Syria crisis: 28,000 disappeared, say rights groups

 

Fighting between government forces and rebels is continuing in the city of Aleppo

Human rights groups working in Syria say at least 28,000 people have disappeared after being abducted by soldiers or militia.

They say they have the names of 18,000 people missing since anti-government protests began 18 months ago and know of another 10,000 cases.
Online activist group Avaaz says "nobody is safe" from a deliberate government campaign of terror.
It intends to give the UN Human Rights Council a dossier for investigation.
Avaaz has gathered testimony from Syrians who say husbands, sons and daughters have been forcibly abducted by pro-government forces.
They include Fayzeh al Masri, from a suburb of Homs, whose 26-year-old son Ahmad Ghassan Ibrahim disappeared in February. She said that in his last phone call to his family, he told them they should not call him on that or any other number.
"We later found out that the number Ahmad called us from belongs to the military security branch in Homs," Ms Masri told Avaaz.
The family made repeated attempts to get answers from the the security services but failed, she said, then one day someone answered when they called his mobile phone and told them he had been killed in Rastan and buried.

"But we were not able to confirm this information," she said. "We are certain that he would not have left us or his wife - who is expecting twins. We only want to know his fate."
Hussein Eisso, a 62-year-old Syrian-Kurdish activist, was taken from outside his home in Hasaka after attempting to stage a sit-in over the arrest of other activists, said his brother, Bashar.
"My brother was moved to more than one branch of intelligence in Syria and he has not been released because of his refusal to sign a statement of remorse."
Bashar Eisso said his brother had serious health problems but the family had been unable to take medication to him - he has since suffered a stroke, he said.
'Taken at night' Alice Jay, campaign director at Avaaz, said Syrians are being "plucked off the street by security forces and paramilitaries and being 'disappeared' into torture cells".

"The regime is doing this for two reasons - to directly get rid of the rebels and activists, and to intimidate the society so that it won't oppose the regime”

          Human rights lawyer Muhammad Khalil

"Whether it is women buying groceries or farmers going for fuel, nobody is safe."

She said it was a deliberate strategy to "terrorise families and communities".
"The panic of not knowing whether your husband or child is alive breeds such fear that it silences dissent," she said.
"The fate of each and every one of these people must be investigated and the perpetrators punished."
Fadel Abdulghani, of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, estimates that 28,000 people have disappeared since unrest against the government of President Bashar al-Assad began last year.
Muhannad al-Hasani, of the Syrian human rights organisation Sawasya, put the figure even higher.
"According to information given to us by our contacts in villages across Syria, we think there could be as many as 80,000 forcibly disappeared people," he said.
"People are being snatched at night, on the street and when no-one is looking."
Muhammad Khalil, a human rights lawyer from the Syrian city of Hassaka, said that although there are no precise figures, thousands of people have disappeared since March 2011.
"The regime is doing this for two reasons - to directly get rid of the rebels and activists, and to intimidate the society so that it won't oppose the regime," he said.
Avaaz is a donation-funded organisation which, as well as running campaigns and petitions, has set up a network of citizen journalists in foreign countries, including Syria.
It distributes cameras and recording equipment to local activists to document events and help provide what it says are accurate figures on death tolls and detentions.
It has previously said its research" adheres to a strict verification process", using three independent sources to confirm each reported death.
Ceasefire hopes The Syrian government has so far not commented on the claims but it has in the past strenuously denied reports of human rights abuses.

Campaign group Avaaz in Syria

• Has set up a network of citizen journalists and smuggled in foreign journalists
• Claims to have delivered more than $1.8m (£1.2m) of medical equipment to the worst-hit areas
• Has helped collect and verify information on the scale of the crackdown on dissent
• Says it co-ordinated rescue attempt of journalists from Homs in February 2012

The UN says more than 18,000 people have been killed in the conflict with 170,000 fleeing abroad and 2.5 million in need of aid within the country. Opposition and human rights activists put the death toll at more than 30,000.

As violence continues, UN and Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is due to arrive in Syria on Saturday, for talks with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, Damascus told AFP.
Mr Brahimi has proposed a truce over the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, which starts on 25 October, to "allow a political process to develop".
The Syrian government has recently indicated that it is interested in exploring a temporary ceasefire - opposition groups have said they would match this.
Calls for the truce come as the conflict threatens to spill over Syria's borders.
Turkey's armed forces have several times returned fire across the border into Syria after Syrian mortar shells landed inside its territory. The latest exchange was reported on Thursday by Turkish TV.