The Syrian Coalition’s legal committee on Thursday sent a memorandum to the Arab League calling on the organization to discuss the massacres committed by Assad and his allies in Syria and take concrete measures to protect Syrian civilians. The memo also called on the Arab League to condemn the Russian and Iranian invasion of Syria and press towards the establishment of a no-fly zone in Syria to ensure civilian protection.
The committee stressed the need to enforce the UN resolutions on Syria and enable the Syrian people to achieve full political transition that is crucial to preserving their dignity and ending the bloodshed.
“The Syrian Revolution is no longer a revolt against a murderous regime, but has become a popular liberation movement seeking to liberate Syria from the Iranian and Russian invaders,” the memo said. It warned that the Russian and Iranian invaders will not stop at Syria, adding that the Syrian people are now fighting for the peoples of the entire region.
The memo said that a year into the Russian aggression on Syria, 3,264 civilians, including 911 children and 619 women, have been killed. It added that the Russian invaders have committed more than 169 massacres and targeted at least 417 vital civilian facilities across Syria, including dozens of hospitals and aid convoys. At least 32 members of the medical staff, including seven female workers, have been killed in these attacks. Over 11 rescue workers and 12 journalists as well as media activists were also killed in the ongoing Russian bombing campaign on Syria, the memo said, adding that the Russian airstrikes have forced over a quarter of a million people out of their homes.
The memo went on to say that Russia is using internationally banned weapons in its aerial campaign on Syria, with Russian jets launching around 147 attacks using cluster munitions and 48 more using incendiary weapons. The committee emphasized that these attacks are war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The committee urged the Arab League to force the regime to stop its massacres against the Syrian people through calling on the UN Security Council to assume its responsibilities towards Syrian civilians and hold an emergency session of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation in Syrian in general and in Aleppo in particular.
The committee stressed the need for the Arab League to call on the UN Security Council to take immediate, concrete action to protect civilians and enforce its resolutions on Syria, especially resolutions 2139, 2042, 2254 and 2268. These resolutions called for ending military operations as well as stopping the use of heavy weapons, the indiscriminate use of weapons in populated areas, and barrel bomb attacks. They also called for lifting the blockades on the besieged areas and allowing the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in need.
Around 600,000 civilians trapped in the besieged eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo are threatened with total annihilation, the memo said. Nearly 356 civilians, the majority of whom were women and children, were killed in Russian and Assad regime bombings on in Aleppo in September alone. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
