Not less than 243 Deliberate or Random Shelling
SNHR issued expanded report in which it showed the documented incidents of targeting the civilian vital facilities by Russian forces since 30 September 2015 until 15 March 2016.
The report of 66 pages included the civilian vital facilities and did not show the vital facilities that were turned to military headquarters or they had military headquarters close to them, or a fighters’ gathering.
The report assured that the Russian forces committed war crime since they did not avoid the civilian population and did not take precautions to reduce the casualties of civilian’s souls or the civilians’ facilities, but all of attacks were deliberate and indiscriminate against civilians and civilians’ facilities.
Fadel Abdul Ghani head of SNHR stated that:
‘in accordance of Geneva convention which is a part of international humanitarian law that governs the Syrian conflict, the states must investigate and judge the perpetrators and the commanders of those crimes, or to hand them over for trial in other state if the court provide evidence against them. We demand the Russian government to investigate those incidents then to hold the involved parties in the crimes in Syria accountable in their own courts because there is not any court concrning the Syrian issue till now due to the Russian veto in the international security council’
The report documented not less than 243 attacks on vital facilities , and the most significant attacks were: 51 attacks on medical facilities, 57 attacks on infrastructure, 52 attacks on educational facilities, 50 attacks on places of worship, 25 attacks on Communal Facilities, 2 attacks on cultural Facilities, 5 attacks on refugees camps, 1 attack on international Humanitarian Insignia. The report recorded attacks by Russian forces on the same vital facilities many times.
The report noted that November 2015 had the greatest number of incidents with 55 incidents at the hand of Russian forces.
The report confirmed that the Russian forces attacks on the hospitals, schools, and bakeries are a blatant disregard for the minimum standards of the international humanitarian laws and the international Security Council resolutions which mount to war crime.
The report recommended the Russian government to investigate those massacres which were likely carried out by forces that belonged to it, and to compensate the victims’ families. The reconstruction of the damages by Russian forces has to hold too.
The report stressed real participation that would pave the way towards a transitional stage that would result in a democratic regime and, preserve Syrian land unity and contribute in restoring it.
The report demanded the International Independent Investigation Commission to investigate the massacres which suspected to be carry out by Russian forces and announce the results in its periodic report.
The report urged the rest of the Security Council members to hold Russia accountable for their violations of the Security Council resolution 2245 that issued in 18 October 2015 and stop repeating that.