Amnesty International said Monday it had received credible reports of the abduction and kidnapping of 36 Alawite women and girls in recent months, urging authorities to investigate and hold perpetrators accountable.
The report came months after Islamists overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, an Alawite who painted himself as a protector of minorities, and followed massacres in March in Syria's coastal Alawite heartland that a monitor said killed some 1,700 people, mostly Alawite civilians.
A committee investigating the March massacres said last week it had not received reports of the abduction of women or girls.
Amnesty said it documented eight of the 36 abduction and kidnapping cases involving Alawite women and girls reported since February in Latakia, Tartus, Homs and Hama provinces.
All eight families reported the abductions, but in almost all cases, "police and security officials failed to effectively investigate", and in two instances, the personnel blamed the families.
Only two of the eight victims had returned to their families, it added.
"The Alawite community, already devastated by previous massacres, has been deeply shaken by this wave of abductions. Women and girls are afraid to leave the house or walk alone," Amnesty International's secretary general Agnes Callamard said in the statement.
Syrian authorities "must urgently step up efforts to prevent gender-based violence and promptly, thoroughly and impartially investigate cases of abducted and kidnapped Alawite women and girls, and hold perpetrators accountable," the rights group said.
The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria said last month that it had "documented abductions by unknown individuals of at least six" Alawite women and "received credible reports of more abductions".
By AFP
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