Syria arrests security staff for 'violations' during unrest in Druze heartland

Authorities have committed to prosecuting perpetrators of violence against minority sect in Sweida

A destroyed statue in the Druze-majority Sweida city, the scene of heavy violence four months ago. AP

Syrian authorities have arrested state security personnel who committed "violations" in July in a region largely inhabited by the minority Druze sect during some of the worst violence in the country since the fall of the Assad regime.

The head of a government committee investigating the fighting in Sweida province said videos on social media showing "transgressions" were used as the basis for detaining an unspecified number of people.

"The faces were clear [in the videos]. They were referred to the judiciary," said Hatem Naasan, the judge who heads the National Commission for Investigation of the Sweida Events. Formed in August, the committee "has not been subject to any pressures from the Syrian state", he added.

Under a US-brokered deal in September to reconcile the Syrian government with the Druze, authorities in Damascus committed to prosecuting those involved in violence against civilians during an attack by state forces aimed at subduing Hikmat Al Hijri, a spiritual leader of the sect who opposes Syria's central government.

Mr Naasan indicated that the committee's investigators had not been allowed into Druze-populated areas of Sweida controlled by a de facto Druze administration loyal to Mr Al Hijri, but had contacted many Syrians inside.

However, the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria has been working in Sweida since last month after Mr Al Hijri allowed in some of its members.

Syrian government security forces gather on a hillside in Busra Al Harir, near Sweida province. AP

Rayyan Maarouf, a researcher at Suwayda24, a network of citizen journalists, said the committee lacks credibility because it has no access to the "scene of the crimes" in Sweida. Many in the area, he said, regard it as a tool of the central government.

"It has shown no interest in investigating the chain of command that allowed the massacres," Mr Maarouf told The National from Sweida city, the provincial capital. "The killings were not traffic accidents."

He said body counts verified by Suwayda24 showed 1,510 Druze were killed in the government offensive. Among them were 50 children and 115 women, he added. Sixty-six civilian members of Bedouin tribes were killed in revenge attacks, including women and children.

Druze residents of Sweida expressed scepticism about the government's investigation into the attacks, which further alienated the community from the authorities in Damascus.

Mounir Mansour Al Chaar, a dentist, said he submitted his testimony, along with dozens of videos he filmed, to the UN commission in October. He said he did not trust the national committee and would refuse to talk to its investigators should they ask.

“A person cannot be both judge and executioner,” he said. Mr Al Chaar accused security forces of taking part in the killings in a systematic way, contrary to the government’s assertion that violations committed by Syrian forces were the result of individual misconduct. “They linked the issue to the arrest of individuals they say committed violations ‘individually’. This is a completely false description of what happened in Sweida,” he said.

He added there was no need for the national committee. “We already have an international committee – the UN-appointed one. We trust that committee. That’s all.”

Israeli military intervention forced the authorities to halt the offensive, although government troops are still surrounding Sweida, while the province's Druze areas have been largely cut off from the rest of Syria. Damascus said it sent forces to the region to halt violence between Druze and Bedouin in Sweida city.

Syria's central government has since last year been run by senior members of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), a former Al Qaeda affiliate, after they toppled former president Bashar Al Assad in December. The issue of protection for minorities has hindered the new administration's quest to have all US sanctions on Syria lifted. The national committee is the third formed by the government in response to international pressure to investigate violence against minorities.

The first probed the killing of hundreds from the minority Alawite community in coastal areas during a separate government offensive in March, which authorities said was launched to stop a nascent insurgency.

That inquiry found Syrian military commanders had given orders not to attack civilians. However, the committee compiled lists of hundreds of men it said were involved in killings on both sides. Trials for some are to begin on Tuesday. The trials will be public and are to take place in the Palace of Justice in Aleppo, Syria's Ministry of Justice said.

Another committee set up to investigate alleged abductions of Alawite women found all but one of 42 cases reported in recent months were unfounded.