The interim Syrian government has hit back against a damning report by Amnesty International today on the mass killings that occurred on the Syrian coast in early March, calling on the human rights organisation to wait for the results of the investigation which is underway.
The national committee formed by President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to investigate the violence in the coastal region is expected to submit its findings by April 9.
According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), 803 extrajudicial killings took place between 6-10 March on the Syrian coast.
Non-state armed groups linked to the Assad regime killed 172 members of security, police, and military forces and at least 211 civilians.
Government-affiliated who carried out reprisals against the Assad regime-linked fighters - who included factions and unregulated groups nominally affiliated with the Ministry of Defence, local armed residents, and members of General Security - killed 420 civilians and disarmed fighters.
A source in the Syrian Ministry of Interior, who requested anonymity, told The New Arab's sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed: "The bloody events that occurred on the Syrian coast included violations against civilians, security personnel, and the army.
"Gangs composed of remnants [of the Assad regime] lay behind many of these violations, and those targeted were not limited to those from the Alawite sect, but also included civilians from all sects".
He added that a national committee had been created to investigate the crimes impartially, identify the perpetrators, and where responsibility lay.
Amnesty International’s report regarding the coastal killings, released on Thursday, said that "government affiliated militias deliberately killed civilians from the Alawite minority" and called for these violations to be investigated as war crimes.
The government source stressed that the Syrian government was keen to preserve civil peace, enforce the law, and facilitate a sustainable national reconciliation process, in order to achieve the higher interests of the Syrian people.
He said the authorities regarded their duty as being to protect all Syrians, regardless of their sect or ethnicity, adding, "disregarding field data and facts and slandering the investigation committee's work is unprofessional and contradicts a bare minimum of objectivity".
In his opinion the report showed bias towards a political narrative pushed by parties whose history is well-known, and have alliances with countries that are hostile to Syria, "both the country and the people".
The source also affirmed the government's openness to cooperating with any neutral party capable of supporting civil peace and stability in Syria.
Amnesty called on the Syrian government to "ensure independent, effective investigations of these unlawful killings and other war crimes and hold perpetrators to account".
The report also accused the Syrian government of failing to intervene for two days to stop the killings, and of forcing the victims' families "to bury their loved one in mass burial sites without religious rites or public ceremony".
The report also stated: "It is critical that the new authorities deliver truth and justice for the victims of these crimes, to signal a break with the past and zero tolerance for attacks on minorities. Without justice, Syria risks falling back into a cycle of further atrocities and bloodshed".
While violence has declined in recent days in the coastal region, civilians have continued to be targeted by government-linked militiamen on sectarian lines.
The latest incident was the killing of six civilians in the village of Haref Nemra in the countryside of Banias on Monday.
Lawyer Ghazwan Qaranful told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that what was required were public trials for those who committed these crimes, which would send a message to society that no crime would go unpunished, especially those carried out by elements entrusted by the state with the task of protecting people - not killing them.
Qaranful added that the Syrian government must provide financial compensation to the victims' families.
"I believe it is vital for the state to expedite establishing a national commission for transitional justice, because it will show that we are also concerned with holding the killers and criminals who committed crimes during years of conflict accountable."
He said that those who committed crimes on the coast recently should be punished alongside fighters and officials loyal to the former regime who were guilty of war crimes.
"We don't only care about the victims of the coastal events but also about all the victims killed by bombing or under torture. They should have the same right to prosecute the perpetrators and to receive fair compensation as well".
He said many important measures should be taken, including punishing those who spread inflammatory rhetoric or post videos that provoke sectarian division.
He also emphasised the importance of carefully selecting the personnel involved in protecting these areas, and creating ongoing communication between government representatives in Latakia and Tartus provinces and community groups on the coast.
This would send a reassuring message and engage them in maintaining security in their own areas in a coordinated manner with the government, he said.
This is an edited and abridged translation from our Arabic edition
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