Syria's Civil War: International Community Response to Mass Killings

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MASS
KILLINGS
IN SYRIA
REACTION OF
INTERNATIONAL
COMMUNITIES

INTRODUCTION
• Widespread protests in March, 2011 were held in several cities
of Syria (Latakia, Aleppo, and Derra) against Bashar Al Assad.
• The protests were due to suppression of basic rights and
freedom of speech, corruption and unemployment.
• Syrian government violently suppressed the protests by taking
arms.
• This study deals with response of the international community
to mass killings in this conflict.

RESPONSE OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
• Mass killings by Ba’ath party led the Syrian
government
• Massacres by Al Qaeda, Islamic State of Iraq
and Levant and their associates
• Widespread aerial bombings across Syria by
NATO and Russia.
• Rise in refugee crisis (Shay, 2017).

HOMS OFFENSIVE 2012
• Several countries (France, Turkey, EU, UNSC
and Arab League) condemned the attacks.
• The UN accused Syrian Ba’athist government
of using chemicals and barrel bombs on
civilians.
• Tunisian government expelled Syrian
ambassador in Tunisia and Ba’ath Party-led
government in Syria.

HOMS OFFENSIVE 2012
• Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, and Qatar withdrew
their ambassadors from Damascus (Harff and Gurr,
2018 ).
• 50 Syrian residents in Greece broke into Syrian embassy
and smashed doors and windows.
• Stones pelting and attacks on Syrian embassies were seen
in Germany, Egypt and Libya.
• Foreign policy representative of the European Union
voted against Assad.

MASS KILLINGS BY ISIL IN AL RAQQA
• Al Raqqa was the de facto capital of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (2013-2017).
• ISIL carried out widespread massacres on civilians, government and supporters.
• Multinational forces led by NATO and Syrian Democratic forces began ground and airstrikes.
• USA and Russia condemned the attacks and launched fresh operations.

MASS KILLINGS BY ISIL IN AL RAQQA
• Organisation of Islamic Corporation urged
international community to fight against ISIL
(Tesón, 2016).
• UN and EU froze assets of several top ISIL
leaders.
• Vatican responded in negation against barbaric
acts.
• 126 Muslim scholars from Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon,
India and Malaysia issued fatwa (Seo and
Ebrahim, 2016).

2013 HATLA MASSACRE
• This secretarial violence killed 60 Shia villagers
in Hatla village of Deir-ez-Zor district by Syrian
oppositions.
• Most victims were pro-government fighters and
civilians.
• Syrian government sent troops to Deir-ez-Zor
against opposition.
• Iran and Hezbollah supported logistics to Syrian
Arab army.

2013 HATLA MASSACRE
• Gulf Co-operation Council extended support to Syrian government.
• Several governments aided to stop continuous and widespread bloodshed (Schmitt et al.
2017).
• The G8 summit held in Northern Ireland in 2013 promised called for expulsion and
destruction of organisations linked to terrorism from Syria.

2015 DOUMA MASSACRE
• Douma massacre (August 16, 2015) was conducted
by Syrian Air force on rebel areas of Douma
• The attack was launched to regain government control
on city.
• It killed 96 people and injured 200 (Law, 2017).
• Headquarters of Al Qaeda affiliated Jaysh-al Islam
was targeted (McCormack, 2016).
• UN and UNHCR spokesperson said that the attacks
were unlawful and thus a war crime.

2018 RIF DIMASHQ (EASTERN GHOUTA) OFFENSIVE
• Rif Dimashq offensive was launched by
Syrian Arab Army to capture rebel held area of
eastern Ghouta suburb.
• Airstrikes by Assad regime killed more than
1,700 people with numerous death due to
hunger.
• Syrian Foreign Ministry accused Al Qaeda led
rebels of using civilians as human shields.

2018 RIF DIMASHQ (EASTERN GHOUTA) OFFENSIVE
• Antonio Guterres demanded immediate halt on war
related activities.
• UNICEF and EU urged to take important measures to
decrease violence (Harff, 2018).
• International Humanitarian Law and Russian foreign
minister concluded that the attack was meant to kill
terrorists only not civilians.
• Amnesty International issued a statement for
community failure against war crimes activities in
Damascus suburbs (Minna, 2018).