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Amensty: Bashar has turned Aleppo into circle of hell

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Pictures of war victims are displayed with weapons and candles during a new year event in Salah al-Din neighbourhood in central Aleppo December 31, 2014. REUTERS/Hosam Katan
Pictures of war victims are displayed with weapons and candles during a new year event in Salah al-Din neighbourhood in central Aleppo December 31, 2014. REUTERS/Hosam Katan
Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian forces – and their use of barrel bombs – have turned war-ravaged city into “circle of hell”, citizens tell Amnesty International

Forces loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on a daily basis in the war-ravaged city of Aleppo, according to Amnesty International.

The extent of city’s destruction was detailed in a report released by the group on Tuesday.

Amnesty said the relentless scourge of bombs and mortars has forced many civilians to eke out a desperate existence underground.

“We are always nervous, always worried, always looking to the sky,” a teacher from Aleppo told Amnesty International. Another resident described the city as ‘the circle of hell’.

The barrel bombs of Bashar al-Assad’s regime have killed more than 3,000 civilians in Aleppo since January 2014. Dropped from helicopters, the devices are packed with explosives and metal fragments intended to cause maximum damage.

They are so imprecise that the Syrian government usually drops them away from the front-lines in an attempt to avoid its own forces.

Residents look for survivors from what activists said was due to shelling by warplanes loyal to Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad in Aleppo's rebel-controlled Bab Al-Nairab district April 12, 2015. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail
Residents look for survivors from what activists said was due to shelling by warplanes loyal to Syria’s president Bashar Al-Assad in Aleppo’s rebel-controlled Bab Al-Nairab district April 12, 2015. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail
“I saw children without heads, body parts everywhere. It was how I imagine hell to be,” a local factory worker told Amnesty, describing the aftermath of an attack last year.

At least 10 people were killed on Sunday when a barrel bomb hit a nursery school and a community centre where students were sitting exams. Mr Assad denies his regime has used barrel bombs.

Aleppo has been divided between government – and rebel-held areas since fighting erupted there in 2012. Once a bustling urban centre, stretches of the city now resemble a ghostly wasteland.

Civilians struggle to obtain the most basic supplies including food, medicine, water and electricity.

Fearing death from above, many hospitals and schools now operate underground. On Monday, Doctors Without Borders said one of Aleppo’s main health facilities had been forced to close after being bombed at least twice in a week.

Barrel bomb photo provided by Aleppo Media Center (AMC), which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian citizens inspecting an unexploded barrel bomb filled with explosives, which was dropped from a Syrian forces helicopter on a street in Aleppo, Syria.
Barrel bomb photo provided by Aleppo Media Center (AMC), which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian citizens inspecting an unexploded barrel bomb filled with explosives, which was dropped from a Syrian forces helicopter on a street in Aleppo, Syria.
Amnesty also condemned the fighting techniques used by rebel forces, saying weapons such mortars or ‘hell cannons’ – improvised rockets fitted with gas canisters – killed at least 600 civilians in 2014.

Philip Luther, director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program, said continual, and apparently systematic, attacks on residential areas “constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

The report also paints a haunting picture of life inside Aleppo’s Central Prison. Inmates have faced abuse, starvation, and summary executions.

One former prisoner described how their nights were filled with a chorus of screams as guards tortured female and then male detainees.

syria aleppo destruction“Our conclusions are clear and incontrovertible: civilians in Aleppo are suffering unthinkable atrocities,” Amnesty concluded in the report.

Mr Luther said the international community had turned its back on Aleppo in a “cold-hearted display of indifference”.

“Continued inaction is being interpreted by perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity as a sign they can continue to hold the civilians of Aleppo hostage without fear of any retribution,” he said.

The Telegraph

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4 responses to “Amensty: Bashar has turned Aleppo into circle of hell”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    VERY interesting comment about Lebanon AND the WORLD as it proceeds … in an article ABOUT Lebanon, and some of us ‘oldies’ can certainly relate …. although there’s less of us.

    “LevantLogic • a day ago
    It’s nice to know that Ms. Dernaika has finally grasped the dire societal conditions in this country. Comparing her previous columns just a few months ago (in which she painted pictures of a Lebanese society flanked with roses and sprinkled rice) to this one, shows a steep learning curve all of us, repatriates, have gone through.
    Having said that, I think it’s getting relatively worse everywhere, even in Switzerland and Scandinavia.
    Back in the 90’s after finishing my college education, I went to Montreaux, Switzerland for the jazz festival. In that tiny town, there was a small flower shop close to where I was staying. I went to buy some flowers. It was in the afternoon, when merchants closed their shops, went home and had their siesta. However, this florist kept the doors of his tiny shop open (and unattended) while he went home for his nap, and made his flowers available to customers on an honor system. “Please take whatever flower(s) you like, read the price list, and deposit the money in the glass jar,” read the sign in French. “Wow,” I thought to myself. “I wish we had that in America!”

    Last summer, I went to Montreaux again for the annual jazz festival. I was keen to visit that shop. When I got there, it was between 12 and 2, siesta time. This time the flower shop had a door of iron bars locked with a chain and padlock. No sign in French. At the nearby café, as I sipped my coffee, ominous news filled the local paper: theft, burglaries and embezzlement, instead of the mostly happy reports two decades ago.
    I say “relatively worse.” Here in Lebanon, it has got exponentially worse, markedly since 2009, where the absence of government and the rule of law had all but vanished. The government paralysis has allowed the worst in citizens to come out, sucked the spirit of solidarity, and selfishness grew.
    Back in the States where I lived, it used to baffle me to see the very little contact neighbors had among one another. However, here in Lebanon it’s shockingly worse now. Residents of the same building hardly speak to one another (let alone socialize), when they’re not bickering about the building maintenance bills or accusing someone of lying and embezzlement.
    It’s the absence of a real government and true legal/accountability system.

    http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Life/Lubnan/2015/May-04/296644-traveling-back-to-the-future.ashx

  2. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    The ‘Human Condition’ … one might say, It’s Essence … is in a very sad state.

  3. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    And with video …. the only thing that attracts attention these days ….
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32581007

  4. O Avatar
    O

    You won’t see hind/whistleblower quoting this report.

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