MINOPRO INTERNATIONAL
We have received a report from inside Syria, specifically from the Sayyida Zainab area in the Damascus countryside, where the Shiite minority resides, along with members of other minorities such as Alawites who fled from the coastal region.
According to these reports, the state is currently applying in Shiite minority areas the same policy it implemented in Sweida against the Druze minority. Armed Bedouin tribes have been brought in and forcibly settled in Shiite homes. They have also taken control of hotels belonging to the Shiite community. These Bedouin tribes, allied with the new government, have begun threatening Shiites and urging them to leave, warning that otherwise they will face extermination.
The reports further indicate that the Shiite minority in Sayyida Zainab is now suffering from repeated harassment and armed threats, with accusations that they are not Muslims and that they are “grave worshippers.”
For this reason, we call upon the international community not to turn a blind eye to these violations, which strike at the very core of human rights in general, and the rights of minorities in particular.
