BEIRUT (AP) 鈥 The head of a U.N. investigative commission on Friday called commitments made by the new authorities in Syria to protect the rights of minorities 鈥渆ncouraging鈥 but said attacks have continued on members of the Alawite sect in the months since a major outbreak of sectarian violence on Syria鈥檚 coast.
Paulo Pinheiro, the head of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria, told a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva that the current Syrian government 鈥 led by Islamist former insurgents who 鈥 had given his team 鈥渦nfettered access鈥 to the coast and to witnesses of the violence and victims鈥 families.
鈥淒isturbingly, reports continue to circulate of ongoing killings and arbitrary arrests of members of the Alawite community, as well as the confiscation of the property of those who fled the March violence,鈥 he said.
Pinheiro's commission also 鈥渄ocumented abductions by unknown individuals of at least six Alawite women this spring in several Syrian governorates,鈥 two of whom remain missing, and has received 鈥渃redible reports of more abductions,鈥 he said.
Pinheiro also called on authorities to put in place more protections for places of worship after outside of Damascus. The attack, which killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens more, was the first of its kind to take place in the Syrian capital in years.
The Syrian government has said that the perpetrators belonged to a cell of the Islamic State group and that they thwarted a subsequent attempt to target a Shiite shrine in the Sayyida Zeinab suburb in Damascus.
鈥淎ttacks on places of worship are outrageous and unacceptable,鈥 Pinheiro said. 鈥淭he authorities must ensure the protection of places of worship and threatened communities and ensure that perpetrators and enablers are held accountable.鈥
Assad was deposed in a lightning rebel offensive in December, bringing an end to a nearly 14-year civil war.
In March, hundreds of civilians, most of them from the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs, were killed in revenge attacks after clashes broke out between pro-Assad armed groups and the new government security forces on the Syrian coast.
Pinheiro said his commission had documented scattered 鈥渞evenge attacks鈥 that happened before that, including killings in several villages in Hama and Homs provinces in late January in which men who had handed over their weapons under a 鈥渟ettlement鈥 process set up for former soldiers and members of security forces under Assad, believing that they would be granted an amnesty in exchange for disarmament, were then 鈥渋ll-treated and executed.鈥
He praised the interim government鈥檚 formation of a body tasked with investigating the attacks on the coast and said government officials had told his team that 鈥渄ozens of alleged perpetrators鈥 were arrested.
Pinheiro said the government needs to carry out a 鈥渞eform and vetting program鈥 as it integrates a patchwork of former rebel factions into a new army and security services and enact 鈥渃oncrete policies to put an end to Syria鈥檚 entrenched cycles of violence and revenge, in a context where heightened tensions and sectarian divisions have been reignited.鈥
