Syria has opened its main prison in Damascus to the Red Cross, the organisation said on Monday, a move that could help reveal the fate of some of the thousands detained since the start of a five-month uprising. The International Committee of the Red Cross said its officials visited detainees in the central prison in the Damascus suburb of Adra in an "important step forward" to fulfil its humanitarian activities in Syria.
"The Syrian authorities have granted the ICRC access to a place of detention for the first time. Initially, we will have access to persons detained by the Ministry of the Interior and we are hopeful that we will soon be able to visit all detainees," ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said in a statement issued at the end of a two-day visit to Damascus. The announcement came as Syrian forces launched their biggest sweep against popular unrest in Syria's north-west near Turkey since June, killing a civilian in raids that have galvanised the West against President Bashar al-Assad.
British Prime Minister David Cameron told parliament Assad had lost all legitimacy, joining the United States, France and other European countries that have said he must leave for Syria to become a democracy after four decades of autocratic rule. Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby will visit Syria on Wednesday, Egypt's news agency MENA reported on Monday.
Elaraby had said the visit would be used to pass on Arab worries about the Syrian authorities' violent crackdown on protests against Assad's rule. Human rights campaigners say Syrian forces have arrested tens of thousands of people since the uprising demanding political freedom and an end to 41 years of Assad family rule erupted in March, with many being housed in security police buildings off limits to the ICRC, whose reports are not public.
They say a reported defection of the attorney general of the city of Hama, which was attacked by the military last month, could reveal details of human rights abuses, including shootings and torture of prisoners, which have intensified in the last month as protests spread.