Press release
Syrian Opposition Coalition
Department of Media and Communications
May 25, 2022
Today marks the tenth anniversary of al-Houla Massacre, one of the most horrific massacres that the Assad regime and its militias are committing against civilians in Syria. The massacre claimed the lives of 108 people, according to international human rights organizations.
On this day ten years ago, Assad’s terrorist militiamen stormed civilians homes in al-Houla region and rounded up children, women and men, then handcuffed them and executed them en masse, slaughtering them with knives and gunfire.
The international community responded with no more than condemnations. After ten years, the regime continues to commit massacres against civilians without any international deterrent that would save millions of Syrians from the brutality of this regime.
Since the first day of the Syrian Revolution, the Assad regime relied on killings and terrorism to silence the cries for freedom that the Syrian people chanted. The massacres of al-Houla, Al-Tadamon, Eastern Ghouta, and the hundreds of other brutal massacres were one of the means that the Assad regime is using to break the will of the Syrian people.
The failure to hold the Assad regime and its allies accountable for their crimes encouraged them to commit new crimes. just as Russia is doing in Ukraine today, and made them persist in killings and repression. They are using barrel bombs, missiles and chemical weapons, crossing all red lines against a defenseless people. This inaction led to the creation of a tragedy for millions of Syrians, with the criminal sitting on a mountain of the corpses of innocent victims.
However, this international inaction did not dissuade the Syrian people from resisting and confronting the bitter reality in the hope that they would achieve their dream of freedom, dignity and safety. The Syrian Opposition Coalition stresses the responsibility of the United Nations for the continued suffering of the Syrian people due to the failure to hold this regime accountable for the war crimes and crimes against humanity and for refusing to implement UN Security Council Resolution 2254 to achieve a political transition in Syria.
