Of immediate and further concern

Exchanges of prisoners by the Damascus government and the opposition seems to be viewed by many involved in the Syrian conflict as assuming high priority, so much so that Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Secretary of State John Kerry referred to it during their last week’s one-on-one talks in Moscow.

This issue is going to figure highly in the third round of talks intended to build confidence, envisioned to be held between the Damascus regime and the opposition, alongside measures like extending more humanitarian aid and maintaining the ceasefire.

The opposition repeatedly raised this subject in past peace talks, with little success.

Amnesty International says that at least 65,000 people have “forcibly disappeared” at the hands of the Assad regime since March 2011 when the initially peaceful demonstrations morphed into a full-blown civil war that killed hundreds of thousands and rendered millions refugees.

There is no credible information about the number of detainees held by the opposition, but they could be as many as those held by the government.

The next round of peace talks on Syria is scheduled to resume in Geneva on April 9.

Much hope is pinned on it resulting in the implementation of as many confidence-building measures as possible.

At least on one thing the parties involved in talks seem to have reached consensus: that the exchange of detainees must begin with children, women and the injured, the more vulnerable groups of people who need not be made to suffer more than they already did over the past five years.

The UN is expected to appoint a specialist to oversee the exchange of prisoners, expected to happen in a discreet manner, with neither side mentioning the names of people they want released for fear that this would put them in greater jeopardy.

The immediate concern is how to keep the fragile “ceasefire” respected by the two sides.

Here once again Moscow and Washington, who seem to be running the show in Syria, appear determined to have it observed to the fullest degree possible, and that is a good sign.

The April meeting, however, is bound to give the best indication of where the situation in Syria is heading.