Opposition offences against Kurdish quake-survivors in NW Syria continue
Mass damage caused by the Feb. 6 quake in the town of Jindires west of Afrin, northwest Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Turkish-backed Syrian opposition factions, also known as the Syrian National Army (SNA), have continued to breach the international law and human rights since they controlled Afrin, northwest Syria, in 2018 without being sued or brought to justice or even be indicted though documents and evidence of their crimes are beyond denial.
Abduction, extortion, murder among many others are common occurrences in Afrin.
However, the recent earthquake that hit Syria on February 6 has shown how unqualified these factions are to run such an area in Syria. their ruthless rule there should end.
Post-quake Afrin
The earthquakes that hit Syria at dawn on February 6 has up to now a toll of 11.000 deaths and injuries half in northwest Syria, owing to its closeness to the epicenter of the quake in south Turkey.
Mass destruction has been caused in Idlib and Afrin whose residents have been living on public squares and agrarian lands. Unlimited number of houses received cracks.
Hundreds of families in Afrin remained under the rubble for long days with no available rescue teams, if any. Searching for survivors was largely based on locals’ equipment.
Afrin original inhabitants did not receive any aid for the period of five days. Two aid convoys entered Afrin, one was sent by the Erbil-based Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF) and the second by Saudi Arabia.
The death toll according to North Press figures stands at 936 and that of injuries at 1.457. 253 buildings collapsed. Nearly 1.300 houses have been partially damaged.
Factional breaches
Inhumanely, factions of the Syrian opposition invested in the quake hit Afrin as people were preoccupied with rescue operations. Instead of distributing help and aid, opposition factions seized the vast majority of aid sent to Afrin.
All damaged buildings were looted. Kurds were racially discriminated against according to five testimonies from Afrin and other reports. North Press withholds the identities of those gave testimony based on security reasons.
A local from Jindires told North Press, “Opposition factions try to seize relief assistance and continue to loot storehouses repeatedly.”
The North Press team has obtained asserted information that militants of the Turkish-backed Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade had seized aid sent from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) to Jindires, transferring it to storehouses in the village of Kurzeleh in the Sherawa district in Afrin.
NGOs were not allowed to distribute the aid as militants said they were going to do the job themselves. The same faction imposed a 1.000 USD fine on every BCF truck (14 all).
A source from Bulbul district told North Press that the Turkish-backed local council did not distribute tents to people affected by the quake. Other sources asserted people presumably running distribution of aid and relief items are selling tents among many others.
The same sources indicated that Kurds in Afrin are racially discriminated against by the SNA factions in distributing aid and securing basic needs as they still live outdoor either in the public squares or onboard their cars, if any, amid extremely freezing temperatures.
It has been widely circulated that rescue teams ignored Kurds in searching for survivors or later in retrieving bodies from the rubble.
Earlier, Ibrahim Sheikho, Head of Human Rights Organization – Afrin, told North Press, “Kurds are racially discriminated against in rescuing survivors, retrieving bodies from the rubbles and distribution of aid sent by BCF and Saudi Arabia.”
Breaching acts are committed not only by groups of SNA alone, rather by Arab settlers, Sheikho noted, stressing that 70 per cent of deaths in the area are Kurds.
Sheikho warned of demographic change that could be introduced by Qatari NGOs in Jindires covered up by humanitarian ends.
Qatari NGOs among many others have a history of building settlements in the Kurdish region.
Regarding relentless looting in Afrin since it was occupied in 2018, the reality introduced on the ground in the aftermath of the quake has been a chance for further lootings.
According to a source in Jindires, tens of houses have been looted after being evacuated by owners. The source added nothing was spared from looting including electricity cables on the streets.
So being the case, locals have been sitting in front of their houses to protect them from looting and being seized by militants as a large number of houses were destroyed or damaged.
This is not the end of the story, factions of the opposition and under the pretext of averting further calamities have embarked on a campaign of razing of buildings, claiming that they are not suitable for housing without the prior knowledge of owners.
Thirteen shops and five buildings have been documented razed by the opposition factions in Afrin and Idlib.
Razing properties is a crime that necessitates punishment as it violates the right of families and causes displacement according to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the international law and the International Covenant on Economic, and Social and Cultural Rights of 1966.
A local in Jindires told North Press that neither his house nor shop were damaged by the quake. However, when he returned he was surprised to find both were blown up without his knowledge.
Offences and harassment committed by the Turkish-backed SNA factions against the Kurds of Afrin is a kind of racial discrimination and a breach against civil rights. However, razing, seizing or looting houses amount to war crimes that is punishable by law.
Article 23 of the Hague Conventions of 1899, Article 50 of the Geneva Convention of 1949, Article 51 of the second Geneva Convention of 1949, Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, and, Article 8 of Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court of 1998, all entail that unjustified razing or seizing properties is a war crime that necessitates punishment.