Recently the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic released a brand-new report detailing recent developments with regards to the human rights situation in Syria. While the details of the document come as no surprise to those who follow the conflict closely, some of the statements made may surprise the outside observer with their directness and clear-cut nature. In order to most accurately report this information, we have taken excerpts straight from the document, A/HRC/36/55, which was published on September 6th, 2017.
With manpower losses impacting the effectiveness of the Syrian Arab Army, the Syrian government has begun forcibly recruiting more civilians into the military, including those who live in areas which were loyal to the opposition and sometimes even former opposition fighters themselves.
- In effect, the reconciliation process allowed government forces to categorize populations on the basis of allegiance, by filtering fighting-age males, generally aged 18 to 45 years, into two categories: armed group members and wanted individuals who cannot stay in the locality and risk detention if they do, and those who agree to pledge loyalty to the Government. The latter group are permitted to stay but are forcibly conscripted into either local units under the umbrella of the National Defence Forces or into a paramilitary force, or sent to front lines as part of the Syrian army after a six-month notice period. In Barza, some fighting-age males were reportedly conscripted into a local unit called the “Nation’s Castle” within 15 days.
A more recently-widespread hallmark of the war in Syria, as the regime continues to retake control, has been the war crime of forced displacement of civilian populations. There have been numerous examples of this, and while forced displacement is legal when it is done in the interest of security and safety, UN observers have declared that that has not been the case in most instances in Syria.
- Civilians interviewed by the Commission echoed how their decision to evacuate previously besieged areas was involuntary in nature and that they had accepted to leave because they “had no choice”. Women and children mostly followed their male heads of household. In Madaya, civilians emphasized that they did not want to abandon their land and property, but did not trust government forces enough to stay. Some women in Madaya, for example, described fear that their sons would be conscripted and a general distrust of government forces as their reasons for not reconciling. Other civilians recalled how the same fear that drove them to evacuate to Idlib also had an impact on their right to return. Those civilians feared reprisal violence or detention, noting they would not return to their homes even if given the option, with others having largely given up on the prospect. Still others had become aware that their homes had been looted or appropriated by pro-government forces.
Another horrific, yet common aspect of the war in Syria has been the deliberate, repeated targeting of hospitals and healthcare/emergency personnel, often with “double-tap” strikes that hit the responders to a primary bombing with a secondary attack. In some cases, the hospitals were even hit with chemical weapons. And on that note, the hospitals were often struck immediately after chemical weapons had been used elsewhere in the vicinity; a cynical way of ensuring greater casualties from a chemical weapons attack.
- Between March and April, when Syrian and Russian forces heightened their aerial campaign to gain control of Kafr Zeita, Murek and Al-Latamneh, the only remaining towns in northern Hamah controlled by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and armed groups, a surge of air strikes on medical facilities in northern Hamah and southern Idlib were carried out. These attacks took place shortly before and after Syrian forces used chemical weapons in the same area (see paras. 69-70 and 72-77 below), thus preventing victims of chemical attacks from obtaining essential medical treatment. In one of the attacks, pro-Government forces used chlorine, while in another they used cluster incendiary munitions. The Commission has previously reported on pro-Government forces using such weapons to attack both medical facilities and individuals providing medical care in eastern Aleppo city.
- In the afternoon of 5 March, an air strike hit the Al-Sham underground hospital in Kafr Nabl, southern Idlib, destroying two floors and a generator and injuring one hospital worker. Interviewees recalled that the hospital had been rendered out of service as a result of an air strike on 25 February, noting that the number of civilian casualties would have otherwise been significantly higher. On 25 March, at approximately 1 p.m., a Syrian air force helicopter dropped a barrel bomb on Al-Latamneh hospital, killing three civilian men — a surgeon and two patients — and injuring a number of staff and patients. Photos of remnants provided to the Commission depict an improvised chlorine bomb. Eyewitnesses heard the bomb make only a slight noise before releasing a yellow/greenish smoke that smelled strongly of cleaning agents. The use of chlorine is further corroborated by symptoms reported: at least 32 persons were injured as a result of the attack, most of them suffering from irritated throats and eyes, difficulties breathing, vomiting and frothing of the mouth. One interviewee said that some of the injured were armed group fighters. In this regard, the Commission notes that the use of chemical weapons is prohibited in all circumstances, including when a military objective is present.
66. The number and frequency of attacks against health-care facilities, particularly repeated bombardments of the same facilities and routine lack of warnings, clearly indicate that pro-Government forces continue to intentionally target such facilities as part of a warring strategy, amounting to the war crime of deliberately attacking protectedobjects. Deliberate attacks against health-care workers further constitute the war crime of intentionally attacking medical personnel. The 25 March attack on Al-Latamneh hospital with chlorine further violates the Chemical Weapons Convention. The Commission reiterates that the use of chemical weapons is prohibited under customary international humanitarian law regardless of the presence of a valid military target, including when used against enemy fighters, as the effects of such weapons are indiscriminate by nature and designed to cause superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering.
Finally, the most telling part of the report; the portion on chemical weapons use. For the first time, the United Nations is openly declaring the Syrian government to be responsible for the April 4th, 2017 Khan Sheikhoun sarin attack.
- Between March 2013 and March 2017, the Commission documented 25 incidents of chemical weapons use in the Syrian Arab Republic, of which 20 were perpetrated by government forces and used primarily against civilians. During the reporting period, government forces further used chemical weapons against civilians in the town of Khan Shaykhun, in Al-Latamneh, located approximately 11 kilometres south of Khan Shaykhun, and in eastern Ghouta.
- While Khan Shaykhun and Al-Latamneh are controlled by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, Ahrar-al-Sham and various Free Syrian Army groups, eastern Ghouta is primarily controlled by Jaish al-Islam and Faylaq al-Rahman. At the time of the use of chemical weapons in Khan Shaykhun and Al-Latamneh, Syrian and Russian forces were conducting an aerial campaign against Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and armed groups in northern Hamah and southern Idlib.
- At around 6.30 a.m. on 30 March — five days after the chlorine attack on Al-Latamneh hospital by Syrian forces (see para. 64 above) — an unidentified warplane dropped two bombs in an agricultural field south of Al-Latamneh village. Interviewees recalled how the first bomb made almost no sound but released a “toxic material” absent any particular smell, while the second bomb caused a loud explosion. As a result of the former, at least 85 people suffered from respiratory difficulties, loss of consciousness, red eyes and impaired vision. Among the injured were 12 male farmers located 300 metres away from the impact point, 2 of them minors. Nine medical personnel who treated patients without protection also fell ill.
- While the Commission is unable to identify the exact agent to which the victims of the 30 March incident were exposed, interviewees described certain symptoms, including a very low pulse in one case, and contracted pupils, suffocation, nausea and spasms in another, that indicate poisoning by a phosphor-organic chemical, such as a pesticide or a nerve agent. The absence of a characteristic chlorine odour, coupled with secondary intoxications among medical personnel treating victims, supports the conclusion that a toxic chemical other than chlorine was employed. Given that Syrian and Russian forces were conducting an aerial campaign in the area, the absence of indications that Russian forces have ever used chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic,and the repeated use of chemical weapons by the Syrian air force, there are reasonable grounds to conclude that the Syrian air force used chemical weapons in Al-Latamneh on 30 March.
- As part of its offensive to fully besiege Barza, Tishreen and Qabun, three rockets were launched on the afternoon of 29 March from government forces positions into a residential area of central Qabun municipality, close to the Al-Hayat hospital, as well as into neighbouring Tishreen. One of the rockets released a white cloud in Qabun and witnesses recalled the spread of gas, which smelled strongly of domestic chlorine. Thirty-five persons were injured, including one woman and two children. Victims exhibited symptoms consistent with chlorine exposure, including respiratory difficulties, coughing and runny noses. The most serious cases were treated with hydrocortisone l and oxygen. On 7 April, shortly after midday, Al-Hayat hospital received two men suffering from milder manifestations of the same symptoms. In the first week of July, government forces used chlorine against Faylaq ar-Rahman fighters in Damascus on three occasions: on 1 July in Ayn Tarma, on 2 July in Zamalka and on 6 July in Jowbar. In total, 46 fighters suffered from red eyes, hypoxia, rhinorrhoea, spastic cough and bronchial secretions.
- The gravest allegation of the use of chemical weapons by Syrian forces during the reporting period was in Khan Shaykhun. In the early morning of 4 April, public reports emerged that air strikes had released sarin in the town. Dozens of civilians were reported killed and hundreds more injured. Russian and Syrian officials denied that Syrian forces had used chemical weapons, explaining that air strikes conducted by Syrian forces at 11.30 a.m. that day had struck a terrorist chemical weapons depot.
- To establish the facts surrounding these allegations, the Commission sent a note verbale on 7 April to the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations Office at Geneva and specialized institutions in Switzerland requesting information from the Government. At the time of writing, no response has been received. The Commission conducted 43 interviews with eyewitnesses, victims, first responders and medical workers. It also collected satellite imagery, photographs of bomb remnants, early warning reports and videos of the area allegedly affected by the air strikes. The Commission also took into account the findings of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons report on the results of its fact-finding mission. Below is a summary of the Commission’s findings, elaborated in full in annex II.
- Interviewees and early warning reports indicate that a Sukhoi 22 (Su-22) aircraft conducted four air strikes in Khan Shaykhun at around 6.45 a.m. Only Syrian forces operate such aircraft. The Commission identified three conventional bombs, likely OFAB-100-120, and one chemical bomb. Eyewitnesses recalled that the latter bomb made less noise and produced less smoke than the others. Photographs of weapon remnants depict a chemical aerial bomb of a type manufactured in the former Soviet Union.
- The chemical bomb killed at least 83 persons, including 28 children and 23 women, and injured another 293 persons, including 103 children. On the basis of samples obtained during autopsies and from individuals undergoing treatment in a neighbouring country, those who undertook the fact-finding mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons concluded that the victims had been exposed to sarin or a sarin-like substance. The extensive information independently collected by the Commission on symptoms suffered by victims is consistent with sarin exposure.
- Interviewees denied the presence of a weapons depot near the impact point of the chemical bomb. The Commission notes that it is extremely unlikely that an air strike would release sarin potentially stored inside such a structure in amounts sufficient to explain the number of casualties recorded. First, if such a depot had been destroyed by an air strike, the explosion would have burnt off most of the agent inside the building or forced it into the rubble where it would have been absorbed, rather than released in significant amounts into the atmosphere. Second, the facility would still be heavily contaminated today, for which there is no evidence. Third, the scenario suggested by Russian and Syrian officials does not explain the timing of the appearance of victims — hours before the time Russian and Syrian officials gave for the strike.
- In view of the above, the Commission finds that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Syrian forces attacked Khan Shaykhun with a sarin bomb at approximately 6.45 a.m. on 4 April, constituting the war crimes of using chemical weapons and indiscriminate attacks in a civilian inhabited area. The use of sarin by Syrian forces also violates the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction and Security Council resolution 2118 (2013)
Frequent readers of this blog may recall a previous article, which detailed the implications of and technicalities behind the UN’s previous resolutions and statements on Syria. If you’re unfamiliar with Resolution 2118, be sure to check it out. It is likely to be in the news in the near future.
