Feras Kilani
BBC Arabic special correspondent, in Damascus
Beneath
the streets of Damascus I’ve gained access to one of the key sites of the
former Syrian regime’s sprawling network of intelligence agencies which for
decades attempted to brutally crush opposition movements.
In
the basement of the state security headquarters, in the Kafr Sousa district of
the city, is row after row of tiny cells – each just two metres by one metre and
protected by thick steel doors.
Inside, dark stains mark the filthy walls. Detainees could be held in these cells for
months while being interrogated and tortured.
They
are just below street-level, on a busy road where every day thousands of
ordinary Syrians passed by, going about their daily lives just a few metres
from where their compatriots were being detained and tortured.
A
short distance away is the General Intelligence Directorate, another part of
Syria’s former network of spy agencies.
Here there are a huge numbers of records – evidence of how the Assad regime used to monitor
its citizens.
There
is row after row of paper files in cabinets and, in some rooms, piles of
notebooks stacked from floor to ceiling.
Nearby
is a computer server room. The floors and walls are a pristine white and black data storage units hum quietly.
The
electricity has been cut to much of Damascus but it seems that this facility is
so important it has its own power supply.
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