The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that the militias of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) have killed no less than 407 civilians including 51 children, 43 women, and 16 people who died under torture since the conflict began in early 2011.
In a report released today, SNHR said that it had documented several ethnic cleansing massacres which were committed by the PYD militia forces in towns which were mostly inhibited by Arabs in northern and northeastern Syria. Amongst these massacres, SNHR recorded three massacres aimed to ethnically cleanse the population in Al Hassaka governorate which claimed the lives of 91 civilians, including 17 children and seven women.
The report added that PYD militias arbitrarily arrested no less than 1,651 individuals, including 88 women and 111 children since the beginning of the uprising in Syria. It also documented 24 cases of media activists being arrested or abducted. All of them were released later.
The SNHR also said that the widespread violations committed by PYD militias, some of which had ethnic dimensions; led to the displacement of tens of thousands of the governorate’s residents, mostly Arabs. Dozens of other towns in the area are still vacant of its inhabitants.
The report added that the SNHR recorded the enforced recruitment of no less than 1,876 children in different regions in Aleppo and Al Hassaka suburbs. Children were forced to participate in battles and in manning checkpoints. Children have been forced to have extensive training on how to use guns since 2012.
At the end of the report, the SNHR called for referring the situation in Syrian to the International Criminal Court. It also called for imposing sanctions against those responsible for war crimes and imposing an arms embargo against PYD militias as they violate human rights laws. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
