US, Russia: Investigate Attacks on Civilians | WPN World People News

The United States and Russia should act on their recent commitment to investigate attacks with significant civilian casualties in Syria. In particular, they should open investigations in the May 5, 2016 airstrike on a camp for displaced people and killings of civilians by armed groups as they took a majority-Alawite village on May 12.

In a statement on May 9, the US and Russia promised to carry out a joint assessment of attacks in Syria “leading to significant civilian casualties” and to share the results with the members of the International Syria Support Group Ceasefire Task Force and the UN Security Council. The Security Council should then adopt measures to sanction and deter such violations, Human Rights Watch said.

“These recent attacks should be a test for the resolve of the US and Russia to put an end to the unlawful killing of civilians in Syria,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director. “The two countries should swiftly investigate them and make their findings public.”

Three airstrikes hit the Kamuna camp, which provided shelter to 4,500 displaced Syrians, at about 5 p.m. on May 5, four witnesses told Human Rights Watch. The camp is near Sarmada in northern Idlib province, five kilometers from Turkey’s increasingly impenetrable border. An independent humanitarian source in Turkey said that medics recovered 20 bodies, including two children, and that at least 37 people were injured, including 10 who lost one or more limbs and who were transferred to Turkey for medical care. Witnesses reported that there was nothing in the camp that would have made it an appropriate military target.

On May 12, armed opposition groups including Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra, attacked and took over the Alawite-majority town of al-Zara in southern Hama countryside. Human Rights Watch was unable to reach anyone from al-Zara, but the Syrian state news agency SANA reported that the attack by opposition groups coming from nearby Homs took place in the early morning. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the armed groups killed 19 residents, including 6 women.

Human Rights Watch has previously documented abuses by armed groups, including Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra after gaining control of Alawite villages or towns, including the killing and seizing of hostages during a military offensive in rural Latakia in August 2013.

Deliberate or reckless attacks against civilians and civilian structures committed with criminal intent are war crimes. The laws of war require that the parties to a conflict take constant care during military operations to spare the civilian population and to “take all feasible precautions” to avoid or minimize the incidental loss of civilian life and damage to civilian objects. Like other civilian structures, hospitals may not be targeted. Furthermore, they remain protected unless they are “used to commit hostile acts” that are outside their humanitarian function. Even then, they are only subject to attack after a warning has been given setting a reasonable time limit, and after such a warning has gone unheeded.

Source: Human Rights Watch