128,000 still held in Syrian prisons: UK-based watchdog

By Mohamed Sheikh Yusuf

ISTANBUL

Almost 14,000 people have died in the prisons of the Syrian regime since March of 2011, while about 128,000 others still remain in detention, the U.K.-based Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said in a report released Monday.

According to the report, a total of 127,916 people are currently in detention -- or have been forcibly disappeared -- over the same period.

The report also asserts that the PYD/PKK terrorist group has carried out “arbitrary arrests and forced disappearances in areas of Syria under its control”.

It also notes that at least 2,705 people have been arbitrarily arrested or forcibly disappeared by the so-called “Syrian Democratic Forces”, which is led by the Syrian branch of PKK terrorist organization.

The SNHR further states that militant organizations, including the Daesh terrorist group, have detained at least 9,867 people over the same period.

According to the report, regime forces have followed a policy of besieging opposition-held areas, preventing access to food and medicine, resulting in the death of 921 civilians -- including 187 women and 398 children -- since March of 2011.

The Daesh terrorist group, the report points out, have adopted similar policies in the city of Deir ez-Zour and at the Yarmouk refugee camp south of Damascus.

The report goes on to claim that 216 chemical-weapon attacks have been carried out by the regime since December of 2012, causing the death of at least 1,461 people.

According to the SNHR, Syria suffered massive waves of displacement, especially in 2017 and 2018, as a result of military operations carried out by the warring camps or as a result of deals and truces imposed on besieged areas -- arrangements, the NGO says, which violate international humanitarian law.

An estimated 14.2 million people have been forcibly displaced since March of 2011, including eight million displaced inside Syria and another 6.2 million forced to flee the country entirely.