The Syrian Embassy in Qatar, in cooperation with the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), organized a special exhibition in the Qatari capital of Doha to draw attention to the plight of the victims of enforced disappearance in Syria. The event was attended by ambassadors and diplomats as well as representatives of civil and human rights organizations.
The exhibition, which was held under the title “Syrian Detainees; Free People Under the Guillotine," featured 41 photographs of prominent figures of the Syrian revolution as well as paintings illustrating the methods of torture inside the Assad regime's detention facilities.
The Network published a report under the title "An Endless Tunnel” containing information about the number of victims of enforced disappearance in Syria, including an estimated 13,608 people who were forcefully disappeared by the Assad regime.
The Network pointed out that the Assad regime is responsible for 85.9 percent of the cases of arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances in Syria. It said that the victims included many children and women, adding that the Assad regime would not have been able to forcefully disappear more than 100,000 civilians without support from Russia and Iran.
The Assad regime has been manipulating the issue of enforced disappearance as it has already acknowledged the death of 836 people in its prisons without handing over the bodies of the deceased to their families, the monitoring group added.
The Network said that the crime of systematic enforced disappearances continues unabated, noting that as long as the death of these persons is not confirmed they will continue to be classified as victims of enforced disappearance.
The Syrian Coalition called on the international community to launch a serious investigation into the issue of detainees, stressing that it places the issue high on its list of priorities. It stressed the need to take action to save the remaining detainees and to hold the perpetrators of these crimes to account by referring them to the international Criminal Court as these crimes constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
