Amnesty International yesterday responded to Russia’s questioning of the report the organization published on December 22 and which concluded that the Russian airstrikes on Syrian may amount to war crimes.
Amnesty’s Middle East director Philip Luther said that the organization has compelling evidence that Russian airstrikes targeted civilians in markets, hospitals, mosques and populated areas. Stressing these attacks may amount to war crimes, Luther said the organization has evidence Russia used cluster bombs in Syria.
Secretary of the political committee Anas al-Abdah said that massacres against civilians committed by Assad and Russia on a daily basis, including yesterday’s massacre in the town of Hammoriya in rural Damascus, constitute a big obstacle to reaching a political solution in Syria.
“These acts prove that alleged commitment by Assad and his allies to the principle of negotiating a political solution is just a political maneuver designed to gain more time in power,” Abdah said.
During a meeting held yesterday, the Syrian Coalition’s political committee called on the UN Security Council to take immediate action in order to stop Assad and Russia from targeting Syrian civilians. The committee cited Amnesty International’s report saying that Russia’s targeting of civilians in Syria may amount to war crimes.
The committee underlined that negotiations in Geneva cannot be successful whilst massacres are committed on a daily basis against men women and children in Syria; massacres carried out by Assad assisted by the Russians whose aggression in Syria has not drawn a single condemnation by the United Nations. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
