The Syrian Foreign Ministry calls on countries and international organizations to cooperate on the file of "transitional justice"

The Syrian Foreign Ministry stressed  that the right of victims and their families to know the truth and access information related to the violations they have been subjected to represents an inherent human right, a fundamental pillar of justice and the rule of law, and a necessary element to promote civil peace and societal stability.

 In a statement issued today,  the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on all countries and international organizations that have information, documents or evidence related to the Syrian affairs to share them with the competent Syrian authorities, explaining that the aim of the step is to enable the Syrian authorities to benefit from these documents, to serve the victims and their families in revealing the truth and supporting the efforts of transitional justice, accountability and national recovery.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that the timely availability of the required information is a key factor in reducing the suffering of the victims' families, as well as enhancing confidence in national institutions and supporting the work of the National Authority for Transitional Justice and the National Commission for Missing Persons, with the aim of consolidating civil peace and societal stability.

The ministry expressed its readiness to cooperate with all concerned partners to develop partnerships and enhance the capacities of the competent Syrian institutions, noting that the right of the victims' families to know the truth "represents an inherent human right and a fundamental pillar of justice and the rule of law."

The ministry explained that the experiences related to the violations witnessed in Syria "have shown that the value of documents and information lies in their use to serve the families of the victims and reveal the fate of the missing."

The case of Rania Abbasi's children

The Foreign Ministry's statement came after a wave of criticism following the announcement by the National Commission for Missing Persons in Syria on May 30 that it had reached credible conclusions that the six children of Dr. Rania al-Abbasi, who were arrested with their mother in 2013, had died.

The children's uncle, Hossam al-Abbasi, said in a video that the family had been misled about the identity of the children seen in videos linked to the Amjad Youssef case, adding that he had been in contact with members of the Tadamon massacre investigation team over the past months to obtain information related to these recordings.

Al-Abbasi said that some members of the team had previously told him that the children appearing in the recordings were not his sister's children, before later data emerged that led the family to believe that the children who appeared in the videos were indeed Rania Al-Abbasi's sons.

Researchers' response

The investigative team that revealed the details of the Tadamon massacre, represented by Syrian researcher Ansar Shahoud and Dutch-Turkish academic Ugur Ümit Üngür, issued a statement on May 31 to refute the accusations leveled against the team in the case of handing over the evidence in the case of Rania al-Abbasi's children.

The Panel confirmed that it had not concealed any evidence or information regarding the victims of the massacre, and that the task of identifying the victims rested with the competent judicial authorities, not the researchers.

In the statement, the team said that misinformation and rumors circulating on social media hinder access to truth and justice, calling  for relying on published research materials on the solidarity massacre instead of undocumented information or what it described as "conspiracy theories."

Claims Rights Claims

Human rights activists called for the competent Syrian authorities to be able to access the video materials related to the case, in order to help identify the victims and complete investigations related to the crimes of enforced disappearance.

Syrian human rights activist Mansour al-Omari called on the authorities concerned with the file of missing persons and transitional justice to obtain and analyze all videos and information related to the Tadamon massacre, considering that these materials may include additional evidence of serious crimes committed during the years of conflict.

The case of Rania al-Abbasi's children became the focus of a wide controversy, after the Syrian Ministry of Interior announced the existence of evidence pointing to the death of the children, and announced that preliminary investigations showed the involvement of former officer Amjad Youssef in the case, with investigations continuing to uncover the circumstances of the crime and identify those responsible.