Human Rights Watch has called on the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant to free more than 130 Kurdish schoolboys it is holding hostage in Syria.
The call came on Tuesday a month after ISIL seized 153 boys aged between 13 and 14 from the mostly Kurdish town of Ain al-`Arab on 29 May, as they returned from taking year-end exams in the city of Aleppo. Five of the boys later escaped and ISIL released 15 others on 28 June.
Fred Abrahams, special advisor at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement: "ISIL should immediately release the estimated 133 Kurdish boys it has held hostage in northern Syria for a month.
“ISIL abducted these children as they returned from taking an exam. To hold them hostage is both cruel and a flagrant violation of the laws of war.”
- Boys and girls separated
Three fathers whose sons had been abducted told Human Rights Watch their children were seized after they were forced to travel through territory controlled by ISIL in order to take the exam, as the Syrian government was not offering it in their home town.
Human Right Watch reported that the senior education official in Ain al-`Arab, Hussein Mohammad Ali, had said at least 1,000 students, aged 13 to 18, had travelled to Aleppo in buses and mini-buses, along with some teachers.
ISIL allowed the convoy to proceed to Aleppo, but stopped the first group that returned – 13 and 14 year-olds from the ninth grade – in the ISIL-controlled town of Manbij, Ali said.
The ISIL fighters separated the boys from the girls and sent the girls home with their drivers.
- Ideology enforced
Mohammad, one of two boys who escaped, said: “We were all so scared.
“On the way back, we were celebrating that we had finished our tests. We were excited to go home and see our families. We didn't know why they took us.”
The two boys earlier told the media that ISIL was forcing the children to study Sharia and jihadist ideology, according to Human Rights Watch.
The rights organisation also said the fathers of two of the boys still held in Manbij had said they had received phone calls from their sons a few days after the abduction, and once a week since then.
- Father worried
“He told me that he is okay and they are letting them play in the playground,” the father of a 14-year-old said. “They are giving them food and a place to sleep.”
The third father said he had not spoken with his son.
“The rest of the parents are calling their children but my son did not call me and I tried to call but nobody answered,” he said. “I am worried about my son.”
http://www.aa.com.tr/en