BEIRUT: A Syrian man and an aid organization have accused Russia of violating international law by deliberately bombing a hospital in northern Syria in 2019, in a new complaint filed at the United Nations Human Rights Committee this week.
Russia, which intervened militarily in Syria’s conflict in 2015 to bolster the forces of its ally President Bashar Assad, has been accused by UN investigators of committing war crimes in Syria, but has not faced any international tribunal.
Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations that it violated international law in Syria.
The new complaint, filed on May 1 but made public on Thursday, accuses Russia’s Air Force of killing two civilians in a series of air strikes on the Kafr Nobol Surgical Hospital in the northwest province of Idlib on May 5, 2019.
It was brought to the committee by the cousin of those killed and by Hand in Hand for Aid and Development, an aid group that was supporting the hospital, which was in territory held by armed groups opposed to Assad.
The complaint relies on videos, eyewitness statements and audio recordings, including correspondence between a Russian pilot and ground control about dropping munitions.
“Syrians are looking to the Human Rights Committee to show us some measure of redress by acknowledging the truth of this brutal attack, and the suffering caused,” said Fadi Al-Dairi, the director of Hand in Hand.
The Geneva-based Human Rights Committee is a body of independent experts that monitors the status of political and civil rights around the world, and can receive complaints by states and individuals on alleged violations.
Individual complaints can lead to compensation payments, investigations or other measures.
While rights groups have accused both Syria and Russia of violating international law within Syria for years, neither country is party to the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute, and opportunities for accountability are rare.
Russia signed onto the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1991, meaning it accepts the Human Rights Committee’s ability to consider complaints from individuals against it.
“This complaint before a preeminent international human rights tribunal exposes the Russian government and armed forces’ deliberate strategy of targeting health care in clear violation of the laws of war,” said James A. Goldston, executive director of the Justice Initiative, whose lawyers are representing the applicants.
In 2019, the UN Human Rights Commission — a separate body — said strikes on medical facilities in Syria including the Kafr Nobol hospital “strongly” suggested that “government-affiliated forces conducting these strikes are, at least partly, if not wholly, deliberately striking health facilities.”
Syrians accuse Russia of hitting hospital in new complaint filed with UN rights committee
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Syrians accuse Russia of hitting hospital in new complaint filed with UN rights committee
- Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations that it violated international law in Syria
Turkiye ‘deeply disturbed’ over Israel-US strikes, Iran attacks on Gulf
- “We are deeply disturbed over the US-Israel attacks on our neighbor Iran,” Erdogan said
- “In order to prevent our region from experiencing greater suffering, all actors, especially the Islamic world, must take action“
ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday he was “deeply disturbed” by the Israeli-US attacks on Iran, but also condemned Tehran’s retaliatory strikes on the Gulf, demanding action to end the conflict.
The confrontation began earlier on Saturday with the Israeli and US strikes and quickly broadened regionally as Tehran retaliated against Gulf states and Israel.
“We are deeply disturbed over the US-Israel attacks on our neighbor Iran,” Erdogan said in a televised address, in which he also denounced Iran’s drone and missile attacks against the Gulf as “unacceptable, regardless of the reason.”
“In order to prevent our region from experiencing greater suffering, all actors, especially the Islamic world, must take action,” he added.
Turkiye had “worked hard for a long time to resolve the conflicts at the negotiating table... but the trust deficit between the parties could not be overcome,” he said, vowing to “accelerate Turkiye’s diplomatic efforts” to bring the parties back to the table.
Earlier Saturday, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke by phone with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi and six other top diplomats about ways to “end the attacks,” a foreign ministry source said.
Erdogan also said Turkiye had not seen any problem “in terms of border security” along the 500-kilometer (300-mile) frontier it shares with Iran.
“The police, gendarmerie and intelligence services are taking all necessary measures,” he said.
Earlier, Turkiye’s Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci also held calls with his Azerbaijani counterpart Vilayet Eyvazov and Iraq’s Interior Minister Abdul?Amir al?Shammari on “strengthening areas of cooperation,” the ministry wrote on X.
All three countries share a border with Iran.
Iran’s neighbors have long feared that a new round of strikes on the country could destabilize the entire region, with concerns focused on a possible influx of refugees.
Turkiye currently hosts more than 74,000 Iranians with residence permits and some 5,000 refugees.
