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**Younes** · 04-15-2012, 10:16 PM

(04-15-2012 08:52 PM)Rick Ross 187 Wrote: Rwanda they used clubs and shit i think, i dno

I agree with your general point, it's true they didn't receive guns from USA, but in this certain episode they (The rebels) received intervention and support from France, and I remember I read that the hatred between the two ethnic groups was due to the former colonial power favoring the Tutsi over the Hutu and giving them all the high positions and so on, creating hatred and racial tensions between the two.

**Rick Ross 187** · 04-15-2012, 10:46 PM

yeah true

point is though, people have agency and are their own political actors, even in places like the West Balkans or Rwanda

**shakur420** · (This post was last modified: 04-15-2012 11:27 PM by shakur420.)

Except if you pretend to care about human rights while supporting the worst attrocities, doing nothing to stop your terrorism, the argument that "it's gonna happen anyway" can be dismissed. Along with anything else you have to say about human rights. When the US is no longer the largest supporter of terrorism, state terrorism, economic strangulation, genocidal sanctions and policies, when it stops invading and occupying countries, overthrowing leaders, blocking access to water, etc., then I'll worry about the small time thugs. Until then, like I said, you're crying about the nickel and dimers on the corner while apologizing for your support of Tony Montana because "sometimes you have to make deals" and "it's gonna happen anyways". I'm paraphrasing, of course, for those of you who are gonna come back with some transparent "where did I say that?" bullshit.

**shakur420** · (This post was last modified: 04-15-2012 11:37 PM by shakur420.)

(04-15-2012 10:16 PM)Younes Wrote: I agree with your general point, it's true they didn't receive guns from USA, but in this certain episode they (The rebels) received intervention and support from France, and I remember I read that the hatred between the two ethnic groups was due to the former colonial power favoring the Tutsi over the Hutu and giving them all the high positions and so on, creating hatred and racial tensions between the two.

You're wrong. Just like in Haiti, people all over the world are "their own political actors". Whatever international economic, military and political intervention has been carried out towards these areas has been completely benign and in pursuit of "democratic ideals" and goals only. It's wrong to blame the sectarian conflict in Iraq on the occupation. After all, there must've been rampant suicide bombing in Iraq before that. I'm sure of it.

**Rick Ross 187** · (This post was last modified: 04-16-2012 12:38 AM by Rick Ross 187.)

oh shakur u big old parochialist. forget charity starts at home, politics starts and stays at home lol.

when i read your posts i do it as if its the talking intro of some lulzy political rap song

(04-15-2012 11:25 PM)shakur420 Wrote: Until then, like I said, you're crying about the nickel and dimers on the corner while apologizing for your support of Tony Montana because "sometimes you have to make deals" and "it's gonna happen anyways". I'm paraphrasing, of course, for those of you who are gonna come back with some transparent "where did I say that?" bullshit.

leaving aside the weird, and ultimarlty corny, attempt at an analogy or whatever, i don't think i ever made arguments to that effect. its not paraphrasing if i didnt make the argument

**1871** · (This post was last modified: 04-16-2012 04:36 PM by 1871.)

(04-15-2012 11:30 PM)shakur420 Wrote:
(04-15-2012 10:16 PM)Younes Wrote: I agree with your general point, it's true they didn't receive guns from USA, but in this certain episode they (The rebels) received intervention and support from France, and I remember I read that the hatred between the two ethnic groups was due to the former colonial power favoring the Tutsi over the Hutu and giving them all the high positions and so on, creating hatred and racial tensions between the two.

Shqakur420

You're wrong. Just like in Haiti, people all over the world are "their own political actors". Whatever international economic, military and political intervention has been carried out towards these areas has been completely benign and in pursuit of "democratic ideals" and goals only. It's wrong to blame the sectarian conflict in Iraq on the occupation. After all, there must've been rampant suicide bombing in Iraq before that. I'm sure of it.

shakur420 -

Im sure Saddam was a reeeeaaaaallll good buddy of the USA. hahaha

Now youre completely contradicted yourself by saying that the 'political intervention has been carried out towards these areas has been completely benign and in pursuit of "democratic ideals" and goals only' ........... - oh no........... - wait a minute, youre not saying thhat

YOURE JUST ATTEMPTING TO BE SARCASTIC AND ATTEMPTING TO FALSELY CLAIM THAT IS WHAT WE ARE SAYING

THATS HOW DISHONEST YOU ARE !!!!

Dont read the links dont consider the evidence. Just make up your mind about what people are saying cos you want to thinki thats what they are saying.

Quote:Shakur420
Like here where your links are meant to support the position you presented, a position that's irrelevant as it doesn't address the article, or any of the points or facts presented in it.

And then

Quote:Shakur420
Why did I ignore your references? Why did I dismiss your point? Because it's useless here

First you make the (entirely false) claim that the links don’t address the argument... then you openly admit that you ignored the links/references presented ???

Go figure that one.....

Oh I get it – its that you didn’t want to consider the evidence – and if you didnt want to consider the evidence therefore it was ‘’irrelevant’.

.... it has to confirm the original premise. If it doesn’t confirm the original assertion it is' irrelevant and useless'.

So how did you reach the conclusion that the links don’t address the issue if you ignored them?

. Its the same as when you openly admitted you didn’t watch the video Introcluse had posted on the Taliban thread which was highly critical of US intervention in Afghanistan and because of your dismissive arrogance it led you to become totally confused in the same thread on what was being discussed !

Quote:Shakur420

It's wrong to blame the sectarian conflict in Iraq on the occupation.

Who said this? You keep on making these absurd statements then flipping them on to other people as though its what theyve said or implied.

And you really believe sectarian conflict didnt exist prior to the invasion ?

Quote: Shaur420

After all, there must've been rampant suicide bombing in Iraq before that. I'm sure of it.

sadly some of those bastards didnt blow themselves up at the same time as they were waging their genocidal campaign.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Anfal_Campaign

of course, in your specious reasoning Saddam was just a small time nickel and dime dictator and these people were just 'nickels and dimes'

04-16-2012, 02:25 PM

Its not a debate if the people wont look and consider the others plate.

**Introcluse** · 04-16-2012, 04:32 PM

@yael

i wern't angry(how can you tell how angry a person is thru text?lol) and i aint anti-islamist, im anti totalitarian whether that regiime has a divine despot or not

**1871** · (This post was last modified: 04-16-2012 04:57 PM by 1871.)

Theocracies are antithetical to democracy. They never work and only lead to abuse.
Historically theocracies have always eventually crumbled. You only have to look to the example of Ireland where theological power persisted well into democratic society.

**shakur420** · 04-16-2012, 05:18 PM

Yeah, so you pointed out that,

(04-15-2012 08:52 PM)Rick Ross 187 Wrote: ...atrocities and massacres can happen without American guns

after an article talking about the overt efforts of the US to subvert, block and prevent democratic moves in the Middle East for profit and political power. And then, just in case we didn't understand, you reiterated that,

(04-15-2012 10:46 PM)Rick Ross 187 Wrote: ...point is though, people have agency and are their own political actors...

This translates to "it will happen anyways" as a way of countering my "inverted USA-first" mentality, my "anti-western" blindness. Were this a discussion about Rwanda and domestic issues there, your statement might be relevant. In a discussion that started with an article dropping examples of the US overtly blocking and preventing democratic initiatives in the Middle East, your argument is pure propaganda. An attempt to show that "it would've happened anyways" cause of all the domestic bad guys in the region. The argument that because I point this out, I'm "parochial", "anti-western" or a "supporter" of the Taliban is a joke.

So for example, your "broad" view - as opposed to my "narrow" focus - is that when we bomb Iraq, we can point to the looting and raping that followed as an example of people being "their own political actors", of how bad they are and how everything can't be blamed on the US. This is in contrast to my "inverted USA-first", "narrow" world view - shaped by Noam Chomsky incidentally - that the giant increase in looting was a direct result of the invasion. A fact proven quickly by pre-invasion statistics of looting. Or suicide bombing, "sectarian" conflicts or whatever, take your pick. That's "narrow".

Your view, that even though much of the modern day suffering from Korea to Nicaragua, from Haiti to Vietnam, from Lebanon to Gaza, from the Philippines to Turkey, from Chile to Colombia, from Indonesia to Romania, from Italy to Greece, from Jordan to Afghanistan, from South Africa to Iran, and on and on and on, can all be traced back to conscious US designs to smash popular moves supported by indigenous populations to use resources for their own domestic development, that we can't blame everything on the US. That in a discussion that was supposed to surround the "de-democratization" of the Middle East, it's relevant to point out that Rwanda has domestic bad guys too, and that ignoring that is taking a "parochial" view. That's the "narrow" view, taking into account things like the "Arab facade". The broad view, is pointing out that Sandinistas committed some atrocities too. lol

So, I wasn't referring to you specifically, but rather those who are directly responsible for supporting massive human rights violations and then turning around and decrying the indigenous resistance to their occupation in a foreign country as "insurgents", "militants", etc. and lamenting about the sharp increase in human rights violations following their invasion in order to justify it's continuation. If you guys parrot the arguments made by these people, that's your issue. Don't cry about it when I dismiss it as propaganda. Apparently, demonstrating in large font and pretty colors, that the taliban are bad guys too, is the "broad" view, the one encompassing highly relevant matters to the discussion of US global designs for domination. Ignoring the yet-to-be-proven, mythical "Islamofascist" empire that nobody believes in, is the "narrow" world view shaped by Noam Chomsky.

You're invented terms like "inverted USA first" point to your ignorance or refusal to acknowledge that most of these crimes we're talking about actually did start with the US. Like I said, there's been serious studies on this. Not only did you not address that, you didn't address the "weird" and "corny" analogy. So, for example, when Assad was being a good little soldier and torturing people for the US, keeping quiet about the Golan Heights, etc., his repression wasn't plastered on the front pages or dominating bylines. Now though, people care about his abuses, I'm sure. Calling it "narrow" to point out the fact that the US is guilty in engineering his crimes - you know, say for example by trying to consciously bring about the "Lebanonization" of the Middle East - and turning that into a plea like "why can't we talk about abuses all over the world" - again paraphrasing - shows how much people are concerned about problems.

Logic tells you that to solve a problem, you try to discover the root causes. But that's apparently me just taking a "narrow" view. The "broad" view is downplay the root problem - Tony Montana and the government officials who do business with him - and championing the demonization of the symptom - the nickel and dimers who, faced with the prospect of maybe working at McDonalds, choose something that will pay their rent. The symptoms here, say relevant to the article, are the victims born out of clear designs to dominate the resources in the Middle East.

You know, designs to create and maintain an "Arab facade" of dictators who will act as "local cops on the beat", so that the full force of the "oil veto" can be harnessed. After all, those oil reserves are "a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history". Just like how the people who ran the US in it's early years, understood the strategic importance of a monopoly on cotton, telling themselves that it would "place all other nations at our feet". But this is the "narrow" view. The "broad" view is that we should ignore history, overt global designs and proclamations of domination and economic strangulation. After all, people are "their own political actors", right? America's influence has been pretty benign. For example, whatever they did in Iraq, saddam's to blame for it all. It's not like he really was a good friend of the US. lol

**1871** · (This post was last modified: 04-16-2012 08:44 PM by 1871.)

Quote:Shakur420

This translates to "it will happen anyways" as a way of countering my "inverted USA-first" mentality, my "anti-western" blindness.

No it doesnt. It means that these things have occurred - both with and without the US - this is an incontovertable FACT - unless you want to keep on igniring the innumerable human rights reports and facts.

Of course you have to 'translate' this because you have to spin the enabling fact of people having their own agency for their own political actors into an a priori acceptance of imperialism. A basic autocratic/stalinist and imperialist world view.

Your logic merelty creates 'victims' where people are not actors for their own political destiny but are merely subjugated victims.

Quote: Shakur420

So for example, your "broad" view - as opposed to my "narrow" focus - is that when we bomb Iraq, we can point to the looting and raping that followed as an example of people being "their own political actors", of how bad they are and how everything can't be blamed on the US.

Correct. Use of the word 'everything' particularly revealing.

Everything - rapists and looters are an example of people being their own political actors and yaking responsibility for their own actions. Using your spurious argument a rapist and murderer can blame their actions on the US ie; one criminal blaming it on another criminal. Your straw man argument is merely an apologia for criminality.

I suppose your defence of a murderer who tortures victims and then says it was as a result of imperialist invasion would be to say that they are not responsible for their own actions. Bullshit.

I suppose by that same token you will - and have - said that regimes of post colonial states are not responsible for their actions because of the previous depredations of the previous colonialists.

Theres a big difference between pointing out contributing factors for societakl breakdown and saying that criminals should be exonerated for their criminality. Your argument falls to pieces when you consider the pre-invasion condiotions for many Iraqis

You merely present an apologia for every despot on the face of the planet today.

Quote: See the 2010 Grantee Spotlight on Espace Libre de Citoyenneté, de Formation, et de Développement à Mohammedia (ELCIFODEM), Morocco.

Government repression increased and reform slowed, stalled or regressed in MENA countries in 2010 — the unrest that started in North Africa and spread most dramatically to Egypt after the new year was largely unforeseen.

MENA countries in 2010 scored low on democracy indices,
including

human rights,

freedom of speech,

transparency

and

accountability.

Lifetime rulers with full control of legislative, judicial, and executive powers reneged on past public pledges of political reform.

But NED reached out and expanded its support to a new generation of democrats: youth groups across the region, including in Iran and Syria. And despite increased threats from radical groups and repressive governments, democracy advocates continued to work for reform and made slow progress. NED supported nascent political processes through recurring parliamentary and local elections, expanded its regional program and helped the dissemination of human rights monitoring and advocacy skills.

Iraq struggled to form a government, but its weak state institutions offered civil society unique advocacy opportunities to influence policies and institutions. Reformed electoral laws helped voters make better choices and moved them away from destructive sectarian loyalties. NED supported advocacy groups, strengthened citizen input in policy making, and promoted public discussion on pending legislation. The Iraq Civic Action Network supported its members to conduct projects on local government accountability, transparency and dialogue initiatives, especially on constituent need for improved public services.

Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections were marked with corruption and lower voter turnout. Fundamental human rights and freedoms enshrined in the country’s constitution were compromised as the government sought political settlement with insurgents.
Crony capitalism and a lack of financial regulation almost plunged the economy into crisis. Afghans had little incentive to reach out to and engage their government. In response to all these challenges, NED expanded its support for civic groups working to build the citizen-state relationship. NED grantees also reached out to tribal elders and legal scholars to discuss women’s rights and their compatibility with Islam.
Rawa;

Quote;

Egypt ignored opposition calls for constitutional and electoral reforms — to the government’s peril, as 2011 showed. Prior to its parliamentary elections, the state brought harsh measures against civil society and stifled independent media.
The government rejected international monitors, severely curtailed the work of domestic monitors, and further restricted media and communications
. Amidst allegations of fraud and vote-rigging, the ruling party swept the elections; the two largest groups that had held 20% of parliament and participated in the first round of elections boycotted the second round when they did not secure a single seat.
Still, civil society found opportunities to pressure the government and expose violations. NED expanded its support to a network of civic groups and citizen journalists demanding real reform and political participation. NED supported a coalition of 27 provincial NGOs that launched a series of candidate debates and street theater performances to educate voters. In addition, on election day the coalition led citizen monitoring efforts and worked with another NED grantee, the Egyptian Democratic Academy, to broadcast and report election irregularities live on online Radio El Mahrosa

Quote: Despite significant advances in empowering women and past efforts to redress violations of human rights, Morocco’s democratization process remains fragile and is facing setbacks, particularly in the areas of freedom of information and freedom of expression. The king’s powers remain absolute, and democratic institutions have little substantive authority. Economic and social problems and widespread corruption in the public sector further contribute to the fragility of the democratic transition. To address these challenges, NED continued to promote government accountability and local governance by encouraging greater collaboration between grassroots organizations and municipalities to achieve a participatory approach to policy-making as envisioned in the 2009 Municipal Act. All NED programs prioritize youth involvement and activism as a means to nurture the next generation of Moroccan civic leaders

Quote:Shakur420

For example, whatever they did in Iraq, saddam's to blame for it all. It's not like he really was a good friend of the US. lol

Yes, I'm sure that when they found Saddam in his drain hide-out he was blessing his US friends - you know - as he did when the US attacked his forces in Kuwait. Listen to yourself.

From every bit of evidence you extrapolate it into massive proportions.

“By All Means Necessary!”
December 16, 2011
“By All Means Necessary!”
Individual and Command Responsibility for Crimes against Humanity in Syria
Map of Syria
Summary
Killings of Protesters and Bystanders
Arbitrary Arrests, Torture, and Executions
Denial of Medical Assistance
Command Responsibility of High-Ranking Officers and Government Officials
Repercussions for Disobeying Illegal Orders
Recommendations
Methodology
I. Background
Protests in Syria
Deployment of Syria’s Security Forces
Defections from Armed Forces and Security Agencies
II. Individual and Command Responsibility for Crimes against Humanity
Killings of Protesters and Bystanders
Standing orders
Direct orders
Direct participation in killings
Arbitrary Detention and Torture
Large-scale arbitrary arrests and looting
Orders to beat and mistreat the detainees
Torture at detention facilities
Executions, deaths in custody and allegations of mass graves
Denial of Medical Assistance
Command Responsibility of High-Ranking Officers and Government Officials
III. Repercussions for Disobeying Illegal Orders
Executions
Detention and Torture
Repercussions for Families of Defectors
IV. Syrian Government Response
V. International Response
VI. Recommendations
To the UN Security Council
To All Countries
To the UN General Assembly
To the UN Human Rights Council and its Members
To Turkey
To India, Brazil, and South Africa
To Russia and China
To the Syrian Government
Acknowledgments
Appendix
Structure and Command, Armed Forces
Presidential (Republican) Guard
Division
Division
Division
Division
Division
Special Forces
Structure and Command, Intelligence Agencies
National Security Bureau
Department of Military Intelligence (Shu’bat al-Mukhabarat al-‘Askariyya
Air Force Intelligence Directorate (Idarat al-Mukhabarat al-Jawiyya
General Security Directorate (Idarat al-Amn al-Amm
Political Security Directorate (Idarat al-Amn al-Siyasi
Military Terminology
Map of Syria

Summary

Since the beginning of anti-government protests in March 2011, Syrian security forces have killed more than 4,000 protesters, injured many more, and arbitrarily arrested tens of thousands across the country, subjecting many of them to torture in detention.

These abuses, extensively documented by Human Rights Watch based on statements of hundreds of victims and witnesses, were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population and thus constitute crimes against humanity.

This report focuses on the individual and command responsibility of Syrian military commanders and intelligence officials for these crimes.

It is based on interviews with 63 defectors both from the army and from the intelligence agencies, generally known as the mukhabarat. These defectors shared with Human Rights Watch detailed information about their units’ participation in violations and the orders they received from commanders at different levels. The defectors provided information on violations that occurred in seven of Syria’s fourteen governorates:

Damascus,

Daraa,

Homs,

Idlib,

Tartous,

Deir al-Zor,

and Hama.

Human Rights Watch interviewed all of the defectors separately and at length. Violations described in this report are those that were described separately by several defectors and with sufficient detail to convince the researcher that the interviewees had first-hand knowledge of the incidents in question. Several accounts have been excluded because interviewees did not provide such detail.

The statements of soldiers and officers who defected from the Syrian military and intelligence agencies leave no doubt that the abuses were committed in pursuance of state policy and that they were directly ordered, authorized, or condoned at the highest levels of Syrian military and civilian leadership.

Human Rights Watch’s findings show that military commanders and officials in the intelligence agencies gave both direct and standing orders to use lethal force against the protesters (at least 20 such cases are documented in detail in this report) as well as to unlawfully arrest, beat, and torture the detainees. In addition, senior military commanders and high-ranking officials, including President Bashar al-Assad and the heads of the intelligence agencies, bear command responsibility for violations committed by their subordinates to the extent that they knew or should have known of the abuses but failed to take action to stop them.

Syrian authorities repeatedly claimed that the violence in the country has been perpetrated by armed terrorist gangs, incited and sponsored from abroad. Human Rights Watch has documented several incidents in which demonstrators and armed neighborhood groups have resorted to violence. Since September, armed attacks on security forces have significantly increased, with the Free Syrian Army, a self-declared opposition armed group with some senior members in Turkey, taking responsibility for many of them. Syrian authorities have claimed that more than 1,100 members of the security forces have been killed since the beginning of the anti-government protests in mid-March.

However, despite the increased number of attacks by defectors and neighborhood defense groups, witness statements and corroborating information indicate that the majority of protests that Human Rights Watch has been able to document since the uprising began in March have been largely peaceful. The information provided for this report by defectors, who were deployed to suppress the protests, supports that assessment and underlines the lengths to which the authorities have gone to misrepresent the protesters as“armed gangs” and “terrorists.” But there is a risk—as seen in hard hit places like the city of Homs—that bigger segments of the protest movement will arm themselves in response to attacks by security forces or pro-government militias, known as shabeeha.

Considering the evidence that crimes against humanity have been committed in Syria, the pervasive climate of impunity for security forces and pro-government militias, and the grave nature of many of their abuses, Human Rights Watch believes that the United Nations Security Council should refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Crimes against humanity are considered crimes triggering universal jurisdiction under international customary law (meaning that national courts of third states could investigate and prosecute them even if they were committed abroad, by foreigners and against foreigners). All states are responsible for bringing to justice those who have committed crimes against humanity.

Killings of Protesters and Bystanders

All of the 63 defectors interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that their commanders gave them standing orders to stop the protests “by all means necessary” during regular briefings and prior to deployment. The defectors said that, even when it was not specified, they universally understood the phrase “by all means necessary” as an authorization to use lethal force, especially given the provision of live ammunition as opposed to other means of crowd control. For example:

• “Abdullah,” a soldier with the 409th Battalion, 154th Regiment, 4th Division, said that two high-level commanders, Brigadier General Jawdat Ibrahim Safi and Major General Mohamed Ali Durgham, ordered the troops to shoot at protesters when his unit was deployed to areas in and just outside of Damascus.

• “Mansour,” who served in Air Force Intelligence in Daraa, said that the commander in charge of Air Force Intelligence in Daraa, Colonel Qusay Mihoub, gave his unit orders to “stop the protesters by all possible means,” which included the use of lethal force.

About half of the defectors interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that the commanders of their units or other officers gave direct orders to open fire at protesters or bystanders, and, in some cases, participated in the killings themselves. According to the defectors, the protesters were not armed and did not present a significant threat to the security forces at the time. For example:

• “Hani,” who served in the Special Operations branch of Air Force Intelligence, said that Colonel Suheil Hassan gave orders to shoot directly at protesters on April 15 during a protest in the Mo`adamiyeh neighborhood in Damascus.

• “Amjad,” who was deployed to Daraa with the 35th Special Forces Regiment, said that he received direct verbal orders from the commander of his unit, Brigadier General Ramadan Mahmoud Ramadan, to open fire at the protesters on April 25.

Human Rights Watch collected extensive information about the participation of specific military units and intelligence agencies in attacks against the protesters in different cities and large-scale military operations that resulted in killings, mass arrests, torture, and other violations. The appendix to this report contains information on the structure of the units, locations where they were deployed, violations in which they were allegedly involved, and, wherever this information was available, the names of their commanders or officials in charge.
Human Rights Watch has previously documented and publicized widespread killings of protesters across the country, based on the statements of hundreds of protesters, victims of abuses, and witnesses. Evidence collected from defectors for this report corroborates some of these previously documented incidents. Several defectors who participated in the April 25 military operation in Daraa, for example, confirmed killings documented by Human Rights Watch in the June 2011 report, “We’ve Never Seen Such Horror.”

The exact number of those killed is difficult to verify given the government-imposed restrictions on independent reporting inside Syria, but the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has put the figure at more than 4,000 as of December 2, 2011, while the Violations Documentation Center (VDC), a monitoring group working in coordination with the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a network of Syrian activists, has compiled a list of 3,934 civilian deaths as of December 3, 2011. The Syrian government has stated that more than 1,100 members of the security forces have been killed.

Arbitrary Arrests, Torture, and Executions

According to information collected by Human Rights Watch, the Syrian security forces have conducted a massive campaign of arbitrary arrests and torture of detainees across Syria since the beginning of anti-government protests in March 2011. Information provided by the defectors, many of whom personally participated in arrests and ill-treatment, further corroborates these findings.
The defectors described large-scale, arbitrary arrests during protests and at checkpoints, as well as “sweep” operations in residential neighborhoods across the country. Most of the arrests appear to have been conducted by the intelligence agencies, while the military provided support during the arrest and transportation of detainees.
The number of people arrested since the beginning of the protests is impossible to verify. As of December 3, 2011, the VDC had documented almost 15,500 arrests. The real number is likely much higher.
Information from the defectors about sweep operations in which they participated lends support to allegations of a massive campaign of arbitrary arrests. Multiple examples cited in the report show that the security services routinely arrested hundreds, if not thousands, of detainees, including many children, following the protests and after they took control of different towns. For example:
• “Said,” who was deployed to Talbiseh with the 134th Brigade, 18th Division, said that after the military moved into the town in early May, intelligence agencies and the military started conducting daily raids, arresting “anyone older than 14 years—sometimes 20, and sometimes a hundred people.” Said also said that the arrest raids, authorized by the mukhabarat and the military, were accompanied by “brazen looting” and burning of shops.
• “Ghassan,” a lieutenant colonel deployed in Douma with the 106th Brigade, Presidential Guard, said that his brigade, on average, arrested about 50 people, any male between ages 15 and 50, at his checkpoint after each Friday protest.
According to the defectors, arrests were routinely accompanied by beatings and other ill-treatment, which commanders ordered, authorized, or condoned. Those who worked in or had access to detention facilities told Human Rights Watch that they witnessed or participated in the torture of detainees.
The defectors from both the military and the intelligence agencies who were involved in the arrest operations said that they beat detainees during their arrest and transportation to the detention facilities almost without exception. They cited specific orders they received from their commanders in this respect.
While most of the defectors interviewed said they were only involved in transporting the detainees to various detention facilities, a few, mainly those who served in intelligence agencies, said they had first-hand knowledge of the situation inside the facilities. Their statements confirm the widespread use of torture in detention previously documented by Human Rights Watch and provide additional details on the intelligence officials in charge.
One of the most worrisome features of the intensifying crackdown on protesters in Syria has been the growing number of custodial deaths since the beginning of July. Local activists have reported more than 197 such deaths as of November 15, 2011. Two defectors interviewed by Human Rights Watch shared information about the summary execution of detainees or deaths from torture in detention in two areas: Douma, and Bukamal. A lieutenant colonel who served in the Presidential Guard said that he witnessed a summary execution of a detainee at a checkpoint in Douma around August 7, 2011. A defector who had been posted in the eastern town of Bukamal, by the Iraqi border, said that he saw 17 bodies of anti-government activists including a number that had surrendered to an intelligence agency several days earlier.
Denial of Medical Assistance
Defectors also provided further information about the denial of medical assistance to wounded protesters, the use of ambulances to arrest the injured, and the mistreatment of injured individuals in hospitals controlled by intelligence agencies and the military, a disturbing pattern that Human Rights Watch and other organizations have previously documented.
Several examples cited by the defectors strongly suggest that these violations were ordered, authorized, or condoned by commanders rather than committed at the initiative of individual members of the armed forces or intelligence agencies. According to the defectors, security forces brought some of the wounded protesters directly to the detention facilities where they mistreated them.
They said that injured protesters who were brought to the military, or military-controlled, hospitals were also subjected to mistreatment and beatings by intelligence agents and hospital staff. Those whose wounds were serious and did not allow for immediate transportation were held in temporary detention facilities on hospital premises before being transferred to other places of detention.
Command Responsibility of High-Ranking Officers and Government Officials
Given the widespread nature of killings and other crimes committed in Syria, scores of statements from defectors about their orders to shoot and abuse protesters, and the extensive publication of these abuses by the media and international organizations, it is reasonable to conclude that the senior military and civilian leadership knew or should have known about them. The Syrian military and civilian leadership also clearly have failed to take any meaningful action to investigate and stop these abuses. Under international law, they would thus be responsible for violations committed by their subordinates.
With regards to President Bashar al-Assad, who is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian armed forces, and his close associates, including the heads of intelligence agencies and the military leadership, Human Rights Watch has collected additional information that strongly indicates their direct knowledge and involvement in the violent crackdown on protesters.
Human Rights Watch believes that, in addition to military and intelligence officers mentioned in connection with specific incidents in this report, these commanders, including the highest-ranking officers and heads of intelligence agencies, should be investigated on the grounds of their command responsibility for violations committed by units under their control. Under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, criminal liability applies to both those who physically commit the crimes and to senior officials, including those who give the orders and those in a position of command who should have been aware of the abuses but failed to prevent them or to report or prosecute those responsible.
Repercussions for Disobeying Illegal Orders
The consequences for disobeying orders and challenging government claims about the protests have been severe. Eight defectors told Human Rights Watch that they witnessed officers or intelligence agents killing military personnel who refused to follow orders. Three defectors told Human Rights Watch that the authorities had detained them because they refused to follow orders or challenged government claims. At least two said that security forces beat and tortured them. Other defectors interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that security forces detained and tortured them for participating in protests during leave or before they started their military service.
The defectors interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that security forces detained them for relatively short terms in detention centers on their base or in nearby detention facilities. According to witnesses other defectors were sent to the notorious Tadmor military prison in Homs governorate.
A prison guard from Tadmor told Human Rights Watch that by the time he defected in August the prison housed about 2,500 prisoners. While the prisoners initially included only military personnel, the prison started receiving a growing number of detained protesters and defectors after protests erupted in March. He told Human Rights Watch that security forces there beat and tortured all prisoners, but gave defectors particularly harsh treatment.
One defector said that security forces arrested a close relative to force him to return to his unit.
Virtually all defectors interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that they were convinced that officers or intelligence agents would kill them if they refused to follow orders. In standard operations to suppress protests, they said that conscript soldiers from the army or intelligence agencies lined up in front, while officers and intelligence agents stayed behind, giving orders and making sure that they followed orders. On several occasions, officers and intelligence agents explicitly threatened to kill soldiers if they did not follow orders.
Most of the defectors said that they tried to evade orders by aiming at protesters’ feet, or firing in the air, but in some cases felt that they had to shoot at the protesters or commit other abuses because they thought that they would themselves be killed otherwise. A few took up arms against intelligence agents and officers who ordered the killings, and many said they defected when they realized that their commanders were ordering them to shoot at unarmed protesters as opposed to the “armed gangs” that they had been told to expect.
Recommendations
The Syrian government’s response to credible accusations of human rights violations has been inadequate and has fostered a climate of impunity, including for unlawful killings, torture, enforced disappearance, and arbitrary detention. Human Rights Watch is not aware of any public information about specific investigations or prosecutions related to violations described in this report.
While many states have condemned Syria’s use of violence and some have followed those words with actions aimed at pushing the Syrian government to change course, the international community has been slow to take collective action.
Considering the evidence that crimes against humanity have been committed in Syria, the pervasive climate of impunity for security forces and pro-government militias, and the grave nature of many of their abuses, Human Rights Watch calls on the United Nations Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court—the forum most capable of effectively investigating and prosecuting those bearing the greatest responsibility for the crimes committed and offering accountability to the Syrian people. The Security Council should also require states to suspend all military sales and assistance to the Syrian government and adopt targeted sanctions on officials credibly implicated in the ongoing grave, widespread, and systematic violations of international human rights law. Human Rights Watch also calls on all states, in accordance with their national laws, to bring to justice under the principle of universal jurisdiction those who have committed crimes against humanity.
Methodology
This report is based on 63 interviews with defectors from Syria’s armed forces and intelligence agencies. Human Rights Watch researchers conducted these interviews in person in Syria’s neighboring countries from May to November 2011. Researchers also interviewed dozens of witnesses in Syria and in neighboring countries to establish the context of the anti-government demonstrations in Syria and corroborate defectors’ statements.
Human Rights Watch researchers conducted the interviews in Arabic or with the help of Arabic-English translators.
The defectors interviewed by Human Rights Watch served in regular army units, the Special Forces, the Military Police, the Presidential Guard, the General Intelligence Directorate, the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, and in other units. While the majority were conscript soldiers, 14 defectors said they had served as officers, the highest-ranking being a lieutenant colonel. Their units were deployed to suppress protests all over Syria, including in the governorates of Damascus, Daraa, Homs, Hama, Idlib, Tartous, and Deir al-Zor.
Syria has been and remains under an information blockade, and obtaining information about the government crackdown on protesters is extremely difficult. Those who speak to investigators or share information through electronic means face severe repercussions. To protect defectors, other witnesses, and their families, Human Rights Watch has changed their names and withheld information about the location of the interviews. In the report, pseudonyms are indicated with quotation marks.
Human Rights Watch interviewed all of the defectors and other witnesses separately and at length. Violations described in this report are those that several defectors described separately and with sufficient detail to convince the researcher that the interviewees had first-hand knowledge of the incidents in question. Several accounts have been excluded because interviewees did not provide such detail.
The majority of incidents described in this report mention the names and ranks of commanders who allegedly gave orders to commit the abuses. In some cases, it was possible to corroborate these allegations through independent interviews with two or more witnesses. In other cases the report gives the name and rank of a commander based on the statement of one defector, but only if Human Rights Watch researchers deemed this was justified by the level of detail and the credibility of the overall evidence provided. While a single person’s statement cannot be the basis of a definitive conclusion about the responsibility of the commanders in question, Human Rights Watch believes that such allegations require a prompt investigation.
I. Background
Protests in Syria
Protests in Syria broke out on March 18 in response to the arrest and torture of 15 school children by the Political Security Directorate, one of Syria’s intelligence agencies, in the southern city of Daraa. Attempting to suppress the demonstrations, security forces opened fire on the protesters, killing at least four. Within days the protests grew into rallies that gathered thousands of people.[1]Protests quickly spread to the rest of the country in a show of sympathy with the Daraa protesters. The government’s violent response only further fueled demonstrations.
At the time of writing, protests are still taking place regularly in the governorates of Daraa, al-Hasaka, Idlib, Deir al-Zor, Homs, Hama, and in the suburbs of the capital, Damascus.
Syrian security forces, primarily the intelligence agencies, referred to generically as mukhabarat, and government-supported militias, referred to locally as shabeeha, regularly used force, often lethal, against largely peaceful demonstrators, and often prevented injured protesters from receiving medical assistance.[2]As the protest movement endured, the government also deployed the army, usually in full military gear and backed by armored personnel vehicles, to quell protests.
While consistent witness statements leave little doubt regarding the widespread and systematic nature of abuses, the exact number of people killed and injured by Syrian security forces is impossible to verify. At the time of writing, Syria remains off-limits to international journalists and human rights groups, and communications are often interrupted in affected areas. However, an expanding network of activists grouping themselves in local coordination committees (LCC) and making extensive use of the Internet, including social media, and reporting the information to a monitoring group, the Violations Documentation Center (VDC), have compiled a list of 3,934 civilians killed, including more than 300 children, as of December 3, 2011.[3]
Syrian authorities went to great lengths to convince the public, both Syrian and international, as well as the members of security forces deployed to quell the protests, that “criminals” and “armed terrorist gangs,” incited and sponsored from abroad, have been responsible for most of the violence.
On October 7, Syria’s deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, told the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) that his country was“grappling with terrorist threats” and promised to give the UN a list of “more than 1,100 people who have been killed by the terrorists,” including civil servants and police.[4] In an interview with the British Sunday Times newspaper published on November 20, 2011, President al-Assad blamed “armed gangs” for the killing of 800 members of his security forces.[5]
As this report illustrates, however, in at least some cases members of the security forces fell victim to friendly fire or deliberate killings for their refusal to follow the orders. Defectors interviewed for this report also said that in many instances the dead and injured whom the authorities claimed through the state media had been killed or wounded by "armed gangs" and "terrorists" were actually the victims of the government's repression.
Human Rights Watch has documented several incidents in which demonstrators, at times supported by military defectors, have resorted to violence.[6]For example, demonstrators set government buildings on fire in the towns of Daraa, Jisr al-Shughur, and Tal Kalakh, destroyed monuments to President Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez al-Assad, and torched several vehicles belonging to the security forces.[7]Witnesses described some of these episodes to Human Rights Watch; we also viewed evidence of such attacks on amateur videos available online. Several witnesses also told Human Rights Watch that protesters had killed members of security forces, usually after the security forces had opened fire on them.

At the same time, statements from witnesses, including defectors, protesters, and journalists, indicate that the protesters have been unarmed in the majority of cases documented by Human Rights Watch and other human rights organizations.
Since September, armed attacks on security forces have increased, with the Free Syrian Army, a self-declared opposition armed group with some senior members in Turkey, taking responsibility for many of them, although some commentators, diplomats, and even opposition members have questioned its level of control and organization.[8] On November 28, 2011, during a meeting in Turkey, the Free Syrian Army agreed with the Syrian National Council (SNC), an umbrella group of Syrian opposition, that the Free Syrian Army will “not organize any assault” against Syrian government forces anymore, and will resort to “armed resistance” only “for protecting civilians during protests.”[9]
At the same time, several defectors and other witnesses expressed concern that the government’s continued brutal crackdown had increased sectarian tensions and violence. For example, both Sunni and Alawite residents of the central governorate of Homs, a predominantly Sunni area with a large Alawite minority, already report an increase in kidnappings by unknown gunmen and talk about their fear of driving through some neighborhoods in their cities. Journalists have reported on a number of killings that seem motivated by sectarian retribution.[10]The threat of an increase in sectarian violence has led United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay to warn during an emergency session on Syria at the UN Human Rights Council on December 2, 2011 that “[t]he Syrian authorities’ continual ruthless repression, if not stopped now, can drive the country into a full-fledged civil war.”[11]
In addition to shooting at protesters, security forces launched a massive campaign of arrests, arbitrarily detaining hundreds of protesters across the country, routinely failing to acknowledge their detention or provide information on their whereabouts, and subjecting them to torture and ill-treatment. The intelligence agencies have also arrested lawyers, activists, and journalists who endorsed or promoted the protests, as well as medical personnel suspected of caring for wounded protesters in makeshift field hospitals or private homes.[12]
Human Rights Watch documented large-scale arbitrary detentions, including the detention of children, in Daraa, Damascus and its suburbs, Banyas and surrounding villages, Latakia, Deir al-Zor, Tal Kalakh, Hama, Homs, Zabadani, Jisr al-Shughur, and Maaret al-Nu`man.[13] Many of the arrests appeared entirely arbitrary, with no formal charges brought against the detainees. It appears that most detainees were released several days or weeks later, but others have not reappeared. Many of those cases constitute enforced disappearances, as their families have had no information on their fate or whereabouts for a prolonged period of time.[14]
Released detainees, some of them children, said that they, as well as hundreds of others they saw in detention, were subjected to torture and ill-treatment. All of the former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch described appalling detention conditions, with grossly overcrowded cells, where at times detainees could only sleep in turns, and lack of food.[15]
In several cities, including Daraa, Tal Kalakh, Rastan, Banyas, Deir al-Zor, Hama, and parts of Homs, Syrian security forces moved into neighborhoods in military vehicles, including tanks and armored personnel carriers, under the cover of heavy gunfire. They imposed checkpoints, placed snipers on roofs of buildings, and restricted movement of residents in the streets. In some places, like Daraa, the security forces imposed a full-out siege that lasted for several weeks, cutting off all means of communication and subjecting residents to acute shortages of food, water, medicine, and other essential supplies.[16]
Deployment of Syria’s Security Forces
In March 2011 the Syrian government began deploying security forces from the armed forces, the intelligence agencies, and the shabeehato quell the protests. First in Daraa, and later, as this report illustrates, in Damascus, Deir al-Zor, Idlib, Hama, Homs, Latakia, and Tartous governorates, the armed forces and intelligence agencies, often working in concert, conducted operations to stamp out the protests.
There are four main intelligence agencies in Syria:
• The Department of Military Intelligence (Shu'bat al-Mukhabarat al-'Askariyya), which includes the Palestine Branch;
• The Political Security Directorate (Idarat al-Amn al-Siyasi);
• The General Intelligence Directorate (Idarat al-Mukhabarat al-'Amma), which is generally referred to by its previous name, State Security (Amn al-Dawla); and
• The Air Force Intelligence Directorate (Idarat al-Mukhabarat al-Jawiyya).[17]
Intelligence agencies overlap extensively, and there are no clear rules for which agency will take the lead in a particular action. These agencies have virtually unlimited de facto authority to carry out arrests, searches, interrogation, and detention. They are more than a simple arm of the government; they are in practice autonomous entities that report directly to the highest officials in the Syrian state, and according to some analysts, directly to the President.[18]
Units from the armed forces deployed to quell the protests include the Presidential Guard, the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 9th, 11th, 15th, and 18th Divisions, and various Special Forces Regiments, including the 35th, 45th, and 46th Regiments. Service in the armed forces is compulsory for adult males[19]and the majority of army defectors are low-level conscripts.[20]
More detailed information regarding the specific military units and intelligence agencies involved in the attacks against protesters in different cities and large-scale military operations is provided in the appendix to this report. This includes information on the structure of the units, locations where they were deployed, violations in which they were allegedly involved, and, where this information is available, the names of their commanders or the officials in charge.
Defections from Armed Forces and Security Agencies
The rate of defections from the Syrian armed forces and intelligence agencies appears to have steadily increased since the authorities deployed their security forces to suppress anti-government protests in March 2011. Estimates of the number of defectors vary significantly. Riad al-Asaad, the head of the Free Syrian Army, a self-declared armed opposition group, told Reuters that his group consisted of 15,000 defectors by mid-October; but many others believe that those numbers are exaggerated.[21]An opposition member told Human Rights Watch in November that he estimated that there were a “few thousand—in the single digits—defectors in the Free Syrian Army.”[22]
The majority of the defectors told Human Rights Watch that they decided to defect when they discovered that the authorities and their officers had deliberately misled them about the nature of the protests. According to the defectors, when the protests erupted in mid-March, the authorities immediately restricted soldiers’ access to information and launched a propaganda campaign to convince the soldiers that they were fighting“armed gangs” and “terrorists” supported by an international conspiracy to destroy Syria. A conscript serving in the Military Police in Deir al-Zor told Human Rights Watch: “Protests in Daraa started on March 18. The very next day they confiscated our cell phones and barred us from watching anything but Syrian state TV and the pro-government Dunya TV. On the news, they started telling us about terrorists.”[23]
A conscript soldier based in Rankous, a suburb of Damascus, gave a similar account to Human Rights Watch:

Soldiers in the unit were under close surveillance; we couldn’t really talk to each other. As for cell phones, they were never allowed, but this rule was never enforced. But starting in April, commanders started breaking the cell phones whenever they caught somebody using them. All TV channels were banned, aside from official Syrian TV.
Every morning commanders conducted a meeting, talking about how good Assad and his family were, and about the threats from the terrorists. And then they also forbade us from taking leave. It used to be eight days every two months, but after April nobody was allowed to go.[24]

A member of the 45th Special Forces Regiment, deployed in the coastal are
as of Banyas and Markeb, told Human Rights Watch:
We were told that there are terrorist groups coming into the country with funding from Bandar Bin Sultan [a prominent Saudi prince who served until 2009 as Saudi's national security chief], Saad al-Hariri [a former Lebanese prime minister], and Jeffrey Feltman [US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs].[25]

Military commanders often communicated this information to soldiers during daily briefings, referred to as nasharat tawjeeh. A lieutenant in the 14th Division posted in Damascus described the briefing: "Each morning we had guidance briefings. They would tell us there are gangs and infiltrators. They would show us pictures of dead soldiers and security forces."[26]One defector, who had served in the army for 25 years, most recently as a communications officer responsible for his unit’s informational radio programs, told Human Rights Watch:
Usually, I wrote the news segments myself and higher-ranking officers only made minor edits to what I wrote, but when I wanted to report on the protests in March, the commanders gave me a prepared statement instead of looking at what I had written. The statement said that terrorist gangs were attacking civilians. Some of my relatives had been participating in the protests, so I knew better. I refused to read it on air, saying that I was not feeling well, but somebody else read it instead.[27]
Defectors from units serving in a number of governorates all over Syria described similar measures taken to prevent them from finding out what was happening, indicating a high-level policy to restrict soldiers’access to information.
Isolated from any independent sources of information, defectors say they and many of their fellow soldiers initially believed the government statements. A 20-year-old conscript who was stationed on the border with Israel told Human Rights Watch:
When the events started in Daraa, the officers took all our TVs, radios, and phones. The only news we got was through internal radio, and it was all about hooligans, foreign elements, etc. Most of us believed it, and we were scared; even the movement of birds and butterflies would set off shooting.[28]
For many of the defectors, the turning point came when they were finally allowed to go home on leave. The realization that close relatives and friends were participating in the protests and had been attacked by the security forces convinced many that the government’s claims were false. Some even participated in protests themselves while on leave. A few of the defectors said that it was the killing or arrests of family members and friends during protests that convinced them to defect.
Others said they decided to defect after officers ordered them to shoot at peaceful protesters or after they witnessed or participated in the killing of large numbers of protesters. For example, one soldier in the 65th Brigade, 3rd Division, who was sent to Douma to suppress protests in April, told Human Rights Watch:
At one point we killed eight people in 15 minutes. The protesters were unarmed. They didn’t even have rocks! That’s when I decided to defect. I threw away my gun and ran towards the protesters. Somebody picked me up in a van and took me home to Daraa.[29]
Defectors also said that they became disillusioned by officers planting weapons in mosques, frequent friendly fire incidents between intelligence agents and army soldiers, and claims, intended to mislead, that “armed protesters”and “terrorists” had killed soldiers who had actually been killed by intelligence agents, friendly fire, or accidents.
II. Individual and Command Responsibility for Crimes against Humanity
Since the beginning of anti-government protests in March 2011, Syrian security forces have killed more than 4,000 protesters and bystanders in their violent efforts to stop the protests, according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.[30] They have injured many more and arbitrarily arrested tens of thousands across the country, subjecting many of them to torture and ill-treatment in detention. Local activists have reported more than 197 deaths in custody.[31] Human Rights Watch has collected and publicized extensive documentation on these violations committed in governorates of Daraa, Homs, Damascus, Hama, and other places across the country.[32]
Human Rights Watch believes that these abuses were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population and thus constitute crimes against humanity under customary international law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.[33] The independent, international commission of inquiry on Syria appointed by the UN Human Rights Council and set up by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has reached the same conclusion.[34]
The Rome Statute defines an “attack directed against any civilian population” as “a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts [which qualify as crimes against humanity such as murder] against any civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to commit such attack.”[35]
The statements of soldiers and officers who defected from the Syrian military and security forces leave no doubt that the widespread and systematic abuses, including killings, arbitrary detentions, and torture, were committed in pursuance of a state policy targeting civilians or against the civilian population and that they were directly ordered, authorized, or condoned at the highest levels of Syrian military and civilian leadership.
For individuals to be found culpable of crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute, they must have had knowledge of the crime.[36]That is, perpetrators must have been aware that their actions formed part of the widespread or systematic attack against the civilian population.[37] While perpetrators need not be identified with a policy or plan underlying the crimes against humanity, they must at least have knowingly taken the risk of participating in the policy or plan.[38]
Human Rights Watch’s findings, presented in detail below, show that military commanders and officials in the intelligence agencies gave both direct and standing orders to use lethal force against protesters, as well as to unlawfully arrest, beat, and torture detainees. On many occasions, they were not only present during the commission of the crimes, but personally participated in the violations. In several cases documented by Human Rights Watch, the commanders oversaw the cover-up operations, such as the disposal of dead bodies following the killings.
Individuals implicated in such acts bear individual criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute.[39]
Military commanders and intelligence officials could also bear responsibility for violations committed by units under their command in accordance with the doctrine of command responsibility under the Rome Statute, even if they did not directly participate in or give orders to commit the violations.[40]
The Rome Statute stipulates that military commanders bear responsibility for crimes committed by forces under their “effective command and control, or effective authority and control” when they knew or should have known about the crimes and failed to prevent them or to submit the matter for prosecution.[41]The same principle applies to civilian officials for crimes committed by their subordinates that concerned “activities that were within the effective responsibility and control of the superior” when they “knew, or consciously disregarded information which clearly indicated, that the subordinates were committing or about to commit such crimes” and“failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures within his or her power to prevent or repress their commission or to submit the matter to the competent authorities for investigation and prosecution.”[42] A head of state and members of government are not exempt from responsibility.[43]
Several examples indicate that President Bashar al-Assad, who is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian armed forces, the heads of intelligence agencies, and other high-ranking officials mentioned in this report have ordered, authorized, or condoned the violent crackdown on protesters. It is also reasonable to assume that they knew about the extent and nature of the repression through official channels.[44]In addition, information about violations committed by the military and security forces since the beginning of protests in Syria has been publicized by several international organizations, including Human Rights Watch, the media, and Syrian activists. Multiple international bodies have raised concerns about these violations as well. The independent commission of inquiry appointed by the Human Rights Council extensively documented the violations and presented its report to the HRC, and the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning the abuses. In these circumstances, the failure to stop the violations and bring their perpetrators to justice also makes these officials criminally responsible under the doctrine of command responsibility.
The Rome Statute stipulates that, subject to some exceptions, individuals accused of crimes against humanity cannot avail themselves of the defense of following superior orders.[45] One such exception is if an individual acts under a threat of “imminent death or of continuing or imminent serious bodily harm,” made explicitly or“constituted by other circumstances beyond that person’s control,” if “the person does not intend to cause a greater harm than the one sought to be avoided.”[46] As this report illustrates, many rank-and-file soldiers in the Syrian armed forces and intelligence agencies appear to have acted when faced with the choice of committing the crimes or being killed for disobeying the orders, and, in many cases, they seem to have tried to prevent the worst consequences of their actions—for example, by firing in the air, or aiming at the protesters’ feet to avoid killing them.
Another exception may apply to individuals—both soldiers and commanders—who acted in self-defense, or in defense of others “against an imminent and unlawful use of force in a manner proportionate to the degree of danger.”[47]
As mentioned above, Human Rights Watch has documented a number of instances where the protesters resorted to violence, yet these incidents of violence by protesters remained exceptional compared to the number of attacks on protesters we documented.
We also asked every military defector interviewed for this report about the use of violence by the protesters, and all but one of them said that they never felt under threat when dealing with protests. Some mentioned that the protesters threw stones at the security forces, one defector mentioned being involved in a shoot-out with armed protesters in Bukamal in the Deir al-Zor governorate, and one defector mentioned that he was aware of a group of protesters in a town in Daraa governorate that was armed, but had not seen it in action.
Incidents where protesters have allegedly resorted to violence should be further investigated and in some cases may provide a valid defense against accusations of involvement in crimes against humanity where individuals responded in a manner that was proportionate to the degree of danger. The defectors’statements, however, support the conclusion that in many cases, the force used against the protesters was clearly disproportionate to the threat presented by the overwhelmingly unarmed crowds.
Considering the evidence that crimes against humanity have been committed in Syria, the pervasive climate of impunity for security forces and pro-government militias, and the grave nature of many of their abuses, Human Rights Watch calls on the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the ICC. Human Rights Watch believes that the ICC is the forum most capable of effectively investigating and prosecuting those bearing the greatest responsibility for serious crimes committed in Syria. Human Rights Watch also recalls that crimes against humanity are considered crimes that trigger universal jurisdiction under international customary law, and thus all states should bring to justice those who have committed them.[48]
Killings of Protesters and Bystanders
The Violations Documentation Center, in cooperation with Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a network of Syrian activists documenting and publicizing violations inside Syria, has collected the names of 3,934 people killed by the security forces between the beginning of anti-government protests in March and December 3, 2011.[49]In her statement on December 2, 2011, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that more 4,000 people, over 300 of them children, had been killed.[50]Human Rights Watch has documented and publicized many of these killings.[51]
Defectors’ statements provide further information about the systematic nature of the killings authorized by commanders of the armed forces and intelligence agencies at the highest levels.
All of the military defectors interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that their commanders gave standing orders to “stop the protests at any cost” during regular briefings to the troops and prior to deployment. In many cases, the commanders explicitly authorized the use of lethal force against largely peaceful protesters.
In about half of the cases, interviewees said that commanders followed these standing orders with specific orders during the operations against protesters to “open fire,” “shoot,” “kill,” “destroy,” and the like.
Human Rights Watch also obtained information about commanders’ involvement in the planning and implementation of specific operations that resulted in a large number of civilian casualties. Further, on several occasions documented by Human Rights Watch, commanders gave orders or participated in the transfer—or burial—of the bodies of protesters killed in attacks during demonstrations.
Standing orders
All of the 63 defectors interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that they received standing orders to suppress, stop, or disperse the protests “by all means necessary” prior to deployment.
These orders were communicated during regular morning meetings or immediately before deployment to specific areas either directly by high-ranking commanders, or by lower-level commanders referring to orders received from high-ranking commanders. The defectors said that even when it was not specified, they universally understood the phrase “by all means necessary” as an authorization to use lethal force, especially in the light of the fact that they were issued live ammunition as opposed to other means of crowd control.
Examples of such orders documented by Human Rights Watch include:
• “Ahmed,” a soldier with the Presidential Guard, who was deployed to Douma in April, said that Brigadier General Talal Makhlouf, commander of the 105th Brigade, Presidential Guard, gave his unit verbal orders to “suppress the protest and shoot if people refuse to disperse.”[52]
• “Jamal,” another soldier from the 105th Brigade also said that Brigadier General Talal Makhlouf gave the troops verbal orders to “shoot at protesters.”He recounted to Human Rights Watch specific operations when these orders were implemented. He said:
On August 27 we were near a police hospital in Harasta. About 1,500 protesters came there. They requested the release of an injured protester who was inside the hospital. They held olive branches. They had no arms. There were 35 army soldiers and about 50 mukhabarat personnel at the checkpoint. We also had a jeep with a mounted machine-gun. When the protesters were less than 100 meters away, we opened fire. We had previously received the orders to do so from the Brigadier General. Five protesters were hit, and I believe two of them died.[53]
• “Abdullah,” a soldier with the 409th Battalion, 154th Regiment, 4th Division, said that his unit was deployed to Mo`adamiyeh, Douma, Abbassiyyin, and Dummar, areas in and just outside of Damascus. He said that two high-level commanders gave verbal orders to the troops to shoot at protesters:
We were told to shoot if civilians gathered in groups of more than seven or eight people. Commander of the 154th RegimentBrigadier General Jawbat Ibrahim Safi and divisional commander Major General Mohamed Ali Durgham gave us the orders before we went out. The orders were to shoot at gatherings of protesters as well as defectors, and to storm houses and arrest people.[54]
• “Mansour,” who served in Air Force Intelligence in Daraa, said that the commander in charge of Air Force Intelligence in Daraa, Colonel Qusay Mihoub gave his unit orders to “stop the protesters by all possible means,” which included the use of lethal force. Mansour said:
Our orders were to make the demonstrators retreat by all possible means, including by shooting at them. It was a broad order that shooting was allowed. When officers were present they would decide when and whom to shoot. If somebody carried a microphone or a sign, or if demonstrators refused to retreat, we would shoot. We were ordered to fire directly at protesters many times. We had Kalashnikovs and machine guns, and there were snipers on the roofs.[55]
• “Najib,” who was stationed in Daraa with the 287th Battalion, 132nd Brigade, 5th Division, said that the brigade commander verbally communicated the orders to use lethal force against protesters to the troops before a major military operation on April 25. He said:
Brigadier General Ahmed Yousef Jarad, the brigade commander, gathered us in the yard before we moved out. He told us to stop the people who were rioting by all means necessary. He said that the country needed to be cleaned of the protesters and said we should shoot at anything suspicious. He ordered us to use our PKT machine guns and DShK antiaircraft guns [Russian-made vehicle-mounted weapons] as well. Our general orders were to kill, destroy stores, crush cars in the streets, and arrest people.[56]
• “Habib,” an officer with the 65th Brigade, 3rd Division, told Human Rights Watch that his unit received initial orders at a briefing at their base in Douma in mid-March. According to Habib, Major General Naim Jasem Suleiman, the commander of the 3rd Division, andBrigadier General Jihad Mohamed Sultan, the commander of 65th Brigade, told the troops that they would need to fight armed groups“supported by Israel and the US” and that they had one month to stop the protests at any cost.[57]
Habib explained that his unit fell under the command of Imad Fahed Al Jasem during the April 25 operation in Daraa.[58]According to Habib, his unit also took orders from Brigadier General Ramadan Mahmoud Ramadan, the commander of the 35th Special Forces Regiment, in addition to the divisional and brigade commanders mentioned above.[59]
According to Habib, battalion commander Colonel Mohamed Khader personally gave them additional verbal instructions immediately before the invasion of Daraa:
Just before the operation, Colonel Mohamed Khadergave us about 30 minutes of instructions. As we were entering the town, we were supposed to shoot at anybody who shot at us. But after we entered, our orders were to shoot at anybody we saw, even if they were just sitting on a balcony.[60]
• “Salim,” an officer with the 46th Special Forces Regiment deployed to Idlib, said that Major General Fo’ad Hamoudeh, who had assumed command of the Idlib operation, told the forces to “stop the protesters at any cost” in the beginning of September.[61]
• “Mohamed,” a soldier with aerial defense unit MD 1010 deployed to Bukamal in the beginning of May, said that the commander of his unit, Colonel Issa Shibani made it clear that the unit’s“job was not to arrest people, but to kill.” According to the soldier, the commander gave verbal orders to “kill anyone putting up resistance, regardless of whether they are men, women, or children.”[62]Mohamed said that 35 to 40 people were killed during the first day of the operation as his unit entered Bukamal. A Special Forces commander Major General Bader Aqel gave the soldiers orders to pick up the bodies and hand them over to the mukhabarat.[63]
In some cases, the unit commanders provided clarifications to written orders, making orders to use lethal force more explicit. For example, “Tahir,” who served in the 691st Battalion of the Military Police, said that when the unit was deployed to accompany Special Forces on a mission to Daraa, the commander of his unit read out a written order from the commander of military police, General Mohamed Ibrahim Sha`ar (who became

**shakur420** · 04-16-2012, 09:11 PM

Wow, you're really dismissing the relationship saddam had with the US? lol, I stopped reading after that.