ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syria’s justice ministry on Thursday formed a judicial committee to investigate last month’s deadly violence in Suwayda province that reportedly left more than 1,300 people dead.
Justice Minister Mazhar al-Wais, in a video message, said the committee was established “from judicial and legal expertise to investigate the circumstances of the recent events and refer those involved to the judiciary.”
The goal, he added, was to ensure “the preservation of the rights of all citizens… and the protection of national unity and civil peace.”
The committee is composed of seven members - four judges, two lawyers, and a brigadier general - and is expected to submit periodic updates, with a final report due within three months, according to the official decree.
Clashes erupted on July 13 between Druze fighters and Bedouin tribes in Suwayda. The violence quickly escalated with the involvement of Syrian government forces and Israeli airstrikes. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said at least 1,300 people were killed before a US-brokered ceasefire was declared.
The committee’s mandate includes uncovering the events that led to the violence, investigating alleged attacks and rights violations, and referring suspects to judicial authorities, state-run SANA reported.
At a United Nations Security Council session on Monday, UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen called for “major course corrections” in the Syrian government’s political and security strategies following the sectarian and intercommunal bloodshed.
Pedersen said government forces sent to de-escalate the clashes were “attacked” by Druze groups, but also cited “extremely grave reports of serious violations by security forces against Druze civilians.”
Documented abuses include “extrajudicial executions, degrading treatment, desecration of corpses, looting, and destruction of property,” he said, adding that the clashes resulted in “hundreds of casualties and injuries among security forces, Druze fighters, and, most tragically, civilians,” and estimated that around 175,000 people have been displaced.
A fragile ceasefire remains in place.
The Suwayda committee is similar to the investigative body formed in March after violence erupted in Syria’s coastal provinces of Tartus, Latakia, and Hama - home to a majority Alawite population - where armed groups, many loyal to ousted President Bashar al-Assad, himself an Alawite, launched attacks on government-aligned forces. Damascus responded with force.
According to SOHR, at least 1,700 people were killed in that wave of violence, most of them Alawite civilians. Many deaths were blamed on government and affiliated forces.
In July, the committee’s spokesperson Yasser al-Farhan said nearly 300 suspects had been identified and accused of crimes including “murder, premeditated murder, looting, destruction and burning of homes, torture, and sectarian insults.” The committee confirmed the deaths of 1,426 people, most of them civilians, including 90 women. Another 238 army and security personnel were killed.
