“Syrians on Wednesday marked the 40th anniversary of the 1982 Hama massacre, paying tribute to the tens of thousands of civilians killed by the regime.
At least 18,000 civilians remain missing, Syrian Network for Human Rights Chairman Fadel Abdul Ghany told The New Arab.
The Assad regime used its media machine to deny the death toll, and portrayed [the victims] as Islamist militants, Abdul Ghany – who is from Hama – tweeted.
Abdul Ghany said that Hafez al-Assad set a precedent for his family to run Syria like a family farm” which only they could gain from, at the expense of the Syrian people.
The forgiveness from western countries and the international communities… and the lack of accountability… was a green-light for [Bashar] al-Assad to try to copy this experience after March 2011, Abdul Ghany told The New Arab, referencing the Assad regime’s brutal suppression of pro-democracy protests, which led to the country’s ongoing civil war”.
