MADRID, 14 (EUROPA PRESS)
The UN commission investigating the situation in Syria has concluded that forces linked to the new government and other affiliated groups may have committed war crimes due to the "systematic" violence carried out earlier this year against the Alawite community, to which ousted President Bashar al-Assad belongs.
Investigators published a new report this Thursday detailing cases of murder, torture, looting, and arson between January and March, in some cases used to record and distribute the images in an effort to further humiliate the victims.
The commission has detected recurring patterns, beginning in some cases with the identification of men who might be members of the Alawite minority and, once separated from the women and children, murdering them in cold blood. Their bodies were left exposed for days or buried in mass graves.
The group, which is independent but linked to the United Nations, continues to receive information raising concerns about continued kidnappings, arbitrary arrests, and enforced disappearances in areas affected by sectarian violence, from which a "climate of fear and insecurity" has emerged that extends throughout the country.
In this regard, and although the report noted that the Syrian interim administration has responded "constructively" to the recommendations made in previous investigations, it stressed the "urgency" of adopting measures given the continued occurrence of outbreaks of violence such as those in Suwayda, where 1,500 people were reported dead in July alone.
"The magnitude and brutality of the violence is deeply worrying," said the head of this commission, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, who urged the current authorities to ensure accountability and promote the prosecution of all those responsible for abuses, "regardless of their affiliation or position," as he believes the dozens of arrests made in recent months are still insufficient.
Thus, experts are calling for the immediate removal of any suspects and stricter controls to ensure that no one responsible for abuses can join the security forces of the new government in the future, which came to power with the promise of stemming sectarian violence and turning the page on the darkest periods of the Assad regime.
