A/HRC/25/65 39. Those who dared to approach the authorities to inquire about a loved one faced a systematic refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared or to even acknowledge the deprivation of liberty. One survivor, who was arrested by pro-Government militias and Air Force Military Security officers in Latakia in July 2012, recalled the shock of his family upon his release, “No one informed my family about my detention; no one would dare ask the Air Force Military Security about their relatives. If you asked, no one would tell you.” A relative of a man arrested in Naime, Dara’a, in 2011 stated, “His mother searched everywhere, but received no information from anyone”. 40. The brother of a former Syrian Air Defence Force officer reported that after he decided to defect, in December 2011, his brother called his family expressing serious fears of being arrested or punished. This phone call was the last anyone heard of him. The interviewee explained that his family repeatedly approached all Syrian security services, including the Air Force Intelligence, the police, the army, and the state security services. He further described how they had to use intermediaries to approach the Air Force Intelligence, whose officers were instructed to fire upon anyone who came within 300 metres of their building. Despite the measures taken by the interviewee and his family, each security apparatus denied any knowledge of the arrest, detention or whereabouts of his brother. 41. A doctor who survived a disappearance in 2011 explained that after months of searching, his family managed to locate his place of detention. However, when they directly inquired to the authorities administering the detention facility, the authorities denied that their relative was held there. 42. In a revealing account, a man who defected from the Hama Air Force Intelligence at the end of 2012, described orders he received not to provide information about the whereabouts of detainees or to speak to their relatives. He added that cameras were placed at the gates of the Air Force Intelligence premises, to monitor the officers and deter them from speaking to families inquiring about their relatives. 43. In some instances, the families only discover the fate of the disappeared when their bodies are recovered or in a minority of cases, are returned to them. However, several accounts indicate that Government forces take deliberate steps to conceal the cause and circumstances of the death, violating the families’ right to truth. Interviewees who had lost families members consistently described how their bodies were returned by Government authorities without explanation. In April 2011, a child was arrested in Dara’a, and taken to an Air Force Intelligence facility in Damascus. His family searched for their son in hospitals to no avail, fearing that he had been detained or killed. His body, bearing extensive signs of torture, was returned to his family in June 2011. No information was provided about the grounds for his detention or the circumstances of his death. The father of a young activist, arrested by security forces in late July 2012 in Latakia and whose whereabouts were unknown, received a phone call eleven days after his son’s disappearance. He was asked to go to Damascus to recover the body of his son, who, he was told, had been killed in a car accident. The body bore traces of severe torture. C. The anguish 44. The heart of the anguish suffered by families lies in the authorities’ systematic refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or to disclose any information about the relatives. Across Syria, parents, siblings, husbands, wives, children and friends wait anxiously to know the fate or whereabouts of their loved ones. Not knowing whether the disappeared is still alive, and if so in what state of health and under which conditions, causes a level of grief impossible to convey. The secrecy surrounding the fate of the disappeared has the effect of intimidating and punishing families by leaving them in a state 42