Syria Document: "Executions by Syrian Security Forces and Pro-Government Militias" (Human Rights Watch)

Bodies in Taftanaz, 5 April 2012The Summary of a 23-page report by Human Rights Watch, "In Cold Blood: Executions by Syrian Security Forces and Pro-Government Militias", released on Monday:

Syrian security forces have summarily executed scores, and possibly hundreds, of civilians and opposition fighters during their intensified offensive on cities and towns since December 2011.

This report is based on more than 30 interviews with witnesses to executions whom Human Rights Watch interviewed in person or over the phone. It documents the involvement of Syrian forces and pro-government shabeeha militias in summary and extrajudicial executions of defecting soldiers, opposition fighters, and opposition supporters, as well as civilians who appeared to have had no part in the confrontation with the authorities other than being residents of opposition strongholds.

In this report we regard as extrajudicial executions the Syrian security forces’ killing of people whom they were detaining or otherwise controlling at the time of the killing and who posed no conceivable threat to them. Hundreds of other Syrians have died as a result of Syrian government forces’ artillery attacks on residential areas, sniper fire, and denial of medical assistance.

The exact number of victims of summary and extrajudicial executions is impossible to verify given the difficulties of accessing and evaluating the information from Syria. In this report, Human Rights Watch has documented 12 cases of executions in Idlib and Homs governorates, some involving scores of victims. Human Rights Watch has received additional reports of many more such incidents, but included in this report only those cases where researchers personally interviewed witnesses to the incidents.

For some of the incidents, Human Rights Watch interviewed separately several witnesses who provided similar, detailed accounts of the executions. In three of the cases there is also video or photo evidence that support the eyewitness accounts. We have also included in this report cases that are based on interviews with one witness when we found the witness to be credible and when other aspects of their accounts were independently verified. These cases should be investigated further. 

In cases documented by Human Rights Watch, at least 85 victims were described by witnesses as residents who did not take part in the fighting, including women and children. The report describes in detail several cases of mass executions of local residents, including the killing of at least 13 men at the Bilal mosque in Idlib on March 11, 2012; the execution of at least 25 men during a search and arrest operation in the Sultaniya neighborhood of Homs on March 3, 2012; and the killings of at least 47 people, mainly women and children, in the `Adwiyya, Karm al-Zaytoun and Refa`i neighborhoods of Homs on March 11-12, 2012.

In these cases, Syrian security forces, operating alone or together with pro-government shabeehamilitias, captured and executed people who were trying to escape as the army took over their towns, shot or stabbed people in their homes as they entered the captured towns, or executed detained residents while conducting house searches.

For example, “Louai,” one of the residents who stayed in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs after the army took it over, described the execution of his brother and four of his neighbors on March 2. Louai said that the army first entered his neighbors’ house, dragged the four men who were there out of the house, and slaughtered them with knives in front of their families. The soldiers then came into Louai’s house, and, when he and his brother raised their hands, shot at them both, injuring Louai and killing his brother.

As with other witnesses in this report, Human Rights Watch is not using Louai’s real name, to protect him against possible reprisals.

Human Rights Watch also documented the execution of at least 16 opposition fighters whom the Syrian security forces shot at point blank range after they had been captured or wounded, raising concerns that the army had adopted a policy, official or unofficial, of executing opposition fighters.

In an illustrative case, an opposition fighter from Kafr Rouma in Idlib governorate described to Human Rights Watch an execution of fighters from his unit at the beginning of March:

One of the fighters was injured in his right leg by machine gun fire. He was lying on the street and we could not rescue him as the army was firing and shooting at our position. He was twisting with pain and couldn’t escape. Then a tank approached; around 15 soldiers in military uniforms surrounded our comrade and started insulting him and kicking him.

They were shouting to us that we should surrender or they would kill him. Then they put a black cloth around his eyes, handcuffed him, and one of them finished him with an [assault rifle]. When they left, we buried him in the graveyard in the village.

Some witnesses also described finding bodies that gave the appearance that the victims had been subjected to sexual violence, and some described having heard accounts of rape from women in the towns taken under army’s control.

International human rights law unequivocally prohibits summary and extrajudicial executions. In situations of armed conflict in which international humanitarian law applies, combatants are legitimate targets as long as they take part in hostilities, but deliberately killing injured, surrendered, or captured soldiers (those hors de combat) would constitute a war crime.

Human Rights Watch has previously documented and condemned serious abuses by opposition fighters in Syria. These abuses should be investigated and those responsible brought to justice. These abuses by no means justify, however, the violations committed by the government forces, including summary executions of opposition fighters.

Human Rights Watch called on the UN Security Council to ensure accountability for these crimes by referring the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court. The Security Council should also subject the Syrian government to an arms embargo and impose a travel ban and asset freeze on officials involved in serious human rights violations. If the Council authorizes the deployment of a UN mission to supervise the six-point plan brokered by the UN-Arab League joint special envoy Kofi Annan, it should ensure the mission includes a properly staffed and equipped human rights component able to safely and independently interview victims of human rights abuses, while protecting them from retaliation.

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