Gov’t committee in Syria says it identified 298 suspects in mass killings in Alawite region.
More than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed in several days of sectarian violence in Syria’s coastal regions earlier this year, a government committee tasked with investigating the attacks has found.
The committee said it had identified 298 suspects implicated in serious violations during the violence in the country’s Alawite heartland that left at least 1,426 members of the minority community dead in March. Tuesday’s findings come after a new wave of violence involving the country’s Druze community, raising further questions over the new government’s ability to manage sectarian tensions and maintain security after the December overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad – himself an Alawite.
The March violence took place in a predominantly Alawite region of Syria’s coast, where government forces and allied groups were accused of carrying out summary executions, mostly targeting Alawite civilians, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying more than 1,700 people were killed. The committee’s report said there was no evidence that Syria’s military leadership ordered attacks on the Alawite community.
The committee’s investigation documented “serious violations against civilians on March 7, 8 and 9, including murder, premeditated murder, looting, destruction and burning of homes, torture and sectarian insults”, spokesman Yasser al-Farhan told a news conference in Damascus.
The committee confirmed “the names of 1,426 dead, including 90 women, with most of the rest being civilians” from the Alawite community, he said, adding that an unspecified number of further dead had not been verified. The investigation also “identified 298 individuals by name” who were suspected of involvement in the violations, al-Farhan continued, describing the figure as provisional.
These have been referred for prosecution, and 37 people have been arrested, officials told journalists.
They didn’t say how many suspects were members of security forces.
Source: aljazeera.com/news
