United Nations investigators on crimes in Syria revealed that the fate of tens of thousands of those who were arbitrarily arrested or forcibly disappeared, by the government and opposition organizations, remains unknown, describing the case as a national trauma that will affect the Syrian society for decades.

The latest report of these investigators, which was commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council, yesterday, Monday, indicated that some detainees were subjected to torture, rape or murder, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In their report, the investigators shed light again in detail on the crimes of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad against his people, noting that the fate of tens of thousands of forcibly disappeared civilians 10 years ago is unknown.

It contains many testimonies about the atrocities committed, including against a 14-year-old boy whose body was covered with bruises as a result of beatings and was bleeding from his ears, eyes and nose before fainting after being hit in the head with the butt of a rifle, and a young woman who was raped by government forces, where the most difficult thing was His "is a psychological pain."

A statement quoted Karen Koning AbuZayd, one of the three commissioners in charge of preparing this report, "It appears that attention has been focused on ways to cover up the crimes committed in detention centers, not to investigate them."

The report concludes that all these human rights violations were "carried out with the knowledge and approval of the governments supporting the various parties to the conflict," calling on them to stop doing so.

The investigators called for the establishment of an international mechanism to locate the missing or their remains, and to prosecute those who committed these crimes.

The report is based on 2,500 interviews conducted over a period of 10 years, and investigations conducted in about 100 detention centers and included "all the parties that have controlled the territories in Syria since 2011."

The report is due to be presented to the Human Rights Council on March 11th, where it will be discussed by members.

Feasibility of reports

When asked about the feasibility of this type of reports with regard to parties that do not care about public opinion, Commissioner Hani Megali explained that 60 judicial authorities had contacted the committee to request assistance in about 300 files.

Committee Chairman Paulo Sergio Pinheiro believes that the Syrian authorities are reading these reports with interest in order to refute them only, but "what is important to us is that the victims apparently appreciate what we are doing, and this is very important."

Investigators welcomed a ruling issued by a court in the German city of Koblenz last week to 4.5 years in prison for a former member of Assad's security apparatus for participating in torturing civilians in the first such verdict for crimes against humanity in the 10-year civil war.

Last week, investigators said that they had provided information to the competent authorities regarding more than 60 criminal cases, and that their reports used evidence in the Koblenz trial.

The Assad government has denied several previous UN accusations of war crimes, saying it does not torture prisoners.