Following videos shows injuries inside field hospitals:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQvSG1HovUg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ_uY3tF6Ro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVq3qcN9Ed8&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ulRr9RolyA&feature=player_detailpage

SNHR condemns the inhumane and immoral Russian attitude regarding its refusal to let the humanitarian aides enter the neighborhoods of Old City, and consider this attitude to be typical of bloody dictatorship totalitarian regimes, and we refuse to be among the five permanent members, which is supposed to protect security and civil peace around the world.

The international system should exceed the inhumane and immoral Russian attitude towards Syria, and find urgent face – saving solution to human rights agreements and treaties and international humanitarian law that have been developed over hundreds of years an and dissolved by Syrian and Russian regimes, and silence and inability rest of international parties, except for the Arab people in general and Syrian people in particular will not believe any more in humanitarian rule or treaty.  This is what we warned about many times, the horrible international silence towards all those crimes against humanity that have been admitted by human rights council and Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic.  All of that is the main reason behind prevalence extremism thoughts and exploit their rights with their own hands.

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Report Prepared by Syrian Network for Human Rights

 

Date of Report : 29/6/2013

Period covered : Since the Syrian Uprising to 10/6/2013

Contents:

1-     Methodology and introduction

2-     Report:

First: Syrian Government’s Armed Troops

Second: Armed Opposition

3-     Legal Conclusions

4-     Demands and Recommendations

 

Methodology and Introduction:

Syrian Network for Human Rights is one of the key sources to the United Nations in documenting the victims of Syrian Armed Conflicts, as pointed out by the United Nation’s reports issued in its statistics of conflict victims and pointed out in the analysis provided by HRDA; appointed by UN to oversee the issuance of Statistics of conflicts victims around the world.

SNHR depends on high criteria when documenting, and on its members who are deployed in all of Syrian Governorates.

By conducting interviews with hundreds of torture victims by Syrian Government’s Armed Troops, they all expressed methods of unified and systematic torturing methods in all of the Syrian Governorates, which led to the death of 2,630 civilians under torture.

The committee against torture confirmed that Each State Party shall ensure that its competent authorities continue to provide a prompt and impartial investigation, wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed in any territory under its jurisdiction.  Otherwise, the state will be responsible for  its officials, and will be held responsible for unauthorized acts such as these.

Human Rights Committee, General Comment 20, Article 7 (Forty-fourth session, 1992)  paragraph 11:

11. In addition to describing steps to provide the general protection against acts prohibited under article 7 to which anyone is entitled, the State party should provide detailed information on safeguards for the special protection of particularly vulnerable persons. It should be noted that keeping under systematic review interrogation rules, instructions, methods and practices as well as arrangements for the custody and treatment of persons subjected to any form of arrest, detention or imprisonment is an effective means of preventing cases of torture and ill-treatment. To guarantee the effective protection of detained persons, provisions should be made for detainees to be held in places officially recognized as places of detention and for their names and places of detention, as well as for the names of persons responsible for their detention, to be kept in registers readily available and accessible to those concerned, including relatives and friends. To the same effect, the time and place of all interrogations should be recorded, together with the names of all those present and this information should also be available for purposes of judicial or administrative proceedings. Provisions should also be made against incommunicado detention. In that connection, States parties should ensure that any places of detention be free from any equipment liable to be used for inflicting torture or ill-treatment. The protection of the detainee also requires that prompt and regular access be given to doctors and lawyers and, under appropriate supervision when the investigation so requires, to family members.

 

Report:

According to SNHR estimations, the Syrian Government arrested at least 215,000 Syrian citizens, including 9,000 under the age of 18 and 4,500 women (including 1,200 college students).

Among the 215,000 arrested, there are at least 70,000 who disappeared.

All this, according to estimates conducted by Syrian Network for Human Rights, it is very difficult to get all the detainees names because of the refusal of hundreds of families to provide us with statements of their sons out of fear of torture.  Yet despite all the difficulties, we could document nearly 80,000 names of detainees registered by name, place and date.

The four main Syrian Security Branches are:

Military Security, Air Security, General Security, and Political Security.  All have practiced various kinds of  torturing methods against all detainees.  Degrees of torture vary between detainees, but in general, they are considered to be the worst and most horrible methods that violate human rights, dignity, and all international conventions.

Practicing Systematic daily torturing methods for long hours led to the death of 2,630 victims; including 85 children, 27 women, 114 Syrian Free Army members (less than 5 % and all the other victims are civilian activists, reporters, human rights activists and protestors).  According to statistic conducted by SNHR since the beginning of the Syrian revolution to 10 June 2013, and they are among the 92,901 victims that were announced by the UN’s newest statistic, but the statistics regarding victims killed under torture continue to increase to the date of this report.

The following link shows names and details for victims tortured to death by Syrian Government’s Armed Troops:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Bj18tlYYKBYVpXcHVHS2ZMTkk/edit

Distribution of victims tortured to death by governorate as follows:

Homs: 609

Damascus countryside: 465

Daraa: 410

Idlib: 273

Hama: 199

Damascus: 266

Aleppo: 143

Lattakia: 61

Dier Alzoor: 90

Lattakia: 63

Qunaitra: 34

Other Nationalities: 29

Hasaka: 20

Tartous: 14

Raqqa: 5

Swidaa: 1

Torturing methods that have been documented by hundreds of tortured survivors’ testimonies.  There are 46 cases divided into three sections:

(Note: SNHR received testimonies, and photos showing signs of torture for  those victims)

 

First:  Torture Methods; 9 Techniques 

Second: Various Methods of Torture (22 cases)

Third: Psychological Torture (14 cases)

 

First:  Torture Methods : SNHR could document 9 techniques

1-      Ghost Technique (Shabeh position): Hanging victims to the bathroom ceiling from their wrists while they stand on a chair, then removing the chair so the victim will stand on the ground on his/her big toe.

Another case of Shabeh, known as fly ghost, where they tightened one of his/her feet with the victim’s hand using the same rope for many hours and even day or two, causing hands to inflate or even be cut.

2-      Tire position (Dulab) the victim is forced to bend at the waist and stick his head, neck, legs and sometimes arms into the inside of a car tire, then start beating him on different parts of his body.

3-      Flying Carpet position (Basat Al-Reeh) involves tying the victim down to a two section plank so that the detainee’s hands and feet are tied to the front and back of the plank, and his face on the base of it.  Then, the front side of the plank is lifted as to fold it so that the body of the detainee is folded until his head touches his feet.  This leads to a dangerous stretch in the ligaments and nerves of the spine, and results in the most dreadful kind of pain a person can suffer from.  Meanwhile, another person beats the detainee.

4-      Crucifixion: The hands and legs of the detainee are tightened in the position of a crucified person then is beaten specifically on the genitals.

5-       Hanging: The hands are tied behind the back, then the detainee is hanged and beaten with sticks and wires.

6-      Smashing: Where a detainee’s head is placed between the wall and the door of the prison, then the door is closed on the head of the detainee.

7-       Electrocution: The detainee is seated on a metal chair, and is then electrified.

8-      Electric shocks to various parts of body.

9-      The German chair (Al-Kursi al-Almani): A metal chair with moving parts to which the victim is tied to by his/her hands and feet.  The breaks of the chair bends backwards causing acute hyperextension of the spine and severe pressure on the victim’s neck and limbs.

 

Second: Various Methods of Torture (22 cases)

1-      Using all methods of beating on all parts of the body with different tools, such as stakes and electric cables, called colloquially (Robai), to beat on the soles and the tread of the head.

2-       Completely uprooting fingernails.

3-      Removing hair from different parts of the body.

4-      Cutting out flesh with forceps from sensitive organs.

5-      Raping male and female detainees.

6-      Forcing the detainee to rape his/her cell mate.

7-      Cutting off some parts of the detainee body; such as the finger, flesh, or stabbing the back or stomach.

8-      Burning detainee’s skin using chemical acids or cigarettes.

9-      Exposing the detainee to extreme cold after being force to take off all his/her clothes.

10-  Depriving the detainee of complete medical care, as there is a lack of medical care in large number of prisons.

11-  Preventing the detainee to use the toilet but only once or twice a day, forcing him/her sometimes to urinate on himself/herself.  If the detainee is allowed to use the toilet, the period may not exceed a minute. The detainee is also refused a shower, and from going out for a breath of fresh air.

12-  Keeping a large number of detainees in a small cell (keeping 45 detainees in a 15 meter cell, Air Force Intelligence, Aleppo).

13-  Pouring cold water over his/her body after being hit and wounded.

14-  Cracking ribs.

15-  Insufficient amount of water and food which is not enough for a quarter of detainees.

16-  Having to stand on one foot and be hung up from hands for a successive amount of days.

17-   Using underground cells without ventilation.

18-  Pouring boiling oil or water over his/her legs.

19-  Cutting the ear with clippers meant for trimming trees.

20-  Smashing ears and noses with a mallet.

21-  Hanging up and tying something heavy to the penis.

22-  Electric shocking, especially in breasts, knees, and elbows.

 

Third: Psychological Torture (14 cases):

SNHR documented the most systematic practice with 14 cases:

1-      Forcing the detainee to watch his/her mate being raped.

2-      Threatening the detainee that they will rape him/her.

3-   Forcing the detainee to watch his/her mates tortured to death.

4-      Threatening the detainee with the arrest of his wife, mother or sister and raping or torturing her in front of his eyes, then making him see naked female detainees in the prison.

5-      Threatening the detainee with death through torture or slaughtering him/her with knives.

6-      Offending and assaulting the detainee`s religious beliefs.

7-      Putting male and female detainees in the same prison, and in some cases, stripping them in front of the executioners.

8-      Putting detainees and dying people in the same cell.

9-      Placing detainees with dead people in the same cell.

10-   Assaulting the detainee and his family with obscene insults.

11-  Forcing the detainee to admit to crimes he did not commit under the threat of increasing the torture.

12-  Commanding the detainee to prostrate for Assad`s portrait.

13-  Telling the detainee that he/she is going to be released and opening the cell door, just to  bring him/her back for torture.

14-  Taking the detainee to the prison’s doctor for treatment.  The doctor hits him/her on painfully, then the detainee is taken back to be re-tortured.  So that he/she will not ask to see the doctor again.

Syrian Army , Shabiha and Security Forces practiced more horrible methods like cutting off genitals or ears.  We have more than 100 films and recordings, where security elements and Shabiha filmed these operations while they were having fun with them.

Unfortunately, all of those cases do not receive the same reaction or sentiment similar to the video of the brutal crime committed by a solider in Syrian Free Army, which different media agencies all around the world focused on.  Not to mention, the President and Foreign Minister of Russia, Iran’s Foreign Minister, the Lebanese Hezbullah Secretary General, who all knew and even participated in worse systematic crimes.

Following: Torture videos committed by Syrian Government’s Armed Troops in all of the Syrian Governorates.  SNHR has more videos and will issue them in separate reports to confirm the credibility of what we mentioned.

Warning: These videos contain very cruel scenes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFAxEdEfl9w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJpzsbltU0g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwYMLGKFQQQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01bLOmIBNLY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLv-0ZvZVYg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iMrjAQIQpA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvRUOn7nbmc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdf6u1fyRgQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPj3OsjUqIE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nakq6EMhHYM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3purybWTsbE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwYMLGKFQQQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL0ASgGOG5g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnAwo8ryVPE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmfJypx6ayg

 

Legal Conclusions

United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners:

These principles are based on and derived by international humanitarian law, the international law of human rights, and on the basis of humane treatment and non-discrimination.  Protection principle No. 7 has particular importance, especially important as calls to investigate all cases of ill-treatment of detainees and punish the perpetrators.

 

Customary IHL states:

Chapter 32 Fundamental guarantees

Rule 90 Torture, cruel or inhuman treatment and outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, are prohibited.

Rule 91 Corporal punishment is prohibited.

Chapter 37 Persons Deprived of Their Liberty

Rule 118 Persons deprived of their liberty must be provided with adequate food, water, clothing, shelter and medical attention.

Rule 119 Women who are deprived of their liberty must be held in quarters separate from those of men, except where families are accommodated as family units, and must be under the immediate supervision of women.

Rule 120 Accommodation for Children Deprived of Their Liberty

Rule 120 Children who are deprived of their liberty must be held in quarters separate from those of adults, except where families are accommodated as family units.

Based on the foregoing:

1-      SNHR emphasizes that torture committed by the Syrian Government’s Armed Forces is part of a systematic widespread policy.  The proof is derived from the murder of at least 4 civilians with torture.  This constitutes a flagrant violation of the state’s obligations to International Human Rights Law and the International Law of Human Rights.

2-        The torture is systematically practiced in large scale attacks carried out by the Syrian Government’s Armed Troops and Shabiha against civilians.  They are aware of such attacks, considered as crimes against humanity.

3-      There is a large involvement of Shabiha militia affiliated to Syrian Government in torturing citizens in unofficial detention centers in various governorates, where they raped and tortured abducted women.

4-      Syrian Government’s Armed Forces committed a wide range of acts of torture under non-international armed conflicts, which is considered a war crime according to Article 8 of the Rome Statute.

5-      The Syrian Government didn’t comply with customary IHL or any local or international law regarding torturing issues, and acted carless over all international norms and laws.

 

Second: Armed Oppositions:

SNHR documented torturing cases in centers controlled by the armed opposition.  It led to death cases, in particular, in the cases of Shabiha raping women after breaking into their homes.  Those are the most documented cases involving death by torture.

Although the armed opposition practice torture against some civilians, media activist cause their objections to some practices by some elements of the armed factions but did not live up to degree murder under torture.

Armed opposition also practiced methods of torture with some officers and soldiers whose arrested from government forces in order to obtain information.

There are also some of torture practices on a sectarian basis and considering that approximately 98% of the security chiefs are from the Alawite sect, a number of practices came as a reaction to those who torturing detainees and people in the security branches.

Legal conclusions against Armed Oppositions :

The applicable law in Syrian armed conflict is Customary IHL , where armed opposition violated the rules of customary IHL , although the other cases are individual , but we are in SNHR expressing our concern that this acts will spread in other areas

Accordingly, the armed opposition and other factions fighting have been committed in acts of torture, a war crime, and violated their obligations under Article 3 common as the parties to the conflict in Syria.

SNHR didn’t document any case of torturing women and children.

 

Condemnation and responsibilities

As an organization concerned with the defense of human rights, the Syrian Network for Human Rights condemns in the strongest terms and in the greatest phrases, all methods of torture under all forms, which date back to many methods used in primitive times, and the first eras of the Middle Ages, and stresses that these acts of violence cannot be issued by a person with humanitarian values.  It holds the Syrian Government Troops, with all its symbols and forms, and all of those who are allied and cooperate with, and support Syrian Government Troops financially or morally fully responsible for what happened and is happening, as well as all the reactions and consequences of arrest and torture.

Not to mention that the international community’s and UN’s attitude of standing and watching idly as violations of international law occur in Syria is a stain against those who legislated the rules.  The lack of implementation to put an end to dictatorships that violate and offend human dignity and encourages dictatorships to move forward in their policies criminal lack of undeterred is appalling.

 

Demands and Recommendations:

1-      Demands

According to Rule No. 124 of Customary IHL

 Rule 124. ICRC Access to Persons Deprived of Their Liberty

A.    In international armed conflicts, the ICRC must be granted regular access to all persons deprived of their liberty in order to verify the conditions of their detention and to restore contacts between those persons and their families.

 

SNHR as a human rights organization demands our colleagues in ICRC to do their duty entrusted to them as the only body authorized to visit detention centers and cellars expended and quickly visits, and has full liberty to select the places it wishes to visit and must be able to interview the detainees without accompaniments by the Syrian Government Troops.

We call upon the International Committee, Security Council and United Nations to live up to the human and humanity laws and constitutions and referral criminal and murderers to ICC.

All city organizations around the world to exert pressure on the Security Council and all its members to refer criminals in Syria to ICC, and to be on the amount of responsibility of torture and kill exposed the Syrian people.

 

2-      Recommendations:

Human Rights Council:

1-      Pay more serious attention to death by torture cases, which are considered as the worst type of crimes.

2-       Demand the Security Council and the concerned international institutions to hold their responsibilities in this serious matter.

3-      Pressure the Syrian Government Troops  to stop torturing and unlock the prisons and detention centers to see detainees and know their conditions.

4-      Hold allies and supporters of the Syrian Government Troops: Russia, Iran, and China, morally and physically responsible for the Syrian Government Troops’ excesses in this regard.

Security Council:

1-      Decide to refer all the criminals and the involved to the ICC.

2-      Warn the Syrian Government Troops  of the repercussions of using brutal methods on the stability of civil peace and coexistence between the people of the same society.

Arab League:

1-      Demand the Human Rights Council and United Nations to give this serious issue the right attention and follow up with its developments.

2-      Political and diplomatic pressure on the Syrian Government Troops’ main allies – Russia, Iran and China – to prevent them from continuously providing cover and international and political protection for all the crimes committed against the Syrian people and hold them morally and physically responsible for all the excesses of the Syrian Government Troops.

3-      Serious attention of this case and give it high priority, and try to take care of torture victims’ families.

Transitional Syrian Government Troops:

1-      Media and Political deserved attention of this case, and continuously raised in Syrian Friends Conferences.

2-      Demand the Human Rights Council and United Nations to give this serious issue the right attention and follow up.

3-      Form specialized committees to follow up the conditions of detainees families and care of them financially and morally.

4-      Form specialized committees to provide moral and psychological support to rehab victims detainees coming out of torture headquarters.

5-      Condemnation, accounting and follow up on torture committed by opposition armed factions.

International Commission of Inquiry:

The International Commission of Inquiry to describe the facts as I received completely and provide the legal duty of the violations carried out by the Syrian government toward the Syrian people and increase the members of the committee specialists affairs Syrian commensurate with the size of the violations basis, and take reports of Syrian human rights organizations that have members of specialists by on Syrian territory into account.

Report Prepared by Syrian Network for Human Rights

Period covered: 18 June 2013 to 25 June 2013

Introduction:

Talkalakh is in-between Homs city and Tartous city, almost 45 km west of Homs and nearly the same distance east of Tartous city.

It has a strategic importance, since it is located on the Homs Tartous highway, adjoined to the Lebanese border just five km north of Lebanon.

Talkalakh is surrounded by villages that are comprised of an Alwite majority.

It had a population of almost 55,000 before its residents were displaced due to the frequent shelling and destruction of homes especially within the last few months, when most of its residents fled out.

Lebanese Hezbollah accompanied by Shabiha and Syrian Government’s Armed Forces initiated a wide attack in the period between 18 June 2013 and 25 June 2013. Many massacres occurred during these attacks, where at least fifteen victims who were killed included two women, and three SFA members. 60 civilians are currently missing and more than 200 victims were killed in the attack. In addition, looting and destruction occurred during this period.

Report details:

Tuesday 18 June 2013 – Lebanese Hezbollah militia accompanied the Shabiha from the Alawite villages surrounding the city, and the Syrian Government’s Armed Troops started a siege on the city where the Syrian Government had cut off communication, electricity, and water.

Thursday 20 June 2013 – After the siege, where they prevented civilians from entering and leaving, they started a very heavy shelling using artillery, rocket launcher, and warplanes. The shelling lasted for two days, and led to 40 injuries.

Saturday 22 June 2013 – Those same troops launched a ground offensive attack accompanied with a large number of tanks and armored vehicles on the north and west side of Talkalakh city. Many neighborhoods fell immediately, including: Tal-Alshamali, Mahata and the western neighborhood. We were able to document five victims, including four civilians: two women; one famous media activist, Mohamd Ahmad Maisara Aldandashi, who was filming the looting and shelling; a lawyer; and one Syrian Free Army. In addition, eighteen victims were killed in the attack.

We received many frequent reports, where we were not able to check the news regarding field executions, and resident kidnapping due to the cut off of communication and the ban imposed on all media and human rights organizations.

Video shows random shelling in the city:

Other video shows the shelling of civilians houses:

Names of victims that we could document:

1- Mohamd Ahmad Maisara Aldandashi, media activist
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=544120545629147&set=a.196446397063232.46168.196429423731596&type=1&theater

2- Ahmad Ramez Methqal: Syrian Free Army
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=544122372295631&set=a.196446397063232.46168.196429423731596&type=1&theater

3- Lawyer Nawaf Alaakari

4- Ms. Hanadi Aldarzi

5- Ms. Iman Ibrahim

Troops that stormed the city also destroyed the only medical point that existed there and prevented the entry of drugs and ICRC members into the city.

Sunday 23 June 2013 – They started the siege on the rest of the neighborhoods such as the eastern neighborhood, Ghalion mountain neighborhood and Alsook neighborhood, and tried to storm into them. Violent clashes took place between the Syrian Free Army Soldiers and them. The clashes led to many victims and injured persons.

Monday 24 June 2013 – The shelling occurred again in the city of Ras Alnaaba villages, killing many victims, then troops stormed the city and started mop up operations. Many houses were looted and burned. There were also reports of troops raping women.

Tuesday 25 June 2013 – Invasive forces controlled most of the neighborhoods in the city after the Syrian Free Army soldiers pulled from the city to the neighboring countryside. They killed eight civilians in field executions, and residents in city center. More than 30 victims disappeared. Soldiers arrested them and took them to unknown places.

The SNHR documented the victims’ names. It recognized that there are at least fifteen victims: three SFA, twelve civilians, two women, and one media activist:

1- Ali Haidar: Homs / Talkalakh

2- Mahomd Husain Borghali: Homs / Talkalakh

3- Ammar Husain Borghali: Homs / Talkalakh

4- Khudur Hamadi: Homs / Talkalakh

5- Sinan Halom: Homs / Talkalakh

6- Khaled Halom: Homs / Talkalakh

7- Mostafa Shahwan: Homs / Talkalakh

8- Ayman Hasan Hanof: Homs / Talkalakh

9- Ms. Iman Ibrahim: Homs / Talkalakh

10- Lawyer Nawaf Alaakari: Homs / Talkalakh

11- Mohamd Ahmad Maisara Aldandashi, media activist: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=544120545629147&set=a.196446397063232.46168.196429423731596&type=1&theater

12- Ms. Hanadi Aldarzi

Syrian Free Army victims:

1- Zakaria Yahia Albasha: Homs / Talkalakh

2- Ahmad Ramez Methqal: Homs / Talkalakh Ahmad Ramez Methqal : Syrian Free – -Army :https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=544122372295631&set=a.196446397063232.46168.196429423731596&type=1&theater

3- Bashar Alharb: Jablah / Lattakia defeat soldier

The invasive troops established many checkpoints inside the city. Most residents fled out of fear of execution and rape. The city is almost empty, and paralyzed with a lack of movement. Terror and panic prevailed there, contrary of what the Syrian Government said, that they re-secured and stabilized the city allegedly under siege by gangs like Al-Qaeda and Nasra.

Responsibility of States

Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts

Responsibility of states for internationally wrongful acts, similarly Customary IHL provides that the state is responsible for all acts committed by the members of its military and security forces. Thus, the state is responsible for wrongful acts committed by its military and security forces, including crimes against humanity.

Prohibition of crimes against humanity are among the rules of jus cogens or peremptory, and punishment of such crimes is compulsory according to the General principles of international law. Moreover, the crimes against humanity are the height of violations against basic human rights, such as the right to life and the prohibition of torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In accordance with the principles of the State’s responsibility in international law. Syria, an Arab Republic holds responsibility for such crimes and violations. It has a duty to ensure punishment of the perpetrators individually and a duty to provide compensation to victims.

SNHR holds all violations committed by Syrian Government Armed Forces to the Syrian government and the General Commander of the army and the armed forces, Bashar Al-Assad. To all the officials of security branches, and to all the financial and moral supporters of those forces, with the legal, judicial, and material consequences to the victims and their families in addition to all the reactions that will come from the families or their friends.

Conclusions:

1- SNHR emphasizes that the collective and individual killings as reported previously was deliberately targeted against unarmed civilians, despite government claims that Al Qaida and other terrorists committed these crimes. Thus, Syria Government’s Armed Forces and Shabiha violated international human rights laws that protect the right of life. In addition to being committed in non-international armed conflicts, the crimes are tantamount to war crimes and violate all the conditions.

2- SNHR emphasizes that the killings that happened in Talkalakh are crimes against humanity, and contain elements of systematic and widespread attacks against the civilian population in that town, where there was a siege, shelling and ground attack, where houses were searched, and executions occurred.

The same applies on rape, kidnapping, looting, and thefts, even if it is relatively minimal when compared to Extrajudicial killings.

3- Random Attacks committed by Syrian Government’s Armed Forces are considered violations of customary international humanitarian law, where it shelled a populated area and not a specific military target.

4- Those attacks, especially the bombings, caused the occasional loss of civilian life, and injury or damage to civilian objects. There are very strong indications to believe that the damage was too excessive when compared to the expected military advantage.

5- Syrian Government’s Armed Forces and Shabiha committed various types of cruel and inhuman acts of torture against people in violation of the State’s obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

6- SNHR emphasizes that the Syrian Government’s Armed Forces and Shabiha committed the war crime of looting, and contributed to the destruction and burning of property during the search of homes in the events of Talkalakh.

7- The volume of the massacre and repeated nature of the massacres, the excessive force used and random nature of the shelling and coordinated nature of the attack couldn’t occur unless they were instructed by a high authority. This is a state policy.

Recommendations:

Syrian Government:

1- Immediately stop all human rights violations.

2- Respect international obligations of protection of civilians in time of war, and respect the rules of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

Human Rights Council:

1- Demand the Security Council and concerned international institutions to uphold their responsibilities for what’s happening to the Syrian People regarding the killing, rape, displacement, and arrests.

2- Pay more serious attention to cases involving death by torturing, which are considered as the worst type of crimes at all.

3- Pressure the Syrian Government Troops to stop torturing and killing civilians, and to release those who were kidnapped and arrested.

4- Hold allies and supporters of the Syrian Government Troops: Russia, Iran, and China, morally and physically responsible for what’s happening to the Syrian people.

Security Council:

1- Decide to refer all the criminals and others involved to the ICC.

2- Warn the Syrian Government Troops of the repercussions of using brutal methods to rupture the stability of civil peace and coexistence between the people of the same society.

Arab League:

1- Demand the Human Rights Council and the United Nations to give serious and right attention in order to stop the daily killing.

2- Political and diplomatic pressure on the Syrian Government Troops’s main allies -Russia, Iran, and China – to prevent them from continuously providing cover and international and political protection for all the crimes committed against the Syrian people, and hold them morally and physically responsible for all the excess violence caused by the Syrian Government Troops.

3- Serious attention of this case and give it a high priority, and try to take care of victims’ families psychologically, materially, and educationally.

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