{"id":11355,"date":"2024-12-16T15:08:15","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T15:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/16\/for-the-families-of-syrias-disappeared-hope-fades-but-the-demand-for-justice-grows\/"},"modified":"2024-12-16T15:08:15","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T15:08:15","slug":"for-the-families-of-syrias-disappeared-hope-fades-but-the-demand-for-justice-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/16\/for-the-families-of-syrias-disappeared-hope-fades-but-the-demand-for-justice-grows\/","title":{"rendered":"For the families of Syria\u2019s disappeared, hope fades but the demand for justice grows"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than a week after Bashar al-Assad fled Syria and his regime collapsed, hundreds of thousands of Syrians still have no answer to two questions that have haunted them for years, even decades. <\/p>\n

What happened to family members and friends after they vanished or were detained by Assad\u2019s secret police? And how do we bring their torturers and killers to justice? <\/p>\n

With every passing day, Syrians\u2019 slim hopes finding a loved one still alive are fading. But they want some form of closure; they scour prison and hospital walls where lists of names and images of bodies are posted. They cling to a sliver of hope, yearn for a miracle. <\/p>\n

But they also want retribution. <\/p>\n

One of those waiting for news was <\/strong>Hazem Dakel from Idlib, who is now in Sweden. His uncle Najeeb was arrested in 2012 and was later confirmed by the family as having been killed. His brother Amer was detained the following year. Former detainees at the horrific Saydnaya prison near Damascus said Amer had disappeared in mid-April 2015 after being tortured there. But the regime never acknowledged his death. <\/p>\n

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Amer Haj Hashem.<\/span> <\/div>
Courtesy Hazem Dakel<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Najeeb Dakel.<\/span> <\/div>
Courtesy Hazem Dakel<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI want this (new Syrian) country to stand on its feet so we can hold them accountable through the law and courts.\u201d <\/p>\n

Amid the celebrations in Idlib after the fall of Assad, he said, there was also mourning. \u201cThey are mourning their children. Yes, the regime fell after resistance and struggle, but there was sorrow\u2014like, where are our children?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cJustice is coming, and our right will not be erased no matter how long it takes,\u201d Dakel posted on Facebook. The family is now \u201ccertain\u201d Amer died under torture in Saydnaya, he said. <\/p>\n

Human rights groups have begun visiting the many prisons and detention centers across Syria where those perceived as regime critics were confined. An Amnesty International team scoured security branches of the former regime around Damascus this week. <\/p>\n

Mazjoub also posted photographs on X of instruments of torture left behind. <\/p>\n

\u201cNothing could have prepared us for what we saw,\u201d said one of the team, Aya Mazjoub. In a series of posts on X she described \u201cunderground labyrinths (that) are literally hell on earth. They were overcrowded, crawling with cockroaches and other insects, lacked ventilation. They still smell of blood and death.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is \u2018bisat ar-reeh\u2019, a notorious torture device where detainees would be strapped to a wooden slab that would be folded until their back cracked,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the \u2018doulab\u2019. Detainees would be stuffed into the tyre and beaten, usually on the soles of their feet.\u201d <\/p>\n