EAST GHOUTA

Is the Syrian regime's attack on civilians in East Ghouta a violation of war crimes?

To summarize what happened in East Ghouta very shortly, “This region, which is estimated to have a population of 393 thousand, has been under government blockade since 2013. According to pro-government media, a major military operation has been launched to wipe out the opposition presence in this area just outside the capital Damascus. The continuous bombardment from warplanes and artillery leaves the civilians here, especially women and children, in terror.” These words from BBC and, shows the dimension of the attack. This is an aggression led by the Syrian government against the opponent group. However, after the attack of the Syrian government, many civilians lose their lives or they get injured. The Syrian government used Prohibited weapons in this attack such as sarin gas and marble bombs. So in this paper, I’m going to focus on this attack.  

Syrian Regime's intent could be removing opposition groups from the region and this is an acceptable argument for protecting their territorial integrity. However, we know that the Syrian regime by doing this According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 1700 civilians lost their lives and 3900 civilians were injured in recent attacks by using prohibited weapons. so this is a violation of Article 8 of the Rome Statute and Geneva Conventions.

There are 2 contextual elements. Considering the existence of an armed conflict and the existence of war crimes, We need to say that “there is an armed conflict”. According to the Tadic Appeal Decision: “an armed conflict exists whenever there is a resort to armed force between States or protracted armed violence between governmental authorities and organized armed groups or between such groups within a State” So according to this claim, there is two types of arm conflict: international arm conflict and non-international arm conflict. If both are stated it is an international armed conflict and we could go to article 8/2 (a) and (b). But both do not state it a non-international we could apply 8/2 (c) and (e). This armed conflict between the Syrian Regime (state) and armed opposition group (not state). So that reason this is a non-international armed conflict. So we need to focus on 8/2 (c) and (e) So we need to apply article 8/2 (c) and (e) of RS. We can say that the Syrian regime clearly violated RS article 8/2 (e) (i), (ii), (xiii), (xiv).

(i) Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities; Before applying these we need the ask that question is the neutralization of the target important enough for some civilian casualties? The answer is yes may be lawful but in this case, it looks unlawful. Also, even if we say yes to this, the bombing of hospitals and the use of chemical weapons clearly show violations. 

(ii) Intentionally directing attacks against buildings, materials, medical units and transport, and personnel using the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions in conformity with international law; Attack of Arbin Hospital by Syrian Air force. 

(xiii) “Employing poison or poisoned weapons” and (xiv) Employing asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and all analogous liquids, materials or devices; according to Anadolu Ajansı and UN reports, in April 2018 more than 40 people lost their lives because of chemical weapon attack. so that this is a violation of RS article 8/2 (e) 

The regime has clearly violated war crimes by directly using hospitals and chemical weapons, and by causing many civilian deaths during both these attacks and bombardments.  Syrian regime violated war crimes in this category. 

1-crime against non-combatants, 

2- attack on prohibited targets 

3- attacks inflicting excessive civilian damage 

4- prohibited means of warfare (weapons),

and committed war crimes.