"Russia and Iran were the main backers of the Assad regime, and they share the responsibility for the crimes committed against the Syrian people," Rutte said.
"They also proved to be unreliable partners, abandoning Assad when he ceased to be of use to them."
The head of the Western military alliance said the end of Assad's rule "is a moment of joy but also uncertainty for the people of Syria and the region."
"We hope for a peaceful transition of power and an inclusive Syrian-led political process," Rutte said.
"We will be closely watching to see how the rebel leaders conduct themselves during this transition. They must uphold the rule of law, protect civilians and respect religious minorities."
The end of Assad's rule followed a 13-year-old civil war sparked by a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
The war killed more than 500,000 people and forced half the pre-war population to flee their homes, many millions of them abroad.
NATO is facing off against Russia and Iran over the the Kremlin's war in Ukraine. The alliance is focused on Europe and North America and has only a very limited role in the Middle East.
Syria rebels say found dozens of tortured bodies in hospital near Damascus
Beirut, Lebanon (AFP) Dec 9, 2024 -
Rebel fighters told AFP they found around 40 bodies bearing signs of torture inside a hospital morgue near Damascus on Monday, stuffed into body bags with numbers and sometimes names written on them.
"I opened the door of the morgue with my own hands, it was a horrific sight: about 40 bodies were piled up showing signs of gruesome torture," Mohammed al-Hajj, a fighter with rebel factions from the country's south told AFP by telephone from Damascus.
AFP saw dozens of photographs and video footage that Hajj said he took himself and showed corpses with evident signs of torture: eyes and teeth gouged out, blood splattered and bruising.
The footage taken in Harasta hospital also showed a piece of cloth containing bones, while a decomposing body's rib cage peaked through the skin.
The bodies were placed in white plastic bags or wrapped in white cloth, some stained with blood.
Corpses had pieces of cloth or adhesive tape bearing scribbled numbers and sometimes names.
Some seemed to have been killed recently.
While some of the dead were wearing clothes, others were naked.
Islamist-led rebels seized power on Sunday ousting former President Bashar al-Assad, whose family ruled Syria with an iron fist for more than five decades.
At the core of the system of rule that Assad inherited from his father Hafez was a brutal complex of prisons and detention centres used to eliminate dissent by jailing those suspected of stepping out of the ruling Baath party's line.
Thousands of people hoping to reunite with loved ones who disappeared in Assad's jails had gathered Monday evening at the notorious Saydnaya prison outside Damascus, AFP correspondents said.
Hajj said the fighters received a tip from a hospital worker about the bodies that were being dumped there.
"We informed the military command of what we found and coordinated with the Syrian Red Crescent, which transported the bodies to a Damascus hospital, so that families can come and identify them," he added.
Diab Serriya, who cofounded the Association of Detainees and the Missing in Sednaya Prison (ADMSP) watchdog, told AFP the bodies were likely detainees from Saydnaya prison.
"Harasta Hospital served as the main centre for collecting the bodies of detainees," he said.
"Bodies would be sent there from Saydnaya prison or Tishrin Hospital, and from Harasta, they would be transferred to mass graves," he added.
"It is very important to document what we are seeing in the video."
According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, at least 60,000 people have been killed under torture or because of terrible conditions in Assad's detention centres.
Since the start of the conflict, President Bashar al-Assad's government has been accused of human rights abuses and of cases of torture, rape and summary executions.
Hajj said he hoped that efforts will focus on "exposing the crimes committed by Assad in prisons and detention centres" during the transitional period.
"We hope Assad will be held to account as a war criminal," he said.
Autocratic leaders who fled
Paris (AFP) Dec 9, 2024 -
Ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is not the first autocratic leader to have been forced to flee his country.
Here are some emblematic cases over the past decades.
- Bangladesh: Sheikh Hasina -
On August 5, 2024, Bangladesh's autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina was overthrown in a student-led revolution.
Hasina's iron-fisted rule was strongly backed by India, where she took refuge after her ouster.
- Tunisia: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali -
After weeks of protests sparked in December 2010 by a young Tunisian fruit seller setting himself on fire to protest police harassment and dying days later, Ben Ali fled on January 14, 2011 for Saudi Arabia, ending 23 years in power.
Ben Ali died in exile in Saudi Arabia in 2019.
- Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo): Mobutu Sese Seko -
On May 16, 1997, Mobutu Sese Seko went into exile after receiving an ultimatum to step down from rebel leader Laurent-Desire Kabila, whose forces were advancing on the capital.
Mobutu, who had ruled the country for more than three decades since a 1965 coup d'etat, had smothered all opposition and wrecked the economy.
He died shortly afterwards on September 7, 1997 in Morocco, of prostate cancer.
- Haiti: Jean-Claude Duvalier -
Jean-Claude Duvalier, who succeeded his father "Papa Doc" Duvalier in 1971, proclaimed himself president for life, installing a regime of terror. He went into exile in February 1986 following a popular uprising over the human rights abuses committed by his regime.
He lived in France for 25 years, returning to Haiti in 2011 where he died three years later.
- Philippines: Ferdinand Marcos -
Ferdinand Marcos, who imposed martial rule from 1972 to 1981, in 1986 fled to US exile amid a bloodless, military-backed popular uprising that ended his 20 years in power.
He died in exile in 1989.
- Uganda: Idi Amin Dada -
Amin seized power in Uganda in 1971 and brutally suppressed all opposition during his eight-year reign of terror which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 300,000 people, chronicled to powerful effect in the 2006 film "The Last King of Scotland".
Overthrown in a 1979 coup he died in exile in Saudi Arabia, in 2003.
- Iran: The Shah -
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who acceded to the throne in 1941, was accused of authoritarianism and criticised for his modernist reforms. He fled in 1979 after months of protests, living in exile in Morocco, the Bahamas, Mexico, the United States and Panama, dying in Egypt in 1980.
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