( CNN ) -- `` At one point we killed eight people in 15 minutes . The protesters were unarmed . They did n't even have rocks ! That 's when I decided to defect . I threw away my gun and ran towards the protesters . '' `` About 1,500 protesters came ... ..They requested the release of an injured protester who was inside the hospital . They held olive branches . They had no arms . There were 35 army soldiers and about 50 mukhabarat personnel at the checkpoint . We also had a jeep with a mounted machine-gun . When the protesters were less than 100 meters away , we opened fire . '' These statements are part of the testimony of two Syrian soldiers who say they deserted after being ordered by officers to fire on unarmed protesters . They are among 63 who have fled to neighboring countries and told Human Rights Watch of their experiences . The organization has documented incidents where soldiers say they were ordered to kill or torture protestors , went on looting rampages or witnessed other soldiers being shot or tortured for disobeying orders or desertion . The report , released Thursday , is titled , `` By All Means Necessary , '' borrows the language allegedly used by officers as they issued orders to soldiers to put down protests . It identifies 74 commanders and officials accused of ordering attacks on unarmed protestors . The testimony is frequently harrowing . A soldier from the 9th Division recounted that on April 28 he was sent to a checkpoint to prevent protesters from marching on the capital , Damascus . `` People were approaching from different sides , and one guy came up to me and screamed , `` 'If you are a man , shoot me ! ' The same moment , a mukhabarat guy next to me shot him in the shoulder , at close range , and tried to arrest him . His mother approached us and said , 'Let him go ; take me instead ! , ' and a mukhabarat guy in civilian clothes in front of me shot the guy point blank and killed him , in front of his mother . '' The mukhabarat are members of the the feared military intelligence service regarded as regime loyalists . At about the same time - in Daraa , where the protests began - a soldier alleged that his commander stood in front of the brigade and ordered : `` Use heavy shooting . Nobody will ask you to explain . '' Another soldier deployed to Bukamal in May said his commander made it clear that the unit 's `` job was not to arrest people , but to kill . '' According to the soldier , the commander gave verbal orders to `` kill anyone putting up resistance , regardless of whether they are men , women , or children . '' HRW says it interviewed 63 defectors from the armed forces over a period of six months , talking to them `` and other witnesses separately and at length . `` Violations described in this report are those that several defectors described separately , '' HRW says . Most of the interviewees were conscripts but several were officers . One soldier said in the early days of the protests , commanders would brief their men `` about how good Assad and his family were , and about the threats from the terrorists . And then they also forbade us from taking leave . '' Many of the soldiers said they were convinced that the government 's claims were false when they went on leave and realized that `` close relatives and friends were participating in the protests and had been attacked by the security forces . '' The Syrian government continues to maintain that `` armed gangs '' and terrorists , incited from outside Syria , have been attacking the security forces . In an interview with the U.S. network ABC a week ago , President Bashar al Assad said he was not responsible for any misconduct by the security forces . `` I do n't own them . I 'm president . I do n't own the country , so they 're not my forces , '' he said . But some of the soldiers interviewed by HRW accuse senior officers close to the president of ordering them to shoot protestors . One man who says he served in the 4th Division said a brigadier general had instructed them to shoot at protestors in Damascus . He says he later found out that `` the orders came from Maher al-Assad , de facto commander of the 4th Division and President al-Assad 's younger brother . '' Another soldier with the 4th Division said that his unit was deployed to make arrests in a Damascus neighborhood in May . `` We had batons , and the shabeeha ( a government militia ) had weapons ; they wore black clothes . We were running after people , and those we grabbed wished they had died because of how badly we beat them . '' A captain `` used to shoot with his pistol at those we could n't catch . '' A former lieutenant colonel in the Presidential Guard described the torture of a man on the `` wanted list '' who had been detained in a suburb of Damascus in August . `` When I came , he was still alive , '' the former officer related . 'He was screaming , and the soldiers were swearing and laughing . It lasted for about five minutes longer , and then he died . '' The report also details ruthless treatment of soldiers who tried to avoid killing protesters . One soldier said that during a protest in Damascus in April , a young conscript called Yusuf was shooting in the air and not at protestors . A military intelligence officer `` called a sniper on the roof , pointed at Yusuf , and the sniper then shot Yusuf twice in the head . Intelligence agents took Yusuf 's body away . The next day we saw Yusuf 's body on TV . They said that he had been killed by terrorists . '' The soldiers also describe `` sweeps '' of neighborhoods where protests were common , with hundreds of arbitrary arrests . Among incidents of looting described , one soldier said that `` in Bayda we broke the doors and took whatever we wanted . The mukhabarat was arresting people ; in one area , they arrested ten old men to force their children to turn themselves in . The same continued in Banyas , where we went the next days . In Basateen , we looted everything , both my unit and others . '' HRW says defections from the Syrian armed forces and intelligence agencies appear to have steadily increased since the protests began in March . HRW says the UN Security Council should ensure the accountability of the officers named `` up to the very highest levels of the Syrian government '' by referring Syria to the International Criminal Court . `` Try as he may to distance himself from responsibility for his government 's relentless brutality , President Assad 's claim that he did not actually order the crackdown does not absolve him of criminal responsibility , '' says Anna Neistat , one of the report 's authors . `` The ongoing killings , arrests , repression , and general denials of responsibility by the Syrian government also make clear that officials have failed to take any meaningful action to address these abuses , '' HRW concludes . The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights estimates that some 5,000 people have been killed in Syria 's unrest . On Wednesday , UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said : `` This can not go on . In the name of humanity , it is time for the international community to act . '' The report comes out a day after there were unconfirmed reports that 33 people were killed in Syria . The deaths were reported by the Local Coordination Committees of Syria , an opposition group that organizes and documents protests . CNN can not independently confirm reports of violence in Syria because the government restricts access by foreign journalists .
He interviews two Syrian soldiers that have defected . The soldiers say they were ordered to arrest and torture protesters . The chief : ` ` It is time for the international community to act '' The unit 's ` ` job was not to arrest people , but to torture , '' a soldier says .