After more than two months since the Assad regime and its allied militias stormed the eastern districts of the city of Aleppo, leading to the displacement of a large portion of the besieged civilians who were subjected to heavy bombardment and sectarian violence, no new information has emerged about the issue of those who were forcibly detained.
The detainees who were residents of the districts under opposition control and fled toward regime areas were arrested arbitrarily at military checkpoints between the opposition areas in the east and regime areas in western Aleppo.
After this displacement, a number of international reports have been issued confirming the arbitrary arrests which the displaced people were subjected to.
The head of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, Fadel Abdel Ghani, said that regime forces abducted displaced people fleeing from eastern Aleppo to the western part of the city and "forcibly disappeared them" without issuing any arrest warrants. “We do not know anything about their fate," he said.
Abdel Ghani told Sada al-Sham that the network had issued a report at the start of the displacement to western Aleppo about the fate of the civilians who were displaced to regime areas, as well as those who live in the areas of eastern Aleppo under regime control. "We confirmed the occurrence of cases of arbitrary arrests in addition to summary executions of civilians," he said.
Abdel Ghani said the United Nations should demand that the regime reveal the fates of those who were forcibly arrested and disappeared, clarify the reason for their arrest and disclose the number of those who were released. “The United Nations has fallen far short in this matter,” he added.
In the period extending from when the opposition forces took control over the eastern districts in Aleppo city in the summer of 2012 up to the date of the regime conquest, no displacement occurred, even before the siege of the city, meaning that what occurred was under military pressure from the regime and loyalist militias.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
