The Killing of 362 Civilians, 314 amongst which were killed by Government Forces and Pro-government Forces
SNHR has released a report entitled: “Harvest of the First Ten Days of Ramadan 2016”
The report documents the death toll and most notable massacres that were perpetrated during the first ten days of Ramadan 2016. 362 civilians were killed including 314 victims who were killed at the hands of government forces and its pro-government forces.
The report notes that SNHR team faces difficulties in documenting victims from armed opposition factions because many of them are killed on battlefront and not inside the city. Also, we can’t obtain names, pictures, and other important details because of the armed opposition factions’ unwillingness to reveal such information for security among other reasons, Therefore, the actual number of victims is much greater that what is being recorded.
Also, the report affirms that it is almost impossible to access information about victims from government forces or ISIS and the margin of error is considerably higher due to the lack of any methodology in this type of documentation. From the Network’s perspective, the statistics published by some groups on this category of victims are fictitious and are not based on any actual data.
Therefore, the report only incudes civilian victims who were killed by the various parties and compare them.
According to the report, government forces and its pro-government forces killed 314 from civilians 6 June 2016 to 16 June 2016 including 55 children, 23 women, and six victims who died under torture. Averagely, six children are being killed and one victim is being tortured to death every day.
25% of the total number of civilian victims are children and women which is an indicator on government forces’ and its pro-government forces’ deliberate targeting of civilians.
The report reads that Self-management forces (primarily the Democratic Union Party, a branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party) killed 10 civilians including two children and one woman, whereas ISIS killed 14 civilians including one child and two women. Additionally, eight civilians were killed by armed opposition factions including four children.
Also, the report records that five civilians (four children and one woman) were killed by the International Coalition forces in addition to 11 civilians, including two children and two women, who were killed by unidentified groups.
The report emphasizes that government forces and its militias (Shabiha) have violated the international human rights law that guarantees the right to live. Furthermore, there are tens of cases of where the elements of war crimes related to killing were fulfilled. Evidences and proofs, according to hundreds of eyewitnesses’ accounts, suggest that more than 90% of the widespread and single attacks carried out by government forces and its pro-government forces were against civilians and civilian facilities.
Additionally, ISIS have conducted extrajudicial killings that qualify as a war crime.
Moreover, the report notes that some of the armed opposition factions as well as the International Coalition forces have conducted extrajudicial killings that also qualify as a war crime. Also, Self-management forces have perpetrated war crimes through conducting extrajudicial killings.
The report calls on the Security Council and relevant international institutions to uphold its responsibilities with respect to the ongoing and ceaseless killing and to press on the Syrian government in order to stop the deliberate and indiscriminate bombing against civilians.
The report also holds the allies and supporters of the Syrian government -Russia, Iran, and China- morally and materially responsible for the killing in Syria.