Syrian military commanders have ordered troops to indiscriminately shoot at unarmed protesters, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Thursday based on interviews with former soldiers who defected. The defectors named 74 military and intelligence officers “who allegedly ordered, authorised, or condoned widespread killings, torture, and unlawful arrests,” the rights group said in a statement.
Troops were ordered to stamp out the anti-government demonstrations “by all means necessary”, including lethal force, HRW said. It said that about half of the defectors interviewed were given direct orders to fire on both protesters and bystanders. “Defectors gave us names, ranks, and positions of those who gave the orders to shoot and kill,” Anna Neistat, HRW’s associate director for emergencies, said in a statement.
One defector identified as “Amjad” said he was deployed in Daraa in the south, and told HRW that he was ordered by his commander to fire on protesters on April 25. “The commander of our regiment, Brigadier General Ramadan Ramadan… said, ‘Use heavy shooting. Nobody will ask you to explain.’ The New York-based rights group said its report, “By All Means Necessary,” was based on interviews with more than 60 Syrian former soldiers.
