»Syrische Regierungstruppen verüben systematisch Menschenrechtsverletzungen«

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Resident of Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, Aleppo city

More than four years since the crisis in Syria began, its resolution remains as elusive as ever. The parties to the conflict continue to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law and grave abuses of human rights, and the civilian population is bearing the brunt of the violence.

In an effort to reduce this civilian suffering and pave the way toward a more comprehensive peace process, the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, proposed a “freeze” in hostilities in Aleppo. Since autumn 2014, the Aleppo “freeze” proposal has captured the attention of the international community. This attention has been largely focused on the military and political aspects of the situation, especially as hostilities between the parties have surged in Aleppo and the UN has been engaging the parties in talks over the initiative.

Yet beyond the military and political aspects of the situation, what are the realities faced by civilians on the ground in Aleppo? Amnesty International conducted research on violations committed by the Syrian government and non-state armed groups in Aleppo city and ist closest suburbs since January 2014. For this report, researchers interviewed 78 current or former residents of Aleppo and 29 professionals working in or on Aleppo. These interviews, which were conducted either in person or by phone, email or virtual means, were carried out in Turkey in December 2014 and January 2015 and in Lebanon in February and March 2015. Amnesty International also reviewed extensive photo and video materials and crosschecked them with witness accounts. In March 2015, Amnesty International contacted the Syrian authorities to share its preliminary findings, request a response to these findings and seek clarifications and additional details on incidents examines in this report, but had received no response as of 23 April 2015.

Based on this research, our conclusions are clear and incontrovertible: civilians in Aleppo are suffering unthinkable atrocities. Our assessment is that the violations committed by the Syrian government and many armed opposition groups in Aleppo not only violate UN Security Council Resolution 2139, which was unanimously adopted more than one year ago, but are also war crimes. In some cases, the actions of the Syrian government amounted to crimes
against humanity.

Civilians in opposition-controlled areas of Aleppo have been bombarded in their homes, hospitals, schools, public markets and places of worship in air attacks launched by government forces. The majority of attacks in this campaign have involved the use of “barrel bombs” – large, improvised explosive devices, which are delivered from helicopters and consist of oil barrels, fuel tanks or gas cylinders that have been packed with explosives, fuel and metal fragments to increase their lethal effect.

From January 2014 to March 2015, government forces launched continual attacks using barrel bombs and other imprecise explosive weapons on areas populated with civilians, including at least 14 public markets, 12 transportation hubs and 23 mosques, and on civilian objects, including at least 17 hospitals and medical centres and three schools. The vast majority of fatalities caused by barrel bomb attacks in Aleppo have been civilians. According to the Violations Documentation Center, a Syria-based monitoring group, barrel bomb attacks killed at least 3,124 civilians – and 35 fighters – in Aleppo governorate from January 2014 to March 2015. For this report, Amnesty International conducted in-depth inquiries into eight barrel bomb attacks and found that they killed at least 188 civilians; only one fighter was recorded among the fatalities. Meanwhile, the Syrian government has failed to acknowledge that its aerial bombardment campaign in Aleppo has resulted in a single civilian casualty and has insisted that air attacks have targeted only “terrorists”.

These and other factors examined in this report suggest that the aerial bombardment campaign conducted by government forces in Aleppo city deliberately targeted civilians and civilian objects. It is a war crime to intentionally make civilian objects and civilians who are not directly participating in hostilities the target of attacks. Such a systematic attack on the civilian population, when carried out as part of government policy as appears to have been the case in Aleppo, would also constitute a crime against humanity.

Amnesty International and other monitoring groups have also documented attacks by armed opposition groups on residential neighbourhoods in government-held areas of Aleppo. These attacks often involved the use of imprecise explosive weapons such as mortars, which should never be used in the vicinity of concentrations of civilians. Given the nature of the weapons used, many of these attacks are likely to constitute indiscriminate attacks, which, when they kill or injure civilians, are war crimes. Some of these attacks may have also constituted deliberate attacks on civilians or civilian objects, which are also war crimes.

Amnesty International and other monitoring groups have documented hundreds of cases since January 2014 involving the arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance, as well as the torture and other ill-treatment, of civilians by the Syrian government in Aleppo city and its closest suburbs. These violations have taken place within the context of thousands of similar cases that have been documented across Syria since 2011. In so far as torture and enforced disappearances in Aleppo appear to have been perpetrated as part of a systematic and widespread attack on the civilian population by the Syrian government, these violations may amount to crimes against humanity.

Amnesty International has also concluded, based on cases examined in this report and prior work, that many non-state armed groups have engaged in abductions and hostage-taking, as well as the arbitrary detention, torture, and other mistreatment of prisoners in Aleppo. Such acts would constitute war crimes. As a backdrop to these grave violations, residents of Aleppo city live in appalling conditions. Residents in both opposition-held and government-held areas lack basic services such as water and electricity, and suffer shortages in food, medicine and gas to heat their homes. Humanitarian workers told Amnesty International that they are generally able to reach areas controlled by residents in all areas of the city. Yet those providing assistance to oppositioncontrolled areas discussed significant challenges to providing aid, not least of which is the government forces’ continual targeting of the road that serves as the primary access route for humanitarian assistance to the city.

The rate of air attacks by government forces on opposition-held areas in Aleppo city appeared to decrease between September 2014 and March 2015, but has recently risen again drastically; they continue to occur on a daily basis. Furthermore, civilians are being arbitrarily detained, tortured and disappeared, and the threat of a siege is ever present. Amnesty International therefore calls on all parties to the Syrian conflict to end deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects such as hospitals and schools; to end the indiscriminate use of explosive weapons such as barrel bombs and mortars in populated areas; to end arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, abduction and torture and other illtreatment; and to allow unimpeded humanitarian access to the UN and its implementing partners in Aleppo and in Syria as a whole. Ultimately, the success of initiatives like the Special Envoy’s “freeze” should be measured by the commitment of all warring parties to halt the human rights abuses, war crimes and crimes against humanity that are being committed in Aleppo and across Syria.

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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Government forces and many armed opposition groups in Aleppo are committing grave human rights abuses and serious violations of international humanitarian law, many of which amount to war crimes. In some cases, the actions of the Syrian government have amounted to crimes against humanity.

The evidence examined in this report strongly suggests that government forces and many armed opposition groups are indiscriminately using imprecise explosive weapons such as barrel bombs and mortars on a systematic basis. The incidents documented represent just a fraction of these unlawful attacks, which have killed and injured scores of civilians and damaged or destroyed apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, mosques and ambulances. Furthermore, attacks have been launched on populated areas, such as residential neighbourhoods, crowded markets, and busy intersections or roads. In many instances, government and armed opposition forces appear to have directly targeted civilians or civilian objects. In other instances, where military checkpoints, bases or members of government forces on the one hand, or of armed groups on the other, were present in the vicinity of the attacks, the warring parties have launched attacks that, at the least, were grossly disproportionate or otherwise indiscriminate. In either scenario, these attacks constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law and are war crimes.

The government’s aerial campaign in Aleppo appears to have deliberately targeted civilians and civilian objects and forms part of a systematic, as well as widespread, attack against the civilian population throughout Syria, a campaign that is also marked by the torture, murder and enforced disappearance of thousands of civilians in Aleppo and across Syria. As the evidence points to these violations having been committed in furtherance of a state policy, Amnesty International’s assessment is that they amount to crimes against humanity.

Based on the cases examined in this and prior work, Amnesty International also concludes that many opposition groups have engaged in abductions and hostage-taking, as well in as the torture and other mistreatment of prisoners in Aleppo from January 2014 to March 2015. Such acts amount to war crimes.

Finally, residents of both opposition-held and government-held areas have been subjected to extremely poor living conditions, including shortages in basic services and necessities such as food and medicine. In opposition-held areas in Aleppo, residents told Amnesty International that each day was a struggle for survival. While assistance providers are generally able to reach areas controlled by the opposition and the government in Aleppo city, those providing assistance to opposition-controlled areas discussed significant challenges to providing aid. These dire conditions and abuses are seen elsewhere in Syria on an even greater scale, especially in areas currently under siege, such as Homs, areas of Damascus city and the countryside around Damascus.

In Aleppo, government forces and many armed opposition groups have therefore committed crimes under international law, as well as breached almost every demand of UN Security Council Resolution 2139. Both sides are violating international humanitarian law and must be held to account. However, throughout the more than four years since the crisis began, government forces have been responsible for the large majority of violations and crimes. Their responsibility for creating one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent history cannot be overstated. This crisis started with the state’s brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters. Its response seemed tailored to send the message that they would stop at nothing to quash dissent: methods include the use of torture, summary executions and enforced disappearances on a massive scale; merciless bombardment of civilians and use of prohibited weapons; starvation of civilians and collective punishment.

After three years of inaction and paralysis, the UN Security Council finally demanded, in a binding resolution, that the Syrian government and other parties respect international humanitarian law and stop the unlawful killing, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and sieges of civilians. More than a year after UN Security Council Resolution 2139, Syria’s beleaguered civilians are still waiting for action to enforce compliance. Measures to stop arming the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity and bring suspects to justice are long overdue, and are needed now more than ever.

Amnesty International makes the following recommendations, which concern the situation in
Aleppo and in Syria more broadly:

To the Syrian authorities:

• End deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects such as hospitals, homes and schools;

• End the use of imprecise explosive weapons such as barrel bombs in populated areas;

• End arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and torture and other ill-treatment;

• Allow unhindered humanitarian access to the UN and its implementing partners in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria;

• Provide full co-operation and unhindered access to the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, as well as other international human rights monitors, to investigate all alleged crimes under international law and violations and abuses of international human rights law;

• Comply with provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 2139 related to respect for international humanitarian law and human rights.

To armed opposition groups:

• End deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects such as hospitals, homes and schools;

• End the use of imprecise explosive weapons such as mortars in populated areas;

• End torture and other ill-treatment and ensure humane treatment of detainees;

• End abduction of civilians and hostage-taking;

• Make clear to those under their command that unlawful attacks, torture and ill-treatment will not be tolerated;

• Remove from the ranks anyone suspected of violations of international humanitarian law;

• Allow unhindered humanitarian access to the UN and its implementing partners in

• Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria;

• Reduce the number of checkpoints on the access route from Turkey to Aleppo city so as to better assist and sustain the civilian population there;

• Comply with provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 2139 related to respect for international humanitarian law and human rights.

To the UN Security Council:

• Refer the situation in Syria to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court;

• Demand prompt and unhindered access to Syria for the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, humanitarian and human rights organizations, and international journalists;

• Insist upon receiving regular updates and objective information on attributable violations of human rights and international humanitarian law;

• Impose targeted sanctions against those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2139;

• Impose an arms embargo on the Syrian government.

To the UN Special Envoy for Syria:

• Ensure that any plan to “freeze” hostilities in Aleppo or elsewhere in Syria incorporates human rights components and safeguards to ensure their implementation, including by:

• Contributing to remedies for detainees held arbitrarily;

• Developing a robust mechanism to monitor parties’ respect for international human rights and humanitarian law in and around any “freeze” area;

• Generating measurable improvements in humanitarian access to civilians in Aleppo;

• Incorporating a component related to truth and justice.

To the international community:

• Support and build the capacity of Syrian human rights organizations that are documenting violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in the Syrian conflict to gather and share objective and impartial information, and encourage the UN and other international actors to ensure that such support and training is made available to them;

• Engage in greater and more effective information-sharing around humanitarian conditions in Aleppo and throughout Syria, which will increase the effectiveness of the humanitarian response;

• Urge the Syrian government to grant the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic and other international human rights monitors access to Syria;

• In the absence of a UN Security Council arms embargo, immediately impose a comprehensive national and (where possible) regional arms embargo on the Syrian government;

• Comply with the arms embargo imposed under UN Security Council Resolution 2170 of 2014 on Jabhat al-Nusra, as well as on the armed group that calls itself the Islamic State;

• Make no transfers to any other non-state armed group in Syria where there is a substantial risk of the group committing serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law;

• If considering supplying arms to non-state armed groups in Syria, first carry out a rigorous human rights risk assessment and establish a robust monitoring process which would enable all arms transfer proposals to be carefully considered before any approval is granted and for any such transfers to be rapidly halted if arms are used to commit human rights abuses or violations of international humanitarian law. The onus should be on states considering military transfers to armed groups to first ensure the establishment of concrete, enforceable and verifiable mechanisms so as to remove all substantial risks that any military equipment supplied is not misused or diverted to commit or facilitate serious human rights abuses or violations of international humanitarian law;

• Accept a shared responsibility to investigate and prosecute war crimes and other crimes under international law committed in Syria and elsewhere in the world. In particular, seek to exercise universal jurisdiction over these crimes before national courts in fair trials and without recourse to the death penalty;

• Recognize and condemn the violations being committed in Aleppo city and in Syria more broadly, as failure to act opens the way for intolerable human suffering and poses a challenge to the universality of international law.

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