War of annihilation
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“WAR OF ANNIHILATION” DEVASTATING TOLL ON CIVILIANS, RAQQA – SYRIA
Amnesty International 57 residents hoped for has mostly not materialised. While some infrastructure repair projects are being carried out with international aid, residents lament not receiving help to overcome their losses. During Amnesty International’s visit in February 2018, families across the city complained that corpses had still not been recovered from the rubble of bombed buildings. Following an assessment of humanitarian needs conducted in early April, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, noted the “large-scale destruction throughout the city, a critical level of explosive hazard contamination amidst insufficient resources for surveying and removal of explosive hazards, as well as a shortage of public services”. 128
“I’d rather get killed by a mine than watch my children crying every day because they are hungry.” 129
The number of mines and IEDs IS laid in homes, shops, public buildings and roads has been described by US officials as unprecedented. 130
Many of these, as well as unexploded bombs dropped by Coalition forces, continue to contaminate the city, with the clearing process set to continue for months, if not years. In the meantime, mines/IEDs continue to pose a lethal danger, causing death and injury to civilians every day. Particularly at risk are the men and boys who work as casual labourers clearing the rubble from damaged house and shops, and the women and children who scavenge through the rubble for scrap metal and other material to sell. Ayman, a 14-year-old boy who works as a daily labourer clearing rubble from damaged houses for SYP2,000 to SYP3,000 a day (approximately USD4-6), told Amnesty International that one of his friends, also a child, had been killed the previous week earlier doing the same work: “His name was Mohammed. He was working clearing the rubble from a house in the Hadiqa al-Baida neighbourhood and a mine in the rubble exploded and he died. He was the same age as me. What can we do? We have to work.” 131
Roula, a woman who was collecting light metal in the rubble of buildings around the National Hospital with two of her children, aged seven and nine, told Amnesty International: “What can I do? I have three younger children and we have nothing to eat. I’d rather get killed by a mine than watch my children crying every day because they are hungry.” 132
The previous day, on 14 February 2017, another woman, Umm Anas, a mother of eight, was seriously injured in an explosion in the same area as she was collecting scrap metal. Her husband told Amnesty International that he did not know whether she was alive or dead. He was informed that she had been taken to hospital in Tal Abyad, but he could not afford to travel there. With no working telephone lines in Raqqa, he had no way of contacting the hospital to inquire about her condition. 133
killed by mines between October 2017 and April 2018, though the actual number of victims is likely higher, as those who died before reaching medical assistance are not necessarily accounted for. 134
has a clinic in Raqqa city, continues to receive large numbers of victims of blast-related injuries. 135
128 “Syria Crisis: Northeast Syria”, Situation Report No. 23 (15 March – 15 April 2018), UN OCHA, 18 April 2018, available at https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/operations/whole-of-syria/document/syria-crisis-north-east-syria-situation-report-no-23-15- march-%E2%80%93 129 Interview with Roula, Raqqa, 15 February 2018. 130 “The number of unexploded ordnance in Raqqa is something that we have never seen before”, Panos Moumtzis, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, quoted in “Refugees in Syria’s Raqqa face ‘extreme’ IS landmine threat: U.N.”, Reuters, 6 February 2018, available at https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-raqqa/refugees-in- syrias-raqqa-face-extreme-is-landmine-threat-u-n-idUSKBN1FQ2H4 131
Interview with Ayman, Raqqa,15 February 2018. 132
Interview with Roula, Raqqa, 15 February 2018. 133
Interview with Abu Anas, Raqqa,16 February 2018. 134
“Syrians are returning to homes in Raqqa littered with land mines, but the U.S. may cut funds for clearing the city”, The Intercept, 1 May 2018, available at https://theintercept.com/2018/05/01/syria-isis-defeat-landmines-humanitarian-aid/ ; and “Syria: Landmines kill, injure hundreds in Raqqa; More international support needed for clearance”, Human Rights Watch, 12 February 2018, available at https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/02/12/syria-landmines-kill-injure-hundreds-raqqa 135 “Syria: 33 blast victims treated by MSF in Raqqa in the first week of 2018”, MSF, January 2018, available at Yüklə 5,63 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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