ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling on Russian-Syrian joint military operations to cease for the protection of civilians, especially in de-escalation zones ahead of Syrian peace talks between Russia, Turkey and Iran in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.
“If Russia is serious about protecting civilians in Syria, it needs to do more to spare civilians from its airstrikes and ensure that its ally in Damascus allows aid into besieged areas,” said Nadim Houry, terrorism and counterterrorism director at HRW in a report published Wednesday. “Many of the de-escalation agreements have failed to deliver the promised protect for the residents there.”
Recent joint Russian-Syrian airstrikes on November 13 in the village of Atarib in the Aleppo province of Syria, including so-called “safe zones” killed at least 75 civilians, including five children with several others injured or missing.
According to the Syrian Civil Defense, there have been more than 181 airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta within the past four days.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited his Turkish, Iranian and Syrian counterparts to the Sochi Summit with the aim to discuss de-escalation zones and a settlement in the Syrian crisis.
The Sochi event is in addition to the UN-backed and politically oriented Geneva talks, as well as the more technically-geared Astana talks.
Iran, Turkey and Russia have backed seven rounds of peace talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana between the Syrian regime and rebels in attempts to bring an end to the seven-year-long conflict that has displaced half of all Syrians at some point and killed more than 400,000.
“While the world talks about de-escalating conflict in Syria, residents in many of these supposedly safe zones are starving, lacking adequate medical care, or like the residents of Atarib, face deadly threats from the air,” Houry said. “If President Putin wants to show that he cares about civilians, he should use the meeting in Sochi to deliver concrete protection for the civilians.”
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