Syrian regime forces, pro-government forces and foreign militias have widely adopted the practice of execution by burning and the burning of bodies of murdered persons since the start of the events in Syria in 2011. This practice has endured throughout 2012 and the following years.
Burning individuals to death at the hands of the Syrian regime has received little or no media coverage. Syrian government officials deny carrying out such practices; however such crimes are being embraced and published on several pro-government websites.
These crimes have not been recorded by regime forces, but rather by the victims’ families and/or local human rights activists using modest recording tools and cameras. The content of these recordings have then been uploaded to several websites, and sent to the Syrian Network for Human Rights via email.
Based on witness accounts, testimonies of family members and video evidence, the Syrian Network for Human Rights, in collaboration with the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, has been able to monitor and document these crimes and produce accurate results.
The execution by burning of the Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) on January 3rd 2015 has given a face to this horrendous crime which has been condemned widely internationally. Unfortunately, there has been no explicit attention to the stories of tens of Syrian citizens being burned alive and having their bodies burned by forces of the Syrian regime and pro-government militias.
This report is intended to expose the burning of Syrians alive and the burning of bodies in order to hold the perpetrators accountable and put a halt to Syrian government forces and pro-government forces’ impunity
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