UK/SYRIA: Amnesty International report says it shows fresh evidence of widespread, systematic crimes against humanity by Syria's government

Record ID: 280965

  • Title: UK/SYRIA: Amnesty International report says it shows fresh evidence of widespread, systematic crimes against humanity by Syria's government
  • Date: 14th June 2012
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JUNE 13, 2012) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL'S SENIOR CRISIS ADVISOR DONATELLA ROVERA, SAYING: "Wherever I went, in every town, in every village, there was a very similar pattern i.e. soldiers who went in in very large numbers for very short but very brutal incursions where they extrajudicially executed young men,
  • Embargoed: 29th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: War / Fighting,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA81QXA2JOEJ5NYOH8491Q36LYE
  • Story Text: Syrian government armed forces are killing civilians in organised attacks on towns and villages that amount to crimes against humanity, Amnesty International said on Wednesday (June 13), citing evidence from over 20 locations in the country's northwest.
    The rights group reiterated a call for the United Nations Security council to refer Syria to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and to impose an arms embargo.
    Amnesty's findings, detailed in a 70-page report, add to reports of massacres elsewhere in Syria as a 15-month-old uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad moves closer to a civil war.
    Its researchers visited 23 towns and villages in the Aleppo and Idlib provinces between April and May, conducting interviews with more than 200 people, including many whose relatives had been killed or whose homes had been destroyed.
    Amnesty adviser Donatella Rovera told Reuters TV she had found repeated examples of brutality against civilians during two months of unauthorised visits to northwest Syria.
    "Wherever I went, in every town, in every village, there was a very similar pattern - soldiers who went in, in very large numbers, for very short but very brutal incursions where they extrajudicially executed young men, burned down their homes, those who they arrested were then tortured in detention," she said.
    "And that was really repeated in every town and every village that I visited ... The bulk, the overwhelming majority of the violations are being committed by the government security forces and their paramilitary militia against the civilian population," she added.
    A peace plan brokered by former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan has failed to end bloodshed that has cost the lives of more than 10,000 people.
    "The international community in general, and the UN Security Council in particular, has spectacularly failed to do the right thing - to do what is needed. We are now facing a situation which has deteriorated so much precisely because of the failure of the Security Council to act earlier on when the situation was... when it was more possible to avoid the kind of large scale killings and massacres that we're seeing today," Rovera said.
    France said on Wednesday it would propose giving the U.N. powers to enforce the peace plan, adding that a no-fly zone was an option, but faces opposition from Russia and China which have vetoed international intervention.
    The Syrian government says it is fighting foreign-backed terrorists it blames for killing hundreds of soldiers and police.
    But witnesses quoted in the Amnesty report repeatedly said most of those killed had nothing to do with the resistance to Assad's rule.
    A resident of Saraqeb in Idlib province described how soldiers had carried out door-to-door searches, killing people as they fled or in their homes.
    "The army seemed to consider all the men in these towns, especially young men but not only, as terrorists. Most of those executed in this way were not fighters, just ordinary people. Some were killed just because the army could not find their wanted relatives," Amnesty quoted the resident as saying.
    Amnesty said the report provided "further evidence that deliberate and unlawful killings are part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population, carried out in an organised manner and as part of state policy, and therefore amount to crimes against humanity."
    On Tuesday U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous became the first senior U.N. official to say Syria was now in a civil war, a declaration could have legal implications for Assad and rebel fighters in terms of war crimes and compliance with the Geneva Conventions.
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