UN to establish mechanism to look for over 100.000 missing Syrians
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The United Nations (UN) is to establish an international mechanism to look for over 100.000 Syrians who have gone missing during Syrian civil war, DW said on Tuesday.
The DW added, citing the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General, that a new “independent mechanism” should be followed to help in the search of the missing Syrians.
Anne Massagee, the deputy representative for Syria for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the organization would deal with all conflicting parties in Syria, including government.
During August, 139 enforced disappearances were carried out by various groups, most of them came after arbitrary arrests by government forces, DW cited the Syrian Network for Human Rights as saying.
Syrian activists welcomed the UN’s recommendation, considering it “a significant breakthrough after years of silence and inaction,” according to the DW.
There are so many people who have been disappeared in prisons run by the government, according to DW, citing Jeremy Sarkin, a professor at Nova University in Lisbon, Portugal, as saying.
“There should be more focus on the people who are likely still alive, probably in terrible conditions, possibly being tortured,” Sarkin added.
He added that if they get such information, they will send a signal to the Syrian government, saying, “We know you have them — and we demand that the state protects them and the ICRC gets access.”
On May 6, the US al-Hurra agency quoted a State Department official as saying that the “Syrian regime” is still responsible and accountable for the death and suffering of countless Syrians, the displacement of more than half of the population before the war, and the arbitrary arrest and enforced disappearance of more than 130,000 people, including men, women and children.
Hundreds of detainees have been released so far, most notably from Saydnaya and Adra prisons, but the majority was arrested over criminal cases and charges and has nothing to do with the protests called for toppling the Syrian regime that began in March 2011, according to the reports.