1981 Hama massacre
Part of Islamist uprising in Syria
LocationSyria Hama, Syria
DateApril 1981
TargetMuslim Brotherhood
Attack type
Execution
Deaths350 - 400
Injured600
PerpetratorsHafez al-Assad, Rifaat al-Assad

The 1981 Hama massacre was an incident in which over 300 residents of Hama, Syria, were killed by government security forces.

Background

From 1976 to 1982, Islamists, including the Muslim Brotherhood, fought the Ba'ath Party-controlled government of Syria in what has been called a "long campaign of terror".[1] In July 1980, the ratification of Law No. 49 made membership in the Muslim Brotherhood a capital offense.[2] Middle East Watch (part of Human Rights Watch) called the period between 1976 and 1982 "The Great Repression."[3] According to Middle East Watch,

Opposition exploded in the late 1970s, touched off by Assad's military intervention in Lebanon in 1976. Public discontent fed on many grievances, rampant inflation, a housing crisis deepened by refugees from Lebanon, official corruption, security forces from which no one felt safe, and the domination of the 'Alawis. Over four years unrest spread to every sector of Syrian society, and by the beginning of 1980 it seemed possible the regime would be overthrown.[3]

Journalist Robert Fisk who was reporting from Hama in 1981 states:

"When I spent a night in the autumn of 1981 in the town’s only hotel.. A visit to the homes of three very frightened foreign aid workers – two Australians and an Indian – confirmed a popular rumour in Damascus: that Hama was in a state of near-revolt against Assad’s Baathist regime."[4]

The massacre

The 1981 Hama massacre occurred after a failed attack around 21–22 April 1981 by armed Islamist guerrillas (reports identify a security checkpoint or a spring festival) near an Alawite village near Hama.[5][6][7] As a revenge action, government units deployed into Hama and launched house-to-house searches, sealing off neighborhoods as street fighting erupted.[5] A curfew was imposed and Syrian Army troops entered the city. Between Thursday 23 April 1981 and Sunday 26 April 1981, security forces killed scores to hundreds of residents - between 150 and "several hundred", according to The Washington Post,[6] or at least 350, plus 600 injured, according to authors Olivier Carré and Gérard Michaud[5] chosen randomly among the male population over the age of 14.[8] The killings were carried out by the government's "Protection Brigades" (a palace guard commanded by the president's brother Rifaat al-Assad, and Syrian Special Forces commanded by General Ali Haidar, an Alawite and Assad aide, according to the Post,[6] while Human Rights Watch identified Syrian Special Forces and the Syrian Arab Army's 47th Brigade.[7]

The Washington Post described the incident as "believed to have been the bloodiest retribution so far in President Hafez Assad's two-year crackdown on opponents to his rule".[6] Syrian Mukhabarat and Alawite militias loyal to Rifa'at al-Assad unleashed brutal attacks on the civilians of Hama; executing and torturing family members of those accused of collaborating with the opposition. Due to the extensive nature of the campaign, many Hamawi Christians were also targeted.[4]

Aftermath

See also

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Seale, Patrick. 1989. Asad, the Struggle for the Middle East. University of California Press, p. 335.
  2. ↑ Human Rights Watch 1996
  3. 1 2 Middle East Watch. Syria Unmasked: The Suppression of Human Rights by the Assad Regime. New Haven: Yale UP, 1991, p.8.
  4. 1 2 Fisk, Robert (2002). Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War (3rd ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280130-9.
  5. 1 2 3 Middle East Watch. Syria Unmasked: The Suppression of Human Rights by the Assad Regime. New Haven: Yale UP, 1991, pp. 17-18.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Syrian Troops Massacre Scores Of Assad's Foes, Washington Post June 25, 1981
  7. 1 2 James A. Paul Human Rights in Syria Human Rights Watch, 1990, p.20-21
  8. ↑ Carré, Olivier and Gérard Michaud. Les Frères musulmans: Egypte et Syrie (1928–1982). Paris: Gallimard, 1983: p. 148-151.


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