Center for Documentation of Violations in Syria

The Center for Documentination of Violations (CDV) or sometimes Violations Documentation Center (VDC) (Arabic: مركز توثيق الانتهاكات في سوريا ) is another almost-one-man organization like the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), but with a different approach (they're more stridently anti-regime and less concerned with Islamists and sectarianism), and different results. Its one-man leadership answer to Rami Abdulrahman is Razan Zeitouneh, general coordinator, described by the Daily Star (Lebanon) as "prominent human rights lawyer and opposition activist " Less influential than SOHR by a long shot, the VDC is still worth a bit of examination.

I have been citing their database here for a while, most of the time wrongly using the acronym SCDV, and I sometimes call them the Center for Violations of Documentation. That usage is not accidental, but is sort of arbitrary. Most notably their entries were of great help understanding the May, 2013 Al-Bayda Massacre. --Caustic Logic (talk) 12:11, 18 October 2013 (UTC)

On the organization's "About" page, they describe a rigorous three-stage process to get the fullest information considering "the complexities of the Syrian situation," to "overcome a number of these obstacles as much as possible together with maintaining the credibility of our center and the rights of victims by conveying the truth as it is." The Wikipedia page, citing a BBC multimedia thing, says the CDV "works with the activists from the Local Coordination Committees of Syria" (LCC).

Damascus Mass Grave Claims
The Lebanese Daily Star reported on October 1, 2013 "Rights group finds mass graves near Damascus," but not related to the Ghouta alleged Sarin attack. Instead, they aired a dramatic new claim that thousands of political prisoners of the regime had been executed en masse and buried secretly. Using ". satellite imagery provided by Human Rights Watch," the "Violations and Documentation Center" was cited for locating "two sites it believes are being used to bury thousands of regime detainees in the Damascus area.

The CDV's own page on this subject is here Press Releases ::   Hundreds of Detainees buried in mass mraves in Damascus Suburbs in Branch 215 38-page PDF report can be downloaded there. Another member, Bassam al-Ahmad (a spokesman to the Daily Star), compiled the report (Under the supervision of Razan Zeitouneh).

Syria Death Toll Calculations
The death toll for the whole Syrian conflict reported by the CDV is vastly different from that of the SOHR. The SOHR's count passed 115,206 (a minimum, verified number) before this October 1 Facebook update. Months before they stated, as 94,000 was passed, that the real death toll was likely 120,000 or more, and by now perhaps nearing 150,000. The minimum count should be about 116,000 now. As of this writing, in mid-October, the VDC's count of "martyrs" since 2011 (as shown on their main page or all martyrs search) has just passed 76,000. But unlike SOHR, that's not the full number. It includes civilians, rebel fighters, foreign fighters, unidentified tortured bodies, etc. It's presumed all these are killed by regime forces and not anyone allied with any of the martyrs. There are no loyal army, NDF/Shabiha, pro-gvernment activists and informers, Alawite civilians massacred during Islamist raids, etc. The people killed by rebels that they do count, and it seems a bit short, is VDC "Regime forces fatlities" aka "other statistics" - currently at 11,455. So their real total is 87,542, about 28,000 behind SOHR.

The breakdown differences are also interesting. The "regime" deaths are further divided by the SOHR 10-1: Regular soldiers and officers: 28,804 Popular defence committees, National defence forces, Shabiha and pro-regime informers: 18,228 Fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah: 174 total = 47,206 - 40% of a larger total, almost four times the VDC's 11,455, about 12% of their small total. VDC's Martyrs = SOHR's break-down groups: Civilians: 40,146 Rebel fighters: 17,071 Defected soldiers and officers: 2,176 Unidentified casualties (documented by pictures and footages): 2,760 Unidentified and foreign rebel fighters (mostly the latter): 4.460. Total = 66,613 to VDC's 76,000, which includes, for example, none of the hundreds of Alawite civilians recently slaughtered by Islamists in Latakia, Homs, and elsewhere (see below).

Violations of Documentation
(forthcoming)