The 30th Anniversary of the Hama Massacre

The 30th Anniversary of the Hama Massacre

The 2nd of February marks the 30th anniversary of the Hama massacre in 1982 – A very dark and atrocious memory. Hama is a city in Syria which was attacked by its own President, Hafez Al-Assad (Father of current President Bashar Al-Assad), after an uprising started in the city against the oppression of the Al-Assad regime. The massacre, under the supervision of younger brother Rifat Al-Assad, killed up to 40,000 civilians in three weeks. After a warning was given to the city, tanks, heavy artillery, and the air-force started bombing. After that soldiers stormed the city, looting, raping and killing as they went. It did not matter if the people were women, elderly or children; they were all considered rebels and sons of rebels by the regime. Large parts of the city, and most of the old city, were bombarded and bulldozed to the ground. According to sources, 60,000 were imprisoned, 15,000 went missing and 100,000 were expelled from Syria.

Up to this day, the fate of most of the missing people is unknown. Up to this day, nobody has investigated the massacre. Up to this day, none of the criminals have faced justice.

Syrians living in Auckland had the following to say about the 1982 Hama massacre:

“I remember being in a car with my uncles and passing by a horse jumping course, which they pointed at and said that under all this is mass graves from that massacre. The regime couldn’t rebuild over too many bodies so they made it a horse jumping course! Also, some bullet marks were still visible on some high walls and some were roughly painted over. So little of much terrible hidden memories no one spoke about, but at least as a little kid passing through the city, I was still able to tell that something terribly wrong had happened” – S

“The Assad army used to knock on doors and bring out the whole family; mother, father, children, and make them stand in a line. Then, in front of the mother, they used to shoot all the males right there!!” - K

“I know someone who was kept in a cell for over 15 years, where it wasn’t big enough to stand up nor lie down so he always sat down cooped up in the dark and when he came out at the age of over 45yrs old, he had a back problem. He couldn’t walk as he hadn’t walked for more than 15 years! He was released a few years ago and passed away recently” - Z

“In the late ‘80’s, a construction worker fell off a high building becoming paralyzed. His father used to visit him in the hospital. The worker constantly asked his father to pray for him. The father asked him: ‘Son, you were part of the Special Forces that entered Hama during the massacre. Tell me honestly, did you harm anyone?’ The worker cried and said: ‘We went into a home, and shot everyone in it. A 6 year old boy ran away to the rooftop. I followed him with another unit member. We grabbed him by his arms and feet, and kept swinging him back and forth, then we let go of him and sent him falling off the top of the three-storey building’. The worker’s father angrily spat in his face: ‘You are not my son! I do not even know you! I hope God leaves you crippled” – A

“My father witnessed the following horror scenes after he was detained and taken to an industrial school: ‘The soldiers would place a man’s head in a vice and tighten the vice until the skull cracked open. Other times they would use machinery to break peoples’ backs or limbs..... Once, I saw a soldier ordering a prisoner to go to sleep. The prisoner replied that his back was terribly wounded and he couldn’t sleep on it. The soldier yelled back at him to go to sleep, and with that stepped on the prisoners head he died’. My father was later released, only because he was elderl”. – S.K.

“We were about 38 women and children hiding inside a cellar on Abul-Fida Street when we were attacked by soldiers. Everybody was killed except me and a young child. I was wounded and close to unconsciousness, while the child was unscathed and managed to squirm and scramble his way out. Worse was yet to come. The soldiers started stealing and looting the corpses. If jewellery on a woman’s hand got stuck, they would chop off the hand. If a necklace wasn’t coming loose, they would cut off the woman’s head. Thanks to God, the necklace I had came off easily and I was spared. Later, when civil authorities were gathering the corpses I was discovered alive and taken to a hospital where I recovered.” – H.

These statements are only a small taste of the horrific memories experienced by the residents of Hama at the time. In March 2011, we saw history starting to repeat itself. Syrians, fed up with the injustice and oppression of the Assad government, started a revolution against the regime. Hama was one of the main cities to go out in protests of hundreds of thousands against the government. Bashar Al-Assad has since been following the footsteps of his Father and attacking his own country. The death toll to date is over 7,000, and over 65,000 people are either missing or imprisoned.

“Syrian Solidarity NZ” of Auckland joined Syria in commemorating the Hama massacre. A candle vigil was held by the Syrian community on Thursday, the 2nd of February, 2012, at 8pm in Aotea Square.

Areej Arif - Syrian Solidarity NZ

Also, the Syrian community in Auckland held a candle vigil on 2/2/2012, on Queen Street, Aotea square.

The following link is a video of the event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpUnGn1gYhk&list=UU3fwHpekwywiPMIcGLzirxA&index=3&feature=plcp (Note: the title is in Arabic but the description is in English).

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