“Don’t wait for her,” the WhatsApp caller warned Alawite woman Abeer Suleiman’s family on May 21, just hours after she disappeared from the streets of Safita in Syria. “She’s not coming back.”
Suleiman’s kidnapper and another man who identified himself as an intermediary said in subsequent calls and messages that the 29-year-old woman would be killed or trafficked into slavery unless her relatives paid them a ransom of $15,000.
“I am not in Syria,” Suleiman herself told her family in a call on May 29 from the same phone number used by her captor, which had an Iraqi country code. “All the accents around me are strange.”
Reuters reviewed the call, which the family recorded, along with about a dozen calls and messages sent by the abductor and intermediary, who had a Syrian phone number.
Dozens Of Alawite Women Missing
Suleiman is among at least 33 women and girls from Syria’s Alawite sect – aged between 16 and 39 – who have been abducted or gone missing this year in the turmoil following the fall of Bashar al-Assad, according to the families of all of them.
The overthrow of the widely feared president in December after 14 years of civil war unleashed a furious backlash against the Muslim minority community to which he belongs, with armed factions affiliated with the current government turning on Alawite civilians in their coastal heartlands in March, killing hundreds of people.
Since March, social media has seen a steady stream of messages and video clips posted by families of missing Alawite women appealing for information about them, with new cases cropping up almost daily, according to a Reuters review, which found no online accounts of women from other sects vanishing.
The U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria told Reuters it is investigating the disappearances and alleged abductions of Alawite women following a spike in reports this year. The commission, set up in 2011 to probe rights violations after the civil war broke out, will report to the U.N. Human Rights Council once the investigations are concluded, a spokesperson said.
Suleiman’s family borrowed from friends and neighbours to scrape together her $15,000 ransom, which they transferred to three money-transfer accounts in the Turkish city of Izmir on May 27 and 28 in 30 transfers ranging from $300 to $700, a close relative told Reuters, sharing the transaction receipts.
Once all money was delivered as instructed, the abductor and intermediary ceased all contact, with their phones turned off, the relative said. Suleiman’s family still have no idea what’s become of her.
Demands For Ransoms
Detailed interviews with the families of 16 of the missing women and girls found that seven of them are believed to have been kidnapped, with their relatives receiving demands for ransoms ranging from $1,500 to $100,000. Three of the abductees – including Suleiman – sent their families text or voice messages saying they’d been taken out of the country.
There has been no word on the fate of the other nine. Eight of the 16 missing Alawites are under the age of 18, their families said.
Reuters reviewed about 20 text messages, calls and videos from the abductees and their alleged captors, as well as receipts of some ransom transfers, though it was unable to verify all parts of the families’ accounts or determine who might have targeted the women or their motives.
All 33 women disappeared in the governorates of Tartous, Latakia and Hama, which have large Alawite populations. Nearly half have since returned home, though all of the women and their families declined to comment about the circumstances, with most citing security fears.
Families Allege Negligence
Most of the families interviewed by Reuters said they felt police didn’t take their cases seriously when they reported their loved ones missing or abducted, and that authorities failed to investigate thoroughly.
The Syrian government didn’t respond to a request for comment for this article.
Ahmed Mohammed Khair, a media officer for the governor of Tartous, dismissed any suggestion that Alawites were being targeted and said most cases of missing women were down to family disputes or personal reasons rather than abductions, without presenting evidence to support this.
“Women are either forced into marrying someone they won’t want to marry, so they run away, or sometimes they want to draw attention by disappearing,” he added and warned that “unverified allegations” could create panic and discord and destabilise security.
A media officer for Latakia governorate echoed Khair’s comments, saying that in many cases, women elope with their lovers and families fabricate abduction stories to avoid the social stigma.
The media officer of Hama governorate declined to comment.
A member of a fact-finding committee set up by new Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to investigate the mass killings of Alawites in coastal areas in March, declined to comment on the cases of missing women.
Al-Sharaa denounced the sectarian bloodshed as a threat to his mission to unite the ravaged nation and has promised to punish those responsible, including those affiliated with the government, if necessary.
(With inputs from Reuters)
