Sectarian Kidnapping rises in Damascus, 3 girls for past 48 hours

 Three girls had been kidnapped in Damascus during the past 24 hours, source affirmed to Zaman Alwasl.

 The head-scarfed sisters were kidnapped in different time during the day and from different places, what raise questions about systematic kidnapping in Syria and not randomly anymore.

The first two sisters  were kidnapped while taking a taxi at the Abbasids Square in central Damascus, while the third was kidnapped in a neighborhood of the Old Damascus.

Peter N. Bouckaert, the Geneva-based emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, explained to Syria Deeply, digital media project, the sudden rise in kidnappings across Syria.

  The kidnappings have been going on for about a year, it’s really intensified. It started mostly when fighting broke out in Aleppo, and developed and grown since then into a broader trend across many parts of Syria, and also spilling into neighboring countries. A couple different kinds of kidnapping take place.

This kind of Kidnapping is more sectarian in nature, “tit for tat” kidnappings between different sides. So a Sunni will get kidnapped by Alawites or Shia, and his relatives will go kidnap Alawites or Shia, hold them hostage and try to make an exchange. We’ve especially seen that in the Lebanese border area. Bouckaert said.

 Kidnappers in Syria are targeting specific people in the community who they knew had a specific amount of wealth or standing in the community.

  In general, instability is on the rise in Syria, and these kidnappings are part of this instability. Kidnappings are a part of the dangers that civilians in general face in this conflict. In cities like Aleppo, the kidnappings for ransom that are taking place have very significantly undermined support for the opposition. Because in general, civilians are very fearful of these kinds of kidnappings, especially people with wealth.  Assad’s regime was known for brutality, but this kind of insecurity didn’t exist for wealthy business people. They knew if they stayed out of politics, they could live secure lives.

Ransom really depends on the individuals involved. Some kidnappings are for relatively small amounts of money, a few grand, but it can go much higher than that. The kidnappers tend to know the wealth of their victims. They have a pretty good idea of which families are able to pay.