For Immediate Release
Syria: World Should Impose Sanctions on Leadership,
International Inquiry Needed after Killings of Protesters
(New York, April 24, 2011) – The United Nations should
set-up an international inquiry into the fatal shootings by Syria’s security
forces of peaceful protesters, Human Rights Watch said today after the killing
of protesters in 14 separate towns on April 22, 2011. The inquiry should also
examine other human rights violations committed since anti-government protests
began in mid-March.
The US and EU should also impose sanctions on Syrian
officials who bear responsibility for the use of lethal force against peaceful
protesters and the arbitrary detention and torture of hundreds of protesters, and push for similar
sanctions to be imposed by the Security Council.
“After Friday’s carnage, it is no longer enough to condemn
the violence,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights
Watch. “Faced with the Syrian authorities’ ‘shoot to kill’ strategy, the
international community needs to impose sanctions on those ordering the
shooting of protesters.”
On April 22, Syria’s security forces killed at least 76
protesters, and possibly as many as 112, according to lists compiled by local
human rights activists. Human Rights Watch interviewed protesters in the towns
of Homs, Ezraa, Douma, and Maadamiya, who reported that security forces opened
fire on them without warning. On April 23, security forces shot at funeral
processions in Barza, Douma, and Ezraa, killing at least 12 additional
mourners, according to media reports.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, US President Barack Obama,
and Jerzy Buzek, president of the European Parliament, issued strong
condemnations of the April 22 shootings, calling on the Syrian authorities to
stop using violence against peaceful protesters, but did not press for any
concrete actions.
The highest number of casualties was in Homs, the southern
town of Ezraa, and in towns surrounding Damascus.
Homs
A Homs-based activist told Human Rights Watch that protests
took place in at least four neighborhoods of the city: Bab al-Seba`, Bayyada,
Khalidiyyah and Baba al-`Amr. Syrian activists published a list of 19 names of
killed protesters. One witness who joined the protest that started from the
Nour Mosque in the Khalidiyya neighborhood told Human Rights Watch that around
2:30pm, security forces opened fire on them without any warning. He identified
those shooting as security forces wearing uniforms as well as men in civilian
clothes carrying Kalashnikovs. He saw a number of protesters shot, but was able
to identify only one of those killed, Muhammad al-Kaheel.
Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported that a policeman
was killed in Homs but provided no further details.
A doctor working at al-Barr Hospital in Homs, told Human
Rights Watch on April 22 that by 4:30pm, the hospital had received four persons
killed during the demonstrations. The hospital’s medical staff was also
treating 15 wounded, two of them in critical condition. He said:
The hospital’s five operating rooms are occupied. Most of
the patients have bullet wounds to the chest. All the bullets are real. No
rubber bullets at all. Protesters and neighbors are standing around the
hospital to prevent security forces from entering and taking the wounded – like
we heard happened in other hospitals.
Ezraa
Security forces also killed at least 18 protesters in the
town of Ezraa, near the southern city of `Adra, according to Syrian human
rights activists. A doctor in Ezraa’s hospital told Human Rights Watch that by
4pm on April 22, the hospital had received 12 bodies of killed protesters,
including one who was about 10 years old. Another doctor at the Ezraa hospital said
at 4:30pm on April 22 that three of the wounded were in very critical
conditions and would likely die. He also indicated that he knew of one
protester from the neighboring town of al-Hrake who was transferred to the
national hospital in Daraa and died there.
Two Ezraa protesters interviewed by Human Rights Watch on
April 22 said that they started their march from the Serail square. When they
got close to the town’s grain factory, security forces posted on the top of the
factory opened fire on them. Both protesters said that they were peacefully
marching and had not attacked the security forces. One of the protesters
indicated that those shooting were wearing military clothes.
An official in the Syrian army told SANA that a group of
individuals on motorbikes and in cars drove towards the center of Izraa and
attacked guards at an official building, first with rocks and later by firing
gunshots, which led the army to fire back. The official then spoke of
“a car with masked gunmen who opened fire indiscriminately killing eight
people.” The two Ezraa protesters both denied categorically the
allegations on SANA.
“If Syrian officials want the world to believe them, they
must allow independent journalists and activists into the country,” Stork said.
Damascus and Towns Nearby
Security forces were heavily deployed in Damascus and in the
surrounding towns of Maadamiyya, Daraya, Douma, and Qaboun. A student at
Damascus University described what he saw on April 22 in Zablatani, a central
area of Damascus:
At about 2:30 pm, I saw in Zablatani 11 green buses full of
plainclothes security men armed with automatic weapons, tasers, and batons. I
also saw “public committees” of residents with sticks guarding their blocks
against what they consider intruders. Altogether, there were about 5,000 men
there. The whole area was blocked off, no buses or taxis were allowed to pass
through. At one point, they all began running toward one of the market areas.
Near the area, I saw them beat and arrest someone, who was bleeding from the
face. Another security agent was kicking a man in a corner. … I heard shots
being fired, but could not identify where or by whom.
A resident of Maadamiya, a town near Damascus where
anti-government protests had occurred in past weeks, told a Human Rights Watch
researcher by phone that security forces killed eight protesters there on April
22. The researcher could hear heavy gunfire while speaking to him around
3:45 pm local time. The Maadamiya resident said:
The army was deployed around the town since the previous
evening. They belonged to the Fourth Unit. After midday prayer, we started a
protest and reached the intersection for [the road to] Darya. The protest was
peaceful with people chanting slogans calling for freedom and in some cases for
the removal of the regime. At around 2:45, they suddenly opened fire on us
without warning. I saw three die in front of me. My brother was injured, and my
cousin died. We tried to take the wounded to the Darya hospital but were told
that they were arresting the wounded and those bringing them. So we took the
wounded to the Rawda Mosque. When we got there, there were already around 10
wounded being treated in the mosque.
“President Bashar al-Asad’s promises of reform mean nothing
while his security forces are free to kill peaceful protesters,” Stork said.
“The Obama administration and the EU should push for meaningful sanctions that
will persuade President Asad to end the shootings and restore human rights.”
For more of Human Rights Watch’s reporting on Syria,
please visit: http://www.hrw.org/en/middle-eastn-africa/syria