How Human Rights Defender Wafa Mustafa Made The Tens of Thousands Of Innocent Syrians Held In Torture Prisons The Main Issue At The UN Security Council
What was remarkable about Thursday’s (23 July, 2020) meeting of the UN Security Council is that for the first time the continuing fate of the tens of thousands who are detained, disappeared and in almost all cases tortured (and in many instances tortured to death) in Syria was the only item on the agenda. But what became clear watching that session of the Council is that there is no hope for Syria unless these more than 130,000 Syrians are released and for whom Wafa Mustafa made such a compellingly strong case on their behalf. Indeed, it is very important to underline that these detainees, like Wafa’s father who disappeared into the the Syrian regime’s torture prisons over seven years ago, are innocent people whose only “crime” in many cases was to peacefully protest against the brutal Assad dictatorship in 2011. Therefore, when the regime uses detention, torture and forcible disappearance as key instruments in its governance of Syria there can be no talk of any solution or lifting sanctions on the Assad regime until they are released. In other words, until they halt these most egregious crimes against humanity which as Wafa so eloquently reminded us are still going on today.
Germany’s State Minister Neil Annen, who chaired that meeting of the Security Council, also quite compellingly showed in his opening remarks that there can be no progress in Syria unless the issue of detainees is dealt with. He noted that since the Council passed Resolution 2254 in 2015 as a road map for a political solution to the Syrian crisis, and which called for the immediate release of all arbitrarily detained persons, particularly women and children “arbitrary detention, forced disappearances, torture and sexual violence in Syrian prisons and detention facilities continue unabated.” In short, and without putting words in his mouth, a forceful reminder that the Syrian regime maintains its hold on power through torture prisons and massacres.
Against that background it was upsetting but not surprising to watch the Syrian ambassador Bashar Jaafari actually ignore human rights defender Wafa Mustafa whose presentation was a key part of the primary business of the meeting and by implication underline why no progress can be made until detainees are released. The Syrian regime insists on impunity. They insist on no accountability for crimes against humanity of which torture, forcible disappearance and the arbitrary detention of tens of thousands of innocent Syrians are among the most egregious of these crimes and by which the regime he represents intends to remain in power. Therefore, again it illustrates that unless they are pressured to release detainees there can be no progress because unless they do so they cannot be trusted to participate in the transformation of Syria, a process that must involve justice and accountability for the crimes against humanity that have been committed since the peaceful uprising in 2011.
Over and over we have been told by Syrians while completing the feature film documentary BRINGING ASSAD TO JUSTICE that unless the detainees are released and there is accountability there can be no progress or a political solution in Syria, and given the history of the regime it is very easy to understand why and it was no surprise to see that confirmed in this Security Council meeting.
Finally, it was extremely depressing to hear the UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir O. Pedersen talk about the lifting of sanctions on the Assad regime without demanding the release of all detainees who are still being subjected to torture and are being held in horrific conditions. When Amnesty described a Syrian regime prison such as Saydnaya, only a ten minute drive from Assad’s palace in Damascus, as “a human slaughterhouse” surely there can be no concessions to such a regime until the tens of thousands of innocent Syrians are released. Therefore, for Mr Pedersen to describe “the tragedy of detainees, abductees and missing persons” as “only a single layer of the humanitarian catastrophe that has engulfed Syria” is to miss the point entirely? The resolution of the issue of detainees is the essence of a political solution to the crisis of humanity is Syria and he should have opened his remarks by making a very clear plea for their release and explaining in unambiguous terms there is no hope or is a political solution possible while Assad continues to torture, disappear and arbitrarily detain over 130,000 of his innocent fellow citizens.
RONAN L TYNAN
