Tidligere syriske soldater har identificeret 74 officerer og embedsmænd ved navn som ansvarlige for angreb på ubevæbnede demonstranter, skriver Human Rights Watch i en rapport, som blev offentliggjort torsdag.
” Shoot to kill” commanders named, hedder det på dets hjemmeside.
Rapporten nævner ved navn officerer og embedsmænd fra det syriske militær og efterretningstjenester, som skal have givet ordre til, autoriseret eller accepteret omfattende drab, tortur og ulovlige arrestationer under anti-regerings-demonstrationer i 2011.
Human Rights Watch har kraftigt opfordret FN’s sikkerhedsråd til bringe Syrien for den Internationale Strafferetsdomstol (ICC) og iværksætte sanktioner mod de embedsmænd, der har været medvirkende til overgreb.
Human Rights Watch skriver videre:
The 88-page report, “‘By All Means Necessary!’: Individual and Command Responsibility for Crimes against Humanity in Syria,” is based on more than 60 interviews with defectors from the Syrian military and intelligence agencies.
The defectors provided detailed information about their units’ participation in attacks, abuses against Syrian citizens, and the orders they received from commanders and officials at various levels, who are named in the report.
“Defectors gave us names, ranks, and positions of those who gave the orders to shoot and kill, and each and every official named in this report, up to the very highest levels of the Syrian government, should answer for their crimes against the Syrian people,” said Anna Neistat, associate director for emergencies at Human Rights Watch, and one of the authors of the report. “The Security Council should ensure accountability by referring Syria to the International Criminal Court.”
The defectors’ statements leave no doubt that the Syrian security forces committed widespread and systematic abuses, including killings, arbitrary detention, and torture, as part of a state policy targeting the civilian population. These abuses constitute crimes against humanity.
