UN warns of continued war crimes in Eastern Ghouta

By Fatih Erel

GENEVA

The UN commission on Tuesday warned of continued war crimes of Assad regime in Eastern Ghouta, Syria by blocking humanitarian access.

The war crimes have continued in Eastern Ghouta, Hanny Megally, a member of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria, told reporters in Geneva after presenting a report to the UN Human Rights Council on the findings of their comprehensive investigation into the events in Eastern Ghouta, covering the period between Jan. 10 and June 10, 2018.

"The battle for control over Eastern Ghouta was, truly, the weaponization of human misery. Systematic and strategic use of military forces to encircle, starve and, ultimately, compel surrender, amounting to crimes against humanity," said Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the commission, in the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

"Sieges throughout Syria, laid by all sides to this conflict, have been regularly used as a form of collective punishment to erode the viability of civilian life intentionally, to turn the besieged civilian population against the warring party governing them, to compel surrender, and to displace forcibly dissident civilians," Pinheiro said.

For three months, between February and April, pro-regime forces launched daily attacks, pounding the besieged enclave of Eastern Ghouta, steadily destroying many of the essentials of civilian life, he said.

"The battle to recapture Eastern Ghouta, however, cannot be characterized by the actions of a single party, as it was marked by pervasive war crimes committed by all sides," he said.

"By the time Government forces declared Eastern Ghouta successfully recaptured in mid-April, some 140,000 individuals were displaced from their homes, tens of thousands of whom are being interned by Government forces in managed sites throughout Damascus countryside," he said.

"Thousands of survivors were forced to leave their homes and face an uncertain future; in many cases they have had no choice but to seek refuge in places that may imminently face a similar fate," he said.

On June 20, the commission said: "The siege and recapture of Eastern Ghouta was marked by war crimes, crimes against humanity.”

The commission had condemned the Bashar al-Assad regime’s “barbaric and medieval” methods to lay siege to and forcefully capture Eastern Ghouta, a formerly opposition-held suburb of Damascus.

Megally was also quoted as saying: “Even if pro-government forces are bombing and starving the civilian population of Eastern Ghouta into submission, there can be no justification for the indiscriminate shelling of civilian-inhabited areas in Damascus...Such actions by armed groups and members of terrorist organizations also amount to war crimes.”