Security

Youth group accused of kidnapping minor in Hasakah: SOHR

"A woman appeared in a video footage on social media calling for bringing back her child showing a family document proving his real age."

Kurdistan 24 2022/01/30 15:36

Kurds demonstrate outside UN offices in northeastern Syria against the recruitment of teenage girls into Kurdish militias (Photo: Delil souleiman/AFP)

Syria Revolutionary Youth Movement PYD KNC

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) accused the Revolutionary Youth Movement of kidnapping a 14-year old boy in al-Hasakah city.

"A woman appeared in a video footage on social media calling for bringing back her child showing a family document proving his real age," SOHR said.

"The woman, who was speaking in Kurdish, said that her son and his friends volunteered to guard Al-Mufti neighbourhood during the dramatic developments in Ghuwayran prison in Al-Hasakah city, before he went missing three days ago."

SOHR said local sources have confirmed that the boy was kidnapped in front of the headquarters of the Revolutionary Youth Movement by unknown individuals in a car.

The human rights organization Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) revealed in a report published on Jan. 13 that the Revolutionary Youth Movement recruited 17 minors in northeastern Syria and Aleppo's northern countryside in October, November, and December 2021.

STJ said that the Tevgera Ciwanên Şoreşger (Revolutionary Youth Movement) was "established in 2011 and despite the founders' efforts to promote the group as an independent entity, it has been administratively affiliated with the Democratic Union Party (PYD)."

The STJ said that although the youth group supposedly organizes youth-aimed cultural, artistic, sport, and social events, "the RY has been associated with a wide range of (human rights) violations, including the recruitment of child soldiers."

The Kurdistan National Council (KNC), a PYD rival, has accused the group of attacks on its offices.

Moreover, according to the EU aid organization ECHO, the PYD-affiliated youth group also clashed with the "Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) security forces on Dec. 15", which led to the Faysh Khabur-Semalka border crossing closure.

The border has been fully reopened according to the Faysh Khabur (Peshkhabour) border management.