“The [Bashar al-]Assad regime brutalized, tortured, and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians. Now, at long last, the Syrian people can begin to heal and work together to establish a new future,” declared Kara Eyrich U.S. Adviser for the Third Committee at the United Nations.
New witness accounts and videos of Assad detention centers reveal again the horrors Syrian detainees have suffered for decades, said Ms. Eyrich.
“As the UN Commission of Inquiry, human rights organizations, and Syrian-led civil society organizations have documented, the Assad regime used systemic detention, torture, and horrific conditions to punish dissent.”
“While we share the joy of the thousands of detainees released and the reunified families in Syria, we tragically note that tens of thousands of detainees remain unaccounted for,” said Ms. Eyrich.
“According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, out of approximately 136,000 arbitrarily detained or forcibly disappeared persons by the Assad regime, only 31,000 of these individuals have been released, leaving 105,000 still missing.”
“Syrian families urgently need answers on the fate of their loved ones,” stressed Ms. Eyrich.
“We urge all partners to preserve documents, particularly from detention centers, and ensure they are accessible to international humanitarian and accountability bodies. We also urge authorities to secure mass and clandestine graves until such time that they can be excavated and forensically analyzed in accordance with international best practices.”
The international community and UN bodies must help Syrians hold the Assad regime and its backers accountable for atrocities and abuses perpetrated against the Syrian people, including the use of chemical weapons, enforced disappearances, torture, and the unjust detention of tens of thousands of civilians, including Austin Tice.
The United States reaffirms its full support for a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition. This transition process should lead to credible, inclusive, and representative governance that meets international standards of transparency and accountability and that respects human rights, takes all steps to protect civilians, including minority groups and upholds international humanitarian law.
Thanks to the hard work of Syrian civil society, justice and accountability in Syria is now possible. “We acknowledge and honor this work,” said Ms. Eyrich, “and the many sacrifices made to get to this critical and important turning point for the Syrian people.”
