The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that nearly 3,000 people are still being detained or forcibly disappeared by the PYD militia, adding that this militia is clamping down on civil society organizations.
In a report issued on Tuesday, the Network said the PYD militia is using repression, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and abduction with the aim of forced recruitment. The militant group is committing widespread violations of human rights in the areas under their control under the pretext of fighting terrorism.
The monitoring group pointed out that the tactics being used by the PYD militia are very similar to the ones being used by the Assad regime, which accuses anyone who opposes its policy and demands a regime change of being a terrorist that must be arrested, his voice silenced, and made a lesson to the rest of society.
The Network said that the PYD militia detained at least 2,907 people, including 631 children and 172 women in the period between July 2012 and September 2019. Of those, at least 1,877 people, including 52 children and 78 women, have been forcibly disappeared.
The PYD militia has detained six local humanitarian workers in the province of Raqqa since the beginning of August, including the journalist Salah al-Din al-Abed al-Katea, Anas al-Abbo, Eyas al-Abbo, and Khaled al-Salama, the SNHR added.
The report stressed that the PYD militia violated the international human rights law through the crime of enforced disappearance and blatantly violated many principles for the protection of persons subjected to detention and imprisonment. (Source: Syrian National Coalition’s Media Department)
