The National Commission on Detainees and Missing Persons said that the Assad regime is seeking to conceal the real number of detainees who are being killed in its prisons by ordering civil registries to register their deaths. It stressed that this amounted to striking evidence of the Assad regime’s responsibility for their enforced disappearance, calling for holding senior regime officials to account for crimes against humanity.
The Commission renewed calls on the UN Security Council to address the tragic situation in the prisons and detention centers of the Assad regime with some sense of human responsibility and to take a bold decision to refer the war crimes in Syria to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
Reports by rights groups have recently indicated that “the Assad regime manipulates the civil registry by ordering civil registry officials to register the death of detainees, which amounts to striking evidence of the Assad regime’s responsibility for their enforced disappearance.”
“Rights groups’ reports highlighted the brutal methods of torture the Assad regime uses against detainees, including mutilation, beatings with metal rods, burning them with cigarettes, and other methods that lead to death during or because of torture,” the Commission said. “The Assad regime has also been involved in extrajudicial executions and physical liquidation of detainees.”
“Moreover, reports by independent rights groups presented compelling evidence about the responsibility of senior regime officials for these crimes and violations. The reports stressed that those officials must be held accountable, especially as international human rights law stressed that authorities are responsible for the safety of detainees and says they must prove if the death was natural through serious medical examination and impartial investigations.”
“It is imperative that the international community, civil and human rights organizations and activists who advocates freedom and human dignity around the world to work seriously to save the lives of tens of thousands of young men, women, men, old men and children. The issue of detainees needs to be addressed in accordance with the basic human rights that everyone on earth must uphold.”
The National Commission on Detainees and Missing Persons was formed by a decision of the Syrian Coalition. It works independently and in coordination with human rights organizations and international organizations to ensure the release of detainees and putting an end to torture and physical liquidation. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
