Seventeen Syrian humanitarian, human rights and civil society organizations sent a letter to Washington’s ambassador to the Security Council, Linda Thomas Greenfield, as president of the current session of the Security Council. They called for an independent investigation into the Tadamon massacre, which would end with justice for the perpetrators and those who gave them orders.
The organizations called for “immediate action” by the Security Council, in response to the massacre uncovered by an investigation, committed by Syrian regime forces in the Tadamon neighbourhood south of Damascus, on April 16, 2013. It killed 41 civilians, burned their bodies, and buried them in a mass grave.
Read Also: How Will the Syrian Opposition React to the Tadamon Video?
“The massacre is a description of a war crime for which those responsible must be held accountable,” the organizations said. They noted that “the leaked video clearly shows the perpetrators pushing the victims, blindfolded and handcuffed women and men, towards a deep pit that the victims do not know exists in front of them. They then shot them deliberately one by one, buried their bodies in a mass grave on top of each other, and set the bodies on fire while the perpetrators laughed and smoked.”
“Families are beginning to look for faces loved of the missing loved ones among those killed in the Tadamon massacre, ” it said. The organization added that “many Syrians have expressed just anger at the international community’s failure to respond to this shocking report, particularly in the context of similar crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.”
The Syrian organizations demanded that the United States of America, being a permanent member of the Security Council, preside over it this month, hold a meeting on the Tadamon massacre, and start an independent investigation into the massacre, which ends with achieving justice from the perpetrators and those who gave them orders.
“The time has come for the international community to learn that impunity for flagrant human rights violations in Syria has far-reaching and cross-border consequences,” it said, stressing that Syrians have been “have been subjected to repeated crimes at the hands of the Assad regime, and for all this time the world has ignored their suffering.”
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
