Families of missing Syrians urge UN to create institution for the ‘disappeared’

Issued on: 15/06/2023 – 19:23

More than 100,000 Syrians are estimated to have gone missing during the war, which is now in its 13th year. Families from all parts of the Syrian Arab Republic are struggling to uncover the fates and whereabouts of their missing loved ones. Many of the missing were arbitrarily detained or “disappeared” by the government, others were kidnapped by the Islamic State (IS) group or other militants.

A military defector code-named “Caesar” in 2013 smuggled thousands of photographs out of Syria – many of them showing the bodies of Syrian detainees who had died in government detention. 

Yasmen Almashan, a founding member of the Caesar Families Association, lost five brothers during the war – four were killed by the regime of Bashar al-Assad (two were forcibly disappeared, one was identified from among Caesar’s photos) and one was kidnapped by the IS group.

Standing outside the UN secretariat building in New York on Tuesday, surrounded by photos of the disappeared, Almashan described the mental anguish of losing a loved one and not knowing what happened to them. 

“Time moves but you are still in the same place, without any action … you don’t know any information – you don’t know if he died or not, if he needs your help. It’s really very hard to explain if you never lost anyone.”

Khalil al-Haj Saleh, a translator and activist, held up a photo of his brother Firas, who was kidnapped by the IS group in July 2013, and a photo of his brother’s wife, who was abducted in Gouta by Jaysh al-Islam – an anti-regime Islamist militant coalition – that same year. In 2019, Khalil co-founded the Coalition of Families of Persons Kidnapped by ISIS-Daesh, using an Arabic term for the militant group.   

He explained how the creation of the institution could help the families of the disappeared.

“We need a team of scientists to help us find and identify the bodies – a forensics team.”

Resolution circulated

A group of member states – Albania, Belgium, Cabo Verde, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Luxembourg and North Macedonia – have circulated a draft General Assembly resolution that would create an international body to help the families of missing Syrians discover what happened to their loved ones.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres backs the move. “The Syrian people deserve a measure of hope for the future,” he told the General Assembly in March. “They deserve peace and security, and they deserve to know the truth about the fate of their loved ones. Justice demands it – peace and reconciliation depend on it.’’

While the European Union and several other Western powers, including the US and Canada, have voiced strong support for an international body for Syria’s disappeared, other countries including Russia argue the plan is politicised. One Russian delegate described it as “another pointless mechanism of a political nature”.

Fadwa Mahmoud, co-founder of Families for Freedom, looked defiantly across First Avenue at the General Assembly building while holding a photo of her son, Maher Tahan, and her husband, Abdulaziz Al Khair, who have been missing since 2012.

She said Damascus just ignores the reports of the tens of thousands whose whereabouts are unknown. “The Syrian authorities say there are no detainees or disappeared people. They deny everything – so of course they don’t agree to the establishment of an institution for the disappeared.”

The vote in the General Assembly will represent the culmination of years of work by grassroots Syrian family organisations. The independent institution would uphold the right of families to learn the fates of their missing relatives – a right that is enshrined in international law.

More than 300,000 people have been killed, according to UN estimates, since the Syrian conflict began in 2011 after Assad launched a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests.