Death Toll since March 15, 2011

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The Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies (DCHRS) is an independent human rights NGO that monitors the human rights situation in Syria. In its thematic reports, the DCHRS issues a first indication of the casualties that it has managed to document to date. Through monitors who operate within Syria, DCHRS gathers information from across the country. However, the center’s access to information from Kurdish-held and ISIS-held territories is limited. The DCHRS is also unable to obtain accurate records on the number of Syrian regime forces killed in action, because these figures are not published by the regime.

Death Toll since the Beginning of the Syrian Revolution on March 15, 2011 through to December 31, 2014

Throughout March 15th, 2011 to December 31st, 2014, the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies (DCHRS) documented a provisional total of 108,072 casualties. 79% of those killed were civilians. The remaining 21% belonged to one of the fighting factions. The number of documented children during the indicated period is 11,145 Children victims at a rate of 23% of the total victims. The documented number of women casualties is 7,720 at a rate of 16% of the total victims.

The most common cause of death was the shelling of residential areas. Moreover, the Assad regime used airstrikes, barrel bombs, and scud missiles targeting random residential areas, which caused the death of 28,889 people in that period. The total number of prisoners and detainees who were tortured to death in the detention centers of the Syrian government authorities is 4,886 victims, some of whom died simply due to starvation, disease, and ill treatments. Sniper fire and indiscriminate shooting killed 10,011, whereas 1,270 persons were murdered in extrajudicial killings.  Armed groups such as ISIS killed 1,660, whilst the source of the bullets that killed another 619 persons cannot be attributed to a particular group.

Due to the besiege imposed by the Syrian regime in many areas across the country, the number of people who died due to starvation during the indicated period is 1,265, about 98% of whom fell in the Damascus suburbs area. Various explosions killed 1,336 people. Finally, 105 persons were killed as result of airstrikes by the U.S.-led international coalition which began on September 23, 2014.

Death Toll for 2014

Throughout January 1st, 2014 to December 31st, 2014, the DCHRS documented a provisional total of 26,178 casualties. 70% of those killed were civilians. The remaining 30% belonged to one of the fighting factions. The number of documented children during the indicated period is 3,296 Children at a rate of 12% of the total victims, and the number of women casualties is 1,736 at a rate of 7% of the total number of victims.

The most common cause of death was the shelling of residential areas, which caused the death of 12,549 people in the year 2014. Sniper fire and indiscriminate shooting killed 1,303, whereas 2,275 people were tortured to death in the detention centers of the Syrian government authorities. A further 347 persons were murdered in extrajudicial killings.  Armed groups such as ISIS killed 968, whilst the source of the bullets that killed another 569 persons cannot be attributed to a particular group.

Due to the besiege imposed by the Syrian regime in many areas across the country, the number of people who died due to starvation during the indicated period is 395, about 98% of whom fell in the Damascus suburbs area. Various explosions killed 202 people. Finally, 105 persons were killed as result of airstrikes by the U.S.-led international coalition which began on September 23, 2014.

Death Toll for month of December 2014

In December 2014, the DCHRS documented a provisional total of 1505 casualties. 71% of those killed were civilians. The remaining 29% belonged to one of the fighting factions. Women and children respectively made up 5% and 11% of the total number of war casualties.

The most common cause of death was the shelling of residential areas, which caused the death of 663 people in November. Sniper fire and indiscriminate shooting killed 77, whereas 100 people were tortured to death in the detention centers of the Syrian government authorities. A further 36 persons were murdered in extrajudicial killings.  Armed groups such as ISIS killed 52, whilst the source of the bullets that killed another 63 persons cannot be attributed to a particular group. 27 died from starvation, which is a direct result of the siege that the Syrian regime imposes in many areas. Various explosions killed 32 people. Finally, 10 persons were killed as result of airstrikes by the U.S.-led international coalition.

Out of all the Syrian regions, most deaths were recorded in the Aleppo province. Violent clashes between regime forces and various armed groups have engulfed large parts of Aleppo city as well as the surrounding countryside. The Syrian regime has also targeted people in this area with barrel bombs. Almost one in six casualties this month occurred in Aleppo (415 people). 63% of those were civilians (262 people).

Through analysis of the casualties, it is possible to obtain a general picture of the human rights situation in Syria. Two observations indicate that the Syrian regime continues to actively target civilians. First, 71% of the total casualties are civilians. Secondly, about 41% of the casualties were the results of shelling, missiles, barrel bombs, and airstrikes. These methods of warfare belong exclusively to the regime and are associated with a high number of civilian deaths. The evidence collected by DCHRS points to grievous violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. Torture and extrajudicial killings constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The DCHRS advocates for the protection of Syrian civilians. As a member of the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect (ICRtoP), the DCHRS calls upon the international community to fulfill its Responsibility to Protect with regard to Syria. DCHRS also appeals to medical and humanitarian organizations to provide relief to ease the suffering of the Syrian people inside Syria and abroad.

Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies (DCHRS)

january 9, 2015

For Syrians, the findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s summary of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program, commonly known as the “CIA Torture Report,” are not surprising. They have long known about the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program to their country, which resulted in the CIA sending several suspected terrorists to Syria, despite well-founded knowledge of the Assad regime’s widespread use of torture.

A 2013 report by the Open Society Justice Initiative foundSyria to be “one of the most common destinations for rendered suspects” with deplorable detention conditions and practices. Nine men – some of whom remain unaccounted for – were extraordinarily rendered to Syria through the program, including Maher Arar, a dual Canadian and Syrian citizen detained by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in New York City in 2002.

Instead of being handed over to Canadian officials, Arar was accused of ties to Al-Qaeda and sent to Syria where he claims that he was immediately arrested, blindfolded, and sent to a detention center. Repeatedly beaten and tortured, he remained in captivity for over a year. Canada later apologized and settled out of court with Arar, but both Canada and the U.S. continue to insist that Arar’s case was one of deportation and not extraordinary rendition. Since the CIA Torture Report was released, Arar has been active on Twitter, calling for the U.S. to address its moral culpability for the torture violations rather than merely acknowledging their occurrence.

Going forward, the CIA Torture Report will likely have several implications for U.S.-backed transitional justice efforts in Syria:

Loss of Moral Standing

U.S. officials are justifiably critical of many Middle Eastern countries’ human rights records, including Syria’s. However, disclosure of CIA practices without consequence means that any U.S. efforts to support accountability for atrocities committed by Islamist forces or the Assad regime will fall flat, particularly because the Syrian regime now justifies its use of torture with the same counter-terrorism argument employed by the U.S. during the W. Bush administration.

Quite simply, the United States cannot act as a moral compass when it directly or indirectly encouraged torture and inhuman practices; meanwhile, the deterioration of its moral standing in the Middle East and the world has been an ongoing trend that U.S. officials should not take lightly.

Bolstering the Perception that the United States Supports Assad

U.S.-led airstrikes against extremist Islamist groups like ISIS have inadvertently helped the Syrian regime’s efforts to stifle moderate opposition groups within the country, such as the remnants of the Free Syrian Army. Though the Obama administration has made efforts to counter this perception, the CIA Torture Report and the subsequent lack of accountability merely fuel the feeling among Syrians that the U.S. is protecting Assad because of political favors he has provided in the past; equally as troubling, extremists have cited the CIA Torture Report as evidence of a larger “War” perpetrated by the United States against Islam

Transitional Justice in Syria Could Implicate the CIA

If the Assad regime falls, trials and/or truth commissions will likely be established, with charges against Syrian officials almost assuredly including torture; the CIA could also be implicated for its extraordinary rendition program. While the United States would have no obligation to comply with such an inquiry, it would be undermining its own pro-transitional justice efforts by refusing to cooperate.

Neither the interests of  the United States nor Syrians will be served if these perceptions continue unabated, as they only increase anti-American sentiment and extremism in the region.

As the debate over the CIA Torture Report continues, the U.S. and its citizens must carefully consider these implications when debating consequences for those involved with the program. Although the torture depicted in the report ended years ago, its repercussions continue to reverberate across the international community, no where more prominently so than in the Middle East where society is skeptical of the United States’ credibility and intentions in the region. Accepting responsibility and apologizing for its actions under the rendition program, accompanied by a pledge not to repeat such violations in the future, would constitute important first steps for the United States as it seeks to restore its credibility as a proponent of justice in the region as a whole, and seeks paths towards justice and accountability in Syria.

 

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

DAMASCUS, Syria – Militant fighters loyal to the Jabhat al-Nusra, an al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, destroyed the tomb of Imam Nawawi, a revered Islamic scholar, on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK based Human Rights agency. Imam Nawawi, born in 1233 AD, is believed to have written several books on Islamic studies and Quranic verses. After his death in 1277 AD, he was buried in his hometown of Nawa. The tomb was built in the thirteenth-century and is only the latest significant cultural and historical site to be destroyed in the practiced civil war in Syria. A report published by the United Nations last year said that satellite images showed alarming damage to nearly 300 significant historical sites including never UNESCO World Heritage Sites last year. “The alarming level of damage to many of these areas do call for increased international and national attention to better protect the rich cultural heritage of Syria,” the U.N. said, in its report. One of these sites was located in the city of Raqqa, a city that was invaded by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which subsequently declared the city its headquarters, where the Sufi Muslim Uwais al-Qarni Mosque and a shrine to Ammar ibn Yasir, believed to be one of Prophet Muhammad’s companions was destroyed by the militant group. The act of destroying these historic sites is often seen as an attempt to destroy any cultural heritage and even erase the historical identity of any culture or idea that is contrary the extremist ideologies of groups like the Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, these actions may be considered acts of Genocide or Ethnocide under International Law.

Under the language of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, “genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” the term “ethnocide” is not specifically referenced in the Genocide Convention, Raphael Lemkin intended the term to refer to the cultural or ethnic aspects of genocide; which involved not only the destruction of human life but the destruction of people, their identity and way of life. In terms of cultural genocide and ethnocide, the objectives of such a plan would be destruction of the elements that make up the identity of the group. Such a plan may be carried out with intent to disintegrate the “political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.”

Militant groups like Jabhat al-Nusra, al Qaeda and the Islamic State group follow a puritanical Salafist doctrine that prohibits the construction and veneration of tombs and shrines, which are viewed as un-Islamic and sacrilegious by these extremists. A number of Salafist groups have also been implicated in attacks on Sufi shrines in Libya and Tunisia, according to media reports. These actions are an attempt to eradicate historic and cultural symbols that are seen as contrary to the ideology of the militant groups. As groups like Al Nursra and ISIS fight to establish an Islamic State in Syria and the region, based only on their own interoperations of the Quran, are not only attack other faiths, ideologies, cultures and views through violence today but by wiping out the long, diverse history that predates their extremist views.

For more information please see:

Al Jazeera – Syrian Fighters Destroy Historic Muslim Tomb –8 January 2015

Al Arabiya – Extremists Destroy 13th Century Muslim Tomb in Syria – 8 January 2015

International Business Times – Al-Nusra Rebels Demolish 13th Century Tomb in Southern Syria Deemed Un-Islamic By Salafists – 8 January 2015

Economic Times of India – Al Qaeda-Linked Militants Blow Up 13th Century Muslim Tomb in Syria – 8 January 2015

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

DAMASCUS, Syria – According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a human rights organization based in the United Kingdom, more than 76,000 people were killed in fighting in Syria in 2014, making last year the deadliest year in the country’s four-year-old civil war. More than 200,000 have been killed since the conflict began in 2011. Reportedly, 17,790 of those killed in Syria last year were civilians and 17,000 were fighters from militant groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and al-Nusra Front. Another 15,000 fighters killed in fighting came from moderate rebel groups and other Islamist factions. 22,627 of those killed were Syrian soldiers and fighters loyal to the Assad regime. According to the human rights group, 2,051 of those killed in Syria were civilian children.

The announcement of 2014’s death tolls came shortly after President Assad made a rare appearance on what was said to be the front lines of the conflict for a New Year’s Eve dinner of baked beans, boiled potatoes and tomatoes in an eastern Damascus neighborhood that has seen fierce fighting, according to Syrian state TV. “On New Year’s Eve families gather but you decided to be here to protect your country,” Assad told the troops. “I like to be with you on this occasion.”
the Syrian Observatory for Human also reports that An estimated 10.8 million people are in need inside Syria, Over 10 million displaced by the conflict, 3.2 million refugees in neighboring countries, More than 50% of the country live in extreme poverty, Half of the country’s children are not in school.

In a statement announcing the 2014 death toll, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights blasted the “silence of the international community” as the fighting has dragged on. Assad, meanwhile, described the rebels as “rats” during his appearance with government troops.

The advance of ISIS militants in Syria played a major role in the increase in violence over the past year. Airstrikes carried out by the United States and other countries in the region also contributed to the deaths. Airstrikes continued  on Thursday with 17 ISIS targets hit near the Syrian cities of Raqqa, Kobane and Deir al-Zour and 12 near the Iraqi cities of Falluja, Mosul and Sinjar.

Iraq also reported a sharp rise in deaths over the past year. according to the 15,538 people were killed in 2014 and more than 22,000 were injured during the course of the year making it the deadliest year since 2011. The UK-based NGO Iraq Body Count gave a higher figure of 17,073 civilian deaths. The sharp rise in deaths is mostly related to the advance of ISIS in Northern Iraq. 2014 began with the government losing control of Falluja and parts of Ramadi in western Iraq and in June, an offensive by ISIS left large parts of northern Iraq in militant hands, including the second largest city in Iraq, Mosul.

For more information please see:

The Hill – 2014 proves deadly year for Iraq, Syria – 2 January 2014

BBC News –BBC News – Syria conflict: 76,000 die in deadliest year – activists – 1 January 2014

Time Magazine – More Than 76,000 Killed in Syria in 2014, Making it the Deadliest Year Yet – 1 January 2014

USA Today – Activists: 76,000 killed in Syria conflict in 2014 – 1 January 2014