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A Syrian woman whose grandfather, father and two brothers were detained by the army almost 12 years ago has told the BBC it is “devastating” that her loved ones are still missing, despite the country’s most famous prison being emptied.
“Now, miles away from the most brutal prison, we are huddled around screens, our hearts suspended between hope and despair,” Hiba Abdulhakim Qasawaad, a 24-year-old from the city of Homs, told the program. Today from BBC Radio 4.
“We are scanning every face in the images, looking for traces of our loved ones. This is the only thing we can do.”
On Sunday, as rebel forces stormed the country’s capital and declared the end of Bashar al-Assad’s rule, families rushed to Saydnaya prison on the outskirts of Damascus, where political opponents reportedly They were held, tortured and executed.
But now that rescuers are ending their search for possible detainees at the prison, some families are facing renewed anguish.
“Now freedom rings like a bell too loud for ears accustomed to silence,” said Ms. Qasawaad.
“Now, with our hearts racing, we have this anticipation, joy and pain as we wait for the moment when we can finally hold them, free at last, but I don’t know if we will be able to see them again, because now we are torn between finding answers and never knowing anything. “
Mrs Qasawaad was 12 years old when she watched soldiers take her male family members from their home in the middle of the night on January 28, 2013. They were among 48 members of her family captured in a raid, she said.
Another of his brothers had already died fighting Assad’s army in 2012, he said, during a civil war that broke out after the Arab Spring protests in 2011.
“There are no words to describe the overwhelming anguish that consumed us in that moment,” he said.
She has not seen her male relatives since, but the freed prisoners said they heard their names from inside Saydnaya, she said.
His grandfather, who was born in 1939, would now be elderly, while his father was born in 1962, and his brothers in 1989 and 1994.
Qasawaad stated that after the fall of the Assad government and the release of the prisoners, his family feels “a mixture of laughter and tears.”
“We don’t know what will happen next, all we can do is keep looking,” he said. “We hope to have this spark of happiness in our lives again, because she was taken away the day she was taken away.”
