Commissioner Hanny Megally said that some members of armed groups affiliated to the Syrian National Army (SNA) confiscate people in northern Syria’s property or force them to pay ransoms, adding that some are even detained for failing to pay the money.
“Often we have heard that people who have relatives abroad, who may have money, are being picked up because those detaining them think that the relatives abroad will be able to pay the ransom,” he said in a video call.
“The problem seems to be that the armed groups, particularly Syrian National Army, are not really being paid proper salaries and they are using whatever means they can find, including the crops being taken over and sold so that they can make money. But they are using the civilian population as hostages to raise money for extortion.”
It is not clear how much SNA fighters receive as salaries, but it is largely believed to be under $100, according to researchers. However, Turkey has reportedly offered $2,000 to those SNA fighters who are willing to fight for Turkey in Libya to support the internationally-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA).
Syria is suffering from an economic crisis and the value of lira has decreased dramatically. One dollar is currently worth more than 2,000 Syrian pounds.
In early 2018, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, a Kurdish enclave in the northwest corner of Syria. In the fall of 2019, Turkey began a new operation, Peace Spring, against Kurdish forces along the border, invading the towns of Sari Kani and Gire Spi.
Scores of violations have been reported by several rights groups in these areas in the last two years.
A report by the UN Commission released on Tuesday, which covers the first half of 2020, states that Turkey-backed forces have looted and appropriated the properties of Kurdish families in Afrin “in a coordinated manner.”
An example mentioned in the report took place in Afrin’s Sheikh al-Hadid subdistrict in September 2019 where SNA fighters “had gone from door to door instructing Kurdish families with fewer than three members to vacate their houses to accommodate individuals arriving from outside of Afrin.”
“Others had been forced by Syrian National Army members to pay a ‘tax’ on agricultural harvests or a set amount of rent as a precondition for remaining in the homes they owned. Families recalled having been extorted for between LS 10,000 [$5-12] and LS 25,000, depending on their means and ability to pay,” adds the report.
