With Removal of IS, Syrians Search for Missing Loved Ones
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Explorer
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The final declaration of victory on the Islamic State (IS) in Syria
has sparked renewed hopes for Syrians whose family members were
kidnapped by IS, with thousands asking the U.S.-backed forces to
disclose the whereabouts of their loved ones.
The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) last week announced
the complete removal of IS from its last stronghold of Baghuz in eastern
Syria and the rescue of thousands of civilians used as human shields by
the jihadists. Still, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights
(SNHR), about 20,000 Syrians kidnapped by IS are missing.
“We have to know what happened to our loved ones,” said Ensaf Nasser,
who has desperately searched for her husband since his abduction by IS
in August 2014.
“The fate of my husband and thousands of detainees kidnapped by IS
must be looked into now by the coalition and the SDF before evidences
are lost,” she told VOA. Local journalist
Nasser’s husband, Foad Ahmed el-Mohamed, was a local journalist
taking pictures of wounded civilians at Aisha Hospital in Deir el-Zour
city when IS militants broke in and took him away.
The extremists told Nasser that her husband was considered an infidel
because he supported a secular and democratic state instead of a
caliphate. He was also accused of breaking their strict Sunni codes by
marrying Nasser, who was a follower of Syria’s Druze sect, and naming
his son after the Argentinian Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.
“When the battle to capture Raqqa started, we all had high hopes to
learn something about him. During the final battle to capture Baghuz, we
also hoped that we would find or learn some news as thousands were
getting out. But till now we haven’t heard anything,” Nasser said,
adding that the recapture of IS's last territory ended in a crushing
disappointment for her that her husband may still be alive.
The U.S.-backed battle to seize northeastern Syria from the grip of
IS lasted five years. Over the years, the Islamist group lost large
swaths of Syria it had once governed, including its defeat in its
self-proclaimed capital, Raqqa, in October of 2017.
Earlier this month, the predominantly Kurdish SDF officially
announced March 23 the defeat of the “caliphate” after weeks of fierce
battles for the small town of Baghuz in far eastern Syria.
“We have freed 5 million people in Syria’s north and east from the
grip of terrorism, we salvaged 52,000 square kilometers of land and
removed the danger of terrorism over humanity,” the SDF said in its
official victory proclamation.
Foad Ahmed el-Mohamed, was a journalist in Deir
el-Zour, eastern Syria. He was kidnapped by the Islamic State (IS) in
2014 and accused of supporting a democratic state and marrying an
infidel woman. His wife was searching for him since then.
Ideology
As their mission enters the next stage, the SDF vowed to continue
fighting the IS ideology and reconstruct damage caused by the war.
In the key city of Raqqa, the SDF said its focus for the post-IS
period has been to bring normality back to daily life, not only by
removing thousands of explosives left behind by the jihadists but also
by helping Syrians find their missing family members. The group is
asking families of the missing to register with the Public Relations
Committee and Tribes Council in Raqqa Civil Council to investigate the
fate of their loved ones.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights in a new report Thursday said
that in Raqqa alone nearly 4,247 people are still missing nearly 18
months after IS's removal.
SNHR asked for international support in disclosing the fate of the
missing Syrians, especially as local officials continue to find dozens
of people buried in mass graves across the region.
“The Central Tracing Agency, run by the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC), should begin to assist in the search for thousands
of missing persons in Syria, try to identify their fate, and provide
expertise and logistical support to the Syrian community and local
organizations in this field, particularly in northeastern Syria, after
the defeat of ISIS,” SNHR chairman Abdul Ghany said in a statement.
“It is possible that the contribution of international actors in this
field can help Syrian society to determine the fate of tens of
thousands of disappeared people,” he added.
Syrians who are in search of their missing family members say they
are provided with little information when reaching out to officials from
SDF and the U.S.-led coalition. Many hope their loved ones could be in
refugee camps under the SDF control or IS prisons that were captured
recently.
Amer Mattar, whose brother Mohammed-Noor Mattar has been missing in
Raqqa since August 2013, said he was turned down by local officials when
he requested to know about the fate of his 22-year-old brother.
“We have been waiting as prisons and detention centers are captured,”
Mattar told VOA. “But we are learning that they are all going empty,
and with IS-controlled territory shrinking, our questions on what
happened to the missing are growing.”
Mohammed-Noor Mattar, 22, a media activist from
Raqqa showing a victory sign while handcuffed during a campaign against
oppression. After he was kidnapped by the Islamic State in 2013, his
family never heard anything of his fate.
Challenges
Local officials say they are taking the plight of missing Syrians and
their families seriously, but the process of identifying the victims
can be challenging, especially as the SDF and the coalition try to
expose IS fighters who are hiding among civilians in refugee camps. They
are expecting to know more during their investigations with captured IS
fighters.
"There is a large number of civilians evacuated from Baghuz, and they
were all moved to al-Hol camp for security check and will be released
to their families,” said Osama al-Khalaf, a spokesperson for Raqqa Civil
Council, speaking of a major refugee camp in northeastern Deir el-Zour,
where thousands of civilians and IS family members are kept.
“We are gathering information from witnesses to identity who has been
killed among the detainees under IS,” said al-Khalaf, adding the
results of their interrogations with IS fighters is kept confidential
for security reasons.
According to Syrian organizations and activists, IS used to evacuate
and relocate detainees from its prisons before losing an area.
They say the group kept thousands of prisoners under ground and used them as human shields to prevent coalition airstrikes.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor,
said on Thursday the U.S.-led coalition is continuing to look for
undiscovered underground tunnels and trenches in Baghuz in search of
hiding IS fighters and kidnapped civilians.
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