Thousands of Syrian Migrants Vanish Without A Trace


When people are captured. their loved ones are often contacted with offers of information… in exchange for lots of cash.

The information they are rewarded with is many times paltry and unsatisfying. The “vendors” of such information act more like gangsters and raiders who seem to be either protected or ignored by the Syrian authorities.

Vanished

Khartabil is one of tens of thousands of Syrian victims of enforced disappearance. This term describes the arrest, detention, or abduction by a state or agents acting for the state, who then deny that the person is being held — or conceal their whereabouts — placing the victim outside the protection of international law.

Amnesty International’s November report, Between Prison and the Grave: Enforced Disappearances in Syria, examined information from U.N. agencies and NGOs, monitoring groups, activists, and family members of individuals who had been forcibly disappeared. The report revealed that tens of thousands of Syrians have been arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared by the Syrian authorities — since 2011 — in a widespread campaign of terror and collective punishment against the civilian population.

Cut off from the outside world, they are often packed into overcrowded, secret cells where torture is routine, disease is rampant, and death is commonplace. Many spend months or years in pretrial detention and will often resurface at trials at Anti-Terrorism Courts or Military Field Courts, with no legal representation.

Enforced disappearance does not just affect those who have been vanished, and thousands of relatives throughout Syria await news of loved ones. Human Rights organization Amnesty International claims it has attempted to engage with the Syrian authorities since 2011 on enforced disappearance, but has never received a response.

There are whispers of “war crimes” and violations of international law. However, if these organizations had any teeth, they would have ended things like this long ago. Russia has been aiding the Syrian state so what stops these international bodies from going after Russia for supporting this behavior?

Perhaps we are seeing the limits of weak international agreements. They aren’t agreements if the participants get to flaunt their rules.

Source: TheAntiMedia



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