A/HRC/18/53 52. On 10 June, military forces were deployed to Idlib Governorate to, according to the accounts of several soldiers who took part, regain control of several towns and villages from “armed groups” linked to “the Muslim Brotherhood” and “Salafist groups”.47 A witness claimed that the forces, equipped with modern weaponry and more than 100 vehicles, including tanks, arrived that evening in the town of Saraqeb, south of Idlib city.48 Demonstrators were seen chanting “freedom, freedom”; some of them were children who tried to climb on top of the military vehicles. Others called on the soldiers to go back and not to kill them. The witness claimed that he overheard a captain receiving instructions from a superior officer to “spray them with bullets”, and that several soldiers approached their superiors because they were facing unarmed civilians, including women and children. The officer stated that the orders were to shoot to kill and those who refused would themselves be killed.49 53. Some of the most serious events witnessed in Idlib Governorate took place in Jisr Al Shughour, between Aleppo and Al Ladhiqiyya, some 20 kilometres from the border with Turkey. Protests that began on 18 March passed without incident until 30 April, when, according to witnesses, some 38 to 40 people from the town were arrested during house raids. They were released following a large demonstration on 2 May, and subsequently walked through the streets without their shirts to show injuries sustained under torture. On 13 May, the Baath party building in the town was torched by unidentified persons during a demonstration, in which helicopters were seen overhead firing at the demonstrators.50 The demonstration was held in response to an earlier incident involving the killing of 11 people and the wounding of three others travelling in a van heading to Jisr Al Shughour from Homs.51 54. On 3 June, a crowd of 30,000 protestors marched through Jisr Al Shughour. According to witnesses, security personnel used tear gas and fired in the air to disperse the crowd. The following day, some 20,000 people gathered at a public garden in the town, 47 48 49 50 51 Witnesses referred to a “blockade of information”, that ordinary rank and file soldiers had no idea what was happening when they were deployed, and that they had not been allowed leave for several months and were confined to their barracks in between operations. The witness reported that he had been told that “terrorists had infiltrated Syria and the population needed help to resist these groups who were committing acts of violence”. According to the witness, at this stage, shooting broke out among the soldiers themselves and he fled. He had to run towards the demonstrators, since the Shabbiha were positioned behind the lines with instructions to shoot anyone who deserted or refused to obey orders. Another witness to the same events added that, after the operations, checkpoints were set up on the Idlib road and that he witnessed military personnel killing at point blank range three car passengers at one such checkpoint. The witness also noted during this incident the presence of Shabbiha members, claiming that they had shaved heads and long beards. He reported that others spoke in a foreign language or in broken Arabic. Upon deciding to leave the army, he learned that seven others who had attempted the same had been killed. It remains unclear who was responsible for setting the building on fire. Some witnesses claimed demonstrators were responsible, while others said it was Ba’ath Party officials themselves who set fire to the premises as they vacated it. Video footage of the incident appears to support the latter version. On 8 May, a van carrying 17 passengers returning from Lebanon and heading to Jisr Al Shughour was attacked near Homs. The van was fired upon from two directions as it became trapped between two checkpoints. The army reportedly claimed that the van failed to stop at the first checkpoint and alerted soldiers manning the second. Photographs obtained by the mission show the vehicle riddled with bullet holes. According to the victims’ relatives, the bodies of those killed were returned to them some 10 days later, and that they were pressured into signing documents stating that the attack had been carried out by “terrorists”. In its note verbale of 5 August 2011 (annex V), the Government denied these allegations. 15