Hundreds reported that Alawis had died of violence in a heavily populated coastal area of Syria.
According to the UN Human Rights Office, all families, including women and children, have been killed in Syria’s coastal areas as part of a recent series of sectarian killings.
The wave of violence broke out last Thursday, when former President Bashar al-Assad ambushed security forces and the security forces of the defense ministry.
The attacks spread to sectarian violence, causing rampaging through coastal states that are heavily inhabited by the Alawites, attacking nearby states of Hama and Homs, killing people and sometimes even the whole family on the streets on the roof.
Of the approximately 1,000 civilians were killed, nearly 200 were in Baniya, according to War Monitor, the UK-based Syrian Human Rights Observatory.
Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the number of deaths.
“In many very disturbing cases, the whole family, including combat of women, children and individual horses, were killed, with Alawian cities and villages in particular being primarily targeted,” Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesman for the UN Human Rights Office, said on Tuesday.
He said the initial reports showed that the unidentified perpetrators were members of armed groups supporting Syrian interim authorities and people associated with the former government.
“They appear to have been sectarian and were held in the governors of Tartas, Latakia and Hama, reportedly by unidentified armed individuals, members of armed groups reportedly supporting military security forces, and factors relating to the former government.”
On Sunday, the country’s new president led by interim president Ahmed Arshara announced the establishment of a fact-finding committee to “investigate violations against civilians and identify those responsible.” It said it would present its findings within 30 days and that any finding liability for the violation would be referred to the judiciary.
“The new Syria is determined to embarrass justice and the rule of law, protect the rights and freedoms of its citizens, prevent illegal revenge, and ensure there is no immunity,” Yasser al-Fahan, a spokesman for the new fact-finding committee, told a press conference in Damascus on Tuesday.
Farhan added that the committee is working on “assembly and reviews of evidence” related to the wave of violence.
When Al-Assad collapsed last December, Syrian analysts feared there would be a revenge attack on the Alawian community, Syria’s second largest religious group after Sunni Muslims.
So far, the UN Human Rights Office has recorded the killings of 111 civilians and expects to see a significantly higher toll, Al-Kitan said. Of these, 90 were male. Eight were women. And the three were children, he added.
“Many of the documented cases were summaries. They appear to have been done sectarianly,” Al-Kitan told reporters. In some cases, the man was shot dead in front of his family, citing testimony from survivors, he said.
Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on new Syrian authorities to ensure accountability for the mass murders.
“While Syrian new leaders have pledged to break the fears of the past, serious abuse on a staggering scale has been reported to Arawite Syrians, primarily in coastal regions and elsewhere in Syria,” HRW’s assistant regional superintendent Adam Koogle said in a statement.
“The actions of the government to protect civilians and to prosecute perpetrators of harmless shootings, summaries and other serious crimes must be prompt and clear,” he added.
Source link
