Amnesty International report shows 65,000 "forced disappearances" by Syrian government since 2011.
Since 2011 the Syrian government has carried out an orchestrated campaign of enforced disappearances. At the beginning of the crisis it arrested and forcibly disappeared large numbers of peaceful opponents of the government, including demonstrators, political activists, human rights defenders, media workers, doctors and humanitarian aid workers. As the conflict evolved, so too did the government’s strategy. It forcibly disappeared those it considered to be disloyal, such as defectors as well as government employees or soldiers who were believed to be considering defection. The government also began forcibly disappearing family members of individuals wanted by the security forces, usually in an effort to dissuade these wanted individuals from continuing their political activism or military activities.
Those who are forcibly disappeared in Syria are subjected to extreme trauma, and in some death. They are placed outside of the protection of the law – flimsy as it is in Syria – and denied access to a lawyer or a fair trial. Detainees are squeezed into overcrowded, filthy cells where disease is rampant and medical treatment unavailable. They are regularly subjected to a catalogue of torture, which may include electric shocks, whipping, suspension, burning, rape and other forms of sexual violence. They are cut off from the outside world, as their family members have no idea where they are or whether they are even still alive. Those who survive enforced disappearance carry the scars of their experience – both psychological and physical – for the rest of their lives.
Amnesty International considers that the enforced disappearances carried out since 2011 by the Syrian government were perpetrated as part of an organized attack against the civilian population that has been widespread, as well as systematic, and therefore amount to crimes against humanity.
Amnesty International’s research indicates that enforced disappearances in Syria are carried out by a range of actors: all four branches of the security forces, namely Military Intelligence, Air Force Intelligence, Political Security and General Intelligence (sometimes referred to as State Security); the armed forces; and militias associated with the Syrian government, including the National Defence Forces and the shabiha. Those subjected to enforced disappearance are held in a network of detention facilities across the country, including detention centres run by the security forces, each of which has a central branch in Damascus as well as regional, city, and local branches; civil prisons; and unofficial detention centres.
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