Homs - Eastern Ghouta - Daryaa - MouadamiaSouthern Damascus neighborhoods and towns

«Break the Siege» Campaign right no1: the right to life

Siege of Cities in SyriaPolicy of Genocide and Suspicious International Silence

The policy of besieging Syrian cities is considered one of the worst types of crimes car-ried out by the Syrian regime since the beginning of the Syrian Revolutionbecause this policy contains multiple crimesthatlead to slow death and on the widest scale, without causing anynoise, as murdering with a silencer pistol!

Syrian Revolution suffered fromimposingsiege since itsearly months;inDaraa, the siege began in the second month of the revolution, then after a short time the siege of Latta-kia, but it was not a tight siege on one hand, and was not a long-term, as we will see in the following years on the other hand.

The international silence about this crime on one hand , and its effective influence to cause maximum damage to civilians without arousing the public opinion on the other hand, have led to the persistence of the Syrian regime tocommitthis crime, broadly and severely, especially in Homs and its countryside , Damascus and its countryside.

The policy of collective punishment practiced by the Syrian Regimethrough the siege-leaves its negative impact on more than one and a half million Syrian civilians, and leads to serioushealthy, economic, social and environmental effects, including severe viola-tions for allinternational conventionsof human rights, especially the Universal Declara-tion of Human Rights - thatSyria participated in drafting- and the two International Cov-enants. This requires effort from all international, regional, local, political, human rights and media organizations and bodies in order to break the siege and stop the suffering of the trapped. What happens today in the Damascus Suburbs and Homs is not a Syrian internal affair, it is a humaninternational issue, of people under foreign occupation on one hand and oppressive regime on the other hand;a regime that does not hesitate to commit all crimes against humanity and war crimes against civilians.

The international Community stressedmore than once the importance of promoting in-ternational cooperation in the field of human rights as one of the most important pur-poses of the UN, and thathuman rights and fundamental freedoms are birthright of all human beings, and governments are essentially responsible to protect and defend them,as these rights are universal, interdependent and indivisible , according to what has been emphasized in Vienna WorkDeclaration of the International Conference on Human Rights in 1993.

Besieging Homs and Damascus Suburbs is considered a typical form of genocide, after the completion of moral and material elements of the crime, according to what is stipulated in the Rome Statute of the International Crimi-nal Court. The siege leads to bodily and mental damage to civilians in the besieged areas, and intentionally subjects them to life conditions in which they partly or whollyperish.

The crime of genocide by the siege imposed in Syria becomes more danger-ous when it is accompanied with war crimes perpetratedin parallel on the same areas. At the time these areas are undersiege, indiscriminate shelling continues on these areas, including attacks against buildings dedicated to religious, educational, artistic, scientific and charitable affairs, in addition to historicalplaces, hospitals and places where the sick and wounded shelter.

Attacks are intentionally carried out against civilian residents and sites de-spite a prior knowledge that it will result in animmense loss of lives, injury to civilians, or severe large-scale long- term damage to natural environment.

Attacks with chemical weapons carried outby Syrian regime’s forces on Ghota on 08/21/2013 show a perfectmodelof war crimes accompanied with crimes of genocide; the attacks targeted the besieged areas and the use of chemical weapons has been proven by the report of the UN Committee to investigate allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Damascus and also submitted to the UN Security Council on 16/9/2013.

TheInternational Community ignoredthecriminals who committed the crime of using chemical weapons and neglected the suffering of the Syrian people who are slowly dying in a painful way that has much more negative impact-sthan the effects of the chemical weapons,and they focused instead of that

Genocide by the siege

on getting rid of these weapons; this negligence wasa huge shock, not only to Syrians, but also to all activists working in the field of Human Rights and to what theyhave achieved to humanity since the End of the World War II. This international negligence is a major setback of all achievements of Interna-tional Conventions in the field of education on human rights, so it is no longer possible for local Syrian organizations of human rights and in the region also to talk about the universality of human rights and the international solidarity in the field of human rights, after excessive, deliberate and unprecedented disregard to allmassive violations taking place by Assad’s regime in Syria.

Therefore, «Break the Siege» Campaign is mainly heading to all relevant organizations and bodies seriously dealing with the Siege Issue; not only for the sake of the besieged areas, but also in order to maintain the existence of the Human Rights System as an alternative to the Benefits System that does not care to Human Beings.

The siege, as a crime of genocide, is a crime containinga group of massive violations against civilians in the besieged areas, and therefore it is difficult to specify these abuses or determinethe number of the affected due to its wide-scale influence and the large number of the affected; in parallel with the limited possibilities of activists in these areas and the ongoing shelling and sniping.

It should be here mentioned that the siege does not onlymeanpreventing food and medical supplies, but also includes preventing individuals from get-ting in and out of these areas in addition to stopping basic services,such as water , electricity and telecommunications.

Lack of water, food and medical supplies resulted in diseases spreading largely in the besieged areas, asthe health situation of people with chronic diseases and injuries, pregnant women and children less than five years old got worse and worse.

The siege also causedtrash pilesin an unprecedented way, resulting in en-vironmental and public health crisis in addition to the spread of rodents and mosquitoes, and it also led to the spread of diseases on a large scale.

This siege led to stop the educational services in the besieged areas,as stu-dents couldn’t go totheir universities and institutes outside these areas in addition to stopping all other public services, especially hospitals and health centers that operate at their minimum capabilitythrough volunteer medical teams; without the presence of the essential medical supplies, and under the invalidity of most medical devices that need mending and spare parts that cannot be obtained due to the siege.

A large number of families under the siege were isolated from each other, as one of their members was outside the area when the siege was imposed and

Impact of the siege on Civilian Residents

then could notjoin his family; in many cases he has no other place togo to.

All these conditions resulted in the displacement or exodus of tens of thou-sands of civilians from these areas, and thatwas the most prominent effect of the siege;as most besieged neighborhoods areaveragely empty of 60 % of theirresidents.

It should be noted that the effects of the siege vary from one region to another according to thestartof the siege, the degree of its strictness and to the nature of the besieged area. In agricultural areas, such as Darayya,Kafar Batna and Mleha, life resources are available to help residents to withstand more thanin purely residential areas, such as Muadamiyeh, Yalda, Qudsayya and Hameh, where effects of the siege is severer.

NotesDate of

beginning of the siege

Number of

Injured

Number ofBesieged

)individual(Areas

Besieged Districtsin Damascus

Bombardment targeted 26 schools, 7 houses of worship, 2 hospitals, and the

power supply station19/07/20134000100000Al-Hajar al-Asswad

Assad’s forces bombed the 8 schools in the neighborhood in addition to 9 phar-

macies and 6 mosques15/07/20133004000Assali

All the 20 facilities in the neighborhood were bombed and some of them were turned by Assad’s forces into military

headquarters

11/03/2013500+2000Barzeh

One school was completely destroyed and two were almost completely de-stroyed as a medical clinic was dam-aged by shelling on the neighborhood

2/02/2012503500Qadam

All facilities with large parts of the neigh-borhood were completely devastated 6/201350+3800Tadamon

of the district’s facilities were de- % 50 molished and the rest are invalid due to

bombardment and siege25/6/2013-45000Yarmouk Camp

All facilities with parts of the neighbor- hood and a large industrial area were

bombed and completely destructed16/7/201370040000Qaboun

All facilities of the neighborhood, suchas clinics, electricity center and tele-communications center were bombed

2/2013120010000Joubar

Eastern Ghota

Large proportion of facilities were fully devastating and 3 thousand cases of permanent disability were caused due to

shelling on the town by Assad›s forces

15/10/20133000+250000Douma

Water pumps, telephone department and electrical power transformers were

bombed15/11/20122600+220000Harasta

Assad’s forces shelled 2 hospitals, 3schools and 3 mosques, while the num- ber of casualties in the town reached 500 and the number of children reached

10 thousand

1/6/201250030000Kafar Batna

Reality of the Siege in Damascus and its Suburbs

Three schools were destroyed by Assad›s forces, while the number of the

besieged children was about 15,0001/3/20132045000Hazzeh

The only hospital in the city was bombed and became out of service, while 5schools were fully destroyed and signifi-

cant damages caused in facilities

04/2012-30000Irbeen

children and a medical center with 8000 weak capability are besieged, while the number of the destroyed facilities in the

town reached 11

1/4/2013400+27960Hammouriyeh

schools and 4 mosques were bombed, 4and the town ‹s Water Unit was targeted04/201350011000Zamalka

martyrs and 100 wounded during a 10relatively short period of siege03/10/201310025000Mleha

Western Ghota

Schools, 11 houses of worship, all 22 bakeries, hospitals and clinics were bombed and destroyed by missiles of

Assad’s forces

25/11/20121000+8000Muadamiyet al-Sham

children are under the siege - 250 2000 thousand are displaced escaping the siege and bombardment - more than960 martyrs since the start of the siege

19/11/20121000+6600Darayya

Southern Suburbs

schools closed due to bombardment 8 and siege - the medical situation is verydifficult with the presence of 350 wound-

ed in the town

1/12/201235030000Yalda

All facilities were bombed and destroyed - Public parks turned into cemeteries - Services were out from the beginning of

the siege

9/6/2012500+3200Old Homs

schools were bombed and education 25 is stopped due to the shelling and the siege; meanwhile there are more than

20 thousand children

25/5/2012600+155000 Northern Suburbsof Homs

Communications are out for 6 monthson the besieged area9/7/201312530000 Western Suburbs

of Homs