Detainees’ families call for action to release detainees, reveal their fate

Hundreds of comrades and family members of detainees from the ranks of the Syrian Democratic Forces took part today in a large march in the city of Qamishlo, demanding the release of captured fighters held in the prisons of the interim government.

The march began in front of the Mohammad Sheikho Center for Culture and Art. Participants carried photos of detained SDF fighters and raised banners reading: “We demand our prisoners’ right to life and freedom,” “Justice for the detainees,” “It is time to open the prisoners’ file,” “We demand the disclosure of their fate and the release of our children,” “Injustice does not last,” “Break the chains of the prisoners,” “Return our prisoners to us — prisoners are a red line,” “We demand the immediate release of the detainees,” “We demand the release of our sons from the prisons of the mercenary Hatem Abu Shaqra,” “Do not delay freedom; life does not wait,” “I want my son free,” and “We want our children liberated.”

The march moved through the city’s main streets before turning into a sit-in in front of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, where protesters chanted slogans calling for the immediate release of detained fighters held in the prisons of the interim government.

Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Youssef Kouti said: “We stand now before the United Nations headquarters, which has not fulfilled its role or duty toward the peoples of the region, and before our people whose blood has been shed, who have sacrificed their lives and whose hearts have burned with grief. We stand before a United Nations that ignores its own laws and principles.”

Kouti explained that “since January 6, and since the treacherous attack by two states, with the support of the entire world, on the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh, followed by the extension of attacks to Deir Hafer, Maskanah, Raqqa, and Tabqa, the Turkish state and the interim government and their cells have not adhered to the agreements and have placed our sons under a suffocating siege.”

Kouti condemned the shedding of Kurdish blood and said that the international community played a negative role and was complicit in what happened. He added: “We, the families of detainees and the missing, say that if our sons are not released, these activities will continue.”

A-H

ANHA