Accounting for Torture in Syria - "Caesar" Photos at Smith College

As part of a series of events highlighting the recent exhibition of the Caesar Photographs at Smith College, three activists and scholars--Robert Ford, Mouaz Moustafa, and Sarah Leah Whitson--came together to discuss the violations of human rights currently taking place in Syria. Combining their different perspectives on the issues at hand, the three speakers each gave a short presentation about the photos and the ways in which the conflicts surrounding Syria are not appropriately being addressed. In January of 2014, news surfaced of a Syrian defector who had left the government's mukhabarat (security agencies) with tens of thousands of images displaying the bodies of detainees who died in state detention centers. Many have died or have disappeared after being detained by the government since the beginning of the uprising in 2011. Code-named "Caesar", the Syrian defector stated that as an official forensic photographer for the Military Police, it was his personal duty to photograph the bodies of deceased detainees and assist in archiving thousands more similar photographs. Photographed in Syria between May 2011 and August 2013, this striking collection of images was put on display during a two week exhibition at the college. (This panel discussion and exhibition includes graphic content.)