Bethnahrin National Council calls on international community to pressure Syrian regime to reveal fate of Saeed Malki

The Bethnahrin National Council (MUB) published a statement addressing the unlawful arrest of MUB and Syriac Union Party (SUP) official in Syria Saeed Malki. Malki was arrested on August 12, 2013, at Qamishli International Airport by Syrian regime security forces.

In its statement, MUB states that despite official requests from family and SUP officials on national and international level over the past eight years, it could not obtain any true information about Saeed Malki’s whereabouts and condition. It states that the Syrian regime, in line with the many crimes against its own citizens, tries to hide the truth by making up lies and falsifying documents.

The Bethnahrin National Council states that the Ba’ath Party, through its tyrannical rule and denial of the national identity of the Syriac people, is trying to sabotage and intimidate, by all available means, the national struggle of Syriacs with the final aim to end their existence in Syria.

The head of the regime of the Syrian Arab Republic, Bashar al-Assad, has made recent statements refusing to recognize the Syriac people as an authentic people, describing them as Christian Arabs. Such statements once again show the true face of the Syrian Ba’ath regime. The real policy of the regime lies in obliterating authentic peoples and creating a chauvinist Arab nation. This is known to the world.

In its statement, the Council stressed the need for the Syriac people to learn and be fully aware of this status-quo regime’s malicious and manipulative policies. The extent to which the Syriac people are able to really understand and reveal these policies, gives it the strength to defend its identity and national and constitutional rights. If not, they will be unable to break free from the captivity of these denialist and repressive policies of the Ba’ath regime. The Syriac people will then not be able to reach freedom and democracy in which its rights are fully recognized, MUB says.

The main objective now is to reveal the fate of Saeed Malki, who fought for the rights of Syriacs in Syria. The Syrian regime is held accountable and should be punished for all the crimes it has committed, and “this is why we ask our Syriac people at home and in the diaspora to hold responsible and demand accountability from the Syrian regime, to organize our ranks to achieve national unity, and decide with one national will and voice to end the dangers that threaten our people’s existence.”

At the end of its statement, the Bethnahrin National Council called on the international community, civil society and human rights organizations to put pressure on the Syrian regime to reveal the fate of Saeed Malki. MUB also called on the Syriac people to organize protests for the liberation of Saeed Malki and the kidnapped Syriac Orthodox Bishop of Aleppo Mor Gregorius Youhanna Ibrahim and Syriac Rum Bishop of Homs Mor Boulus Yaziji.