美国国家公共电台 NPR--An unnamed Syrian official is a key witness in proving war crimes of the regime

An unnamed Syrian official is a key witness in proving war crimes of the regime

Transcript¹

A former Syrian official known as the Grave Digger has become an important witness against the regime - but bears the trauma² of what he's seen and described in court.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

What makes it possible to prosecute³ war crimes? A lot rides on the answer in 2022. Russian forces stand accused of human rights violations⁴ across Ukraine. U.S., Ukrainian and other European investigators⁵ are gathering⁶ evidence. And as they do, they are using techniques developed during an older war. Syria's civil war is 11 years old, and investigators believe they have made progress in gathering evidence and witnesses against the government of Bashar al-Assad. This next story shows us how, because we will hear from a Syrian witness known only as the Grave Digger. He spoke⁷ with NPR's Deborah Amos. Deborah, good morning.

DEBORAH AMOS, BYLINE⁸: Good morning.

INSKEEP: How did this anonymous⁹ person become an important figure?

AMOS: He came to Germany as a refugee, as so many people did, and he decided¹⁰ that he was going to testify about what he saw. These cases are all based on the courage of witnesses who often have to sit in a courtroom with a torturer within arm's distance. And that's what he did. The second thing that happened in Germany is they have a concept, a legal concept, called universal jurisdiction¹¹. And that means a country can prosecute alleged¹² crimes against humanity that were committed elsewhere. In January, a German court convicted a former Syrian intelligence officer. This was the first ever criminal trial for state-sponsored torture in Syria. And the Grave Digger was one of the witnesses, a key witness. So I wanted to talk to him because I'd been covering that trial for two years. And we should warn that some of what we're going to hear in the next six minutes will be disturbing.

Steve, I met the Grave Digger and his family over lunch in an apartment that's usually rented to vacationers. There's potted plants and a Marilyn Monroe poster, all part of the spare decor. But for the Grave Digger, this is a safe house. He says he still fears for his life, even in Germany. He tells me, I'm threatened by regime loyalists. His eyewitness¹³ accounts have unraveled mysteries about the dead in Syria. He literally¹⁴ knows where the bodies are buried.

He sets the rules for this interview. I can't broadcast his voice without distorting it or say his name. By now, it's likely the Syrian government knows who he is, but he doesn't want them to track him down. Still, through an interpreter, he insists it is his duty to speak.

GRAVE DIGGER: (Through interpreter) When I was in Syria, I pledged to God that if I managed to leave Syria safely with my children and my wife, my tongue will never stop talking. And that's my only weapon.

AMOS: I met him through the Syrian opposition¹⁵ group that he works with. He lights one cigarette after another as he describes his old life, a government job in a bureau overseeing civilian¹⁶ burials.

GRAVE DIGGER: (Through interpreter) So it was a job with short attendance hours. I would go to work around 8 or 9 in the morning and leave around 2 or 3. You go home clean with a peaceful mind. But after the revolution, day became night, and night became day. I lost my ability to sleep or eat or drink.

AMOS: He was in his mid-30s when Syria's uprising swept the country. The Assad regime's response? Crush the rebellion with arbitrary arrests, torture and executions. The regime denies this and calls the prisoners terrorists, but there is ample evidence to the contrary. The Grave Digger says in the winter of 2011, security police came to his office because they had a problem. The bodies were piling up in the security prisons, the police stations, in military hospitals. The Grave Digger was recruited to head a secret burial squad¹⁷. Refrigerator trucks and military transports arrived after dark to dump the human cargo¹⁸ into freshly dug mass graves, sometimes 400 to 500 bodies buried in a single night. This was death on an industrial scale. He says the mass graves were hundreds of feet long and 20 feet deep.

GRAVE DIGGER: (Through interpreter) And in order to fill them up, they would take up to 40 loads of refrigerated trucks. And over seven years we had about four loads a week, and then we had two extra loads that would come from hospitals.

AMOS: He could tell no one about his work. He shut down his emotions, he says, even when he recognized some of the dead dropped into the pit. He learned to ignore gruesome signs of torture and the smell of death.

GRAVE DIGGER: (Through interpreter) You know, I had to do my job. And at the same time, there was this unspoken threat. Everyone knows anything I do, they will go after me, after my wife, my kids. And this is sort of your contract with them. Actually, a couple of workers who made some mistakes and complained about the smell over the phone ended up disappearing. I really don't know what happened to them afterwards.

AMOS: The Grave Digger is a big man, his beard flecked with early gray, and he laughs easily with his wife and his kids, even with guests at lunch. It's hard to imagine the crying jags his wife describes. He says his mental pain is triggered at night. Frankly¹⁹, he is ill, she says. He is tired all the time. He spaces out. He's not present in his head. We try to bring him back.

GRAVE DIGGER: (Through interpreter) I get angry for no reason. I really get mad sometimes at the kids.

AMOS: Sometimes tears start falling down, and we get worried, she says. We don't know if he's heard bad news or if we're in danger. His only therapy is his testimony²⁰, he says. In 2020, he was a key witness in Germany's first Syrian war crime trial, which ended in a life sentence for a former Syrian intelligence officer. The Grave Digger testified for two days behind a screen to protect his identity. When he broke down describing the mass graves, the chief judge called for a recess²¹ and came off the bench to bring him a glass of water. Throughout the long Syrian conflict, human rights groups have documented the torture and killings²² in Syrian prisons, but there was a lingering question, what happened to the bodies? Satellite images have now confirmed the mass graves. The Grave Digger moved to a new safe house after his June trip to Washington.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Wow.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Look at this.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: This is so nice.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Wow.

AMOS: The last place felt too risky²³, he tells me. A street-level apartment, there were random²⁴ knocks on the door.

When I met you the last time, you said that you thought if you went to America that you would feel better. You thought this would be your therapy. Does it help?

GRAVE DIGGER: (Through interpreter) I'm happy that I managed to say something in favor of the innocent, say something about what the victims had to go through. But it still never leaves my mind. It still affects, like, physically²⁵ and mentally.

AMOS: On the latest trip to the U.S., he says he was questioned in an extensive interview with the FBI. The questions were focused on American citizens reported to be in Syrian custody²⁶. The FBI wouldn't comment to NPR.

GRAVE DIGGER: (Through interpreter) There were two sessions, and each session was about up to five hours or so.

AMOS: Since the uprising began more than a decade ago, at least 11 American citizens have been jailed, tortured or killed by the Syrian regime. There is one known execution by hanging. Human rights groups say 26-year-old Layla Shweikani, an American citizen born in Syria, was executed by the Syrian regime in 2016 after a quick trial on terrorism charges.

Did they ask you about other Americans? Is that what they were interested in - if you saw any Americans, if you buried any Americans?

GRAVE DIGGER: (Through interpreter) No, they showed me some photos of Syrian army officers, some specific persons. I could identify some, but not others.

AMOS: He says he has more to tell and is set to testify again at the United Nations in September. He knows he was lucky to get his family safely to Germany, but the price is more than the bribes²⁷ he paid to get them all out of Syria. His memories always return at night, and like many trauma survivors²⁹, the present seems unsafe, and the past is always present.

INSKEEP: Wow. Powerful reporting there from NPR's Deborah Amos, who's still with us. And Deb, human rights advocates now have a decade's experience investigating in Syria. This is a man with a decade's worth of information. How have they applied³⁰ that experience elsewhere?

AMOS: So he was part of one historic trial in Germany. There are two more against Syrians, but so much of this now has to do with Ukraine. European governments expanded their war crimes units. They had prosecutors³¹ who had special skills. They are now experienced in war crimes trials, even open source investigations³². And that's using data from social media, satellite photos, smartphone videos as evidence. All that sort of began in Syria and has been expanded. There's different groups who got their start in Syria. Bellingcat is the most well known who does this kind of work, and they are working in Ukraine. There's another group called Syrian Archive. They're based in Berlin, run by Syrians. They have been collecting social media posts from the war in Syria. Now they are working with Ukraine. They are the ones who are storing this data to turn it into evidence for war crimes trials. There are now protocols³³ to do this - has to do with chain of custody. Where was the image taken? Is the metadata still on the web? Syrian Archive learned how to do that over the years for what they needed to do in Syria, and now they're doing it for Ukraine.

INSKEEP: Well, we're just getting around to prosecutions³⁴, though, in Syria after a decade. Is there a similar timeline ahead of us for Ukraine?

AMOS: Because of all that work done on Syria, it is moving a lot faster - 10 years for Syria, less than 10 days for the first investigations from the Germans, from the French, from the International Criminal Court - takes place in Ukraine almost as soon as Russian troops crossed the border into the country. There have been domestic war crimes trials in Ukraine. The holdup now is what will be the platform for an international tribunal. Does it go through the United Nations? Does it go through the European Union? Or does it stay as a domestic trial inside Ukraine? And I think those questions have not been settled yet.

INSKEEP: All this must be a tremendously different world than when you were covering conflicts before the time of social media 15, 20, 30 years ago.

AMOS: Correct. I think that the most interesting thing for me is to see how important this social media component³⁵ is and how in some ways it empowers people on the ground. They are documenting their own war crimes. They've been through hell and back. But the idea that you are not so much a victim but a survivor²⁸, that you have a voice in these trials - and I think that will be important. It's certainly been important for the Syrians who've been able to testify. They feel like survivors and not victims. They feel like they have a voice in the narrative³⁶ of the conflict that has defined their generation and their country.

INSKEEP: NPR's Deborah Amos, thanks so much.

AMOS: Thank you.

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1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

3 prosecute   

vt.告发；进行；vi.告发，起诉，作检察官

参考例句：

• I am trying my best to prosecute my duties.我正在尽力履行我的职责。
• Is there enough evidence to prosecute?有没有起诉的足够证据？

4 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

5 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

9 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

11 jurisdiction   

n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权

参考例句：

• It doesn't lie within my jurisdiction to set you free.我无权将你释放。
• Changzhou is under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province.常州隶属江苏省。

12 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

13 eyewitness   

n.目击者，见证人

参考例句：

• The police questioned several eyewitness to the murder.警察询问了谋杀案的几位目击者。
• He was the only eyewitness of the robbery.他是那起抢劫案的唯一目击者。

14 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

15 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

16 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

17 squad   

n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组

参考例句：

• The squad leader ordered the men to mark time.班长命令战士们原地踏步。
• A squad is the smallest unit in an army.班是军队的最小构成单位。

18 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

19 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

20 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

21 recess   

n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处）

参考例句：

• The chairman of the meeting announced a ten-minute recess.会议主席宣布休会10分钟。
• Parliament was hastily recalled from recess.休会的议员被匆匆召回开会。

22 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

23 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

24 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

25 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

26 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

27 bribes   

n.贿赂( bribe的名词复数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂v.贿赂( bribe的第三人称单数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• corrupt officials accepting bribes 接受贿赂的贪官污吏

28 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

29 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

30 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

31 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

32 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

33 protocols   

n.礼仪( protocol的名词复数 )；（外交条约的）草案；（数据传递的）协议；科学实验报告（或计划）

参考例句：

• There are also protocols on the testing of nuclear weapons. 也有关于核武器试验的协议。 来自辞典例句
• Hardware components and software design of network transport protocols are separately introduced. 介绍系统硬件组成及网络传输协议的软件设计。 来自互联网

34 prosecutions   

起诉( prosecution的名词复数 )； 原告； 实施； 从事

参考例句：

• It is the duty of the Attorney-General to institute prosecutions. 检察总长负责提起公诉。
• Since World War II, the government has been active in its antitrust prosecutions. 第二次世界大战以来，政府积极地进行着反对托拉斯的检举活动。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

35 component   

n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的

参考例句：

• Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
• Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。

36 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。