SOHR: Syria… an NGO accuses the regime of burning the bodies of victims to prevent their identification
According to the Syrian Center for Justice and Accountability, these are civilians or army deserters killed by regime forces during a house search in December 2012.
A Syrian NGO in exile accused Monday, October 31, with evidence, the Damascus regime of having burned the bodies of victims killed by forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad in mass graves to prevent their identification. In a report, the Syrian Center for Justice and Accountability (SJAC), based in Washington (United States), claims to have analyzed videos dating back to 2012 and 2013. These excerpts show members of the intelligence services and the Syrian army burning and then burying at least 15 bodies in the Deraa region (southwestern Syria).
“The Syrian government wants to destroy the evidence incriminating it in such crimes”and “prevent the relatives of victims from knowing their fate or recovering their remains”, says the SJAC. In several video clips, an officer is seen taking pictures of the victims’ faces before one of the security forces “pour gasoline on their face and hands”, according to the SJAC. They then kick the bodies into a mass grave, and set them on fire again by dousing them with gasoline.
The report estimates that the fifteen victims are civilians or army deserters killed by regime forces during a search of a house in December 2012. A Syrian activist sent the videos to the SJAC. He obtained them from an armed opposition group, which had attacked the offending Syrian unit and recovered the videos. The Syrian regime has already been accused of burning the bodies of victims of its repression. Last spring, the British daily The Guardian and the Newslines Institute in Washington had published articles and videos revealing the execution of dozens of people by regime forces in Al-Tadamon in 2013 (article in English).
Since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, Bashar al-Assad’s regime has been accused of systematic human rights violations. Nearly half a million people entered the regime’s prisons and more than 100,000 of them died under torture or as a result of appalling conditions of detention, according to another NGO, the Syrian Observatory of human rights.
Source: West Observer