International
BEIRUT — In a brutal four-year war that has ravaged Syria, left more than 220,000 Syrians dead and displaced millions of families, there is no shortage of harrowing stories of human suffering, despair and loss.
But for Marc Tice and Debra Tice of Houston, the conflict in distant Syria became very personal when it burst into their lives in August 2012 after their journalist son, Austin Tice, vanished while on assignment near Damascus, the Syrian capital.
Now, just over 1,000 days since Austin Tice disappeared, Debra Tice is in Beirut again — her fifth visit — calling on the Lebanese and Syrian governments to do more to secure the release of her son.
"We realize there is unbelievable misery all across the Levant and that my family’s anguish is only a drop in that horrific sea of human suffering. Our hearts are joined with those who are experiencing this terrible pain and loss. So, only as a mother, I am here asking for information and for help to find my son and bring him safely home," she said on Tuesday at a news conference in the Lebanese capital.
Austin Tice, 33, a former U.S. Marine who was in Syria reporting for McClatchy newspapers as well as freelancing for other outlets, including Al Jazeera and The Washington Post, was last heard from on August 13, 2012, when he informed colleagues he was leaving Daraya, near Damascus, for the Lebanon-Syria border.
The U.S. State Department has said it believes Tice is being held by Syrian authorities. The Syrian government has repeatedly denied any knowledge of Tice’s whereabouts.
A video emerged two months after his disappearance showing a blindfolded Tice being led up a rocky hillside in the company of armed men. Clearly distressed, Tice is heard uttering the Islamic affirmation of faith in Arabic before the film abruptly ends.
Still, analysts have expressed skepticism about the authenticity of the footage, noting that the clothing worn by the men is common to Afghanistan, not Syria, and that their delivery of an Islamic phrase was stilted and unconvincing.
The tape, some claim, appears to be an attempt to cast Syrian rebels as Tice's abductors.
"The Syrian government denies holding Austin, but we think it can help us bring him back safe and sound," said Christophe Deloire, the secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders, at the news conference.
Marc Tice and Debra Tice say they have been informed by "eminently credible" sources that Austin Tice is still alive and is in a safe place. However, it is not known exactly who is holding him and where, let alone why.
"I wish somebody would just say, 'Well we have him, and we would like you to pay us to get him back,'" said Mark Seibel, the chief of correspondents for McClatchy and Tice’s editor.
"It’s a very strange case … No one has come to us from the [Syrian] government or the rebels or some outside group and told us anything," said Seibel.
Debra Tice has appealed for anyone with knowledge of her son's whereabouts to contact the family through its website, via Reporters Without Borders or through the Lebanese media NGO Skeyes.
"Being alive and being well is important. Of course it is encouraging, but … I think I can keep him safer," Debra Tice told Al Jazeera America.
Traditionally, the U.S. refuses to negotiate with kidnappers and does not pay ransoms to secure the release of hostages. But U.S. hostage policy came in for criticism last year after the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant’s brutal slayings of kidnapped American journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley and aid worker Peter Kassig.
Another aid worker, Kayla Mueller, a fourth American citizen held by ISIL, is believed to have died during captivity.
Critics maintain that Washington could have done more to prevent the deaths of the hostages. In November the White House ordered a hostage policy review amid reports that families of hostages would no longer be prosecuted if they pay ransoms for the release of their loved ones.
The U.S. withdrew its ambassador to Syria in October 2011 and shut its embassy in Damascus four months later. Since then, U.S. interests have been represented by the Czech Embassy.
The State Department recently said it has had "periodic direct contact" with Syrian authorities regarding consular affairs, including discussions about the fate of Austin Tice. But the Tice family is urging the U.S. and Syrian governments to be more "regular and consistent" in their communications to lead to his return.
Syria is the most dangerous country in the world for journalists. According to Reporters Without Borders, 170 journalists have been killed in Syria since the conflict started in March 2011 with initially peaceful protests against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. An additional 25 reporters are being held by armed groups in Syria, and at least 30 are imprisoned by the Syrian government.
Debra Tice is hoping that her return to Beirut will trigger fresh developments. During her news conference, she asked whether those holding her son would be willing to allow a trusted individual, whom she did not identify, to meet with Austin Tice to verify his well-being.
Debra Tice said she hopes to stay in Beirut for a few weeks, conducting meetings with local officials and diplomats and anyone else who might be able to help.
"It's important to say I'm still looking, I still need help, and I think that I'm going to get more help from this side of the ocean and in this area than calling for help from so far away," she said.
Lebanese officials have sympathized with the plight of the Tice family, but Austin Tice's fate is set against the humanitarian disaster affecting Lebanon, with over 1 million Syrian refugees crammed into a country of little more than 4 million citizens.
Lebanon has been rocked by the violent spillover from the Syrian civil war, with suicide bombings and escalating tensions between Sunni and Shia groups. Shia fighters from Iranian-backed Hezbollah are battling Jabhat Al-Nusra (the Nusra Front) for control of mountains that straddle the Lebanon-Syria border.
Debra Tice said she remains focused on securing her son’s release. As a result, she has had little time to dwell on the anguish her family has suffered for nearly three years.
"I don’t think about coping. I will deal with coping once Austin gets home," she said.
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