IT HAS come as no surprise that Syrian peace talks in Geneva are
drawing to a close with little to offer to the country’s long-suffering
people, even by way of aid deliveries. But opposition delegates may feel
a tentative satisfaction. Long accused of naïve politicking, their
image rose when put alongside regime representatives who railed against
terrorism and repeatedly claimed to be protecting Christians, rather
than discussing a transitional government. The opposition was
helped further by the carefully timed release of two reports during the
week of talks. Both alleged war crimes by the regime (the UN has accused
both the regime and rebels of war crimes, with the former’s on a far
greater scale and systematic manner).
First, a report by three renowned
lawyers, accompanied by thousands of photographs smuggled out of Syria,
claimed to show 11,000 bodies of detainees who died under torture in the
regime’s prisons (see article). The second report,
released today, January 30th, by Human Rights Watch, a New York-based
lobby, details another disturbing aspect of the war. According to the
report, between June 2012 and July 2013, the regime razed to the ground
seven districts in the cities of Damascus and Hama, amounting to an area
equalling 200 football fields. Basing its report on satellite imagery
and interviews with 16 people, the group says opposition areas were
specifically targeted. Witnesses spoke of explosives and bulldozers
being used to knock down buildings including a restaurant and
multi-storey block of flats. Take Masha al-Arbaeen, a poor area in
northern Hama (see below). Between September and October 2012, an area
of 40 hectares was razed. Some locals had joined the rebel fighters but
said opposition fighters had only been present in one or two houses in
the neighbourhood.
Another area levelled, in Qaboun, a district of Damascus, in June may
have laid the ground for a chemical weapons attack two months later.
“Before the attack, there was a month-long campaign to secure land
between Qaboun and Jobar,” says Elliot Higgins, a blogger who does
investigative work into the war’s weaponry. “That established an area
controlled by the government 1.5 to 2km away from the impact sites on
August 21st. We know the range of the rockets [used in the attack] is at
least 2km.”
In interviews, government officials said that demolitions were to
remove illegal buildings. But Human Rights Watch says some of the people
affected say they have documentation for their buildings; no loyalist
areas were targeted in the same manner. Demolitions often followed
fighting and were supervised by military men.
Under the laws of
war, parties to a conflict are allowed to target military sites, which
may include civilian areas if they are being used for a military
purpose. However, the lobby says this can only be done when there is a
specific and imminent threat. And the measure taken must be
proportionate. The demolitions documented seem designed as collective
punishment, say the report’s authors. Owners were neither given notice
nor offered compensation. Human Rights Watch has urged the UN to refer Syria to the ICC. That remains unlikely.
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