UN: Syria prison attack shows need to deal with ISIL detainees

Men, women and children with alleged ISIL links held in Syrian prisons ‘have never been charged with a crime, yet remain in prolonged detention, uncertain of their fate’, UN official says.

A Syrian Democratic Forces soldier points a gun outside a prison while in clash with the ISIL fighters in Hasakeh
A Syrian Democratic Forces soldier fires a weapon outside the prison during clashes with ISIL fighters in Hassakeh last week [North Press Agency Digital via Reuters]

The attack by ISIL (ISIS) on a Syrian prison holding 3,000 of its fighters and about 700 children is a predictable tragedy spotlighting the need for urgent international action, a United Nations official said.

The deadly siege underscores that efforts must be made to deal with those allegedly linked to the armed group in prisons and camps in the country’s northeast, UN Under-Secretary-General Vladimir Voronkov told the Security Council on Thursday.

ISIL “has been highlighting and calling for jail breaks” and “there have been previous instances in Syria and elsewhere in the world”, Voronkov, the UN’s counterterrorism chief, said.

Most of the men, women and children with alleged links to ISIL who are held in Syrian prisons and camps “have never been charged with a crime, yet remain in prolonged detention, uncertain of their fate”, he added.

Using the Arabic acronym for ISIL, Voronkov said: “It is a reminder also of why Daesh continues to embed itself in Syria.”

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned the ISIL threat is growing, including in Syria where Voronkov said it is organised in small cells “hiding in desert and rural areas, while they move across the border between Iraq and Syria to avoid capture”.

The latest attack at the al-Sina’a prison, located in the northeastern city of Hassakeh, was the biggest since the fall of the group’s “caliphate” that once spanned significant parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2019.

Voronkov said the fighting also affected the civilian population and resulted in the escape of an unknown number of fighters.

‘Break the cycle of violence’

US-backed Kurdish forces said on Wednesday they had taken control of the last section of the prison controlled by ISIL and freed a number of child detainees they said had been used as human shields, but Voronkov said the fighting was “ongoing”.

The counterterrorism chief said he was “appalled” by reports that children, who should never have been held in military detention, were used as human shields.

“Although the group’s barbarism should come as no surprise, these children have been left prey to be used and abused in this way,” he said.

Voronkov reiterated his call for countries to repatriate alleged ISIL fighters and their families in prisons and camps in northeastern Syria.

“The repatriation of third-country nationals from Syria and Iraq remains a major priority for the United Nations and we stand ready as a reliable partner to member states in responding to these challenges,” he said. “Daesh’s attempts to break its fighters freed from prison underlines the need to bring them to justice as soon as possible, and ensure accountability to break the cycle of violence.”

UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen told the Security Council on Wednesday the ISIL prison attack “brings back terrible memories of the prison breaks that fuelled the original rise of ISIL in 2014 and 2015”.

“I see this as a clear message to use all of the importance of uniting to combat the threat of internationally proscribed terrorist groups – and to resolve the broader conflict in which terrorism inevitably thrives,” Pedersen said.

‘Looting oil’

Russia called for the briefing on the prison attack and its deputy ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, accused the United States of saying it abides by international humanitarian law, which calls for protection of civilians in armed conflicts, but using its air force and armoured vehicles to clear the prison of ISIL fighters.

He said the United States ignored “measures to protect civilians” at the prison and elsewhere, including US air strikes in Baghouz, Syria in March 2019 that he said killed at least 80 civilians.

Polyanskiy also accused the US of illegally occupying Syria’s northeast and “looting oil”.

US Deputy Ambassador Richard Mills countered, accusing Russia of turning the council meeting “into a rhetoric-driven mass of disinformation and – frankly – lies about the US role in Syria”. He said American forces are in the northeast as part of a coalition “for the sole purpose of continuing the fight” against ISIL.

He said the Baghouz attacks are under investigation by the US Defense Department in response to media reporting, stressing if there were a similar Russian air strike that tragically killed civilians “there would be no independent press to report on it, since there is very little Russian opposition available to raise the issue”.

Mills said the prison attack in Hassakeh underscores the threat ISIL continues to pose in Syria as well as the risk of holding ISIL detainees “in makeshift facilities in the region indefinitely”.

He called on member states to support efforts by the coalition to ensure detainees “are safely and humanely housed in accordance with international standards”.

Source: News Agencies