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The Syrian Regime Takes Revenge on Daraa Governorate for Its Peaceful and Civilized Rejection of the Regime’S ‘Presidential Elections’

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The Syrian Regime Takes Revenge on Daraa Governorate for Its Peaceful and Civilized Rejection of the Regime’S ‘Presidential Elections’ The Syrian Regime Takes Revenge on Daraa Governorate for Its Peaceful and Civilized Rejection of the Regime’s ‘Presidential Elections’ Two Months of Siege, Bombardment, Killing and Arbitrary Arrests to End Freedom of Opinion and Expression and Achieve Absolute Control Monday 9 August 2021 The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), founded in June 2011, is a non-governmental, independent group that is considered a primary source for the OHCHR on all death toll-related analyses in Syria. R210806 Content I. A Brief Background on the Gradual Advance by the Syrian, Iranian and Russian Regime in Extending Their Control over Southern Syria and the Failure of All Agreements to Protect Civilians from Forced Displacement.......................................3 II. The Record of the Most Notable Violations Recorded by the Syrian Network for Human Rights between June 23 and August 9, 2021.........................................................5 III. The Syrian Regime Takes Revenge Through Military Escalation Against Daraa Governorate for Its Peaceful and Civilized Rejection of the Regime’s Illegitimate ‘Presidential Elections’...................................................................................6 IV. Conclusions and Recommendations...............................................................................13 The Syrian Regime Takes Revenge on Daraa 3 Governorate for Its Peaceful and Civilized Rejection of the Regime’s ‘Presidential Elections’ I. A Brief Background on the Gradual Advance by the Syrian, Iranian and Russian Regime in Extending Their Control over Southern Syria and the Failure of All Agreements to Protect Civilians from Forced Displacement: Southern Syria is one of the de-escalation zones that were agreed upon in the fourth Astana talks which entered into force in May 2017. Since that time, all these de-escalation zones have been completely seized by the Syrian regime or subjected to other agreements; what distinguishes Southern Syria from the oth- er regions is that it is subject to another agreement that is more important than the Astana talks, which is the Russian-US bilateral ceasefire agreement that entered into force on July 9, 2017. The two agree- ments provided for a comprehensive cessation of hostilities and aerial bombardment, which succeeded to some extent in ending military operations, with the severity of the violations that we have recorded in Daraa governorate, in particular the indiscriminate aerial bombardment with barrel bombs and missiles, having decreased. The situation continued in this way until mid-2018, specifically in June 2018, when the Syrian regime, backed by Iranian forces and the Russian air force, led a military campaign against the Southern region of Syria (parts of the governorates of Daraa, Quneitra and Suwayda), which resulted in the Syrian regime completing its control over the region, forcibly ending the de-escalation agreement, with the US-Russian agreement being revoked. In a report we issued in July 2019, we documented that a complete collapse of the so-called “de-escala- tion agreements” had taken place, forcing thousands of people, under the weight of bombardment and brutality, to accept settlements that led to the forced displacement of nearly 13,000 people, while about 200,000 were subjected to forced security settlement processes. Daraa governorate has moved to new agreements between the Syrian regime on the one hand and fac- tions of the Armed Opposition on the other, but under Russian auspices. These agreements were dis- tinguished by their different terms between one area and another, despite containing supposedly com- prehensive terms, leading to the establishment of different circumstances of control, as some areas are completely under the control of the Syrian regime (such as most of the eastern suburbs of Daraa and the southern suburbs of Quneitra), while there are still areas that actually remain under the control of former Armed Opposition factions (fighters from among the people of the region), where the regime’s presence is limited to civil institutions (such as most of the neighborhoods of Daraa al Balad, Tareeq al Sadd, and Camps in Daraa city, Tafas city, al Yadouda village and al Mzayreeb town in the western suburbs of Daraa, in addition to the villages of the central suburbs of Quneitra). Meanwhile, other areas have remained under the control of the Fifth Corps, which consists mostly of former members of the Armed Opposition factions backed by Russian forces. The Syrian Regime Takes Revenge on Daraa 4 Governorate for Its Peaceful and Civilized Rejection of the Regime’s ‘Presidential Elections’ This situation has prevailed in the region generally, with its people being exposed to operations of forcible expulsion and imposition of control by the Syrian regime, typified by the horrendous abuse inflicted on hundreds of those who remained in the region, who have been subjected to arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance and torture, as well as assassinations, while the young people in the region have been forcibly conscripted into Syrian regime forces, who have seized control of residents’ land and property; we will soon be issuing a report detailing the most notable types of violations that the region has been subjected to since July 2018. At the end of May 2021, the Syrian regime held ‘presidential elections’ whose illegitimacy was unani- mously agreed by the majority of the world’s democratic countries, with SNHR issuing a report on the subject of these ‘elections’ and their wholly illegitimate nature. The people of Daraa governorate clearly expressed their rejection of these farcical ‘elections’ through demonstrations, banners and stinging crit- icism, revealing a popular rejection by areas considered to have accepted settlement with the regime, some of which are either completely or almost completely under the control of the Syrian regime and its allies. Dozens of Arab and international media reported the Daraa governorate’s reaction to these ‘elec- tions’. We believe that this angered the Syrian regime, represented by Bashar al Assad, who considered these expressions of dissent to be a personal insult, even though they were peaceful demonstrations and banners, with all such protests falling within the framework of freedom of opinion and expression, which is one of the most fundamental axioms of basic human rights. The response of the Syrian regime was swift and brutal; nearly a month after the end of the ‘presidential elections’, on June 23, the Southern region of Syria began to witness tension as a result of the Syrian regime placing additional terms on previous agreements, which the local Negotiations Committee con- sidered unacceptable, resulting in a series of developments in the region that led to a dangerous military escalation at the end of July which is still continuing to date. In this report, we outline the most notable violations committed by the Syrian regime and its allies in the Southern region of Syria between June 23 and August 9, 2021, without going into the details of the ne- gotiation processes, military clashes and the complex conflict of control between Iran and Russia, since SNHR’s primary focus remains on those issues which fall within our jurisdiction, and what matters most to us in this context is civilians’ safety, ensuring that civilians are not targeted in military operations, and that both parties uphold and respect the rules of international humanitarian law during the clashes, and respect international human rights law. Through our team of field researchers, we have obtained direct testimonies from members of the Ne- gotiation Committees in Daraa governorate, and civilians who have been displaced; we obtained these testimonies through speaking directly with witnesses, with none of the testimonies, including the two provided in this report, cited from any open sources. We explained the purpose of these interviews be- forehand to the eyewitnesses, who gave us permission to use the information they provided in this report without us offering or providing them with any incentives, as well as providing assurances to the inter- The Syrian Regime Takes Revenge on Daraa 5 Governorate for Its Peaceful and Civilized Rejection of the Regime’s ‘Presidential Elections’ viewees that we will conceal the identity of any witness who prefers to use an alias. All these procedures are carried out under the terms of SNHR’s internal protocols, which we have rigorously adhered to for years, and which we strive constantly to develop. We do not claim, however, that we have documented all cases, given the severe prohibitions, restrictions and persecution by Syrian regime forces and some other armed groups on SNHR. Readers are welcome to find out more about SNHR’s methodology. The information contained in this report only represents the bare minimum of incidents which we have been able to document, and of the severity and magnitude of the violations that occurred. Also, it doesn’t include any analysis of the profound social, economic, and psychological ramifications. II. The Record of the Most Notable Violations Recorded by the Syrian Network for Human Rights between June 23 and August 9, 2021: A. Extrajudicial killing: The Syrian Network for Human Rights documented the deaths of 11 civilians, including five children and one woman, in the attacks launched by the Syrian regime on Daraa governorate, most of them in al Yadouda village in the governorate’s western suburbs. B. Arbitrary arrest and enforced disappearance: The Syrian Network
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