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UN Security Council has failed: "?It is past time for you to act? to end carnage in Aleppo" Syria

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  • UN Security Council has failed: "?It is past time for you to act? to end carnage in Aleppo" Syria

    ?It is past time for you to act? to end carnage in Aleppo, UN chief tells emergency Security Council session



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    13 December 2016 ? Aleppo should represent the end of the quest for military victory, not the start of a broader military campaign in a country already ravaged beyond all recognition by five years of war, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told an emergency meeting of the Security Council today, calling on the 15-member body to ?do all we can to stop the carnage? and ensure that all the parties in the ?wretched? conflict seek an inclusive political resolution.
    Amid mounting international concern about the tragic situation in Aleppo, Mr. Ban said that during the last 48 hours, the world has witnessed an almost complete collapse of armed opposition front-lines, leaving them with only five percent their original territory in the city.
    Outlining the lack of unified action to stop the carnage, despite numerous warnings of the consequences of such inaction, including those by his Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan De Mistura, the Secretary-General expressed: ?I have said before that we have collectively failed the people of Syria. The Security Council has not exercised its preeminent responsibility with regard to the maintenance of international peace and security.?
    ?History will not easily absolve us, but this failure compels us to do even more to offer the people of Aleppo our solidarity at this moment,? he said.
    Mr. Ban also drew attention of the Council members to the General Assembly?s overwhelming call, urging preventative by the Security Council on Aleppo but said that when presented with opportunity to act over the last three months, ?this Council has failed.?
    ?Since September, the Security Council has failed to adopt three resolutions that could have enabled a humanitarian truce, evacuation of civilians and the entry of lifesaving aid,? he added.

    Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left) addresses the Security Council on the situation in Syria. UN Photo/Amanda Voisard




    Against this backdrop, the UN has continued to receive reports that civilian deaths and injuries continue at a brutal pace, said the Secretary-General, citing specific reports that scores of civilians have been killed either by intense bombardment or summary executions by pro-Government forces.
    ?We have seen shocking videos of a body burning in the street, ostensibly after aerial bombardment, [the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights] has received reports of civilians, including women and children, in four neighbourhoods being rounded up and executed,? said the Secretary-General, echoing statements from UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

    Indeed, earlier today, the High Commissioner pleaded with the international community ?to heed the cries? of the women, men and children being terrorized and slaughtered in Aleppo and to take urgent steps to ensure that the tens of thousands of people who have fled, surrendered or been captured are treated in line with international law.
    ?The crushing of Aleppo, the immeasurably terrifying toll on its people, the bloodshed, the wanton slaughter of men, women and children, the destruction ? and we are nowhere near the end of this cruel conflict,? said High Commissioner Zeid in a news release issued the UN human rights arm (OHCHR).
    What is happening with Aleppo could repeat itself in Douma, in Raqqa, in Idleb. We cannot let this continueHigh Commissioner Zeid
    ?What can happen next, if the international community continues to collectively wring its hands, can be much more dangerous,? he warned.
    According to the release, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) has received credible reports of scores of civilians being killed ? either by intense bombardment or summary execution by pro-Government forces.
    ?Dozens of bodies reportedly litter the streets of a number of east Aleppo neighbourhoods, with residents unable to retrieve them due to the intense bombardment and fear of being shot,? the release said, adding: ?Government forces and their allies are also reportedly entering civilian homes and killing people.?

    The release also stated that according to reports from multiple sources, pro-Government forces killed at least 82 civilians, including 11 women and 13 children, in the Bustan al-Qasr, al-Ferdous, al-Kallaseh, and al-Saleheen neighbourhoods yesterday.
    OHCHR further cautioned that thousands of people who remain in areas under the control of armed groups are at risk of grave violations, including detentions, torture and killings.
    Emphasizing the Syrian Government?s obligation to protect the right to life of all civilians as well as that of fighters who have surrendered, or laid down their weapons, are sick or wounded or otherwise hors de combat (no longer participating in hostilities), Mr. Zeid said that it must provide medical assistance to all sick and wounded, civilians and fighters alike, ?without any discrimination.?
    However, according to OHCHR, ?reports suggest that of those fighters who have fled, some were reportedly caught and killed on the spot while others were arrested.?
    High Commissioner Zeid further underlined that in the absence of independent monitors on the ground and ?given the terrible record of arbitrary detention and torture in Syria even prior to the start of this conflict,? urgent measures must be taken to ensure the protection of the people who have fled Aleppo.
    ?The world is watching Aleppo ? and we are documenting the violations being committed against its people, with the firm conviction that one day those who are responsible will be held to account. We must ensure that this happens. The hellish suffering to which the people of Syria are being subjected must stop,? he concluded.





  • #2
    Deadly clashes hit Aleppo as evacuation deal on hold

    December 14, 2016

    snip

    "Bombing is ongoing, no one can move. Everyone is hiding and terrified," activist Mohammad al-Khatib told AFP from inside the city.
    "The wounded and dead are lying in the street. No one dares to try and retrieve the bodies."

    https://www.afp.com/en/news/205/dead...tion-deal-hold


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    • #3

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      • #4
        Statement by Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations, at Security Council emergency meeting on Aleppo



        Thank you Mr President for agreeing to hold this emergency meeting at the initiative of France and the United Kingdom.
        This is a dark day for the people of Aleppo, surely the darkest of the past five years.
        Asad?s forces, propped up by Russia and Iran, have once again redefined horror. They have gone from siege to slaughter.
        Today the United Nations has received reports that pro-government forces have been entering homes in Eastern Aleppo. They have been going door to door, executing people on the spot. 82 people murdered. 13 of whom were women. 11 were children. None were terrorists.
        We have heard reports of women committing suicide, in order not to be raped. We have heard reports of people being burnt alive. We have heard reports that hundreds of men have disappeared fleeing Aleppo, taken by the regime. All these reports evoke the darkest days of the history of the United Nations.
        When it happened before, we said never again. Well, it is happening again, today.
        There must be protection for civilians. Even wars have rules. We urge the Asad regime and Russia and Iran to respect these rules and indeed to respect the will of the vast majority of Security Council members and the vast majority of members of the General Assembly. We urge those who chose to back Asad to think again.
        As the Secretary General has just told us, the Security Council has failed. It has failed because Russia has used and abused its veto time and again. Even to prevent a 7 day ceasefire.
        To those who backed Asad and blocked action in this Council, we ask how can you side with such cruelty? How can you abide such an abuse of the UN Charter; words that we all claim to uphold?
        So re-find your moral compass. Re-find your belief in the dignity and worth of the human person. Re-find these things before it is too late and help us bring an end to the suffering.
        We know what needs to happen.
        The attacks, the killings must stop. The suffering of those left in Aleppo has gone on for far too long. The United Nations stands ready to help get aid in and get civilians out. The opposition have agreed the plan. But in order for it to happen the regime and its backers must put humanity first and grant the UN the permissions needed.
        We will have different arguments from Russia this morning, but I sincerely hope that despite the differences, Russia and others on the Security Council who opposed the ceasefire last week, could at least agree to these basic steps.
        One, allow the UN to access eastern Aleppo so that it can provide eyes on the ground, get aid in to those who need it, and protect civilians. Two, join my call today that we will hold accountable anyone from any side who commits war crimes. And three, help bring peace to Syria through the only route possible, a political solution.
        With the eyes of the world watching, we should be clear what will happen if this does not come to pass.
        Aleppo will become a memory, a city only known to the dead. In the coming days, hundreds if not thousands of people will be killed or disappeared, their fates unknown.
        But the fall of Aleppo will not be a victory for Asad. He will have sacrificed his country and the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians just to keep his grip on power. How can he expect to lead a country that he has so callously destroyed? How can he expect to unite a country that he himself has wilfully divided?
        A doctor from Aleppo illustrated this best earlier this month. He said, and I quote:
        ?Asad gave people in Aleppo only two choices. Either to go back to his control, or to die by bombing. We will not go back again to Asad?s control.? End of quote.
        The war will not end with the fall of Aleppo. Asad will never control the hearts or minds of those Syrians crying out for freedom. He will only hold a third of Syria. And he will be in debt to those foreign powers who would rather help him destroy his country than help this Council save it.
        The irony is that as they carry out these barbaric attacks in the name of defeating terrorism, it is the real terrorists, the real threat who are resurging elsewhere in Syria.
        This week Palmyra fell again to Da?esh. Palmyra is now in the hands of a group whose blood lust is only rivalled by that of the Asad regime. Instead of fighting them, Asad has enabled them. He?s enabled them through obsessively, systematically, brutalising his own people. He claims that he?s fighting terrorism. If it wasn?t so tragic, so horrific, those claims would be laughable.
        Mr President,
        This Council cannot turn a blind eye on this gravest day of this most heinous conflict of the 21st century. We cannot be distracted by false claims of fighting terrorism. And we cannot, we must not, allow there to be impunity for these war crimes. We owe it to the people of Aleppo ? the living and the dead ? to ensure that there is accountability for the horror perpetrated by Asad and his Russian and Iranian backers.
        Thank you.











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