A new victim of the mysterious killings in the Syrian army

According to Kurdish Organization for Defending Human Rights and Public Freedoms in Syria – DAD and the Media Institute of Western Kurdistan Society, the family of a military conscript, Shiar Osman Osman, born 1991 in Deyrik, were told on the morning of Sunday, 22 August 2010 about the death of their son, who was serving in one of the military units at Khan al-Sheikh, Damascus. He had not been doing his military service any more than eight months, and was sent to this new unit just three days before he died. His body was expected to arrive the same evening to be buried in Deyrik.

The responsible authorities informed Shiar’s family that he had committed suicide. We have learned from informed sources that the conscript was shot in the abdomen.

The above organisations send their sincere condolences to the relatives of Shiar Osman Osman, and to all those who have died Syrian military units. They hold the Syrian authorities fully responsible for this, as they have responsibility first and foremost for the security of citizens and their personal safety. Shiar is the seventh conscript to die this year in these circumstances.

These organisations call on the authorities responsible to hold an impartial, transparent and fair investigation to identify those responsible, and to impose the most severe punishments on them; and to compensate the families of the victims for the emotional damage they have suffered.

22 August 2010