This is a message from Mayasa Sheikh Ahmad, a member of the Families for Freedom movement, who recently travelled from Idlib in northwest Syria to Damascus to try to uncover the fate of her husband Mohammad and tens of thousands of others who were forcibly disappeared by Assad’s regime and remain missing.
A couple of weeks ago I entered Sednaya Prison in Damascus, the notorious regime detention centre where my dear life partner Mohammad was held in darkness.
I searched every inch of the walls for any sign of Mohamad. For so long I’ve tried to imagine where he was being held. Mohammad disappeared in 2012, taken because of his activism. I still don’t know the full truth about what happened to him. His former cellmates told me he died in prison, probably because of the horrific conditions, but there is no way to be sure.
As soon as the regime fell in December, I knew I had to go to Sednaya. There was finally hope that I might understand a little of what happened to him. At home Mohammad used to write little love notes to me in pencil on the wall, and I hoped he might have left anything written for me in the cells where he was kept for so long.
I asked The Syria Campaign to join me on my journey to Sednaya to film this moment. Like so many families now, our search for answers is our only focus. Without answers, we will not have justice and without justice, there will not be peace.
Alongside the entire Families for Freedom movement, I am calling on the international community – in particular the UN’s Independent International Missing Persons’ Institution (IIMP), and Syria’s interim authorities – to act now to support survivors and their families.
Evidence is not being documented and the truth is being lost. Walking through the cells and torture chambers of Sednaya I found papers scattered everywhere, including papers with the names of criminal officers. People who should be held accountable in a court of law.
Together, we can push decision-makers to provide answers to the families of the disappeared, to protect evidence, including mass graves, and to pursue trials at national and international courts.
With your support, we can break the silence and make all authorities with a mandate act.
This struggle is about more than uncovering the fate of our loved ones. It’s about ensuring that these crimes are never repeated in Syria.
I have searched every cell relentlessly for any trace of Mohammad’s handwriting, but I still haven’t found anything. I will not give up looking.
In solidarity,
Mayasa Sheikh Ahmad
Families for Freedom