UN investigation concludes Syrian, Russian air strikes on Idlib infrastructure were war crimes News
© WikiMedia (Fathi Nizam)
UN investigation concludes Syrian, Russian air strikes on Idlib infrastructure were war crimes

A United Nations Human Rights Council report released on Tuesday concluded that Syrian and Russian airstrikes on civilian infrastructure in Syria’s Idlib province amounted to war crimes.

The report assessed events that happened in Idlib province between November 1, 2019, and June 1, 2020. During this time, Idlib province was controlled by an armed group called Haya’t Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a UN-designated terrorist group. Idlib province was the only Syrian region not controlled by the government. Towards the end of 2019, Syrian and Russian forces attempted to recapture the Idlib province.

The Syrian government and Russian Aerospace Forces carried out both land and air attacks, which destroyed civilian infrastructure. Both the government-aligned forces and HTS took part in 52 attacks that led to civilian casualties or damage to civilian infrastructure. The attacks included 17 attacks on hospitals and medical facilities as well as 14 attacks on schools.

According to the report, the efforts of the pro-government forces caused Syrian children, women, and men to endure “unfathomable suffering,” in which hundreds of individuals were killed. Civilians were also allegedly indiscriminately subjected to aerial bombings, ground shelling, arrests, torture, and pillaging. As a result of the fighting, there has also been mass displacement from the region.

UN Commissioner Karen Koning AbuZayd stated, “The acts by HTS members amount to war crimes.” The report added that the Syrian and Russian airstrikes also amounted to war crimes.

The report urged all groups in the Syrian conflict to stop attacks on civilians and civilian objects. It also urged each group to take accountability for their actions during the war.

THIS DAY @ LAW

President Johnson signed law against burning draft cards

On August 31, 1965, President Johnson signed a law making the burning of draft cards a federal offense subject to a five-year prison sentence and $1000 fine. In response to the law and in protest of the war in Vietnam, the student-run National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam staged the first public burning of a draft card in the United States on October 15, 1965. The constitutionality of the federal law was upheld in 1968 by the US Supreme Court in US v. O'Brien.

Gdansk Agreement reached

On August 31, 1980, the communist government of Poland and labor leaders settled the Gdansk Agreement. The accord settled a summer of labor strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland. With the Agreement, Poland became the first communist country to allow the creation of an independent labor union, which was called Solidarity. Solidarity then became the driving force that ended communism in Poland. Learn more about the history of Solidarity.