A/HRC/28/69 October, soldiers at a checkpoint near Tadmor in the eastern Homs countryside arrested a man hailing from a neighbourhood of Homs city that had, earlier in the conflict, been supportive of the armed groups. The man was forced to disembark a company bus which was carrying employees to work. He has since disappeared. In early October, a man, travelling with his wife and four children for the Eid holiday, was arrested at Al-Massafi checkpoint, a few kilometres west of Hama city. 110. Government forces have carried out arbitrary arrest in violation of international human rights law. D. 1. Enforced disappearance Government forces 111. There was a surge in reports of enforced disappearance, both from family members of the disappeared and from victims who have since reappeared. While many of the initial arrests or abductions took place outside of the reporting period, the disappearances are ongoing. It is a continuous violation that remains unabated until the fate of the disappeared is uncovered. 112. The majority of disappearances documented in this reporting period occurred in Damascus and Rif Damascus governorates. In May 2014, two students were arrested a Government military checkpoint between Dara and Damascus cities. Their families visited various Intelligence branches in an effort to determine their whereabouts but received no information. In August 2013, a man from a restive neighbourhood of Homs city was arrested at a checkpoint outside of Damascus city while travelling with his wife and children. When his family protested, the soldiers ordered them to leave, saying that they would not see their father again. The man’s fate and whereabouts remain unknown. Another man, whose brother-in-law and cousin disappeared in separate incidents in 2013 in Damascus city, stated that the family had made inquiries with official sources but had received no information. The interviewee stated that he now moves as little as possible, minimising the possibility of being stopped at checkpoints. 113. Government forces were also documented as having ‘disappeared’ persons, mainly men 15 to 60 years of age, in Dara’a, Homs, Hama, Dayr az Zawr and Latakia governorates. A trader was detained at an army checkpoint in June 2013 while travelling from Jadia to Sanamayn (Dara’a). The man’s family attempted to locate him through official channels and personal contacts and were not successful. Near identical accounts of male relatives being detained and not heard from again were received from locations across Syria. 114. As previously documented by the commission, many families continued to be too afraid to approach the authorities to inquire about the whereabouts of their loved ones. One interviewee, whose 72 years-old father was taken at an army checkpoint on his way to Damascus in August 2014, explained that she did not dare inquire about his fate: “I fear for the life of my father but at the same time I feel helpless”. In the majority of cases, this fear is well-founded. Interviewees explained that, in some instances, individuals who reported a disappearance were themselves detained. 115. The desperation of families to know the truth about the fate of their loved ones nourishes a lucrative business of extortion. Some relatives pay bribes to lawyers, who often falsely, claimed they could provide information. In some cases, families were defrauded of very large sums of money. One interviewee stated that she sold her car and spent 300,000 Syrians pounds in an attempt to gain information on the fate of her son, who disappeared at a checkpoint in Aleppo, in September 2012. 40