Parliament logo
Campaign and petition email responses | Syrian regime's crimes against humanity

Campaign and petition email responses

Syrian regime's crimes against humanity

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with the active support of Russia’s air force, has for 11 years created a living hell for the people of Syria.

Assad-ordered airstrikes in this long, protracted civil war have targeted hospitals and water facilities and other civilian targets that have meant that the situation in millions of Syrians have been forced from their homes, or caught in the crossfire.

Russia’s involvement in propping up the Assad regime, that has murdered thousands of civilians and displaced millions more, is a complete dereliction from any notion of responsibility to build peace or show compassion with the people of Syria who have been horrifically brutalised by this protracted civil war.

At the UN Security Council, Russia and China’s veto has not benefitted the people of Syria, and Russia in particular has consistently sought to sow instability by backing the Assad regime which has killed its own people with chemical weapons.

Unfortunately, what are now seeing happen in Ukraine is something from the horrific playbook in Syria well known, and indeed ordered, by the Assad regime.

Putin saw that atrocities could be committed against innocent citizens with limited consequence for himself and for Bashir Al Assad; We are concerned that because Al Assad was not tried earlier, this has encouraged the age of impunity we see today.

As the international community’s focus is rightly on the atrocities being committed by Putin’s regime in Ukraine, we must not take our attention off the war crimes which have not ceased by any means in Syria.

The Association of Detainees and the Missing of Sednaya Prison (ADMSP) report into the Sednaya Military Prison in Syria sets out in horrific graphic detail stories from survivors of horrifying abuse, torture and mass killings. torture and mass killings at the.

We support all efforts to reveal the fate of the missing and disappeared in Syria and commend the bravery of the report’s authors, those who gave testimony and journalists reporting on the horrors.

Unfortunately, this unprecedented report is only the tip of the iceberg.

Accountability must go right to the very top; Both Vladimir Putin and Bashir Al Assad deserve to be tried before a court as the earliest opportunity.

It is crucial that the international community does everything in its power to prosecute Al Assad, Putin and their cronies for these war crimes.

As a key member of the Security Council, the UK should be prioritising this as a matter of urgency and work to unite all parties around the table in a desire to bring an end to the appalling levels of violence. A protracted solution that works with Syrians, underpinned and led by the primacy of UN human rights principles must be the way forward. The perpetrators of this catastrophe cannot get away with it.

Parliament logo

@StewartMcDonald on Twitter

Loading