THERE was a packed house on Thursday evening at Christchurch Ilkley Coffee Centre as 40 audience members, including MP John Grogan, came to listen to a presentation by Ellis Brooks, Country Coordinator for Syria, Amnesty UK, about “Syria’s Disappeared”; the hidden story of tens of thousands of men, women and children disappeared by the regime of President Bashar al Assad into a network of clandestine detention centres.

The presentation was based on a harrowing documentary by film makers Sara Afshar and Nicola Cutcher featuring survivors of torture and abuse, families of detainees murdered whilst in captivity, regime defectors and international war crime investigators as they fight to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The film highlighted how a human rights activist smuggled the names of fellow prisoners, written in their own blood, out of the detention centre on pieces of shirt fabric and to symbolise this, audience members were invited to write the names of the people still missing in Syria on pieces of old fabric to present to international embassies by Amnesty UK.

Sandra Duff from the Wharfedale Amnesty group said: “We were delighted to see such a large turn-out for this event. It’s important to raise awareness of the atrocities which are happening in plain sight in Syria.”

Ellis Brooks also said: “Syrian human rights activists are still fighting for justice for tens of thousands of their “disappeared”. Wharfedale Amnesty is joining with them to find the truth and to campaign for the release of those still held."

The Wharfedale Amnesty group meets every second Thursday of the month at 7.45pm at the Christchurch Coffee Centre in Ilkley and new members are always welcome. To find out more information, please contact Ed Carne on 01943 600612.