, the joy was palpable. "It's indescribable, we never thought this nightmare would end, we are reborn," 49-year-old Rim Ramadan, a civil servant at the finance ministry, said. "We were afraid for 55 years of speaking, even at home, we used to say the walls had ears," Ramadan said, as people honked their car horns and rebels fired their guns into the air. "We feel like we're living a dream," she added.
Social media groups were alight with Syrians sharing images of detainees reportedly brought out from the dungeons, in a collective effort to reunite families with their loved ones, some of whom had been missing for years. Others, like Fadwa Mahmoud, whose husband and son are missing, posted calls for help finding their missing relatives. "Where are you, Maher and Abdel Aziz, it's time for me to hear your news, oh God, please come back, let my joy become complete," wrote Mahmoud, herself a former detainee. Amnesty International also called for perpetrators of rights violations to face justice, with its chief Agnes Callamard urging the forces that ousted Assad to "break free from the violence of the past". — AFP
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