DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Members of Syria’s security and military services have been detained as part of an investigation into sectarian violence in the southern province of Sweida in July that left hundreds of people dead, investigators said Sunday.
The head of a Syrian committee investigating the violence in Sweida held a news conference in the capital, Damascus, to talk about progress made but did not release a death toll, saying this will come in the final report that is expected by the end of the year.
In mid-July, armed groups affiliated with Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri clashed with local Bedouin clans, spurring intervention by government forces who effectively sided with the Bedouins. Hundreds of civilians, mostly Druze, were killed, many by government fighters.
Judge Hatem Naasan, head of the investigative committee, said they have listened to people affected by the violence, including “witnesses and victims.”
“We have achieved positive results,” Naasan told reporters in Damascus adding that members of security services and the military “who were proven to have committed violations based on investigations of the committee and videos posted on social media platforms” have been detained. He did not say how many were held, adding that after they were questioned they were referred to judicial authorities.
“Videos posted on social media clearly showed faces and they were detained by the authorities concerned,” Naasan said. He said security members were detained by the Interior Ministry while members of the military are being held by the Defense Ministry.
Videos surfaced online showing armed men killing Druze civilians kneeling in public squares and shaving the mustaches off elderly men in an act of humiliation.
Naasan downplayed suggestions that foreign fighters took part in the violence in Sweida. He said that some foreign fighters were detained and questioned, adding they acted on their own by entering the city and none of them were members of the Syrian armed or security forces.
“What became clear to us is that some foreign fighters randomly and individually entered the city of Sweida,” Naasan said.
After the acts of violence in July, many in Sweida now want some form of autonomy in a federal system. A smaller group is calling for total partition.
Most of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria, with the rest in Lebanon, Israel and the Golan Heights which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and later annexed.
Source
Members of Syria’s security forces and military detained over sectarian violence in Sweida
