“Normally we are supposed to save bullets, but this time he said, ‘Use as many bullets as you want.’ And when somebody asked what we were supposed to shoot at, he said, ‘At anything in front of you.’ About 40 protesters were killed that day.”
This statement is from someone identified as “Amjad,” a former member of the Syrian army in Daraa, and one of numerous accounts from defected soldiers collected by Human Rights Watch (HRW). These accounts were part of a new report published by the rights organization on Thursday detailing killings, abuses, torture, and unlawful arrests carried out by Syrian security forces in their crackdown on anti-government protests.
Amjad told New York-based HRW that his commander, Brig. Gen. Ramadan Ramadan, normally asked his subordinates to save their ammunition, but this time was different, getting an order to “Use heavy shooting. Nobody will ask you to explain.”
At least 74 Syrian commanders were named in the report, having ordered their troops to use “all means necessary” to quell anti-government demonstrations that have persisted since March, following a wave of regional unrest that ultimately ousted three longtime Arab leaders.
A member of Syria’s air force intelligence, referred to as Mansour, told HRW that he received similar orders from his commander. “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,” he said.
“Our orders were to make the demonstrators retreat by all possible means, including by shooting at them,” he added. “It was a broad order that shooting was allowed. When officers were present, they would decide when and whom to shoot.”
The United Nations gave an estimate on Monday that at least 5,000 people have been killed since the protests began, many of which have been documented by local activist and human rights groups. However, due to the ban on foreign observers in Syria, the death accounts are difficult to verify.
HRW said that based on the testimonials, which name top-level Syrian officials, there is very little doubt that regime security forces have participated in torturing, killing, detaining, and abusing dissidents. Such abuses constitute crimes against humanity and Syrian officials should be referred to the International Criminal Court, the group added.
Army defectors said in their testimonials that they repeatedly detained civilians arbitrarily and that beatings and torture were commonplace.
“We received our orders from Col. Suheil Hassan. He told us explicitly to beat people severely on the heads, and not to worry about the consequences. We also used electric cattle prods,” Hani, a former special forces member of the air force intelligence, said in an interview with HRW.
In a recent interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters, President Bashar al-Assad repeatedly stressed that Syrian security forces were not responsible for killing civilians and instead, blamed the deaths on armed terrorist gangs, some of which received foreign sponsorships. He said that only a “crazy person” would direct attacks against his own populace.
The rights group said that while there has been an increase in attacks carried out by demonstrators on security forces, the protests have largely been peaceful. However, Syrian opposition groups are not a united front.
A group of army defectors known as the Free Syria Army, which formed over the summer after months of unrest, has carried out multiple attacks against Syrian government forces.
Syrian army defectors recently killed 27 soldiers and security force members during clashes in Daraa on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP. In Hama, eight Syrian soldiers were reportedly killed by defectors.
The Free Syria Army on Tuesday uploaded a video showing a defector firing a rocket-propelled grenade at an armed personnel carrier in the restive city of Homs. It was unclear if anyone was killed.
“We waited till no civilians” were in the range of the explosion, the group said in a Facebook posting accompanying the video. We will never hurt any” Syrian civilians, it added.
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