Amnesty International held the Syrian government responsible for crimes against humanity in the largest city, Allepo and surrounding areas, in a report - ‘All-Out Repression’ - released on Wednesday.
Despite the obstacles imposed by the Syrian authorities the report outlined that Amnesty had been able to independently investigate the allegations of human rights violations on the ground in Syria and had established that, “the Syrian government is responsible for widespread, as well as systematic violations amounting to crimes against humanity.”
The report concluded: “it is manifestly evident that the Syrian government has no intention of ending, let alone investigating, these crimes.”
In early July, Assad’s forces advanced into Aleppo with tanks and helicopters that shelled residential areas with battle field weapons, which are imprecise and should not be used in civilian areas.
The report states that President Assad reacted to peaceful demonstrators with “characteristically reckless and brutal use of force” that lead to fatalities and injuries.
Commenting on the current situation Amnesty said,
“The Syrian authorities have gone to great lengths to shield themselves from scrutiny; notably they have denied or greatly restricted access to the country, to international media and human rights organisations. However, even the most stringent restrictions can no longer obscure the gravity of the human rights situation, which has continued to deteriorate for many months. Syrian human rights defenders and citizen journalists have taken great risk- and in many cases paid a very high price- to report violations. And protesters continue to take to the streets even as they face the risk of extrajudicial execution, arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance and torture.”
The report went on to urge governments to accept the responsibility of conducting an international investigating into these crimes to improve chances of arrest and effectively co-ordinate prosecutions.
The report urged the UN Security Council to refer the situation to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), along with other recommendations such as imposing an arms embargo, freezing assets, extending and strengthening the UN observer mission, and demanding access to humanitarian, human rights and media organisations in Syria.
