Fearful families desperate to learn fate of tens of thousands missing during conflict
Late one night in 2015, a friend of Yasmen Almashan tagged a photo to her Facebook account. The notification ended a tormented wait for a sign from her brother, detained three years earlier by Syrian troops.
The photo of Okba, Almashan’s older brother, was among thousands of graphic images of the emaciated and bloodied corpses of detainees in the prisons of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The photos were smuggled out by a sympathetic forensic photographer codenamed Caesar.
The photo brought some relief, Almashan said. Okba’s bruised eyes, stubble, and relatively unchanged weight indicated he died soon after his detention, so the torture didn’t last long.
It also meant the wait for his return was over. “The wait was full of hope, anticipation, and it kept us in our place, costing us more brothers. We lost everything in the wait.”
While waiting, Almashan lost another brother, Bashar, who disappeared the day Islamic State militants overran her hometown of Deir elZour in southeastern Syria nearly seven years ago. She is still waiting for any sign of life — or death — from him. She lost three other brothers who were shot and killed in antigovernment protests; leaving her with only one surviving brother.
Almashan’s ordeal is that of tens of thousands of Syrians with family members detained or missing during the protracted 10-year brutal conflict.
On Thursday, survivors of Syrian prisons and families of those still detained or missing launched their first collective appeal for justice. Their message: stop torture in detention facilities immediately and reveal the fate of tens of thousands missing. Only then can a path to end the Syrian conflict be found, the drafters of the charter of Truth and Justice said.
The charter aims to ensure the issue of detainees and missing is not lost in negotiations over a final resolution to the war. So far, efforts to get the issue onto the agenda of UN-led talks have led nowhere. The negotiations, focused on drafting a constitution and preparing for elections, have made little progress.
Jenifer Fenton, spokeswoman for the UN envoy for Syria, Geir Pederson, said the envoy would continue to push for meaningful progress on all aspects of the issue at the Security Council and through contacts with the Syrian government and other parties. That included large-scale and unilateral releases of detainees, and clarification of the fate and whereabouts of missing persons, she said.
“Action is urgent, first and foremost on purely humanitarian
grounds, but also because it would constitute an important confidence-building measure,” Fenton said.
Conservative estimates put the number of those detained or forcibly disappeared in Syria at 149,000, more than 85 per cent at the hands of the Syrian government, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights. Most disappeared or were detained soon after peaceful protests erupted in March 2011 against Assad’s government, which responded with a brutal crackdown. Activists say the effects go beyond those detained or disappeared. Relatives are stuck in time, forced to pay bribes to find their loved ones’ fate or search through a network of prisons and detention facilities where torture is rampant. Rights groups say thousands died from torture in confinement.
The Syrian government denies it holds political prisoners, labelling its opposition terrorists. After battlefield wins, it has negotiated limited prisoner exchanges with various armed groups, which families say offer partial solutions to a very small group.
In recent years, Damascus began updating civil registries and sending death notices with no causes of death to families. Many rights groups saw the move as an attempt to close the file amid international pressure without any accountability or closure for the families.
Ahmad Helmi, a former detainee and co-founder of Taafi, Arabic for “Recovery,” an association offering help to those who survived Syrian prisons, said the charter outlined justice as those affected saw it, in the short term and the relong term.
The priority was to ensure the immediate release of prisoners, end torture, return remains of those killed in confinement and stop unlawful field trials, he said. Then it laid out a vision for securing accountability, repatriation, truth and reform of security forces.
“This is the justice that we want,” he told an online panel launching the charter, put together by five family and survivor associations.
The panel was attended by European and UN diplomats, survivors and relatives of the missing.
The charter is purely humanitarian and stays clear of political affiliations or motives, the drafters say.
“The issue pains all Syrians,” said Fadwa Mahmoud, whose husband and son are detained in government prisons.
“We will be the voice of all mothers and sisters who can’t speak” because they are in government-controlled areas.
For Almashan, revealing the fate of detainees would send a message to many families who fled Syria that it was safe to return.
“How can you resolve the issue of refugees if there is no safety in Syria and anyone can be detained?” said Almashan, herself a refugee in Germany with her five children, husband and only surviving brother and his family. “The prisons are still crammed.”
Long-term justice ensures an end to a culture of impunity and will prevent revenge killings and continued instability even as the war winds down, the drafters say.
“It is a long struggle,” said Almashan.
Tammy Abraham put Chelsea into the FA Cup quarter-finals by scoring the second-half winner in a 1-0 victory over second-tier club Barnsley, who missed several chances to stage an upset.
Abraham tapped in from close range in the 64th minute after a low cross from Reece James, to set up a quarter-final against Sheffield United.
Southampton also advanced after a 2-0 victory at Wolverhampton Wanderers, with Danny Ings and Stuart Armstrong netting a goal each.
Chelsea remain undefeated in five games under Thomas Tuchel but were made to work hard for the win against a team 13th in the second-tier Championship.
Callum Brittain missed two chances to give Barnsley the lead in the first half. The midfielder’s closerange effort from Alex Mowatt’s cross in the 10th minute forced a superb reaction save from Kepa Arrizabalaga. Then his shot following a clever corner routine just before halftime was deflected off target.
In between, Chelsea were denied a penalty by referee Martin Atkinson.
Abraham galloped on to Billy
Gilmour’s through ball and Barnsley defender Toby Sibbick caught the Chelsea striker’s foot as he slid in for a goal-saving challenge.
Chelsea had not managed an effort on target by the hour mark but took the lead when James ran down the right flank and squared for Abraham to sidefoot into an empty net. Replays showed Abraham may have been offside when James played the ball across, but VAR is used only in FA Cup ties at Premier League stadiums. Abraham then rescued Chelsea at the other end, bailing out Arrizabalaga.
The Blues goalkeeper failed to get anywhere near a free kick into the area but Abraham was on hand to head Barnsley substitute Michael Sollbauer’s hooked effort off the goalline from under the crossbar.
The draw for the quarter-finals handed Premier League leaders Manchester City an away game at Everton, who beat Tottenham 5-4 after extra time on Thursday.
In another intriguing match-up, Manchester United were handed a trip to Leicester. The two teams are second and third in the Premier League and drew 2-2 when they last met on Boxing Day.
Southampton will travel to
Championship side Bournemouth after their victory over Wolves.
Ings ended a five-game goal drought by giving Southampton the lead in the 49th minute and Armstrong sealed the result in stoppage time after a mistake by keeper John Ruddy.
The quarter-finals are scheduled to take place the weekend of March 20-21.
History beckons for the Wellington Blaze in the Super Smash today, as they embark on a quest for a recordbreaking fourth consecutive domestic Twenty20 cricket title.
The Blaze take on the Canterbury Magicians at Wellington’s Basin Reserve, having ventured along the elimination final route on their way to the decider, defeating the Auckland Hearts by 35 runs on Thursday.
Now a chance emerges to cement their status as the greatest women’s T20 side in New Zealand domestic history. But despite the possibility of unmatched triumph, the Blaze are maintaining a simple outlook for this afternoon’s contest.
“We just need to worry about winning the game; it’s not about trying to go a four-peat . . . I think we sort of take things game by game and the team’s been incredibly successful the last few seasons,” captain Maddy Green said.
Through their last three successful campaigns, the Blaze have learnt how to win these big games, she said.
“We’ve got a lot of experience in our side and a lot of world class players like Sophie Devine and Amelia Kerr.
“I think T20 cricket, when you know how to win, that really helps. Over the last three or four years, our attack’s been really dominant.”
It is a quality one of her opposites notices as well.
“Over the last three or four years, they’ve really set the benchmark and they’ve given us a few hidings as well . . . we’re hoping we can pick up another one [win],” said Magicians skipper Frankie Mackay.
The Wellington Firebirds finishing
top in the men’s competition means the capital hosts both deciders, handing the Blaze home advantage. But Mackay doesn’t quite see it that way.
“We’re pretty used to playing each other at home and away venues, you see a lot of the same people — it’s a reasonably small world, the women’s cricket world, it’s not too disconcerting, and we also did beat them here [at the Basin Reserve] last time we played them.”
The Blaze were the pacesetters early in the competition before losing two of their final three matches. Their net run rate of 2.20, compared with 0.78 for the Magicians, offers insight into what they can produce on both sides of the ball.
Devine, Kerr and Green rank in the
top nine run-scorers, while Devine has the best strike rate with 177.5. But Mackay sees the bowling unit as the Blaze’s biggest weapon.
“They’re exceptionally consistent. They bowl a lot of sides out, put a lot of teams under pressure, and not a lot of teams score up around that 140-150 mark against them.”
The Blaze and Magicians split their regular-season series, the most recent match a win for the latter by nine wickets.
The match starts at 12.10pm, while the men’s final featuring the Firebirds and Kings — also both from Wellington and Canterbury — gets under way at 4.10pm.
Like the women, the Wellington men are looking to retain the title, having won the 2020 competition.