The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that justice will not be achieved without holding the Assad regime accountable for killing nearly 1,500 Syrian civilians and injuring 12,000 others with the use of chemical weapons since the start of the revolution in March 2011.
In a report issued on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare, which falls on November 30th of each year, the Network said that the Assad regime still refuses to admit that it deceived the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). It made it clear that the Assad regime continued to produce chemical munitions and to develop its chemical weapons program after it signed on the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013.
The report stressed that the Assad regime did not abide by the 90-day deadline that was set in the report by the OPCW’s Secretary-General on October 14, 2020 as the regime has not yet disclosed the facilities in which it manufactured the chemical weapons that it used in the Al-Lataminah attack. The regime still refuses to disclose its cache of chemical weapons or its chemical weapons production facilities.
The rights group pointed out that the utter international inaction encouraged the Assad regime to commit all types of violations, including the agreement signed by 193 countries.
The Network said that it had recorded 222 attacks across Syria since December 23rd, 217 of which were committed by the Assad regime forces.
The regime’s attacks claimed the lives of no fewer than 1,510 people, including 1,409 civilians, 205 children, 260 women, and 94 opposition fighters, the report added. It also said that the attacks injured 11,212 people, 11,080 were injured in regime attacks while 132 others were injured in attacks launched by ISIS.
The Network called on the UN and Security Council to impose economic, political and military sanctions on the regime as it called on the Assad regime’s allies to condemn its use of chemical weapons. The rights group also called for holding the regime accountable and pressing for a political process that leads to a genuine political transition away from family rule, which would contribute to lifting the sanctions and achieving a transition towards democracy and stability. (Source: SOC’s Media Department)
