Alaa Qasar last saw her father in 2013, before he was re-arrested by Bashar al-Assad’s security forces. She stared hard at his face, as if trying to memorize it, not knowing it would be the last time. Now, 11 years later, she continues her search for Moutaz Adnan Qasar, one of over 130,000 Syrians arrested and forcibly disappeared by the brutal Assad regime after peaceful protests began in 2011.
With the fall of Assad two weeks ago, families of the disappeared rushed to the notorious prisons as they were opened, desperately seeking their loved ones. But for most, like 29-year-old Alaa, a secretary in Damascus, the nightmare of uncertainty continues. “They told us he would come back the next day but he didn’t,” she recounted. “They said he was talking to terrorists, but he wasn’t talking to anyone. He would just go to work and then come home.”
A Relentless Search
For 11 years, Alaa pursued every lead to find her father. She spoke to lawyers, security officials, and even paid bribes to so-called “mediators” who claimed they could help – to no avail. Finally, a tip led her to believe Moutaz was held in the infamous Sednaya prison, the “human slaughterhouse” where inmates faced systematic torture, abuse and execution.
When rebels swept Syria and freed prisoners in recent weeks, Alaa allowed herself to hope. But her father did not emerge from Sednaya’s opened gates. Undeterred, she visited prison after prison, morgue after morgue, searching for any sign of Moutaz. Confronted with the emaciated bodies and torture scars of the deceased, she steeled herself to keep looking.
“It feels like a museum. I started to hope that I wouldn’t find my father between them, I didn’t want to see him like this.”
– Alaa Qasar
Grim Realities Emerge
As Syrians comb through the labyrinthine prison system for the disappeared, a horrific picture is emerging. Torture, starvation, and summary executions were systematic. Fadel Abdulghany of the Syrian Network for Human Rights estimates most of the disappeared were killed – a fact confirmed by a leaked regime database. Of over 130,000 arrested, only 31,000 have been released so far.
For Alaa, a devastating blow came when she found her father’s name in the leaked registry of deaths. “I won’t believe it until I see his body,” she insisted, clinging to faint hope. “We heard of a widow who remarried and her husband appeared on the day of her wedding.” But deep down, she knows the chances are vanishingly small.
No Closure for Many
Alaa is not alone in facing this agonizing uncertainty. Tens of thousands of Syrian families continue to search, confronting the staggering cruelty of the Assad regime with each opened cell and uncovered corpus. Even if remains are found, decades may pass before all are identified.
For now, Alaa soldiers on, bearing the burden of searching on behalf of her family. “I’m the eldest one, so I need to do this,” she explained through tears. “I don’t want my mother to see these people. So I’m alone in this search to find our missing.” Her father’s absence is an open wound, one shared by countless Syrians for whom the long road to healing and justice has only begun.
