In Syrian coast, scepticism and anger over government massacres probe findings

A long-awaited government-commissioned report on mass killings in Syria's coastal region in March has drawn fierce backlash from human rights organisations and survivors, who accuse the investigative committee of "whitewashing" systemic atrocities by blaming "undisciplined" individuals while shielding military and security leadership.

The 298-page report, released on Tuesday by Syria's National Investigation Committee, acknowledged the deaths of 1,426 Alawi civilians in March during what it described as "grave violations" by rogue actors. But victims' families and independent monitors argue the findings deliberately ignore evidence of premeditated, sectarian-driven massacres orchestrated by “state-linked forces”.

"I wasn't waiting for the committee's report to tell me what happened. The truth is clear to anyone who wants to see it. The mass graves in the area are clear evidence of the randomness of the killings and the brutality of the forces involved," Jana, a 24-year-old who lost her father in Al Qusour neighbourhood of the city of Baniyas, told The New Arab.

The violence, that lasted for three days, started on 6 March with attacks on Syrian security forces stationed in the region. It put hospitals and other state institutions out of operation and caused large areas to fall out of government control, the committee said.

During a press conference held in the capital, Damascus, the committee's spokesperson, Yasser Al-Farhan, stated that the committee had visited 33 sites, uncovering mass graves and multiple burial locations. In separate sessions, the committee heard from witnesses, recording 938 testimonies: 452 related to killings and 486 related to looting and the burning of homes and businesses.

Contested Findings

The committee, formed by Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa, head of Syria's transitional governing body, concluded after a three-month probe that 298 individuals were suspected in killings, torture, looting and arson across 33 locations, attributing the violence to personal vendettas, sectarian animosity and criminal opportunism rather than state policy.

Officials deployed 200,000 security personnel in response to the crisis, al-Farhan claimed, praising troops' "high degree of discipline." The report pins blame on "remnant" groups and undisciplined fighters, allegedly absolving senior commanders.

Committee chairman Jumaa al-Anzi said authorities had been consulted to identify individuals who appeared in videos on social media documenting violations, and that some of them were included among the suspects.

The body said two lists of people "suspected of involvement in attacks or violations" had been referred to the judiciary.

The presidency had said new Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa had received the committee's report on 13 July, the same day the sectarian violence targeted the Druze-majority province of Suweida, killing more than 900 people, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR). Other estimates have given much higher figures.

The committee said it based its report on more than 30 on-site visits, meetings with dozens of people in the towns and villages where violations occurred, and testimonies from hundreds of witnesses and victims. It also heard from government officials.

Fadel Abdul Ghani, head of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, argued that there were several flaws in the committee's work, starting with its limited timeframe, covering only three days between 7 and 10 March, despite documented violations continuing until the end of the month.

He also criticised the committee's composition, which excluded any civil society organisations, contrary to standard practice in similar cases, and its attribution of responsibility to "undisciplined" individuals, allegedly absolving leadership and responsible entities.

Journalist and Alawi activist Rosa Yassin Hassan, who documented tens of cases of killings in her reports, said that the committee's final report was just as she had expected, as she had held "no hopes for the committee, whose work served to normalise impunity".

"The committee avoided identifying the security structure that allowed the massacres to occur, effectively exonerating the Syrian leadership and the Ministry of Defence. The same applies to naming the factions involved in the violations, despite a Reuters investigative report exposing the involvement of 12 factions, all under the Ministry of Defence, most notably the 400th Division affiliated with Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, as well as Jaysh al-Islam, Liwa al-Othman, Liwa Sultan Shah, and others," Hassan said.

The most prominent criticism was the committee's declaration that there was no premeditated intent behind the massacres or ideological motives, and that no systematic actions were apparently taken by government forces.

"Documented evidence clearly indicates that the massacres were systematic, amounting to genocide on a sectarian basis. Many mosques declared jihad hours before the massacres began. The vast majority of victims were asked about their sectarian identity before being killed. Additionally, security forces affiliated with the Ministry of Defence participated in killings and looting, as documented in videos recorded by the perpetrators themselves," Hassan claimed.

Yamen Hussein, co-founder of the Civil Peace Committee in Homs, echoed these opinions and described the committee's final report as "disappointing for Syrians".

"The committee attempted to portray systematic massacres as mere individual violations by undisciplined elements, while documented evidence shows that the operations were clearly sectarian-driven, not politically motivated. The violence was organised from the top down, following a chain of command leading back to military leadership," Hussein stressed.

He noted that during the press conference, committee members allegedly denied cases of women being abducted on sectarian grounds, despite documented evidence. Official authorities, he argued, also allegedly dismissed the women's accounts, and subsequent investigations by security forces were unprofessional, lacking legal representation or family members of the abducted women who were later recovered.

The New Arab attempted to contact the Syrian Ministry of Information for further information.

Survivors speak out

Disappointment with the committee's performance and final report was not limited to public activists but was shared by victims' families and survivors who witnessed the killings and looting.

In Al-Mukhtariya village, in Al-Hiffeh district in Latakia governorate, 62-year-old Najwa recounted watching defence ministry troops round up and shoot her five sons.

"We saw it with our own eyes, and we have clear videos of individuals in Ministry of Defence uniforms humiliating and degrading a large group of young men before shooting them collectively. We sat beside the bodies for over 24 hours," Najwa described.

"Successive groups came to the village to finish off the survivors, in addition to looting homes and businesses. Some took pleasure in randomly burning houses. All of this shows that the atrocities we witnessed were not just random violations by undisciplined elements, but a full-scale assault involving most attackers, regardless of which official entity they belonged to," Najwa added. 

A local dignitary in al-Mukhtariya village, a former detainee under Hafez al-Assad's regime who has been documenting victims' names and testimonies and who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons, spoke of his hope for accountability, even if limited to the direct perpetrators rather than their commanders.

"We must see those who brutalized our village face justice. Even if their superiors escape punishment, holding the actual killers accountable would be a partial victory for the victims," he said.

"We had hoped for a more transparent report, one that clearly assigned responsibility. But in Syria, we've never seen regime-affiliated perpetrators held to account. Now, we wait to see if courts will hold public trials to deliver at least some measure of justice," he concluded. 

This piece was published in collaboration with Egab.