The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that the Assad regime and its allies have never shown any compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 2401 calling for a ceasefire, especially in eastern Ghouta. It pointed out that hundreds of civilians have been killed the Damascus suburb since UN Security Council resolution was adopted on February 24.
In a report released on Sunday, the monitoring group said that at least 871 civilians have been killed in eastern Ghouta since February 24, including 179 children as a result of military operations being launched by regime forces backed with Russian aerial support.
The Network added that UN Security Council resolution did not prevent any kind of the violations being committed by the Assad regime forces, their allied foreign militias and Russian air force.
The report listed numerous violations by the Assad regime and Russian forces. The victims of attacks by regime forces and their allies included 123 women, four media activists, seven medical workers, and 12 civil defense volunteers.
The report indicated that regime forces and their allied militias committed no fewer than 34 massacres in eastern Ghouta. The Network also said it had recorded at least 19 attacks on vital civilian centers, including eight civil defense centers, four medical facilities, four mosques, and two popular markets.
According to the report, Assad regime helicopters dropped around 732 barrel bombs on eastern Ghouta during the reporting period. Regime forces used chemical weapons in one incident and incendiary weapons in three others. It noted that cluster munitions were used in three attacks by the Assad regime and Russian forces.
The report pointed out that the ground attack on eastern Ghouta followed weeks of ferocious bombardment of towns and villages of the Damascus suburb.
The report stressed that the onslaught the Assad regime and its allies launched in eastern Ghouta constituted a crime against humanity. It noted that mass forced displacement of the local population is a war crime, stressing that the forcible transfer of civilians is a serious breach of the Geneva Conventions.
The Network underscored that the assault on eastern Ghouta amounted to a crime against humanity under article 7-1 (D) of the Statute of the International Criminal Court as well as rules 129, 130, 131, 132 and 133 of Customary International Humanitarian Law. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
