ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Syrian government on Saturday said it is ready to cooperate with human rights organizations, but that Amnesty International, in its report calling for an investigation into “mass killings” in the Alawite-majority coastal areas, had failed to take into account events leading up to the killings.
“The regrettable incidents in the coastal area began with a treacherous attack with a deliberate murderous intent launched by remnants of the former regime, targeting the public security forces and the army, during which violations were committed against the people and residents of the region,” Damascus said in response to the Amnesty report, as reported by the state-run SANA news agency.
It said that the chaos “resulted in a temporary absence of state authority,” which led to “security chaos followed by reprisals, transgressions, and violations.”
Violence broke out in early March in the Alawite-majority coastal areas of western Syria after Assad loyalists launched attacks on security forces affiliated with the new Syrian leadership.
More than 1,700 people - mostly Alawite civilians - were killed in the violence, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, which said that Damascus and Damascus-affiliated security forces were responsible for the majority of casualties.
Amnesty on Thursday urged accountability for the massacres and accused Damascus of perpetrating a “war crime.”
Amnesty stated that families of the victims were forced by “militias affiliated with the government” to bury their loved ones in mass burial sites. The global human rights watchdog reminded the Damascus government that “the deceased ought to be buried in individual graves” as per Islamic rites.
In its response, the Syrian government said it regretted “the tendency of some human rights reports to ignore the track through which those incidents took place.”
Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in early March ordered the formation of an “independent national committee” to "identify the causes, circumstances, and details” behind the tragic events.
Amnesty said that the success of the committee’s work depends on ensuring that it has “the mandate, authority, expertise and resources” as well as “adequate time” to complete its investigation.
