The 1981 Hama massacre was an incident in which over 300 residents of

Hama , timezone = EET , utc_offset = +2 , timezone_DST = EEST , utc_offset_DST = +3 , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , ar ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, were killed by government security forces.

Background

From 1976 to 1982, Islamists, including the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...

, fought the

Ba'ath Party The Arab Socialist Baʿath Party ( ar, حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي ' ) was a political party founded in Syria by Mishel ʿAflaq, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Bītār, and associates of Zaki al-ʾArsūzī. The party espoused B ...

-controlled government of Syria in what has been called a "long campaign of terror".Seale, Patrick. 1989.
Asad, the Struggle for the Middle East
'. University of California Press,p.335. In July 1980, the ratification of Law No. 49 made membership in the Muslim Brotherhood a

capital offense Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. Human Rights Watch 1996

Middle East Watch Helsinki Watch was a private American non-governmental organization established by Robert L. Bernstein in 1978, designed to monitor the former Soviet Union's compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Accords. Expanding in size and scope, Helsinki Watch be ...

(part of

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

) called the period between 1976 and 1982 "The Great Repression."Middle East Watch. ''Syria Unmasked: The Suppression of Human Rights by the Assad Regime''. New Haven: Yale UP, 1991, p.8. According to Middle East Watch,

The massacre

The 1981 Hama massacre occurred after a failed attack around 21–22 April 1981 by armed Islamist guerrillas (reports identify a security checkpoint or a spring festival) near an

Alawite The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Isl ...

village near

Hama , timezone = EET , utc_offset = +2 , timezone_DST = EEST , utc_offset_DST = +3 , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , ar ...

.Middle East Watch. ''Syria Unmasked: The Suppression of Human Rights by the Assad Regime''. New Haven: Yale UP, 1991, pp. 17-18.James A. Paul
Human Rights in Syria
' Human Rights Watch, 1990, p.20-21 As a revenge action, government units deployed into Hama and launched house-to-house searches, sealing off neighborhoods as street fighting erupted. A curfew was imposed and Syrian Army troops entered the city. Between Thursday 23 April 1981 and Sunday 26 April 1981, security forces killed scores to hundreds of residents - between 150 and "several hundred", according to ''The Washington Post'', or at least 350, plus 600 injured, according to authors

Olivier Carré Olivier Carré (born 16 March 1961) is a French independent politician who has been serving as the mayor of the city of Orléans since 2015. Political career Carré was member of the National Assembly of France from 2007 to 2017, representing ...

and

Gérard Michaud Gérard (French: ) is a French masculine given name and surname of Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constitue ...

chosen randomly among the male population over the age of 14.Carré, Olivier and Gérard Michaud. ''Les Frères musulmans: Egypte et Syrie (1928–1982)''. Paris: Gallimard, 1983: p. 148-151. The killings were carried out by the government's "Protection Brigades" (a palace guard commanded by the president's brother

Rifaat al-Assad Rifaat Ali al-Assad ( ar, رِفْعَتُ عَلِيِّ ٱلْأَسَدِ, Rifʿat al-ʾAsad; born 22 August 1937) is the younger brother of the late President of Syria, Hafez Assad, and Jamil al-Assad, and the uncle of the incumbent President ...

, and Syrian Special Forces commanded by General Ali Haidar, an Alawite and Assad aide, according to the ''Post'', while

identified Syrian Special Forces and the

Syrian Arab Army The Syrian Army, officially the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) ( ar, الْجَيْشُ الْعَرَبيُّ السُّورِيُّ, al-Jayš al-ʿArabī as-Sūrī), is the army, land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It is the dominant military ...

's 47th Brigade. ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' described the incident as "believed to have been the bloodiest retribution so far in President Hafez Assad's two-year crackdown on opponents to his rule".Syrian Troops Massacre Scores Of Assad's Foes
''Washington Post'' June 25, 1981

Aftermath

References

Conflicts in 1981 Massacres in 1981 1981 in Syria History of Hama Massacres in Syria Massacres of men Political repression in Syria Islamist uprising in Syria Violence against men in Asia Massacres committed by Syria {{massacre-stub

Background

The massacre

Aftermath

See also

Further reading

References