President of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), Salem Al-Meslet, sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, President of the UN General Assembly, Abdullah Al-Shahid, and President of the UN Security Council Linda Thomas Greenfield, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, regarding the phony amnesty that the Assad regime has recently issued for detainees.
Al-Meslet said that this so-called amnesty is a mere publicity gimmick that aims to cover up the Tadamon Massacre which has recently been revealed by the Guardian newspaper.
“The UN Commission of Inquiry has shed light on the large scale, systematic and industrial arbitrary detention enforced disappearance committed by the Syrian regime. The number of detainees released under this so-called amnesty did not exceed 500 people, according to Syrian Network for Human Rights,” Al-Meslet said.
He stressed that “the detainees in the Assad regime’s prisons are subjected to the most severe methods of physical and psychological torture. Amnesty International previously described Sednaya Prison as a “human slaughterhouse” and that it is “the worst place on earth” where mass executions and systematic extermination of detainees are taking place.”
Moreover, Al-Meslet said that “heart-wrenching scenes came from Damascus of thousands of Syrian families desperately asking the released detainees about some clues as to the whereabouts of their loved ones and to know whether they are alive or dead.”
“This sheer number of crimes that the Syrian regime is committing against the Syrian people, and against the detainees in particular, render all the countries that support this regime or try to restore relations with it partners in the crimes against the Syrian people.”
Al-Meslet called on the United Nations to take swift action and work seriously to ensure the release of detainees in the Syrian regime’s prisons, the disclosure of their fate, and an end to the ongoing carnage in Syria. He also called for serving justice by holding the Syrian regime accountable for the war crimes and crimes against humanity that it has been committing over the past several years.
He stressed the need to hold the Syrian regime accountable for its many crimes, including those in which it used chemical weapons, and to suspend its membership in all international organizations because it is not a legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
Al-Meslet also called on the international community to support establishing practical mechanisms for the full implementation of UN Resolution 2254, especially the formation of a Transitional Governing Body (TGB), which is the core of a political transition in Syria.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
