'This will be the work of years': The medics identifying remains from Syria's mass graves

"These," says Dr Anas al-Hourani, "are from a mixed wide grave."

The caput of the newly-opened Syrian Identification Centre is lasting adjacent to 2 tables, covered successful femurs. There are 32 of the quality thigh bones connected each laminated achromatic tablecloth. They person been neatly aligned and numbered.

Sorting is the archetypal task for this caller nexus successful the agelong concatenation from transgression to justness successful Syria. A "mixed wide grave" means that corpses were thrown 1 connected apical of another.

The chances are, these bones beryllium to immoderate of the hundreds of thousands believed to person been killed by the regimes of the ousted president Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez, who unneurotic ruled Syria for much than 5 decades.

If so, says Dr al-Hourani, they were among the much caller victims: they died nary much than a twelvemonth ago.

Dr al-Hourani is simply a forensic odontologist: teeth tin archer you truthful overmuch much astir a body, helium says, astatine slightest erstwhile it comes to identifying who the idiosyncratic was.

But with a femur the laboratory workers successful the basement of this squat grey bureau gathering successful Damascus tin statesman the task: they tin larn the height, the sex, the age, what benignant of occupation they had; they mightiness besides beryllium capable to spot whether the unfortunate was tortured.

The golden modular successful recognition is of people DNA analysis. But, helium says, determination is conscionable 1 DNA investigating centre successful Syria. Many were destroyed during the country's civilian war. And "because of sanctions, a batch of the precursor chemicals that we request for the tests are presently not available".

They've besides been informed that "parts of the instruments could beryllium utilized for aviation and truthful for subject purposes". In different words, they could beryllium deemed "dual use", and truthful proscribed by galore Western countries from export to Syria.

Add to that, the cost: $250 (£187) for a azygous test. And, says Dr al-Hourani, "in a mixed wide grave, you person to bash astir 20 tests to stitchery each the parts of 1 body". The laboratory relies wholly connected backing from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The caller authorities of Islamist rebels-turned-rulers says that what they telephone "transitional justice" is 1 of their priorities.

Many Syrians who person mislaid relatives, and mislaid each hint of them, person told the BBC that they stay unimpressed and frustrated: they privation to spot much effort from the radical who yet chased Bashar al-Assad from power past December aft 13 years of war.

During those agelong years of conflict, hundreds of thousands were killed, and millions displaced. And, by 1 estimate, much than 130,000 radical were forcibly disappeared.

At the existent rate, it tin instrumentality months to place conscionable 1 unfortunate from a mixed wide grave. "This," says Dr al-Hourani, "will beryllium the enactment of many, galore years."

Eleven of those "mixed wide graves" are slung astir a beautiful, barren hilltop extracurricular Damascus. The BBC are the archetypal planetary media to spot this site. The graves are rather disposable now. In the years since they were dug, their aboveground has sunk into the dry, stony earth.

Accompanying america is Hussein Alawi al-Manfi, oregon Abu Ali, arsenic helium besides calls himself. He was a operator successful the Syrian military. "My cargo," says Abu Ali, "was quality bodies."

This compact antheral with a brackish and capsicum beard was tracked down acknowledgment to the tireless investigative enactment of Mouaz Mustafa, the Syrian-American enforcement manager of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a US-based advocacy group. He had persuaded Abu Ali to articulation us, to carnivore witnesser to what Mouaz calls "the worst crimes of the 21st Century".

Abu Ali transported lorry loads of corpses to aggregate sites for much than 10 years. At this location, helium came, connected average, doubly a week for astir 2 years astatine the commencement of the demonstrations and past the war, betwixt 2011 and 2013.

The regular was ever the same. He'd caput to a subject oregon information installation. "I had a 16m (52ft) trailer. It wasn't ever filled to the brim. But I'd have, I guess, an mean of 150 to 200 bodies successful each load."

Of his cargo, helium says helium is convinced they were civilians. Their bodies were "mangled and tortured". The lone recognition helium could spot were numbers written connected the cadaver oregon stuck to the thorax oregon forehead. The numbers identified wherever they had died.

There were a lot, helium said, from "215" - a notorious subject quality detention centre successful Damascus known arsenic "Branch 215". It is simply a spot we volition re-visit successful this story.

Abu Ali's trailer did not person a hydraulic assistance to extremity and dump his load. When helium backed up to a trench, soldiers would propulsion the bodies into the spread 1 aft another. Then a front-loader tractor would "flatten them out, compress them in, capable successful the grave."

Three men with weathered faces from a neighbouring colony person arrived. They corroborate the communicative of the regular visits by subject lorries to this distant spot.

And arsenic for the antheral down the wheel: however could helium bash this for week aft week, twelvemonth aft year? What was helium telling himself each clip helium climbed into his cab?

Abu Ali says helium learned to beryllium a mute servant of the state. "You can't accidental thing bully oregon bad."

As the soldiers dumped the corpses into the freshly excavated pits, "I would conscionable locomotion distant and look astatine the stars. Or look down towards Damascus."

Damascus is wherever Malak Aoude has precocious returned, aft years arsenic a exile successful Turkey. Syria whitethorn person been freed of the chokehold of the Assads' dynastic dictatorship. Malak is inactive serving a beingness sentence.

For the past 13 years, she has been locked into a regular daily of symptom and longing. It was 2012, a twelvemonth aft immoderate of the radical of Syria had dared to rise a protestation against their president, that her 2 boys were disappeared.

Mohammed was inactive a teen erstwhile helium was conscripted into Assad's army, arsenic the demonstrations dispersed and the regime's deadly crackdown sparked a full-blown war.

He hated what helium was seeing, his parent says. Mohammed started absconding, and adjacent went connected the demos himself. But helium was tracked down.

"They broke his arms and bushed his back," says his mother. "He spent 3 days unconscious successful hospital."

Mohammed went AWOL again. "I reported him missing," says Malak. "But I was hiding him."

In May 2012, 19-year-old's Mohammed luck ran out. He was caught on with a radical of friends. They were shot. Malak says determination was nary ceremonial notification. But she has ever assumed helium was killed.

Six months later, Mohammed's younger member Maher was dragged from schoolhouse by officers. It was Maher's 2nd arrest. He'd gone to the protests successful 2011, aged 14. That had led to his archetypal arrest. When helium was fto retired of detention, a period later, helium was successful his underwear, covered, says his mother, successful cigaret burns, wounds and lice. "He was terrified."

Malak thinks Maher was disappeared from schoolhouse successful 2012 due to the fact that the authorities had recovered that she had been hiding his older brother. Now, for the archetypal clip successful 13 years, Malak returns to that school, hopeless to get immoderate hint astir what happened to Maher.

The caller headteacher produces a mates of battered reddish ledgers. Malak traces the rows of names with her finger, and past finds her son's name. December 2012, the grounds flatly states: Maher has been excluded from schoolhouse due to the fact that helium has failed to crook up for lessons for 2 weeks.

There is nary mentation that it is the authorities which has disappeared him. There is thing else, though: a folder with Maher's schoolhouse records has been found. Its screen is adorned with a photograph of a omniscient Bashar al-Assad, gazing thoughtfully into the distance. Malak picks up a pen from the headteacher's table and scribbles implicit the photo. Six months ago, that motion could person been lethal.

For years, the lone scraps Malak had to cling to were 2 men who accidental they saw Maher successful "Branch 215" - that aforesaid subject detention centre which produced truthful galore corpses for Abu Ali to transport.

One of the witnesses told Malak that her lad had told him thing astir his parents that, his parent says, lone helium could person known. It was decidedly him. "He asked this antheral to archer maine helium was doing fine." Malak heaves and leaks tears, stuffs a tattered insubstantial into the corners of her eyes.

For Malak, similar truthful galore Syrians, the autumn of Assad was not conscionable a time of joy, but of hope. "I thought determination was a 90% accidental Maher would locomotion retired of prison. I was waiting for him."

But she has not adjacent been capable to find her son's sanction connected the situation lists. And truthful the throb of symptom continues to people done her. "I consciousness mislaid and confused," she says.

Her ain younger brother, Mahmoud, had been killed by a vessel firing connected civilians successful 2013.

"At slightest helium had a funeral."