Human Rights Watch has said a local group working to uncover mass graves in formerly IS-held areas needs "international support and technical assistance to preserve evidence of possible crimes and identify the remains."
Image: Filip Warwick
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New York-based rights watchdog HRW said on Monday in a report that thousands of bodies — both of civilians and militants — remain to be uncovered from an unknown number of mass graves in Syria's Raqqa city and nearby areas.
Large parts of Raqqa are in ruin after a US-led coalition freed the city from "Islamic State" (IS) control in October last year.
The militant group detained thousands of civilians during its control of the area, from June 2014 to October 2017.
HRW said the Raqqa Civil Council, a local group of volunteers, was "struggling to cope with the logistical challenges of collecting and organizing information" on the bodies recovered from mass graves in Syria's northwestern provinces.
"Raqqa city has at least nine mass graves, each one estimated to have dozens, if not hundreds, of bodies, making exhumation a monumental task," said Priyanka Motaparthy, HRW's acting emergencies director.
Large parts of Raqqa are in utter ruin as a result of the battle between "Islamic State" forces and coalition troops. The area was liberated in October, but only now are residents cautiously returning to the city.
Image: DW/F. Warwick
Mangled steel and concrete
Much of Raqqa, once an "Islamic State" stronghold, now lies in ruins. What remains of the city are destroyed building shells of concrete and mangled steel. Local traffic uses hastily cleared paths and roads to avoid any hidden IED’s (improvised explosive device).
Image: DW/F. Warwick
Sticking together
Families use various modes of transport to get around the city. These include bicycles, motorcycles or a home-made wheelie box shown in the image above.
Image: DW/F. Warwick
No transport too small
A familiar sight on the region's roads and streets: Here three young girls, two adults and a child squeeze on to a small motorcycle. It’s the quickest way to get around town.
Image: DW/F. Warwick
Row the boat ashore
Small rowing boats ferry people and goods across the river. Local say the Raqqa bridge over the Euphrates river was destroyed by IS forces in a preemptive strike to slow down the Syrian Democratic Forces approaching the city.
Image: DW/F. Warwick
Work is just around the corner
Teams of manual workers sit on street corners. With people returning to the city eager to rebuild their homes, these workers are in high demand.
Image: DW/F. Warwick
Buy two, get one free!
Coffee, soft drinks and energy drinks are in high demand among the laborers drafted in to rebuild homes and businesses. The owners of make-shift food and drinks carts are doing brisk business.
Image: DW/F. Warwick
Back home
A typical view of a residential area in one of the city’s neighborhoods. A woman with her two children walks past a family that has recently returned home. The father has rebuilt the apartment’s outer walls but with no running water and electricity, many obstacles remain.
Image: DW/F. Warwick
Personal belongings
As the sun sets a family arrives where a block of flats once stood. Each collapsed floor rests on the one below. Rummaging through the rubble two men covered in dust manage to salvage a king-sized mattress. A few moments later the father finds his son’s school book.
Image: DW/F. Warwick
Spent force
Two boys walking down one of the city streets hold two used shells. IED’s still present a real threat and are a common cause of death and injury. IS fighters booby-trapped bodies, money, toys and rubbish among other things.
Image: DW/F. Warwick
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'Crucial for justice'
HRW said that identifying dead bodies and preserving evidence of possible IS persecutions was critical for the country's future.
"Without the right technical assistance, these exhumations may not provide families with the answers they have been waiting for and could damage or destroy evidence crucial to future justice efforts," Motaparthy said.
Most local team members are volunteers who do not have forensic expertise, HRW added.
The mass graves reportedly contain bodies of both civilian victims and IS fighters.
In late 2017, families of some Raqqa detainees launched a campaign, "Where are the kidnapped by ISIS?" — using one of several acronyms for the Islamist group — to seek coalition's support in finding the whereabouts of their loved ones.
Local authorities estimate that thousands of people were killed in Raqqa and nearby areas during the battle to retake the city. Most of the dead were collectively buried in haste.