Syrian fighter pilot Ragheed Tatari was 26 when he was arrested. Now 70, the country’s longest-serving political prisoner is finally free after Bashar al-Assad’s fall, seeking justice and accountability.Tatari, arrested in 1981 and sentenced to life behind bars, was among scores of prisoners who walked free when longtime ruler Assad was overthrown on December 8 in an Islamist-led offensive.He has made it out alive after 43 years in jail, but tens of thousands of Syrian families are still searching for their loved ones who disappeared long ago in Syria’s hellish prison system.”I came close to death under torture,” Tatari told AFP in his small Damascus apartment.Since a military field court gave him a life sentence for “collaborating with foreign countries” — an accusation he denies — Tatari was moved from one prison to another, first under late president Hafez al-Assad and then his son Bashar who succeeded him in 2000.Showing old pictures of him in his pilot uniform, Tatari said he was not seeking revenge, but stressed that “everyone must be held accountable for their crimes”.”We do not want anyone to be imprisoned” without due process, said Tatari.More than two million Syrians were jailed under the Assad dynasty’s rule, half of them after anti-government protests in 2011 escalated into civil war, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.The Britain-based monitor says around 200,000 died in custody.Diab Serriya, co-founder of the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Saydnaya Prison, said that Tatari was “the longest-serving political prisoner in Syria and the Middle East”.Rights group Amnesty International has called the notorious Saydnaya prison outside Damascus a “human slaughterhouse”.Tatari had been detained there, but he said his 15 years in the Palmyra prison in the Syrian desert were the most difficult.- ‘Wished for death’ -The Palmyra facility operated “without any discipline, any laws and any humanity”, Tatari said.Detainees were “not afraid of torture — we wished for death”, he added.”Everything that has been said about torture in Palmyra… is an understatement.””A guard could kill a prisoner if he was displeased with him,” Tatari said, adding that inmates were forced under torture to say phrases like “Hafez al-Assad is your god”, although he refused to do so.In 1980, Palmyra witnessed a massacre of hundreds of mostly Islamist detainees, gunned down by helicopters or executed in their cells after a failed assassination attempt on Hafez al-Assad.Tatari said he was completely disconnected from the outside world there, only learning of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union through a prisoner who had returned from a hospital visit.In Sweida prison in the south, where Tatari was transferred after the 2011 revolt began, some inmates had phones that they would keep hidden from the guards.”The cell phone gets you out of prison, it makes you feel alive,” he said, recalling how he used to conceal his device in a hole dug in his cell.But after his phone was discovered, he was transferred to a prison in Tartus — his final detention facility before gaining freedom.- Dreams of escape -Tatari was one of several military officers who were opposed to Syria’s intervention in Lebanon in 1976, and to the violent repression in the early 1980s of the Muslim Brotherhood, Syria’s main opposition force at the time.”Many of us were against involving the army in political operations,” he said.After two of his fellow pilots defected and fled to Jordan in 1980, he escaped to Egypt and then on to Jordan.But he returned when security forces began harassing his family and was arrested on arrival.His wife was pregnant at the time with their first and only son.For years, the family assumed Tatari was dead, before receiving a proof of life in 1997 after paying bribes, a common practice under the Assads’ rule.It was then that Tatari was finally able to meet his son, then aged 16, under the watchful eye of guards during the family’s first authorised prison visit that year.”I was afraid… I ended the meeting after 15 minutes,” Tatari said.His wife has since died and their son left Syria, having received threats at the start of the protest movement, which had spiralled into war and eventually led to Assad’s overthrow.During his time behind bars, Tatari said he “used to escape prison with my thoughts, daydreams and drawing”.”The regime getting toppled overnight was beyond my dreams… No one expected it to happen so quickly.”

UN Security Council members criticized the United States Wednesday after it vetoed a resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza, which Washington said undermined ongoing diplomacy.It was the 15-member body’s first vote on the situation since November, when the United States — a key Israeli ally — also blocked a text calling for an end to fighting. “Today, the United States sent a strong message by vetoing a counterproductive UN Security Council resolution on Gaza targeting Israel,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement after Wednesday’s 14 to 1 vote.He said Washington would not support any text that “draws a false equivalence between Israel and Hamas, or disregards Israel’s right to defend itself. “The United States will continue to stand with Israel at the UN.”The draft resolution had demanded “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza respected by all parties.”It also called for the “immediate, dignified and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups,” and demanded the lifting of all restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.Hamas, whose unprecedented attack inside Israel on October 7, 2023 sparked the war, condemned the “disgraceful” US veto, reiterating accusations of “genocide” in Gaza, something Israel vehemently rejects.The veto “marks a new stain on the ethical record of the United States of America,” the group said in a statement, accusing Washington of “legitimizing genocide, supporting aggression, and rationalizing starvation, destruction, and mass killings.”- ‘Moral stain’ -Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN Asim Ahmad meanwhile said the failed resolution would “remain not only a moral stain on the conscience of this council, but a fateful moment of political application that will reverberate for generations.” China’s ambassador to the UN Fu Cong said: “today’s vote result once again exposes that the root cause of the council’s inability to quell the conflict in Gaza is the repeated obstruction by the US.”The veto marks Washington’s first such action since US President Donald Trump took office in January.Israel has faced mounting international pressure to end its war in Gaza. That scrutiny has increased over flailing aid distribution in Gaza, which Israel blocked for more than two months before allowing a small number of UN vehicles to enter in mid-May. The United Nations, which warned last month the entire population in the besieged Palestinian territory was at risk of famine, said trickle was far from enough to meet the humanitarian needs. – ‘Judged by history’ -“The Council was prevented from shouldering its responsibility, despite the fact that most of us seem to be converging on one view,” said France’s ambassador to the UN Jerome Bonnafont.Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, said after the Security Council vote he would now ask the General Assembly to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire.Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon however said that the Palestinian plan to put the resolution to a vote at the General Assembly, where no country can veto it, was pointless, telling countries “don’t waste more of your energy.””This resolution doesn’t advance humanitarian relief and undermines it. It ignores a working system in favor of political agendas,” he said.”The United Nations must return to its original purpose—promoting peace and security—and stop these performative actions,” Rubio said.

A US- and Israeli-backed group operating aid sites in Gaza pushed back the reopening of its facilites set for Thursday, as the Israeli army warned that roads leading to distribution centres were “considered combat zones”.The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) closed its aid distribution centres after a string of deadly incidents near sites it operates that drew sharp condemnation from the United Nations.Israeli bombardment on Wednesday killed at least 48 people across the Gaza Strip, including 14 in a single strike on a tent sheltering displaced people, the civil defence agency said.A day earlier, the civil defence and the International Committee of the Red Cross said 27 people were killed when Israeli troops opened fire near a GHF site in southern Gaza. The military said the incident was under investigation.Britain called for an “immediate and independent investigation”, echoing a demand from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.UK Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer said the deaths of Palestinians as they sought food were “deeply disturbing”, calling Israel’s new measures for aid delivery “inhumane”.Israel recently eased its blockade of Gaza, but the United Nations says the territory’s entire population remains at risk of famine.- UN vote -The GHF originally said it was closing aid distribution sites in Gaza on Wednesday for “renovation” and that they would reopen Thursday.But the group said late Wednesday that its facilities would not open at the regular time Thursday, without clarifying when they would resume service.”Our distribution sites will not open early tomorrow morning as in previous days due to ongoing maintenance and repair work,” it wrote on social media.”We will share information about opening times as soon as work is complete.”The Israeli army warned against travelling “on roads leading to the distribution centres, which are considered combat zones”.The GHF said it was working to made aid distribution “as safe as possible” and urged those travelling to its sites to “follow the routes designated” by the Israeli army.The GHF, officially a private effort with opaque funding, began operations a week ago. The UN and major aid groups have declined to work with it, citing concerns it serves Israeli military goals.Israeli authorities and the GHF, which uses contracted US security, have denied allegations the army shot at civilians rushing to pick up aid packages.Food shortages in Gaza have propelled fresh international calls for an end to the war, but a truce between Israel and Hamas remains elusive.The United States, Israel’s key ally, used its veto power at the UN Security Council on Wednesday to block a resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US President Donald Trump, posting on social media: “That is the only way to destroy the Hamas terrorists” holding hostages in Gaza.Hamas condemned the veto as “disgraceful” and accused Washington of “legitimising genocide” in Gaza.- ‘War crime’ -The Israeli military maintains that its forces do not prevent Gazans from collecting aid.Army spokesperson Effie Defrin said the Israeli soldiers had fired towards suspects who “were approaching in a way that endangered” the troops.UN human rights chief Volker Turk called attacks against civilians “unconscionable”, and said they “constitute a grave breach of international law and a war crime”.The International Committee of the Red Cross meanwhile said Gazans face an “unprecedented scale and frequency of recent mass casualty incidents”.- Activists’ boat -Scenes of hunger in Gaza have also sparked fresh solidarity with Palestinians, and a boat organised by an international activist coalition was sailing toward Gaza, aiming to deliver aid.The boat from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition departed Sicily on Sunday carrying a dozen people, including environmental activist Greta Thunberg, along with fruit juices, milk, tinned food and protein bars.Israel’s military said it stood ready to “protect” the country’s maritime space, with army spokesman Defrin saying “we are prepared” to handle the flotilla, without elaborating.In response, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said it “strongly condemns Israel’s declared intent to attack” the boat, calling it a “threat”.Israel has stepped up its offensive in Gaza in what it says is a renewed push to defeat the Palestinian group Hamas, whose October 2023 attack sparked the war.The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 4,335 people have been killed since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,607, mostly civilians.Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.The army said three of its soldiers had been killed in northern Gaza, bringing the number of Israeli troops killed in the territory since the start of the war to 424.burs-lba/acc/ami/jhb/cms/dhw