VOA News | Friday, December 13, 2024 
As Syria’s prison doors open, tens of thousands remain missing 

United Nations — As Syrians celebrate the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime after more than 50 years of brutal father-son rule, the search continues for tens of thousands of Syrians who are still missing after having been arrested, detained or “disappeared.” Human rights experts are urging the preservation of evidence of the torture and death of political prisoners as the doors of the country’s prisons are finally opened. “We must prioritize accounting for the missing, ensuring that families receive the clarity and recognition they desperately need,” Geir Pedersen, U.N. special envoy for Syria, said in a statement Thursday. “Evidence of atrocities must be preserved and thoroughly documented to ensure accountability under international humanitarian law. Justice for the victims and their families is not only a right, but also essential for healing and for preventing further violations.” The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has been documenting the thousands of arbitrarily detained, forcibly disappeared and persons tortured to death under Assad’s rule since 2011, when a regime crackdown on peaceful anti-government protests grew into a civil war. According to SNHR’s figures, at least 231,000 civilians have been killed in the war, with 202,000 deaths attributed to the regime and the rest to various armed factions. SNHR says those killed by the regime include 23,000 children and 22,000 women as well as 15,000 who were tortured to death. The group has also documented more than 96,000 forcibly disappeared persons and about 40,000 detainees. SNHR director Fadel Abdul Ghany told VOA that his group has been continuously monitoring who has been released from detention since the Assad regime collapsed Sunday…Read more