BEIRUT: Rights group Amnesty International on Thursday called on the Syrian Arab Republic's government to ensure accountability for sectarian massacres targeting the Alawite minority last month, saying they may constitute war crimes.
Several days of violence starting on March 6 saw the worst sectarian bloodshed since Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime president Bashar Assad, with massacres largely in the Alawite coastal heartland.
Many from Assad’s Alawite minority have feared reprisals for his brutal rule.
Amnesty said that “the Syrian government must ensure that the perpetrators of a wave of mass killings targeting Alawite civilians in coastal areas are held accountable.”
The massacres “must be investigated as war crimes,” it said in a statement.
Truth, justice and reparation are “crucial to ending cycles of atrocities,” it added.
The United Nations human rights office has said that “perpetrators raided houses, asking residents whether they were Alawite or Sunni before proceeding to either kill or spare them accordingly,” with men shot dead in front of their families.
Online footage, which AFP was unable to independently verify, showed men in military garb shooting people at close range.
Amnesty’s secretary-general, Agnes Callamard, said: “Once again, Syrian civilians have found themselves bearing the heaviest cost as parties to the conflict seek to settle scores.”
Interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, whose Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) led the offensive that toppled Assad in December, has vowed to prosecute those behind the “bloodshed of civilians” and has set up a fact-finding committee, which has yet to announce its results.
Amnesty said authorities must “ensure independent, effective investigations of these unlawful killings and other war crimes.”
The Syrian authorities have accused armed Assad supporters of sparking the violence by attacking the new security forces.
Callamard said evidence indicated that “government affiliated militias deliberately targeted” Alawite civilians “in gruesome reprisal attacks,” with people killed “in cold blood.”
“For two days, authorities failed to intervene to stop the killings,” she said.
The violence has sent more than 21,000 fleeing to neighboring Lebanon, the UN has said, with thousands more seeking refuge at a Russian air base on the Mediterranean coast.
Amnesty said the Syrian government must “take immediate steps to ensure that no person or group is targeted on the basis of their sect.”
Amnesty urges Syria to probe sectarian massacres as war crimes
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Amnesty urges Syria to probe sectarian massacres as war crimes
- Many from Assad’s Alawite minority have feared reprisals for his brutal rule
- The massacres “must be investigated as war crimes,” Amnesty said in a statement
US officials say Gaza stabilization force will not fight Hamas
- An American two-star general is under consideration to lead the ISF, but no decision has been made, officials said
NEW YORK: International troops could be deployed in the Gaza Strip as early as next month to form a UN-authorized stabilization force, two US officials said, but it remains unclear how Hamas will be disarmed.
Officials said the International Stabilization Force, or ISF, would not fight Hamas.
They said many countries have expressed interest in contributing, and US officials are currently working out the size of the ISF, its composition, housing, training, and rules of engagement.
There is a lot of quiet planning that’s going on behind the scenes right now for phase two of the peace deal.
Karoline Leavitt, White House spokesperson
An American two-star general is under consideration to lead the ISF, but no decision has been made, officials said.
Deployment of the force is a key part of the next phase of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan.
Under the first phase, a fragile ceasefire in the two-year war began on Oct.10, and Hamas released hostages, and Israel freed detained Palestinians.
“There is a lot of quiet planning that’s going on behind the scenes right now for phase two of the peace deal,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said.
“We want to ensure an enduring and lasting peace.”
Indonesia has said it is prepared to deploy up to 20,000 troops to take on health and construction-related tasks in Gaza.
“It is still in the planning and preparation stages,” said Rico Sirait, spokesperson of the Indonesian Defense Ministry.
“We are now preparing the organizational structure of the forces to be deployed.”
Israel still controls 53 percent of Gaza, while nearly all the 2 million people in the enclave live in the remaining Hamas-held area. The plan — which needs to be finalized by the so-called Board of Peace — is for the ISF to deploy in the area held by Israel, the US officials said.
Then, according to the Trump peace plan, as the ISF establishes control and stability, Israeli troops will gradually withdraw “based on standards, milestones, and timeframes linked to demilitarization.”
A UN Security Council resolution adopted on Nov. 17 authorized a Board of Peace and countries working with it to establish the ISF.
Trump said on Wednesday that an announcement on which world leaders will serve on the Board of Peace will be made early next year.
The Security Council authorized the ISF to work alongside newly trained and vetted Palestinian police to stabilize security “by ensuring the process of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, including the destruction and prevention of rebuilding of the military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, as well as the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups.”
However, it remains unclear exactly how that would work.
US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz noted on Thursday that the Security Council authorized the ISF to demilitarize Gaza by all means necessary, which means the use of force.
“Obviously, that’ll be a conversation with each country,” he told Israel’s Channel 12, adding that discussions on rules of engagement were underway.
Hamas has said the issue of disarmament has not been discussed with them formally by the mediators — the US, Egypt, and Qatar — and the group’s stance remains that it will not disarm until a Palestinian state is established.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech on Sunday that the second phase would move toward demilitarization and disarmament.
“Now that raises a question: Our friends in America want to try and establish a multinational task force to do the job,” he said. “I told them I welcome it. Are volunteers here? Be my guest,” Netanyahu said.
“We know there are certain tasks that this force can perform ... but some things are beyond their abilities, and perhaps the main thing is beyond their abilities, but we will see about that,” he said.
