METHODOLOGICAL REPORT CARRIED OUT BY RGSC

RESEARCH GROUP ON THE SYRIAN CONFLICT RGSC

(GRUPO DE INVESTIGACIN SOBRE EL CONFLICTO EN SIRIA GICS)
UNIVERSIDAD DE BUENOS AIRES.

Attached document to the performance by Santiago Sierra THE NAMES OF THOSE KILLED
IN THE SYRIAN CONFLICT BE THE 15TH OF MARCH 2011 UNTIL THE 31ST OF
DECEMBER 2016, carried out at the following locations:
- CCA Center of Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv, Israel. May 21-23, 2017.
- Wiener Festwochen, mumok Hofstallung Wien, Vienna, Austria. May 23-25, 2017.
- Lisson Gallery, London, United Kingdom. May 25-27, 2017.
- Biennial Performance Buenos Aires, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mayo 27-29, 2017.

***

AfterthefirstgeneralinvestigationofthenumberofdeathsintheSyrianconflict(20112016),
whichinvolvedacquiringdatafromNGOwebsites,internationalorganisations,interviewswith
ambassadorsfromthecountriesinvolved,andconversationsonthematterwithArab,Mexican,
Spanish,FrenchandLebaneseexpertsamongothernationalities 1,thedifficultyofthistaskwas
corroborated.

Particularly,thenumbersappearinflatedbytheoppositionandnonexistentaccordingto
BasharAlAssadsgovernment.Inthefirstcase,thenumberusedbythemajorityofspecialists
onthematterandbyinternationalorganizationsastheUnitedNations,aswellasbyinternational
powersthatfighttooverthrowtheSyrianPresident,isbasedonnumbersprovidedbytheSyrian
ObservatoryforHumanRights,whichhasitsheadquartersintheUnitedKingdom.Duringthe
periodinwhichthisfirstpartoftheresearchtookplace,therewasapointwhenthenumbers
decreased,eveninthecontextoftheassaultbythegovernmentforces,supportedbytheRussian
airforces,onAleppo.Becauseofthis,the450thousandthatthesaidorganizationandtherestof
actorsreferenced,decreasedto312thousandinDecember2016 2.Thisfigureisntinanycase
accompaniedbyalistofnamesthatcouldcorroborateit.

Inrelationtothisaspect,therearethreenongovernmentalorganizationsthatdoprovideafigure
accompanied withnames:Violations Documentation CenterinSyria (VDC),SyrianMartyrs
(Shuhada)andHowManyMoreSyrians.Thefirstofthemindicatesatotalof146.999deathsas
of13/02/20173.Thesecondstatesatotalof151.888deathsuptothesamedate 4,andthethird
oneaccountsformorethan470thousand5.

1 Please see list of consulted sources.

2 http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2016/12/13/actualidad/1481643811_024842.html
3 http://vdc-sy.net/ar/
4 http://syrianshuhada.com/
5 http://howmanysyrians.com/
TheResearch GroupontheSyrianConflictselected as abasestructureforits listthedata
providedbythefirstorganization,theViolationsDocumentationCenterinSyria(VDC).Thelast
onewasdiscardedduetothefactthat,apartfromusingtheinflatedfigureof470thousand,it
wasonlyabletoprovidealistwith100thousandnamesofvictimskilledduringtheyears2011
2014.Therestofthenamesarebasedononesappearingondifferentsocialmediaplatforms,
mainly on Twitter. The organization considers as certain all of the names the users tweet
followedwiththe hashtag #HowManyMore.AtGICSweconsiderthatsuchmethodologyof
namecollection isoflittle rigour, especially takingintoaccountthatitdoesntincludethe
deceasedfromthedifferentarmedorganizationsthat,withoutbelongingtothenationalSyrian
army,supportthegovernment.

Ontheotherhand,wealsotookthemethodologicaldecisionofdiscardingShuhadaasasource.
The main reason for this rejection is the fact that the organization establishes a continuity
between the current conflict and the previous repressions and slaughters carried out by the
governingpartyBaath.Thus,thefiguredeliveredbyShuhadaishigherthantheoneusedby
VDCbecauseitincludesasdeadinconflictthedeathsoccurredinthedecadeof1970,justto
giveoneexample.Besides,itdoesntaccountforthedeceasedfromthegovernmentalside.

In this context, we acknowledge VDC as the most reliable source, considering it focuses
exclusively on the current conflict in Syria and includes the casualties from all actors
(organizationsandstates)involvedinit.Thus,thelistof144.308deadpresentedisbasedonthe
oneelaboratedbyVDC,comparedatthesametimewithShuhadaslists.Itcanbespeculated
thatagreatpartofthe25%thatcouldntbecorroboratedappearasnonidentifiedbyShuhada,
whichusesamuchhighernumberofnonidentifiedthanVDC.

Inrelationtothislastcategory,themethodolgyusedforitsconstructiondifferedfromtheone
usedbyVDC.Thelatterconsidersasidentifiedthepersonswhoappearlistedwiththeirfirst
names.Thus,Khaled,Mohammed,Fatima,amongothers,arepresentedasidentifieddead.In
these cases, we took the methodological decision of classifying these as nonidentified. We
proceededinthesamewaywiththeoneswhoappearedasidentifiedbeingamemberofX
family.However,thosewhosefirstnameswerentlisted,butwithwhomwecouldestablish
clearfamilylinkstotheidentifiedones(forexample,sonof,daughterof,brotherof,etc),
wereconsideredasidentifiedandthusincludedinthefinallist.

Withthesemethodologicalcriteria,thefinalnumberandthelistofthosekilledintheSyrian
conflictpresentedamountsto144.308,ofwhich16.272havebeenclassifiedasnonidentified.

RESEARCH GROUP ON THE SYRIAN CONFLICT RGSC led by Pedro Brieger

Buenos Aires University