Syrian rebels tortured and executed detainees - HRW
(September 17, 2012) Syrian rebels have committed war crimes including torture and
killing of detainees, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday, calling on countries
which support those fighting Bashar al-Assad's rule to press them to respect humanitarian
law. The New York-based group said it had documented more than 12 cases where rebel
fighters had killed their captured opponents, while at least six detainees interviewed
by HRW said they had been tortured and mistreated. "Time and again Syria's opposition
has told us that it is fighting against the government because of its abhorrent human
rights violations," HRW's deputy Middle East director Nadim Houry said. "Now is the
time for the opposition to show that they really mean what they say." Rights groups
have accused Assad's forces of carrying out massacres, summary executions and widespread
torture in detention since the outbreak of Syria's uprising 18 months ago. But video
footage of rebel fighters hurling bodies off high buildings and gloating last week
over the corpses of 20 uniformed men, their hands bound behind their back, suggest
brutality among rebel ranks as well. HRW pointed to the widely reported killing
of four men loyal to Assad in the northern city of Aleppo on July 31, the same day
they were captured. It said rebels told HRW they were tried and sentenced to death
by a local judicial council. "However it would appear near impossible that the men
received a fair trial by a regularly constituted court considering the circumstances
and the haste with which they were tried and executed," it said. Another four people
were executed three months ago when rebel fighters stormed a police station in the
town of Haffa, in the Mediterranean province of Latakia. HRW said it was granted
access by opposition authorities in several northern towns. Six of 12 people it interviewed
in opposition-run detention facilities said their captors "had tortured and mistreated
them, in particular by beating them on the soles of their feet".