Syria: A country under siege

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Source: Amnesty International NZ – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Syria: A country under siege

Residents wait to receive food aid at the besieged al-Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus on January 31, 2014. © unrwa.org

Residents wait to receive food aid at the besieged al-Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus on January 31, 2014. © unrwa.org

The armed conflict raging in Syria continues to have a catastrophic effect for millions of the country’s citizens.

At least 2.6 million have fled the country as refugees, severely impacting Syria’s neighbouring states, and at least 6.5 million others are internally displaced inside Syria. Three and a half million people living in hard-to-reach areas are among 9.3 million in need of humanitarian assistance inside Syria. Hundreds of thousands of people are living in areas that have been under siege.

The armed conflict has been marked by war crimes, crimes against humanity and widespread gross human rights abuses by all sides, particularly forces loyal to the government of President Bashar al-Assad, and shocking disregard for the lives of civilians. This is as much the case for a series of sieges as it is for other actions of the government’s security forces.

Most of the inhabitants of the besieged areas are civilians, including women and children, to whom all military forces are obligated to afford protection under international humanitarian law (IHL, the laws of war). Despite this, government forces have deliberately attacked civilian objects, including objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population such as power stations and the water supply infrastructure. They have blocked access by those besieged to food, water and medical transfers from outside.

These measures, taken together, amount to collective punishment of the civilian population of the besieged areas, and in some cases amount to starving civilians by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival: both of which are war crimes.

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Government forces also continue to shell and bomb those within the besieged areas, causing numerous civilian casualties. Such bombardments have included both direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects and indiscriminate attacks resulting in death and injury to many civilians, and so amount to war crimes. 

A briefing published yesterday sets out Amnesty International’s latest information on five of the sieges that have been imposed by government forces in the context of the crisis and continue to be enforced: on Yarmouk to the south of Damascus, Moadamiya, Daraya and Eastern Ghouta in the Damascus Countryside governorate; and the Old City of Homs. It also includes information on three of the sieges imposed by opposition armed groups: on Aleppo Central Prison in Aleppo city; and Kobani, Zahraa and Nobel in the Aleppo Countryside governorate.

 

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