SNHR: Failing to preserve crime scene after Suweida Hospital massacre risks erasing evidence

Scenes of bodies found inside the Suweida National Hospital, days after the end of deadly clashes between local Druze militias and Bedouin tribes, have reignited debate over who is responsible for the killings and undocumented burials.

A report issued by Eekad, a fact-checking investigative platform which employs open-source data gathering techniques, accused armed factions loyal to Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri of responsibility for massacring those besieged inside the hospital.

Due to the near total electricity blackout in the province, claimed be some to have been imposed deliberately by the Syrian government and others to be a result of damaged network infrastructure, The New Arab could not independently verify evidence referenced in the report.

Eekad's report, published on Sunday, showed a timeline linking the siege and storming of the hospital by armed factions believed to be affiliated with al-Hijri, the killing of those inside, the subsequent recapture of the facility by Syrian government forces, and the discovery of the bodies.

In light of the alarming developments in Suweida, human rights organisations warn of the risks of evidence being destroyed.

They say what has occurred must not be dealt with as a passing incident, but a crime that must be documented in accordance with international standards.

The director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), Fadel Abdulghany told The New Arab's Arabic-language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, "The Suweida hospital is now a crime scene, and yes, the bodies there must be buried, but they must also be documented in a professional and detailed manner".

He adds that photographs and documentation must be produced for each body, including the burial site and all other relevant details, like photographs that clearly show their faces from multiple angles, as well as their clothing.

He said human rights organisations "whether local or international" should have been enlisted to perform this task, because "there are standards, because these were not natural deaths – they were murders".

He warned that if these sites "aren't handled in a careful and sensitive manner, this risks the destruction of the crime scenes, and the erasure of the identities of the bodies, [and the obscuring of] who committed the crime, and other details".

"This situation should have been taken into consideration by the Suweida Military Council, as the entity in control of the hospital," he added, referring to the militia loyal to al-Hijri.

He says the failure to have conducted such documentation and preserve the site of the killings constitutes a violation of the crime scene.

According to Eekad's report, militia affiliated with al-Hijri surrounded the hospital, which reportedly sheltered members of the Syrian army and General Security forces, before storming and seizing control of it.

The factions later announced that those inside had been eliminated.

Later, Syrian government forces took control of the hospital, revealing details of the massacre and saying that civilians as well as security and military personnel had been killed.

Rights activist Essam Zoabi said that what had occurred at Suweida Hospital could be divided into two stages: "First, the hospital contained Bedouin and General Security prisoners, who were killed by al-Hijri's militia before it withdrew from the hospital and before the tribes entered. As for the second; later, when bodies were found outside and inside the hospital, the tribes and government were accused of killing them".

Zoabi added: "Any extrajudicial killings, even if they occur during armed clashes, must be examined by the government using forensic doctors, or by specialist organisations recognised internationally or locally, to examine the bodies, document the cause of death of each person, the location of injury, whether that injury was the cause of death, and to determine the time of death".

Zoabi confirmed that those who buried the dead in Suweida hospital hadn't done this, for which there were two possible explanations.

"Either the bodies started to decompose and there were no specialist [forensic] teams there - indeed, the al-Hijri militia prevented the Minister of Health, the Civil Defence, and the medical crew from entering to view them - and they were buried to prevent the spread of epidemics".

Or, he adds, "the al-Hijri militia wants to hide its crimes, especially in light of the large number of missing, which includes Druze, Bedouin, and tribal fighters from Suweida".

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.