Evacuation of Syria’s Aleppo was a war crime

A UN panel said Wednesday the evacuation of eastern Aleppo in December, after months of siege and aerial bombing by Russian and Syrian forces, was one of many war crimes committed by those fighting for control of Syria’s largest city.

The Commission of Inquiry on Syria unveiled a report looking at violations by all parties in last year’s battle for Aleppo. It singled out a “particularly egregious attack” in which Syrian warplanes targeted a humanitarian aid convoy.

The findings come amid an open-ended stretch of talks aimed at resolving the six-year-long conflict. The capture of Aleppo was a major victory for President Bashar al-Assad and shifted the military balance in his favor.

The agreement to evacuate rebel-held eastern Aleppo gave civilians no option to remain at the end of the protracted campaign, in which daily aerial bombings killed hundreds of people and left all the hospitals in the area out of service.

The commission said the agreement amounted to “the war crime of forced displacement.”

The report looked at violations committed between July 21, when the rebel-held part of Aleppo was besieged, and Dec. 22, when Syrian troops and allied forces assumed full control of the city.

It drew on the testimony of 291 eyewitnesses, satellite imagery and an array of material including medical reports, forensic evidence and information provided by UN member states.

“For months, the Syrian and Russian air forces relentlessly bombarded eastern Aleppo city as part of a strategy to force surrender,” said the commission’s chairman, Paulo Pinheiro. “The deliberate targeting of civilians has resulted in the immense loss of human life, including hundreds of children.”

The commission said it was often difficult to know whether specific strikes were carried out by Russia or the Syrian government. But it said it had determined that Syrian warplanes targeted hospitals on at least two occasions, and deliberately attacked a humanitarian aid convoy on Sept. 19.

“The munitions employed (against the convoy) were particularly appropriate for attacking unarmored vehicles and individuals,” the report said. It also found evidence that the Syrian government had used prohibited cluster munitions.

Both sides were guilty of carrying out indiscriminate attacks in densely populated civilian areas, it said, adding that rebels had launched imprecise mortar attacks on government-held neighborhoods.

Source :Al Arabiya