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Editorial September 3, 2025
Rami Abd al-Rahman

Rami Abd al-Rahman

Director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and leading documentarian of Syria's ongoing humanitarian crisis. Based in Coventry, England, Rami has spent over a decade meticulously documenting human rights violations across Syria through an extensive network of sources. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, founded in 2006, has become one of the most cited sources for casualty figures and human rights documentation during the Syrian conflict.

A Storm of Denial and Violence: The Syrian Observatory Accuses the Regime of War Crimes and a Media Blackout in As-Suwayda

In a powerful and damning statement, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has accused the Syrian regime’s official media of distorting the truth regarding the violation of the ceasefire in As-Suwayda.

In a powerful and damning statement, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has accused the Syrian regime’s official media of distorting the truth regarding the violation of the ceasefire in As-Suwayda. He outlines a dire humanitarian crisis, alleging systematic atrocities, kidnappings, and a brutal siege against the city, challenging the regime’s narrative and warning of catastrophic consequences for Syria’s social fabric.

Director of the Syrian Observatory: The official media is distorting the facts concerning the breach of the ceasefire in As-Suwayda. There has been a siege on As-Suwayda for the fifth consecutive day; no fuel has been allowed into the city.

I believe Mr. al-Shar’ and his leadership thought the issue of As-Suwayda was over, but it has now truly begun due to the documentation of rape operations against women by forces affiliated with the Ministries of Defense and Interior and their supporting forces.

There is a continuous rise in the number of victims as we document those who were missing and it has been confirmed they were killed; 235 women and girls are still kidnapped by groups affiliated with the Damascus government.

Anyone who believed the issue of As-Suwayda would pass unnoticed, like what happened in the Syrian Coast, is mistaken. The file on the As-Suwayda case has now been opened.

The major disaster is when the government’s media advisor speaks and claims that before March 6th, no citizen from the Alawite sect had been killed, while the Syrian Observatory has documented the killing of no less than 222 individuals from the Alawite sect who were killed by armed militants affiliated with the Damascus government.

Before March 6th, there were killings, kidnappings, and brutalization of Alawites, and they were dismissed from their jobs. There are international human rights organizations pursuing this file in Syria.

This is a media war, a dirty war. What concerns us is stopping the escalating human rights violations.

The former prisons of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham in Idlib and the current prisons are filled with tens of thousands of detainees who have not been tried to this moment, whether military personnel or others.

If the method of dealing with the components of the Syrian people continues in this manner, the Damascus government is pushing the components of the Syrian people away from the center, instead of uniting them within a democratic Syrian state that protects all the rights of the Syrian people.

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