Syrians living in Jordan shout slogans against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regime in front of Syrian embassy in Amman yesterday.
Human Rights Watch said yesterday that hundreds of victims of a chemical weapons attack in Syria remained without justice one year on, days after Damascus’s stockpile was completely destroyed.
Yesterday marked the first anniversary of the attack on the capital’s Ghouta region, a stronghold of the rebel movement, which the US estimated killed up to 1,400 people.
Images of the lifeless bodies of children - some 426 died - shocked the world and the finger of blame was quickly pointed at Syrian troops loyal to President Basher al-Assad, who denied involvement.
After a global outcry and American threats to strike regime positions, Assad agreed to an international plan to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.
On Monday, Barack Obama hailed the completion of the destruction, which was carried out aboard a US Navy ship on the Mediterranean Sea.
“Important though it is, the removal of chemical weapons from Syria’s arsenal will do nothing for the hundreds of victims who died a year ago and the relatives who survive them,” said Nadim Houry, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director at HRW.
“Closure of the chemical weapons issue in Syria will be possible only when those who ordered and executed the Ghouta attacks have been held to account and are behind bars,” he added.
The HRW statement also said that “available evidence strongly suggests that Syrian forces carried out the attack”.
“International efforts to ensure credible justice for these and other ongoing grave human rights crimes in Syria have proved elusive,” the New York-based body added.
In a statement, the opposition Syrian National Council said that the perpetrators had gone “unpunished” and that “crimes against humanity” were still being committed with other weapons.
Syria war toll over 180,000, says Britain-based Observatory
More than 180,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict broke out in March 2011, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a new toll published yesterday.
The Britain-based monitoring group, which relies on a network of sources on the ground, said it had documented the deaths of 180,215 people. Among them were 58,805 civilians, including 9,428 children and 6,036 women.
The group said 49,699 members of the armed opposition had been killed, among them fighters from jihadist groups like Al Qaeda affiliate Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State. It did not break the figures down further.
The new toll includes 66,365 regime forces - 40,438 from the military, and 25,927 members of a pro-regime militia.
The Observatory also documented the deaths of 561 members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, which is fighting alongside the regime, and 1,854 other non-Syrian pro-regime fighters.
The toll also includes 2,931 unidentified people whose deaths the Observatory has confirmed without being able to record their identities.
The conflict in Syria erupted in March 2011, with peaceful anti-government protests that the authorities responded to with force.
It has also displaced nearly half the country’s population.
