Reports | 25 05 2020
The “Freedom Bus” was launched in the Belgian capital Brussels, in parallel with the Brussels Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region, where Rozana met with the families of detainees and victims who went out on the “Freedom Bus” to demand the release of their family members who have been forcibly disappeared in Syria.
The Freedom Bus stopped in Brussels near the European Parliament building during the Brussels III Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region to convey a message to the decision-makers and demanded the release of detainees in the jails of the conflicting parties in Syria and their families’ eagerness to know about their fate. The Bus also called to hold those who committed crimes against humanity accountable.
“Families for Freedom” Movement has been organizing the “Freedom Bus”, which was launched in November 2017 in London, and moved between several cities and European countries, carrying pictures of detainees in Syria and banners that say "Freedom for the Detainees."
Maryam al-Halaq, head of the “Caesar Families Association”, said in an interview with Rozana that: "she went out on the Freedom Bus to demand the release of all detainees from all the conflicting parties on Syrian territories."
Al-Halaq talked to Rozana about the death of her 25-year-old son, who was a doctor, by the Syrian regime’s forces. He was arrested at the University of Damascus while preparing for his Master's thesis. He was assaulted and tortured at the university and sent to Section 215, where they refused to take care of him or send him to hospital.
Al-Halaq added that her son died five days after arriving at Section 215, pointing out that she did not receive his death certificate only one year and five months later.
As for Noora, she told Rozana: "The Freedom Bus is what gives hope to my life, and with which I can still feel Basil did not die and that his case is still ongoing."
Noora explained that her husband Basil was arrested in 2012, two weeks before their marriage. They were married in prison in early 2013, and he was later executed in the military court in 2015.
Noora conveyed a message to EU officials through Rozana saying that EU meetings have not supported the Syrians for the past eight years, demanding a real political decision to put an end to all violations in Syria.
The Brussels Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region ended on Thursday in the European capital, Brussels, after a pledge by the participating countries to provide $ 7 billion to help Syrian refugees and their hosting countries, allocating $ 2.3 billion for 2020.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor warned last month that the government of the Syrian regime will continue to remain silent about the fate of more than 118,000 civilians who have been arbitrarily detained or forcibly disappeared by the regime's forces since March 2011.