UNITED NATIONS, Mar 09 (APP): The killing of civilians in coastal areas in northwest Syria must cease immediately, the UN rights chief, Volker Turk, said on Sunday following a series of coordinated attacks reportedly launched by elements of the former al-Assad government and other local armed men.
“We are receiving extremely disturbing reports of entire families, including women, children and hors de combat fighters, being killed,” Turk in a statement.
“There are reports of summary executions on a sectarian basis by unidentified perpetrators, by members of the caretaker authorities’ security forces, as well as by elements associated with the former government.”
Syria’s Interim President, Ahmed al-Shara, appealed on Sunday for calm and for unity as he moved to reassure the nation after days of clashes that a monitoring group said had killed hundreds of people.
“We must preserve national unity and civil peace,” he said from a mosque in Damascus, according to video that circulated online. “We call on Syrians to be reassured because the country has the fundamentals for survival.”
According to international media reports, the violence erupted last week between fighters affiliated with Syria’s interim government, headed by Ahmed al-Shara, and those loyal to the ousted President Bashar al-Assad. Scores of civilians have been killed, the reports said, quoting two war monitoring groups, along with combatants on both sides of the conflict.
Al-Shara’s remarks on Sunday came as fresh fighting was reported in the countryside of the coastal Latakia and Tartus Provinces. A spokesman for the Defence Ministry, Col. Hassan Abdul Ghani, told state media that government forces were combing the countryside for armed fighters loyal to the deposed Assad regime.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has monitored the Syrian conflict since 2011, said that government forces were attacking with drones, tanks and artillery on Sunday. In other areas, it said, government forces were searching for armed groups affiliated with the deposed regime’s military.
The clashes have centered in the coastal provinces, where much of the country’s Alawite religious minority — which dominated the governing class and upper ranks of the military under the Assad government, and which included the Assad family itself — live. That has raised fears of a renewed sectarian conflict in the country.
More than 1,000 people have been killed in Tartus and Latakia Provinces since the fighting erupted last week, the observatory said early on Sunday. About 700 civilians were included in that figure, most killed by government forces, it said.
Another monitoring group, the Syrian Network for Human Rights, reported earlier that government security forces had killed some 125 civilians. The group had not yet updated its casualty figures on Sunday. It said that men of all ages were among the casualties and that the forces did not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The violence has been the worst since the Assad government was ousted in early December by rebels who became the country’s new leaders. It presents a major test of the new government’s authority and ability to unify the country, which has deep sectarian divisions after more than 13 years of civil war.
In his statement, Turk, the UMN human rights chief, said the caretaker authorities’ announcements of their intention to respect the law must be followed by swift actions to protect Syrians, including by taking all necessary measures to prevent any violations and abuses and achieve accountability when these occur.
“There must be prompt, transparent and impartial investigations into all the killings and other violations, and those responsible must be held to account, in line with international law norms and standards,” Turk said.
“Groups terrorizing civilians must also be held accountable.”
These events as well as the continuous spike in hate speech both online and offline illustrate once again the urgent need for a comprehensive transitional justice process that is nationally-owned, inclusive, and centred on truth, justice and accountability, he said.