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The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies calls on Syrian authorities to cease committing summary executions and inhuman treatment against inmates at the Sednaya Prison, and calls on the Union for the Mediterranean states’ leaders to intervene
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) expresses its deep concern towards the events currently taking place at Sednaya prison. The prison has been surrounded for three days, starting on the 5 July, by Syrian security forces, armed with heavy artillery. Human rights organizations in Syria have reported that around 25 prisoners have been killed and scores have been wounded by Syrian security forces after violence broke out between the prisoners and prison guards. The events were triggered when political prisoners began protests against the inhumane treatment they have long been subjected to at the prison.
CIHRS urges the Syrian government to take note of the negative diplomatic and legal repercussions the government of Syria could suffer as a result of the excessive and deadly force used against the Sednaya prisoners; on par with the acts committed by the same security force at "Tadmor" prison in Syria on 27 June 1980, in which hundreds of political prisoners were killed. International diplomatic and legal repercussions may be heightened due to the growing media coverage concerning the further police abuse and injuries inflicted on dozens of prisoners’ relatives as they sought to find out the names of those prisoners who had been killed or injured. On the 6 July, Syrian security forces and military police based near Sednaya prison attacked and abused a crowd of people that had gathered outside of Tishrin Military Hospital where the injured and dead prisoners were taken, and who were demanding to know the condition of particular inmates at Sednaya prison.
CIHRS condemns the Syrian government’s refusal to provide detailed information on the circumstances and acts carried out against prisoners at the prison, as well as the government’s refusal to allow human rights defenders within a sufficient distance from the prison to monitor the situation.
However, according to information that has been collected, Syrian security forces have committed a host of serious and grave human rights violations during the siege of the prison, and have paid no heed to the recurring calls of Syrian, regional and international rights organizations to immediately cease all acts of arbitrary killing and summary executions, as well as inhumane treatment and abuse of prisoners and their relatives.
The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies also urges Mr. Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and Mr. Manfred Novak, United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel and inhuman or degrading treatment to immediately intervene in order to pressure the Syrian government to immediately cease such acts, and conform to its international legal obligations as contained in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966.
CIHRS moreover calls upon leaders of the Union for the Mediterranean, scheduled to meet in Paris on 13 July 2008, which will include Syrian President Bashar Al-Asad, to firmly condemn all arbitrary killings and abuse carried out by Syrian forces at the prison, and to take all necessary diplomatic measures to ensure an end to this massacre prior to the beginning of the summit.
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