The head of the United Nations human rights office on Friday urged Syria’s interim authorities to guarantee justice and accountability for the killings and human rights abuses reported in the southern city of Sweida.
Syria’s government sent troops this week to the predominantly Druze city to quell fighting between Bedouins and Druze, but the violence grew until a ceasefire was declared.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said it had received credible reports of widespread rights violations during the fighting.
These included reports of summary executions, kidnappings and destruction of private property by security forces and individuals linked to Syria’s interim authorities, as well as other armed elements including Druze and Bedouins.
“This bloodshed and the violence must stop, and the protection of all people must be the utmost priority, in line with international human rights law,” OHCHR High Commissioner Volker Turk said in a statement.
At least 13 people were unlawfully killed in one recorded incident on July 15 when affiliates of the interim authorities opened fire at a family gathering, the OHCHR said. Six men were summarily executed near their homes the same day.
“My Office has received accounts of distressed Syrians who are living in fear for their lives and those of their loved ones,” Turk said.
Over 300 People Dead
Israel carried out airstrikes on Damascus on Wednesday and also hit government forces in the south, demanding they withdraw and saying it aimed to protect Syrian Druze – part of a small but influential minority with followers in Lebanon and Israel.
Turk shared his concern following reports of civilian casualties following Israeli airstrikes on Sweida, Daraa in the southwest, and on the centre of Damascus.
Bloodshed in Sweida left at least 321 people dead, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said on Friday, in a new toll.
A Syrian minister said that the government has recovered 87 bodies, but he did not indicate if it was the entire toll from recent violence between Bedouin tribes and the Druze minority in and around the city in the south of the country.
Hostilities In Sweida
The United Nations refugee agency expressed concern on Friday about the impact of hostilities in Syria’s southern city of Sweida on its aid operations, and urged all sides to allow more humanitarian access.
The UNHCR said its operations had been impacted by road closures and that it had had to move all 15 staff members in its office in rural Sweida out of the area because of safety concerns.
“The situation in Sweida is very concerning. It is very difficult for us to operate there … at the moment our capacity to deliver aid is very limited,” William Spindler, spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, told reporters in Geneva.
“We are calling on all parties to allow humanitarian access,” he said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
