By Group of Syrian National Experts
In one of the deadliest weeks since the Syrian Revolution began in March 2011, some 272 people – including around 72 army defectors – were reported to have been killed when government forces attacked the villages of Kafr Owaid and Qansfara in the north-western province of Idlb in Syria, about 30 miles from the northern border with Turkey, It is part of the rugged mountainous region of Jabal al-Zawiyah, which has been the scene of clashes between troops and army defectors and intense anti-government protests for weeks.
Around 72 of the army defectors (defected primarily to protect unarmed civilians and protesters), fled the city, and as they become out of ammunition, they fled to hid from the Regime forces in an old area between Qansfara and Kafr Owaid, and were gunned down on the spot. Their bodies were removed by security forces and hidden in unknown places. Then the Syrian army stormed the city of Qansfara using heavy weapons and tanks. Scores of residents and activists fled to the nearby Budnaya Valley, where they were completely surrounded by troops. The forces bombarded them with tank shells, rockets and heavy machine gun fire.
Some of them fled to the nearby Hospital of Kiwan, one of the troops, which belonged to the defiance brigades, attacked the injured, and some witnesses described the situation inside the hospital as horrible. But the Director of the Kiwan Hospital refused to admit that a crime was committed against the injured inside his hospital.
After a few hours of peace in the city of Qansfara, and while the army was bombing the Budnaya valley, the villagers form of Kfer Oweid and Al Mouzrah, went out to the nearby village asking for protection, security and peace from their Syrian Regular Army (which have sworn to protect the Syrian People). As the villagers screaming for help, they were arrested and killed instantly, and their bodies were thrown in the valley. Around 200 young workers and students were killed; none of them were defectors from the Army, as the Syrian Regime claimed. An eyewitness described seeing the bodies of what he estimated to be around 200 residents following shelling the valley. He said they had fled their homes out of fear of arrest, and all the victims were civilians. These massacres were more horrible than imaginable and described. With all this killing in the village, not to mention the destruction through shelling, the arrests and the torture, and the hardship through displacement and shortages of food, fuel and medicine
The Syrian regime in covering his crimes against humanities, has fabricated several videos on Qansfara and Kafr Owaid, claiming that the murdered were not civilian, as all of them were defectors from the Syrian army and Islamist terrorist, and the videos were widely distributed among Satellite channels and social media. The Regime’s websites have written several articles twisting facts and providing false information on the Mascara, they claimed that the Syrian National Council was supporting the Syrian Free Army to occupy Jable Al Zaweiah and to declare it as a Buffer Zone. The Syrian National Council has declared earlier that Humanitarian Corridors could be needed to protect the civilians, and they know very well that a Decision form the Security Council is needed to establish such a Zoon. A website supported by the Syrian Regime under the name of “Al Haqiqa” the truth - has spread false information with the aim of twisting facts and providing justifications for the Regime for the Mascara they have undertaken in Idlb’s surrounding villages.
The Syrian regime intent on showing that the Revolution is essentially driven by extremist terrorist groups and religious rivalries and revengeful acts. Media campaign by Syria media focuses on methods of fabricating news, using its sectarian armed provocation, and the use of its security forces, armed forces, media propaganda and complete dedication of resources to crush the peaceful popular uprising by force.
The Syrian regime continues with its lies and distortions. It fabricates stories about undisciplined armed gangs that are in employ of foreign powers. Syrian television showed pictures of dead defectors with long beard and claimed that they are terrorist group.
The Syrian regime committed, before this massacre, several other massacres in different Governorates (Dara’a, Homes, Hama, Idlb, Rural Damascus, Deir Al Zoor, Banias and others) The regime started to provoke practices against the citizens by killing, arresting, bombing houses and abusing the children, women and , elderly, which lead to the ignition of the bloodshed. The Syrian regime forces invaded the cities and villages and shot the young and the old in the streets and followed those who sought refuge into the mosque and killed them all.
Military operations, genocide and the destruction of areas and other sites witnessed wide-scale looting of private properties, house contents, commercial shops and even public facilities. The members of the security intelligence and the army forces killed many families, some of them were shot, some were stabbed and some of them died under the remains of their bombed houses. The soldiers used to enter the houses and kidnap young women and girls. After that, the parents never knew anything about them.
The breach of the human rights of the detainees committed by the Syrian regime, during the Syrian revolution, is horrible beyond imagination and description. The regime authorities arrested tens of thousands of citizens randomly. All citizens are accused and liable to arrest and subject to torture and in some cases deliberate murder. Thus many citizens have been killed while under arrest. Until this day thousands of detainees are missing and no one knows anything about them, neither the authorities have given any information about their cases. Among the arrested were the scholars, clergymen, doctors, chemists, engineers, technicians, teachers, traders, craftsmen, farmers, and all stages of the society including women. Hundereds of women and children were arrested and were subject to torture and death during their time in prison. Some of those women were killed in their houses due to bombing or shooting, and some were killed under torture and others were killed while helping the injured people who were hurt during the bombing and destruction,
Many public venues, such as, stadiums, and theaters, were turned into detention centers in which systematic brutal torture occurred, resulting in many death-under-torture cases. In addition, there has been several forced disappearance of citizens who were kidnapped for months, and disappeared completely thereafter. There are many documented cases of hospitals that were invaded to prevent treating the wounded; in some cases, the wounded were detained or even killed.
The oppressive regime in Syria used all its military and security forces against their unarmed people, waging open war on the crowds of peaceful demonstrators. In some documented cases, the regime used military equipment such as helicopters, armored sea vessels, and military tanks, to bomb residential neighborhoods in many cities. This is in addition to using internationally banned weapons, such as poison gas and expanding bullets, to disperse peaceful demonstrators.
In fact, the authorities became involved in a wide range of breaches and wild practices and killing, which are considered as ‘crimes of genocide. Syria has never witnessed anything similar to them after the Hama and Palmyra Mascaras.
Based on the available information, we can consider that the scale and gravity of the violations indicate serious crimes against humanity have been committed and continue to be committed in Syria. Serious violations of international human rights law are reported to have systematically occurred in the context of such attacks on civilians.
All of the above happened during nine months, while the world is watching with no actions. The Human Rights Council prepared an important and documented report on the violations of human rights in Syria, but up to this date only statements and economic Sanctions were made condemning the Syrian Regime. This hesitance and the lack of a conclusive stance and real actions is sending very negative signs to the Syrian people, who are starting to consider this as indirect participation in the ongoing assault against humanity and against the Syria people.
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