UN official: Most detainees in Syria have been executed and buried in mass graves
The Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria Paulo Pinheiro said: The fate of tens of thousands of Syrian civilians are unknown, most of them have been in the Assad regime’s prisons for ten years.
This came during a conference held in the Belgian capital, Brussels, on the fate of detainees in the Assad regime’s prisons.
Paulo added: “being arrested in Syria is equivalent to disappearance, and most detainees have been executed and buried in mass graves, and others subjected to torture and ill-treatment in inhumane conditions.”
He pointed out to the necessity of establishing an independent mechanism with international authorities to investigate the issue of disappeared civilians.
The UN official stressed that the delay in establishing such mechanism will make it much harder to uncover the fate of these people.
Since 2011, Syria has witnessed a war that began after the Assad regime dealt forcefully with popular protests against it that began on 15 March of the same year. This prompted millions of people to flee and seek refuge in neighboring countries.
