Published : 30-11-2018
UN war crimes investigators on Wednesday called on the Assad government to update families about the fate and conditions of their relatives who have disappeared and provide medical records of those who were executed or killed in custody.
Earlier this year the Syrian government released the names of thousands of prisoners killed between 2011 and 2014. The lists point to a systematic campaign of slaughter of prisoners by the state intelligence services, with the detainees likely tortured to death or executed, the war crimes commission said in a report released before delivery to the UN Security Council.
"Most custodial deaths are thought to have occurred in places of detention run by Syrian intelligence or military agencies. The Commission has not documented any instance, however, where bodies or personal belongings of the deceased were returned," the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria said in a report.
Nearly every death certificate for prisoners provided to families recorded that the cause of death was a "heart attack" or a "stroke", the independent panel, led by Paulo Pinheiro, said.
"Some inpiduals from the same geographic area share common death dates, possibly indicating group executions," the report said.
"Pro-government forces and primarily the Syrian state should reveal publicly the fates of those detained, disappeared and/or missing without delay," the report said, noting this meant Syrian government forces, Russian forces and affiliated militia.
No progress can be made towards a lasting peace to end the nearly eight-year-old war without justice, the international commission added.
Families have the right to know the truth about their loved one's deaths and be able to retrieve their remains, it said.
In a 2016 report, the panel found that the scale of deaths in prisons indicated that the government of President Bashar AlAssad was responsible for "extermination as a crime against humanity".
Amnesty International estimates that more than 17,723 people died in custody in Syria between March 2011 and the end of 2015. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitor, said its sources found that at least 60,000 people had died in custody due to torture, hunger and mistreatment.
In Syria, a family member must register a death within a month after receiving a death notification, the report said. Failure to do so results in a fine which grows after a year. But given that there are millions of Syrian refugees abroad and internally displaced, many are not in a position to meet deadlines.
The calls come as a new study found that ambulances have been intentionally and repeatedly targeted in Syria.
The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal BMJ Global Health, analyzed reports of 243 attacks on ambulances in 2016 and 2017 and found more than half were deliberately targeted.
There have been repeated reports of attacks on medical workers and healthcare facilities during Syria's seven-year conflict, even though both are protected by international law.
UN war crimes investigators on Wednesday called on the Assad government to update families about the fate and conditions of their relatives who have disappeared and provide medical records of those who were executed or killed in custody.
Earlier this year the Syrian government released the names of thousands of prisoners killed between 2011 and 2014. The lists point to a systematic campaign of slaughter of prisoners by the state intelligence services, with the detainees likely tortured to death or executed, the war crimes commission said in a report released before delivery to the UN Security Council.
"Most custodial deaths are thought to have occurred in places of detention run by Syrian intelligence or military agencies. The Commission has not documented any instance, however, where bodies or personal belongings of the deceased were returned," the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria said in a report.
Nearly every death certificate for prisoners provided to families recorded that the cause of death was a "heart attack" or a "stroke", the independent panel, led by Paulo Pinheiro, said.
"Some inpiduals from the same geographic area share common death dates, possibly indicating group executions," the report said.
"Pro-government forces and primarily the Syrian state should reveal publicly the fates of those detained, disappeared and/or missing without delay," the report said, noting this meant Syrian government forces, Russian forces and affiliated militia.
No progress can be made towards a lasting peace to end the nearly eight-year-old war without justice, the international commission added.
Families have the right to know the truth about their loved one's deaths and be able to retrieve their remains, it said.
In a 2016 report, the panel found that the scale of deaths in prisons indicated that the government of President Bashar AlAssad was responsible for "extermination as a crime against humanity".
Amnesty International estimates that more than 17,723 people died in custody in Syria between March 2011 and the end of 2015. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitor, said its sources found that at least 60,000 people had died in custody due to torture, hunger and mistreatment.
In Syria, a family member must register a death within a month after receiving a death notification, the report said. Failure to do so results in a fine which grows after a year. But given that there are millions of Syrian refugees abroad and internally displaced, many are not in a position to meet deadlines.
The calls come as a new study found that ambulances have been intentionally and repeatedly targeted in Syria.
The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal BMJ Global Health, analyzed reports of 243 attacks on ambulances in 2016 and 2017 and found more than half were deliberately targeted.
There have been repeated reports of attacks on medical workers and healthcare facilities during Syria's seven-year conflict, even though both are protected by international law.
