40,000 Syrian Lives Lost in 20 Months · Global Voices
Rami Alhames

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/12
Up to 4 million people expected to require assistance in Syria by early 2013. This was the headline of the United Nations Humanitarian Bulletin Issue 11 November 2012 [pdf] on Syria. Among them are almost 2 million children and adolescents, who have limited access to basic services and experience psychological trauma caused by violence and displacement. The UN report showed that:
The violence in Syria causes rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation….. At least 1.2 million people are internally displaced with the cold winter weather setting in, and no foreseeable end to the fighting, the outlook for people trapped in the conflict – including Palestine and other refugee communities – is grim.
Bringing essential aid to a population under siege in Syria. Source: ICRC website.
While the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) have provided water for over a million people since early 2012, what is making the humanitarian crisis more complicated is that nearly 11,000 people flee Syria to neighboring countries every single day.
40,000 Syrian lives lost
Another shocking number was announced by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on its website on 22/11/2012 which is making headlines is the huge loss in lives. According to the Observatory, the death toll in Syria has crossed 40,000.
More than 40,129 Syrians have been killed so far, not to mention the thousands of people who have gone missing in the conflict, in violence across Syria according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The breakdown in this tragedy is as follows:
“At least 28,026 civilians, 1,379 defectors, 10,150 soldiers and 574 unidentified people have been killed in Syria in the past 20 months,”.
Citizen Media in Syria. Source: Rami Alhames Blog
Most of human rights organizations claimed that the Syrian regime and its forces have the major responsibility in this high death toll. The Syrian Network for Human rights has documented three cases, among others, revealing an accurate evidence of activists death and torture by Syrian intelligence forces. After the activists appeared on the Syrian state TV and allegedly confessed, the Syrian government handed their dead bodies back to their families and relatives; their bodies had signs of brutal torture.
Syria war Crimes
Human Rights Watch issued on May 3, 2012, a report entitled  “They Burned My Heart”, documenting war crimes in Idlib province during UN envoy Kofi Annan's peace negotiations plan:
While diplomats argued over details of the peace plan, Syrian tanks and helicopters attacked one town in Idlib after another. Everywhere we went, we saw burnt and destroyed houses, shops, and cars, and heard from people whose relatives were killed. It was as if the Syrian government forces used every minute before the ceasefire to cause harm.
Human Rights Watch shares this video on YouTube, with a testimony of what happened in Idlib:
President Assad Welcomes Death in Syria. Source: The Daily Dose.
Can the Syrian revolution win?
This question was posed by Socialist revolution, who answers:
This will only happen if the workers and youth overthrow Assad themselves – the interference of NATO and Russian imperialists has only brought decades of bloodshed and tragedy to the peoples of the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Ammar Abdulhamid wroteon his blog Syrian revolution digest:
Whatever the case may be, taken in conjunction with a death toll currently put at 40,000, an estimated 50,000 missing, and the wholesale destruction that has been wrought on the infrastructure all over the country, the situation is disastrous.
This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/12