Forced Disappearance: A Recurring Chapter in the Syrian Tragedy

Youssef Kanaan

Like any country racked by chaos and civil war, Syria today is the scene of various forms of human rights violations, including forced disappearances. These kidnappings are nothing new – thousands of Syrians have disappeared over the years, especially in the early nineteen-eighties during the bloody conflict between the Baath regime and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Today, more and more Syrians are disappearing, and the regime is not the only guilty party as multiple groups on the ground appear to be engaging in the practice.

“A young man we had helped before called us and claimed to be in urgent need, so we arranged to meet him on a main street in Damascus,” said Kinda (not her real name), who recounted the kidnapping of her and a friend by one of the intelligence branches. The two had been active in providing relief to the areas affected by violence.

“But he was not waiting for us alone – he had eight gunmen with him,” Kinda recalled. “Seconds later there were guns pointing at my head and that of my friend. They immediately handcuffed and blindfolded him, but not me. I saw them put him in one car and me in another. I asked them: ‘who are you, and why are you kidnapping us?’ ‘Don’t worry; we’re security,’ one of them answered. Then I got scared and stayed silent.”

In a report published on its website, the human rights organization Avaaz says that from the start of the uprising to October 2012, more than 28,000 people have disappeared in Syria after being abducted by Syrian government forces or opposition militias. According to the report, Avaaz has collected the names of 18,000 and are aware of another 10,000.

The regime’s security forces often arrest people outside the framework of the law. The arrest is followed by an investigation period, during which the detainee is often subjected to various forms of torture and humiliation. After that, he or she may be referred to the judiciary, allowing the detainee’s family to know his or her whereabouts and petition for his or her safety.

But sometimes the fate of the detainee, or even the identity of his or her captors, remains unknown.

“I was detained for days and no one knew where I was,” said Kinda.

But Kinda was lucky; she disappeared only for a short period, unlike the thousands whose fate remains unknown – not only those taken during the current crisis, but also those who disappeared decades ago.

Kinda had not been the primary target of the arrest, and so she was more or less left alone while in detention. But during the investigation, she could hear her friend being tortured in the next room. He is still being held, and to this day has yet to be referred to the judiciary.

“When I was released I was surprised at how many stories about me and my friend’s disappearance had circulated,” Kinda said. “Everyone we knew was desperate for information. If I had not been released, then no one would have known where we were kept, our fate would have remained unknown, and anything could have happened.”

These kidnappings happen all over Syria, and are perpetrated by more than one side.

Wael (not his real name) was abducted by armed opposition fighters from the neighbourhood of Achrafieh in the city of Aleppo.

“I got in my car in front of the house,” he recounted. “Suddenly, a van appeared and cut me off, and about a dozen gunmen wearing military clothes got out. They attacked me and tried to force me into their vehicle. When I resisted, they started beating me and firing into the air.”

“One of them struck me across the face with the butt of his gun. I lost my balance and they shoved me into the van and began to shout ‘Allahu Akbar’ over my head as I lay on the floor,” he continued.

 Neither Wael nor his family have recovered from the trauma of what happened next.

“They tied my hands and blindfolded me so I could not see their faces, and when we passed through opposition checkpoints the kidnappers would say ‘come and see this sheep, this shabbih [regime thug] we got from Achrafieh’,” Wael said. “So they all got into the van and started kicking me all over my body. It continued for half an hour until we arrived someplace I didn’t know.”

According to Wael’s story, it seems the interrogation and torture practices of some opposition militants do not differ much from those of the regime.

“The first question they asked me was about my sectarian affiliation, so I denied it and told them I was one of them but they did not believe me and started torturing me and beating me with a stick and whipping me,” Wael said. “Then they took me to the bathroom where they put me in a tub full of water and electrocuted the water, stunning me several times.”

 Under torture, Wael admitted that he was not a Sunni and that he had a brother in the army.

“They asked me about families in Achrafieh that support the regime, and I said that they all left, and that I am not sectarian and my wife is Sunni like them, but they were not convinced,” Wael added.

After three days of interrogation and torture, Wael’s captors told him: “we asked about you and you are not involved and do not work with the shabbiha, so your punishment is to pay three million Syrian pounds [around 42,000 US dollars] to donate to the revolution. The punishment for those who help the government is slaughter, while the innocent pay this amount,” Wael recalled.

They started negotiations with his family until they were able to raise half the amount, plus his car, which they had taken when they kidnapped him.

“On the sixth day, we agreed to hand over the money and one hour later they would release me,” Wael continued. “My family sent the amount with one of my friends to the specified place, but they took the money and kidnapped my friend. They tortured and insulted him for more than five hours, accusing him of being a shabbih before releasing him. Then they sent me to a warehouse underground. I could hear the sound of people being tortured nearby every day.”

Later, Wael discovered that when the kidnappers refused to release him for the agreed-upon amount, his family abducted a number of people from the area where he was being held, and the negotiations that followed led to his release.

Both the regime and the armed opposition claim to be fighting fairly while accusing the other side of human rights violations. But what happened to Kinda, Wael and countless others gives examples of how both sides are responsible for violating the rights of the very people they claim to represent and defend.