Russian Forces Again Violate the Ceasefire Agreement and Commit a Massacre against IDPs in al Jadida Village in the Western Suburbs of Idlib Governorate
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Press release (Link below to download full report):
Paris – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) announced in its monthly report released today that 86 civilians were killed in Syria in July 2022, including 21 children, eight women, and five individuals who died as a result of torture, noting that the Russian forces again violated the ceasefire agreement and committed a massacre against IDPs in al Jadida village in the western suburbs of Idlib governorate.
The 20-page report details the death toll of victims documented killed by the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria in July 2022, particularly focusing on those victims killed under torture, paying particular attention to those massacres committed by the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces which the SNHR team was able to document in this period, detailing the most notable incidents. The report also provides details of the most notable work carried out by SNHR concerning the issue of extrajudicial killing.
The report draws upon the ongoing daily monitoring of news and developments, and on SNHR’s extensive network of relations with various sources, in addition to the analysis of a large number of photographs and videos.
The report notes that July saw a decrease in the death toll compared to the previous month. The report documents the deaths of 86 civilians, including 21 children and eight women, 18 of whom were killed at the hands of the Syrian Russian alliance forces. Meanwhile, the report documents the deaths of 57 civilians at the hands of other parties in July, which also saw the continuation of civilian casualties as a result of landmine explosions in different governorates and regions of Syria; the report documents the deaths of 14 civilians, including six children, as a result of landmine explosions, bringing the death toll resulting from the explosion of landmines since the beginning of 2022, to 90 civilians, including 45 children and nine women.
The report also documents the deaths of 28 civilians, including two children and one woman, due to gunfire by parties which SNHR has not yet been able to identify; the largest number of victims were killed in Daraa governorate, which saw the deaths of 13 civilians due to gunfire.
The report documents the deaths of 86 civilians, including 21 children and eight women (adult female), killed at the hands of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria in July 2022. This figure is broken down according to the perpetrators in each case, with 11 of the civilian victims, including two children and one woman, killed at the hands of Syrian regime forces, seven civilians, including four children, killed at the hands of Russian forces, and four civilians, including two children and one woman, killed at the hands of all Armed Opposition factions/Syrian National Army, while ISIS killed one civilian. In addition, SNHR also documented the deaths of six civilians, including one child and one woman, at the hands of Syrian Democratic Forces, while 57 civilians, including 12 children and five women, were killed at the hands of other parties.
As the report reveals, analysis of the data for this period shows that Aleppo governorate saw the largest death toll compared to other Syrian governorates, accounting for approximately 20% of the total death toll documented in July, followed by Daraa governorate with approximately 19%, then Idlib governorate with approximately 16%.
The report further reveals that the SNHR team documented the deaths of five individuals due to torture in July 2022, four of whom died at the hands of Syrian regime forces, and one died at the hands of Syrian Democratic Forces.
The report also documents two massacres perpetrated by Russian forces and other parties. According to the SNHR’s Victim Documentation team, the massacres documented in July resulted in the deaths of 11 civilians, including four children.
As the report notes, the evidence collected by SNHR indicates that some of the attacks documented in the report were deliberately directed against civilians and civilian objects. These attacks along with indiscriminate bombardment have resulted in the destruction of facilities and buildings. The report notes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the war crime of attacking civilians has been committed in many cases.
The report calls on the UN Security Council to take additional steps following its adoption of Resolution 2254, and stresses the importance of referring the Syrian case to the International Criminal Court, adding that all those involved in perpetrating crimes against humanity and war crimes should be held accountable.
The report also requests that all relevant United Nations agencies make greater efforts to provide food, medical and humanitarian assistance in areas where fighting has ceased, and in internally displaced persons’ camps, and to follow up with those States that have pledged voluntary contributions.
The report calls for the implementation of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine (R2P) after all political channels have proved fruitless throughout all the agreements reached, the Cessation of Hostilities statements, and Astana agreements that followed, stressing the need to resort to Chapter VII, and to implement the norm of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine, which was established by the United Nations General Assembly.
The report further recommends that the international community should work to launch projects to create maps revealing the locations of landmines and cluster munitions in all Syrian governorates. This would facilitate the process of clearing them and educating the population about their locations.
The report additionally calls on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) to launch investigations into the cases included in this report and previous reports and confirms the SNHR’s willingness to cooperate and provide further evidence and data, as well as calling them on to focus on the issue of landmines and cluster munitions within the next report.
The report also stresses that the Syrian regime must stop the indiscriminate shelling and targeting of residential areas, hospitals, schools, and markets, as well as ending its acts of torture that have caused the deaths of thousands of Syrian citizens in detention centers, and comply with UN Security Council resolutions and customary humanitarian law.
Lastly, the report calls on all the parties to the conflict to provide detailed maps of the locations where they have planted landmines, especially civilian sites or areas near residential communities, as well as making several additional recommendations.