War crimes were likely committed by members of interim government forces and fighters aligned with former President Bashar al-Assad during an outbreak of sectarian violence in Syria’s coastal areas in March, according to a United Nations report.
Some 1,400 people, mainly civilians, were reported killed during the violence that primarily targeted Alawite communities, and reports of violations have continued, according to the report released on Thursday by the UN Syria Commission of Inquiry.
“The scale and brutality of the violence documented in our report is deeply disturbing,” said Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, chair of the commission, in a statement.
Torture, killings and inhumane acts related to the treatment of the dead were documented by the UN team, which based its research on more than 200 interviews with victims and witnesses, as well as visits to mass grave sites.
“The violations included acts that likely amount to war crimes,” the UN investigators said.
Alawite men were separated from women and children, then led away and killed, the report found.
“Bodies were left in the streets for days, with families prevented from conducting burials in accordance with religious rites, while others were buried in mass graves without proper documentation,” the commission said.
Hospitals became overwhelmed as a result of the killings.
The commission found that even while the interim government’s forces sought to stop violations and protect civilians, certain members “extrajudicially executed, tortured and ill-treated civilians in multiple [Alawite] majority villages and neighbourhoods in a manner that was both widespread and systematic”.
However, the report said the commission “found no evidence of a governmental policy or plan to carry out such attacks”. It also found that pro-Assad armed groups had committed “acts that likely amount to crimes, including war crimes” during the violence.
“We call on the interim authorities to continue to pursue accountability for all perpetrators, regardless of affiliation or rank,” Pinheiro said.
“While dozens of alleged perpetrators of violations have reportedly since been arrested, the scale of the violence documented in our report warrants expanding such efforts.”
The incidents in the coastal region were the worst violence in Syria since al-Assad was toppled last December, prompting the interim government to name a fact-finding committee.
The committee in July said it had identified 298 suspects implicated in serious violations during the violence in the country’s Alawite heartland.
The committee’s report then stated there was no evidence that Syria’s military leadership ordered attacks on the Alawite community.
Syrian authorities have accused gunmen loyal to al-Assad of instigating the violence, launching deadly attacks that killed dozens of security personnel.
According to the commission, the deadly attacks by pro-former government fighters began after Syrian interim authorities launched an arrest operation on March 6.
The government committee said 238 members of the army and security forces were killed in the attacks in the provinces of Tartous, Latakia and Hama.
