Human rights crimes still taking place in Syria - UN
(May 24, 2012) Syrian government forces and opposition fighters are committing gross
human rights violations despite a six-week-old ceasefire in the conflict and children
are often the victims, United Nations investigators said in a report on Thursday.
Syrian army and security services committed most of the crimes documented since March,
including heavy shelling of residential areas and executions, it said. Armed rebels
executed or tortured captured soldiers and pro-government supporters, and abducted
civilians in an apparent bid to secure prison exchanges or ransoms, it said. "Most
of the serious human rights violations documented by the commission in this update
were committed by the Syrian army and security services as part of military or search
operations conducted in locations known for hosting defectors and/or armed persons,
or perceived as supportive of anti-government armed groups," the report said. Children
were frequently among those killed and wounded during attacks on protests and the
bombardment of towns and villages by state forces, it said. The team of investigators,
lead by Brazilian expert Paulo Pinheiro, has not been allowed into Syria, but based
their report on more than 200 interviews of victims and witnesses conducted in the
region and Geneva. They were able to confirm 207 deaths during the two-month period.
The United Nations is deploying up to 300 unarmed military observers in Syria to monitor
an April 12 truce that has yet to take hold.