1982 Hama massacre

Anti-Sunni massacre in Hama, Syria the 1981 Hama massacre or the 2012 Hama massacre and the 1964 Hama riot dms title September 2024 the Islamist uprising in Syria 1982HamaMassacre.png 250px Sectarian violence * 25,000–40,000 civilians killedSources: Conduit Dara Political Participation of Islamists in Syria Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 2019 30 1 23 10.1080/09596410.2018.1546064 The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria: the past informing the present https://citizenshipglobalisation.deakin.edu.au/2023/09/the-muslim-brotherhood-in-syria-the-past-informing-the-present/ Deakin University https://web.archive.org/web/20260520224715/https://citizenshipglobalisation.deakin.edu.au/2023/09/the-muslim-brotherhood-in-syria-the-past-informing-the-present/ 19 September 2023 20 May 2026Moss Dana M. The Arab Spring Abroad: Diaspora Activism against Authoritarian Regimes Cambridge University Press 2022 978-1-108-84553-3 New York, NY 58 2: Exit from Authoritarianism 10.1017/9781108980036GÜÇTÜRK Yavuz War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in Syria Insight Turkey 2015 17 1 28Doran, Michael S., Salman Shaikh, Kenneth M. Pollack, Akram Al-Turk, Pavel K. Baev, Khaled Elgindy, Stephen R. Grand, et al. “Syria: The Ghosts of Hama.” In The Arab Awakening: America and the Transformation of the Middle East, 230–40. Brookings Institution Press, 2011. Pg.231Al-Labwani Dr. Kamal The Syrian War Cambridge University Press 2020 978-1-108-48780-1 Moodrick-Even Khen, T. Boms, Ashraph Hilly, Nir, Sareta 287 14: Epilogue 15,0005 February 2002 The Massacres of Hama http://shrc.org/data/aspx/d0/1260.aspx SHRC https://web.archive.org/web/20060721194011/http://shrc.org/data/aspx/d0/1260.aspx 21 July 2006 –17,000Ziadeh Radwan Power and Policy in Syria: Intelligence Services, Foreign Relations and Democracy in the Modern Middle East I.B. Tauris 2011 978-1-84885-434-5 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA 2928 February 2022 The 40th Anniversary of the 1982 Hama Massacre Coincides with Rifaat al Assad's Return to Bashar al Assad https://snhr.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/R220211E.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20220228121604/https://snhr.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/R220211E.pdf 28 February 2022 SNHR civilians forcibly disappeared 100,000 civilians arbitrarily detained Hama massacre Ba'athist Syria Hama, Syria yes 1982 2 2 – yes 1982 2 28 Ba'athist Syria Syrian Armed Forces Ba'athist Syria Military Intelligence Special Forces Ba'athist Syria Flag of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate.png Air Force Intelligence 20px Defense Companies Struggle Companies Emblem of Syria (1980–2024).svg 22px Ministry of Interior General Intelligence Syrian Police Flag of the Muslim Brotherhood.svg Muslim Brotherhood Fighting Vanguard Anti-Sunni sentiment,Bou Nassif Hicham Endgames: Military Response to Protest in Arab Autocracies Cambridge University Press 2020 978-1-108-84124-5 New York, NY 126, 194 Assadism,counterinsurgency The Hama massacreMikaberidze Alexander Atrocities, Massacres, and War Crimes: An Encyclopedia ABC-CLIO, LLC 2013 978-1-59884-925-7 Santa Barbara, California 229 Hama Massacre (1982) (ar مجزرة حماة) occurred in February 1982 when the Syrian Arab Army and the Defense Companies paramilitary force, under the orders of President Hafez al-Assad, besieged the town of Hama for 27 days in order to quell an uprising by the Fighting Vanguard of the Muslim Brotherhood against the Ba'athist government.Fisk 2010MEMRI 2002 The campaign that had begun in 1976 by Sunni Islamist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, was brutally crushed in an anti-Sunni massacre at Hama, carried out by the Syrian Arab Army and Alawite militias under the command of Major General Rifaat al-Assad.Roberts David The Ba'ath and the creation of modern Syria Routledge 2015 978-0-415-83882-5 Routledge Library Editions: Syria Abingdon, Oxon 121 12: Hafiz al-Asad – II Prior to the start of operations, Hafez al-Assad issued orders to seal off Hama from the outside world; effectively imposing a media blackout, total shut down of communications, electricity and food supplies to the city for months.Moss Dana M. The Arab Spring Abroad: Diaspora Activism against Authoritarian Regimes Cambridge University Press 2022 978-1-108-84553-3 New York, NY 57, 58 2: Exit from Authoritarianism 10.1017/9781108980036 Initial diplomatic dispatches released in Western media outlets assessed that 1,000 people were killed.http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,921108,00.html https://web.archive.org/web/20101015051513/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,921108,00.html dead 15 October 2010 Syria: Bloody Challenge to Assad 8 March 1982 TimeJOHN KIFNER, Special to the New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/12/world/syrian-troops-are-said-to-battle-rebels-encircled-in-central-city.html Syrian Troops Are Said To Battle Rebels Encircled in Central City Hama (Syria); Syria The New York Times 12 February 1982 20 January 2012 Subsequent estimates vary, with the lower ones reporting that at least 10,000 people were killed and more than 20,000 civilians were forcibly disappeared,Atassi Basma 2 February 2012 Breaking the silence over Hama atrocities Al Jazeera https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2012/2/2/breaking-the-silence-over-hama-atrocities https://web.archive.org/web/20201103100553/https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2012/2/2/breaking-the-silence-over-hama-atrocities 3 November 2020 while other estimates put the number of deaths at 40,000.Lefevre Raphael Ashes of Hama Oxford University Press 2013 978-0-19-933062-1 59Syrian Human Rights Committee, 200528 February 2022 The 40th Anniversary of the 1982 Hama Massacre Coincides with Rifaat al Assad's Return to Bashar al Assad https://snhr.org/blog/2022/02/28/57397/ https://web.archive.org/web/20220228121456/https://snhr.org/blog/2022/02/28/57397/ 28 February 2022 SNHR The massacre remains the "single deadliest act" of violence perpetrated by an Arab state upon its own population in the modern history of the Middle East.Wright 2008: 243-244Amos Deborah 2 February 2012 30 Years Later, Photos Emerge From Killings in Syria NPR https://www.npr.org/2012/02/01/146235292/30-years-later-photos-emerge-from-killings-in-syria https://web.archive.org/web/20120202213317/https://www.npr.org/2012/02/01/146235292/30-years-later-photos-emerge-from-killings-in-syria 2 February 2012 Some suspect the Hafez al-Assad regime of using chemical weapons in the city.Hama https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/syria/hama.htm 2025-09-18 www.globalsecurity.org Nearly two-thirds of the city was destroyed in the Ba'athist military operation.16 August 2023 Switzerland issues arrest warrant for uncle of Syria's Assad The National https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/2023/08/16/swiss-arrest-warrant-for-uncle-of-syrias-assad/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230816205956/https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/2023/08/16/swiss-arrest-warrant-for-uncle-of-syrias-assad/ 16 August 2023 Robert Fisk, who was present at Hama during the events of the massacre, reported that indiscriminate bombing had razed much of the city to the ground and that the vast majority of the victims were civilians.Fisk, Robert. 1990. Pity the Nation. London: Touchstone, 0-671-74770-3. Fisk later wrote in 2010 that at least 20,000 civilians were killed by Rifaat al-Assad's paramilitary companies in the "streets and underground tunnels of Hama". Patrick Seale, reporting in The Globe and Mail, described the operation as a "two-week orgy of killing, destruction and looting" which destroyed the city and killed a minimum of 25,000 inhabitants. The attack has been described as being motivated by sectarian animosities against the Sunni community of Hama.Sources:Bou Nassif Hicham Endgames: Military Response to Protest in Arab Autocracies Cambridge University Press 2020 978-1-108-84124-5 New York, NY 126, 194 In the wake of the tense period stretching from the Aleppo incident in 1979 to the Hama massacre in 1982, the regime accentuated the Alawitization of its coercive apparatus as its dependency on its sectarian base increased... regime violence against Sunnis did not begin in 2011, and was never restricted to the Muslim Brotherhood alone. Even Patrick Seale, who wrote an otherwise sympathetic biography of Hafez al-Asad, admits that thousands of Sunni civilians were slaughtered during the notorious Hama massacre in 1982 by the all-Alawi Defense Companies after the city fell. Human rights organizations have documented a series of other horrendous massacres of Sunnis that may not have reached Hama’s level of violence, but were extremely bloody, nonetheless.February 2012 Genocide Watch Recommendations for Syria, Genocide and Mass Atrocities Alert: Syria http://migs.concordia.ca/documents/StantonGenocideandMassAtrocitiesAlert.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20130627003536/http://migs.concordia.ca/documents/StantonGenocideandMassAtrocitiesAlert.pdf 27 June 2013 migs.concordia.ca Tensions and political strife have been an on-going theme in Syria due in large part to the opposing ideologies of the regime’s ruling Alawite minority -- Baathist socialism- and the Sunni Muslim majority, which makes up three quarters of the country’s population, and largely favors adherence to Islamic law. After the Hama Massacre of 1982- a 'scorched earth' operation that killed 20,000 people to combat an attempted Sunni Muslim uprising- the government became increasingly authoritarian, relying on repressive policies to maintain control.Seale Patrick Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East University of California Press 1989 0-520-06667-7 Los Angeles, US 332, 333 In Damascus there was a moment of something like panic when Hama rose. The regime itself shook... Behind the immediate contest lay the old multi-layered hostility between Islam and the Ba‘ath, between Sunni and 'Alawi, between town and country.Mikaberidze Alexander Atrocities, Massacres, and War Crimes: An Encyclopedia ABC-CLIO, LLC 2013 978-1-59884-925-7 Santa Barbara, California 229 The most infamous crackdown, however, occurred in early 1982, when al-Assad ordered a brutal crackdown on the defiant city of Hama, where the Sunni Muslim community continued to defy the regime.. Hama Massacre (1982) Memory of the massacre remains an important aspect of Syrian culture and as a result, it evokes strong emotions amongst Syrians to the present day.Ismail Salwa The Rule of Violence : Subjectivity, Memory and Government in Syria Cambridge University Press 2018 978-1-107-03218-7 New York, NY 131–158 4: Memories of Violence: Hama 1982 10.1017/9781139424721Batatu Hanna Syria's Peasantry, the Descendants of Its Lesser Rural Notables, and Their Politics Princeton University Press 1999 0-691-00254-1 Chichester, West Sussex, UK 203Almasalkhi Nadia Internalized political repression: Legacies of authoritarianism in the U.S.-based Syrian diaspora during the Arab Spring Sociological Forum 2024 39 1 79–93 10.1111/socf.12980 free The Hama massacre was invoked by Syrian opposition leaders when Ba'athist government forces were driven out of the city following successful rebel offensives in December 2024 that ultimately ended the rule of the Assad family in Syria, with rebel leaders saying they have "come to cleanse the wound that has persisted in Syria for 40 years".Hubbard Ben December 5, 2024 Syrian Rebels Storm Another Major City https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/world/middleeast/syria-rebel-offensive-hama.html December 22, 2024 The New York Times Background Islamist uprising in Syria Muslim Brotherhood in Syria Ba'athist Syria The Ba'ath Party of Syria, which advocates Ba'athism, the ideologies of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, had clashed with the Muslim Brotherhood, a group which advocates a Sunni Islamist ideology, since 1940.Seale 1989: 93 The two groups were opposed in fundamental ways. The Ba'ath party was nominally secular and nationalist. The Muslim Brotherhood, like other Islamist groups, saw nationalism as un-Islamic and religion as inseparable from politics and government. Most Ba'ath party members were from humble, obscure backgrounds and favored radical economic policies, while Sunni Muslims had dominated the souqs and landed power of Syria, and tended to view government intervention in the economy as threatening their interests.Seale 1989: 37, 93, 148, 171 Not all Sunni notables believed in fundamentalism, but even those who did not often saw the Brotherhood as a useful tool against the Ba'ath.Seale 1989: 335-337 thumb|305px|Section of Hama before the government attack, showing the Nur al-Din Mosque in the foreground The town of Hama in particular was a "stronghold of Islamic conservatism and of the Muslim Brotherhood," and "had long been a redoubtable opponent of the Ba'athist state." The first full-scale clash between the two occurred shortly after the 1963 coup, in which the Ba'ath party first gained power in Syria. In April 1964, riots broke out in Hama, where Muslim insurgents put up "roadblocks, stockpiled food and weapons, ransacked wine shops." After an Ismaili Ba'ath militiaman was killed, riots intensified and rebels attacked "every vestige" of the Ba'ath party in Hama. Tanks were brought in to crush the rebellion and 70 members of the Muslim Brotherhood died, with many others wounded or captured, and still more disappearing underground. After the clashes in Hama, the situation periodically erupted into clashes between the government and various Islamic sects. However, a more serious challenge occurred after the Syrian invasion of Lebanon in 1976. In October 1980, Muhammad al-Bayanuni, a respected member of the religious hierarchy of Aleppo, became the Islamic Front's Secretary-General, but its leading light remained 'Adnan Sa'd al-Din, the General Supervisor of the Muslim Brothers. The chief ideologue of the Islamic Front was a prominent religious scholar from Hama, Sa'id Hawwa, who along with Sa'd al-Din had been a leader of the northern militants during the mid-1970s.https://origins.osu.edu/article/syrias-islamic-movement-and-2011-12-uprising/page/0/1 Syria's Islamic Movement and the 2011-12 Uprising July 2012 26 February 2020 26 February 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20200226161756/https://origins.osu.edu/article/syrias-islamic-movement-and-2011-12-uprising/page/0/1 dead Anti-regime activists such as Marwan Hadid and Muhammad al-Hamid were also carefully listened to.Lefevre Raphael 2013 Ashes of Hama: The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria https://books.google.com/books?id=sjxpAgAAQBAJ&q=Muhammad+al-Bayanuni+hama&pg=PA58 Oxford University Press 58 9780199330621 From 1976 to 1982, Sunni Islamists fought the Ba'ath Party-controlled government of Syria in what has been called a "long campaign of terror". In 1979, the Brotherhood undertook guerrilla activities in multiple cities within the country targeting military officers and government officials. The resulting government repression included abusive tactics, torture, mass arrests, and a number of selective assassinations, particularly of prominent mosque preachers. In July 1980, the ratification of Law No. 49 made membership in the Muslim Brotherhood a capital offence.Human Rights Watch 1996 Throughout the first years of the 1980s, the Muslim Brotherhood and various other Islamist factions staged hit-and-run and bomb attacks against the government and its officials, including a nearly successful attempt to assassinate President Hafez al-Assad on 26 June 1980, during an official state reception for the President of Mali. When a machine-gun salvo missed him, al-Assad allegedly ran to kick a hand grenade aside, and his bodyguard (who survived and was later promoted to a much higher position) smothered the explosion of another one. Surviving with only light injuries, al-Assad's revenge was swift and merciless: only hours later, a large number of imprisoned Islamists (reports say from 600 to 1,000 prisonersFriedman Thomas L. https://books.google.com/books?id=877DR3un9rIC From Beirut to Jerusalem 2010-04-01 Farrar, Straus and Giroux 978-0-374-70699-9 78) were executed in their cells in Tadmor Prison (near Palmyra) by units loyal to the President's brother, Rifaat al-Assad. In April 1981, security forces killed 300 people in reprisal after several Alawites were killed in villages near Hama.Uneasy neighbors, themselves divided; Syria's present regime more appealing-if compared with Muslim Brotherhood https://www.csmonitor.com/1981/0619/061939.html 2026-09-02 Christian Science Monitor 0882-7729 Attack by insurgents in Hama The events of the Hama massacre began at 2 am on 2 February 1982. An army unit searching the old city stumbled on the hideout of the local guerilla commander, Omar Jawwad (aka Abu Bakr), and was ambushed. Other insurgent cells were alerted by radio and "roof-top snipers killed perhaps a score" of Syrian soldiers. Reinforcements were rushed in to besiege Abu Bakr who then "gave the order for a general uprising" in Hama. Mosque loudspeakers used for the call to prayer called for jihad against the Ba'ath, and hundreds of Islamic insurgents rose to attack the homes of government officials and Baath Party leaders, overrun police posts and ransack armouries. They carried out attacks, especially in the northern cities, on government buildings, cooperative stores, police stations, and army units, and provoked demonstrations and large-scale shutdowns of shops and schools. The Brotherhood, having already benefited from training provided to Muslim militants in Iraqi Army camps, was also assured of comprehensive assistance from Iraq in the form of weaponry and financial resources.Syria's Peasantry, the Descendants of Its Lesser Rural Notables, and Their Politics Batatu Hanna 1999 9780691002545 269 Princeton University Press in addition to the training already provided to Muslim militants in the camps of the Iraqi army, the Brotherhood could count on Iraq for "full support with arms and money." By daybreak of the morning of 2 February, some 70 leading Ba'athists had been killed and the Islamist insurgents and other opposition activists proclaimed Hama a "liberated city", urging Syrians to rise up against the "infidel".Seale 1989: 332-333Syria: 30 years on, Hama survivors recount the horror https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2012/02/syria-years-hama-survivors-recount-horror/ 2021-07-22 Amnesty International 28 February 2012 Counter-attack by government forces thumb|305px|right| Under the orders of President Hafez al-Assad (right), his brother, Major General Rifaat al-Assad (left), supervised the ground operations of the massacre, using Alawite paramilitaries under his command. Weeks after the massacre, Rifaat was promoted to being the Vice President of Syria According to author Patrick Seale, "every party worker, every paratrooper sent to Hama knew that this time Islamic militancy had to be torn out of the city, whatever the cost". The military was mobilized, and President Hafez al-Assad sent Rifaat's special forces (the Defense Companies), elite army units and Mukhabarat agents to the city. Before the attack, the Syrian government called for the city's surrender and warned that anyone remaining in the city would be considered a rebel. Hama was besieged by 12,000 troops for three weeks – the first week spent "in regaining control of the town", and the last two "in hunting down the insurgents". Robert Fisk, a journalist who was in Hama midway through the battle, described civilians fleeing pervasive destruction.Fisk Robert Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War https://books.google.com/books?id=VrXpeELOUNsC 2001 Oxford University Press 978-0-19-280130-2 185–186 According to Amnesty International, the Syrian military bombed the old city center from the air to facilitate the entry of infantry and tanks through the narrow streets; buildings were demolished by tanks during the first four days of fighting. Large parts of the old city were destroyed. There were also unsubstantiated reports of use of hydrogen cyanide by the government forces.Reports of cyanide gas being used SHRC http://www.shrc.org/data/aspx/d0/1260.aspx dead https://web.archive.org/web/20110325232345/http://www.shrc.org/data/aspx/d0/1260.aspx 25 March 2011 Rifaat's forces ringed the city with artillery, shelled it, then combed the rubble for surviving Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters.Benjamin Daniel Simon Steven The Age of Sacred Terror https://books.google.com/books?id=IOoBZvdNrIkC 2002 Random House Publishing Group 978-1-58836-259-9 Suspecting that rebels were still hiding in tunnels under the old city, he had diesel fuel pumped into them and stationed tanks at their entrances to shell fleeing militants.https://www.haaretz.com/1.5014227 Tanks Finally Get Their Thanks Melman Yossi 19 May 2011 Haaretz https://web.archive.org/web/20180913111852/https://www.haaretz.com/1.5014227 2018-09-13 dead Alawite military units loyal to Rifaat al-Assad, such as the Defense Companies, entered the city and indiscriminately massacred thousands of Sunni civilian survivors.Bou Nassif Hicham Endgames: Military Response to Protest in Arab Autocracies Cambridge University Press 2020 978-1-108-84124-5 New York, NY 126, 194 The indiscriminate bombardment by government forces razed much of the city's districts, streets, heritage sites, mosques and churches. The Azm Palace was severely damaged. Baathist paramilitaries continued looting for weeks and numerous families were rounded up and shot.Seale Patrick Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East University of California Press 1989 0-520-06667-7 Los Angeles, US 333Ismael Quiades 22 December 2009 The Hama Massacre – February 1982 https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/hamah-massacre-february-1982.html https://web.archive.org/web/20201103062919/https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/hamah-massacre-february-1982.html 3 November 2020 SciencesPo Baathist dissident Akram al-Hawrani asserted that women, children and all Hama inhabitants irrespective of their political leanings were targeted indiscriminately during the regime onslaught. Even Ba'ath Party members, according to Hawrani, were victims of the "savage slaughter" ordered by Hafez al-Assad. Estimates of fatalities thumb|Portraits of Hama massacre victims Initial diplomatic reports from western governments in 1982 had stated that 1,000 were killed in the fighting. Subsequent estimates of casualties varied from 5,000 to 40,000 people killed, including about 1,000 soldiers. Robert Fisk, who was in Hama shortly after the massacre, originally estimated fatalities at 10,000, but has since doubled the estimate to 20,000.Fisk 1990: 186Fisk 2007 Major General Rifaat al-Assad, the brother of President al-Assad, reportedly boasted of killing 38,000 people.From Beirut to Jerusalem, pp. 76–105 Amnesty International initially estimated the death toll was between 10,000 and 25,000. According to a Human Rights Watch report published in 1990, the massacre saw the deaths of between five and ten thousand people.Istanbulli, Linda. “Re-Membering Syria's Traumatic Past: Gender, Poetics, and Loss in Manhal al-Sarrāj's As a River Should.” Journal of Arabic Literature 52, no. 1/2 (2021): 202–27. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27131898. Reports by Syrian Human Rights Committee claimed "over 25,000"Syrian Human Rights Committee, 2006. or between 30,000 and 40,000 people were killed. Twenty years later, Syrian journalist Subhi Hadidi, wrote that forces "under the command of General Ali Haydar, besieged the city for 27 days, bombarding it with heavy artillery and tank [fire], before invading it and killing 30,000 or 40,000 of the city's citizens – in addition to the 15,000 missing who have not been found to this day, and the 100,000 expelled." A report published by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) on the 40th anniversary of the Hama massacre estimates that around 40,000 inhabitants were killed in the massacre; in addition to about 17,000 civilians who were disappeared and have not been found as of the present day. Aftermath Around two-thirds of the city was demolished in the military operations during the massacre. After the Hama massacre, the Islamic revolution was crushed, and since then, the Brotherhood has operated in exile and other opposition factions either surrendered or slipped into hiding. Government attitudes in Syria hardened considerably during the uprising, and President Assad would rely more on repression than conventional political tactics during the remainder of his rule, although an economic liberalization program was launched in the 1990s.US Dept. of State, country profile After the massacre, the already evident disarray in the insurgents' ranks increased, and the rebel factions experienced acrimonious internal splits. Particularly damaging to their cause was the deterrent effect of the massacre, as well as the realization that no Sunni uprisings had occurred in the rest of the country in support of the Hama rebels. Most of the members of the rebel groups either fled from the country or remained in exile, mainly in Iran, while others made their way to the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany.http://www.globalpolitician.com/ Global Politician 23 May 2007 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20070529125957/http://globalpolitician.com/ 29 May 2007 The Muslim Brotherhood—the largest opposition group—split into two factions, after giving up on armed struggle. One faction, more moderate than the other faction and recognized by the international Muslim Brotherhood, eventually headquartered itself in the UK, where it remains today, while the less moderate faction headquartered itself in Iran and retained a military structure for several years, with backing from the Iranian government, before it rejoined the London-based mainstream. Internationally, the Hama massacre became a symbol of the al-Assad government's human rights violations and brutal repression.Human Rights Watch, 2010 Within Syria, mention of the massacre was strictly suppressed by the Assad regime; however, the general contours of the events—and various partisan versions, on all sides—are well known throughout the country. When the massacre was publicly referenced, it was only referenced as the "events" or it was referenced as the "incident" at Hama. In 2012, Professor Gregory Stanton of Genocide Watch characterized the Hama massacre as a 'genocidal massacre', and he also stated that its methods could prompt the regime to pursue future mass killings during the Syrian civil war (which was just beginning at the time).February 2012 Genocide Watch Recommendations for Syria, Genocide and Mass Atrocities Alert: Syria http://migs.concordia.ca/documents/StantonGenocideandMassAtrocitiesAlert.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20130526231356/http://migs.concordia.ca/documents/StantonGenocideandMassAtrocitiesAlert.pdf May 26, 2013 migs.concordia.ca Memory of the Hama Massacre has become an important aspect of Syrian culture, and evokes a strong feeling of resentment among Syrians to this day. During the Syrian Revolution in 2011, older Syrians frequently warned younger activists about the Assad regime's determination to "do Hama again", i.e., its willingness to exterminate tens or even hundreds of thousands of civilians in order to ensure its survival.Ismail Salwa The Rule of Violence : Subjectivity, Memory and Government in Syria Cambridge University Press 2018 978-1-107-03218-7 New York, NY 131, 132 4: Memories of Violence: Hama 1982 10.1017/9781139424721 The satirical slogan "Asad 'alayya wa fil-hurubi na'amah (Against me a lion and in wars an ostrich...)" became popular amongst Syrian dissidents for Hafez al-Assad's comparatively muted response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon the same year. Lawsuits In December 2013, human rights organization "Trial International" filed a criminal lawsuit against Rifaat al-Assad over his role as commander of Defense Brigades that organized the ground campaign of the massacre. Charges in the war-crimes lawsuit included organizing extrajudicial killings, large-scale torture, sexual violence, mass-rapes, summary executions and forced disappearances.25 September 2017 In Switzerland, Proceedings for war-crimes against Rifaat al-Assad https://trialinternational.org/latest-post/in-switzerland-proceedings-for-war-crimes-against-rifaat-al-assad/ https://web.archive.org/web/20200427002657/https://trialinternational.org/latest-post/in-switzerland-proceedings-for-war-crimes-against-rifaat-al-assad/ 27 April 2020 Trial International A criminal investigation was launched by the Swiss Office of the Attorney General the same year. Almost a decade later in August 2023, the Federal Criminal Court ordered the extradition of Rifa'at al-Assad, prompting Switzerland to issue an arrest warrant to prosecute him.16 August 2023 War crimes in Syria: Switzerland Launches an international arrest warrant for the extradition of Rifaat al-Assad https://trialinternational.org/latest-post/war-crimes-in-syria-switzerland-issues-an-international-arrest-warrant-for-the-extradition-of-rifaat-al-assad/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230816223201/https://trialinternational.org/latest-post/war-crimes-in-syria-switzerland-issues-an-international-arrest-warrant-for-the-extradition-of-rifaat-al-assad/ 16 August 2023 Trial International16 August 2023 Swiss prosecutors issue arrest warrant for Rifaat al-Assad SWI swissinfo.ch https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/swiss-prosecutors-put-out-arrest-warrant-for-rifaat-al-assad/48740184 https://web.archive.org/web/20230816223600/https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/swiss-prosecutors-put-out-arrest-warrant-for-rifaat-al-assad/48740184 16 August 2023 See also 2004 al-Qamishli riots 2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites Counterinsurgency History of Syria, Baath Party rule under Hafez al-Assad Human rights in Syria#Ba'athist era (1963–2024) Human rights in Ba'athist Syria List of massacres in Syria List of modern conflicts in the Middle East Siege of Hama (2011) Siege of Homs References Notes Bibliography Benkorich, Nora; 16 Feb. 2012, Trente ans après, retour sur la tragédie de Hama Benjamin, Daniel; Steven Simon. 2002. The Age of Sacred Terror. Random House. Fisk-1990 Fisk, Robert. 1990. Pity the Nation. London: Touchstone, 0-671-74770-3. Fisk-2007 Fisk, Robert. 2007 February 10. Conspiracy of silence in the Arab world. The Independent (UK). Fisk-2010 Fisk, Robert. 2010 September 16. Robert Fisk: Freedom, democracy and human rights in Syria. (Ribal al-Assad gives our writer a rare insight into the dynasty that has shaped modern Syria). The Independent (UK). Friedman-1998 Friedman, Thomas. 1998. From Beirut to Jerusalem, London: HarperCollins Publishers, 0-00-653070-2. Chapter 4: "Hama Rules". Global Politician.com. 2006 May 23. The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/syria/hama.htm Hama GlobalSecurity.org 14 November 2009 hrw-1996 Human Rights Watch. 1996. Syria's Tadmor Prison: Dissent Still Hostage to a Legacy of Terror. Human Rights Watch. 2010 July 16. A wasted decade. V. Legacy of enforced disappearances. Report on human rights in Syria. http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/590.htm Bashar Assad Teaches Visiting Members of U.S. Congress How to Fight Terrorism 12 August 2010 Middle East Media Research Institute MEMRI January 2002 Reference-MEMRI-2002 https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/world/middleeast/27diplomacy.html Chaos in Syria and Jordan Alarms U.S. The New York Times 26 March 2011 Seale-1989 Seale, Patrick. 1989. Asad, the Struggle for the Middle East. University of California Press. Fisk-1989 Fisk, Robert. 1989. Pity the Nation. London: Touchstone, 0-671-74770-3. Syrian Human Rights Committee. 2006 Massacre of Hama (February 1982) Genocide and a crime against Humanity. Syrian Human Rights Committee. 2005 (Arabic) The Massacre of Hama: Law Enforcement Requires Accountability. United States of America. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs. Background note: Syria. Wright-2008 Wright, Robin. 2008. Dreams and Shadows : the Future of the Middle East. Penguin. Further reading Kathrin Nina Wiedl: The Hama Massacre – reasons, supporters of the rebellion, consequences. München 2007, 978-3-638-71034-3. The Economist-2000 The Economist (16 November 2000) Is Syria really changing?, London: 'Syria’s Islamist movement has recently shown signs of coming back to life, nearly 20 years after 30,000 people were brutally massacred in Hama in 1982' The Economist Routledge-2002 Routledge (10 January 2000) Summary of the 10 January 2002, Roundtable on Militant Islamic Fundamentalism in the Twenty-First Century, Volume 24, Number 3 / 1 June 2002: Pages:187 – 205 Donnelly-1988 Jack Donnelly (1988) Human Rights at the United Nations 1955–85: The Question of Bias, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Sep. 1988), pp. 275–303 More Detailed Account of the actual Hama Massacre and Killings Fisk-2007 Fisk, Robert. 1997 January 19. A Land in the Shadow of Death. The Independent (UK) (paragraph recollecting insurgency and reaction). 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