GENEVA: The pinnacle of the United Nations human rights workplace referred to as on Friday (Jul 18) for Syria’s interim authorities to make sure accountability and justice for killings and rights violations within the southern metropolis of Sweida.
Syria’s authorities despatched troops this week to the predominantly Druze metropolis to quell preventing between Bedouins and Druze, however the violence grew till a ceasefire was declared.
The Workplace of the Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) mentioned it had obtained credible reviews of widespread rights violations in the course of the preventing.
These included reviews of abstract executions, kidnappings and destruction of personal property by safety forces and people linked to Syria’s interim authorities, in addition to different armed parts together with Druze and Bedouins.
“This bloodshed and the violence should cease, and the safety of all individuals should be the utmost precedence, in step with worldwide human rights regulation,” OHCHR Excessive Commissioner Volker Turk mentioned in an announcement.
Not less than 13 individuals have been unlawfully killed in a single recorded incident on July 15 when associates of the interim authorities opened hearth at a household gathering, the OHCHR mentioned. Six males have been summarily executed close to their houses the identical day.
“My Workplace has obtained accounts of distressed Syrians who’re residing in concern for his or her lives and people of their family members,” Turk mentioned.
Israel carried out airstrikes on Damascus on Wednesday and in addition hit authorities forces within the south, demanding they withdraw and saying it aimed to guard Syrian Druze – a part of a small however influential minority with followers in Lebanon and Israel.
Turk shared his concern following reviews of civilian casualties following Israeli airstrikes on Sweida, Daraa within the southwest, and on the centre of Damascus.
