Unknown present and future haunt more than 210000 Syrian prisoners and abductees on their country’s soil
About 15000 detainees in the prisons of the regime forces have been documented dead, and the inaction of the international and local communities put the fate of the rest in danger
3 Walls and a door, ears were shut of hearing, and the inaction of the international community; are all what is separating the sun and more than 200000 detainees. If their case had been met with half of the interest the case of the “Islamic State” organization have had, the pain would have eased on tens of thousands of them, and the fate of the unseen of them would have been revealed completely, but the politicians, politics, military and militarization and the beneficiaries have kept them away of the deals regarding the Syrian territory and the Syrian future, as if they were sentenced to life in prison no matter how small their guilt or crime. The call of liberty has kept them shackled in the chains of the tyrant ruler and his regime, which has not saved an opportunity or means to put more civilians and citizens in its jails and prisons.
The Syrian Observatory has stressed many times that detainees must be kept away of any deal between local, regional or international political or military parties about the Syrian situation and its future, so that the whip of the executioner, starvation, psychological and physical torture do not claim the lives of more civilians, and not to follow a convoy of 14733 civilian casualties including 119 children under the age of eighteen and 58 woman over the age of eighteen, who have died since the start of the Syrian revolution in mid-March 2011 until the 30th October 2017, out of at least 60000 detainees who were killed inside these branches and Sednaya Prison in more than 6 and half years, either as a result of direct physical torture or deprivation of food and medicine.
And despite the release of hundreds of prisoners and detainees by the authorities of the regime of Bashar al-Assad during varying periods, some of them got out by a “presidential pardon”, some of them have gotten out in prisoner exchange deals between opposition factions and Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, and the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them or in other similar deals, but the regime forces handed over the bodies of some of the detainees to their relatives, while others were informed that their sons had died inside detentions and asked them to issue their death certificate, and the other people who sons died under torture in regime’s jails were forced to sign declarations that opposition rebel groups had killed them, also the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights received information indicating that there were many cases of citizens killed under torture within regime’s jails, in which their parents and relatives didn’t declare their death because they were afraid of prosecution by regime’s security or detention.
In addition to the tens of thousands of detainees in the regime forces prisons and detention centers and the death of thousands of them since the start of the Syrian revolution; there are thousands of missing persons and detainees at the prisons of the rebel and Islamic factions, Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham and the “Islamic State” organization, where the Syrian Observatory has been able to document the presence of more than 5200 abductees of civilians and fighters in the prisons of the “Islamic State” organization, in addition to the presence of more than 4700 prisoners and messing members of the regime forces and militiamen loyal to them, and more than 2000 abductees by the rebel and Islamic factions, and Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham (Nusra Front formerly), and they were accused of being loyal to the regime. The fate of many of them is unknown, in terms of where they are and whether they are alive or not.
We at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights call on the United Nations envoy, Mr. Stefan Demistura, as well as the international parities and regional and international organizations to work diligently and earnestly, so that the file of releasing tens of thousands of detainees and abductees gets the priority of any political meeting, conference or negotiation, and not to be just a talk, but there must be practical steps to begin releasing the detainees, also we in the Syrian Observatory strongly condemn turning the issue of tens of thousands of abductees and detainees to a paper manipulated by different parties, whether these parties were the regime and its allies, or the Syrian opposition parties, where out of responsibility the issue of detainees must be reactivated after being absent by parties who have made other files and interests as their priority, we also urge the international community particularly the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Security Council and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to act immediately by putting pressure on the Syrian regime, in order to release the remaining detainees, who are more than 200000 detainees, and to work on establishing a court to bring the criminals, killers and their masters to court, and to bring justice for those detainees as well.