The Observer - 04.08.2019

Section:OBS 2N PaGe:26 Edition Date:190804 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 3/8/2019 16:36 cYanmaGentaYellowbla

• The Observer
  26 04.08.19 World Comment

means the information they have

comes from the surveillance fl ights

of Italy, Frontex and the EU.”

A Frontex spokesperson said that

incidents related to boats in dis-

tress were passed to the “responsi-

ble rescue coordination centre and

to the neighbouring ones for situa-

tional awareness and potential coor-

dination”. Th us the maritime rescue

coordination centre in Rome has

begun to share information with its

Libyan counterpart in Tripoli, under

the instructions of Italy’s far-right

interior minister, Matteo Salvini.

The EU is already accused of

crimes against humanity in a sub-

mission before the International

Criminal Court for “orchestrating a

policy of forced transfer to concen-

tration camp-like detention facilities

[in Libya] where atrocious crimes are

committed”.

The case, brought by lawyers based

in Paris, seeks to demonstrate that

many of the people intercepted have

faced human rights abuses after

being returned to Libya.

EU drones

replacing

rescue fl eet

Omer Shatz, an Israeli who teaches

at Sciences Po university in Paris, and

one of the two lawyers who brought

the ICC case, said Frontex drone oper-

ators could be criminally liable for

aiding pullbacks. “A drone operator

that is aware of a migrant boat in dis-

tress is obliged to secure fundamen-

tal rights to life, body integrity, liberty

and dignity. This means she has to

take actions intended to search, res-

cue and disembark those rescued at

safe port. Acting to extradite helpless

vulnerable civilian population to the

hands of Libyan militias may amount

to criminal liability.”

Under international law, migrants

rescued at sea by European vessels

cannot be returned to Libya, where

conflict and human rights abuses

mean the UN has stated there is no

safe port. Under the UN convention

on the law of the sea (Unclos) all ships

are obliged to report an encounter

with a vessel in distress and offer

assistance. This is partly why EU naval

missions that were not mandated to

conduct rescue missions found them-

selves pitched into them regardless.

Drones, however, operate in a legal

grey zone not covered by Unclos. The

situation for private contractors to EU

agencies, as in some of the current

drone operations, is even less clear.

Frontex told the Observer that all

drone operators, staff or private con-

tractors are subject to EU laws that

mandate the protection of human

life. The agency said it was unable to

share a copy of the mission instruc-

tions given to drone operators that

would tell them what to do in the

event of encountering a boat in dis-

tress, asking the Observer to submit a

freedom of information request. The

agency said drones had encountered

boats in distress on only four occa-

sions – all in June this year – in the

central Mediterranean, and that none

had led to a “serious incident report”

• Frontex jargon for a red fl ag.

Reporting for this article was supported

by the Returns Network, an investiga-

tive unit collaborating with ARD Report

München, De Correspondent, EfSyn and

the Observer

Don’t call them child casualties.

This is murder – and a war crime

Murdered children

are no longer news. International

media coverage of the war in

Afghanistan, where child deaths

reached an all-time high last year, is

sporadic at best. In Yemen it is esti-

mated that at least 85,000 under-

fi ves have died of starvation since

2015, a fi gure that numbs the mind.

In Syria, especially, it is hard to keep

count because children are being

killed almost every day – and who is

really counting?

Harrowing images briefl y cap-

ture public attention. One of the

more recent showed fi ve-year-old

Riham struggling amid the rub-

ble of her bombed home in Ariha , in

Syria’s north-western Idlib province,

to save her baby sister, Tuqa. Riham

died later in hospital along with her

mother and another sister. Thanks

to her efforts, and White Helmet res-

cuers, Tuqa survived.

But the following day, at least

another 10 civilians, including three

children, were killed in air raids on

villages and towns in rebel-held

areas of Idlib, Aleppo and Hama.

According to Save the Children ,

more children have been killed in

the past month than in the whole of

2018. Monitors say there have been
      800 deaths since the Syrian regime’s
      Russian-backed offensive in Idlib
      began in April, 200 of them children.
      Most of these murders were not cap-
      tured on video.
      There are more comfortable ways
      to describe child deaths. The word
      “casualty” suggests the killings
      might even be accidental. But mur-
      der is what it is, and what it should
      be called. These are war crimes and
      crimes against humanity, ultimately
      carried out at the behest of two
      leaders – Syria’s Bashar al-Assad
      and Russia’s Vladimir Putin – who
      must one day face justice, or else

international law is meaningless.

“Intentional attacks against civil-

ians are war crimes, and those who

have ordered them or carried them

out are criminally responsible for

their actions,” Michelle Bachelet , the

UN’s human rights chief, declared

last week. Earlier in Syria’s eight-

year war, she said, the world had

shown considerable concern. “Now,

airstrikes kill and maim signifi cant

numbers of civilians several times a

week and the response seems to be

a collective shrug.”

The Russian and Syrian lead-

ers deny that they are deliberately

targeting civilians. They lie, just as

they repeatedly lied about chemical

weapons attacks. Accumulating evi-

dence from the past three months

points to a premeditated policy of

pulverising Idlib’s civilian popula-

tion in order to isolate and root out

rebels and jihadists.

I n a tactic previously used around

Damascus and in Aleppo city, doz-

ens of hospitals, clinics, schools,

markets and public places in Idlib

have been bombed. “The violence

has escalated over the past month,

leading to more people killed or

wounded than at any time so far

this year,” Doctors Without Borders

reported last week. “Bombing and

shelling ... has forced more than

450,000 people to fl ee north,” the

charity said.

Now a new refugee crisis looms as

displaced families head for Turkey

and, perhaps, Europe and the UK.

Governments may soon be forced to

pay closer attention.

The western allies insist they are

desperately concerned about Syria’s

civilians. But at a security council

meeting last week Mark Lowcock ,

the UN’s chief aid and emergency

relief coordinator, lambasted them

(and Russia and China) for “doing

nothing for 90 days as the carnage

continues in front of your eyes”.

Were they fi nally prepared, he asked,

“to listen to the children of Idlib?”

The answer Lowcock got was

not the one he wanted. In a bid to

bypass the usual Russian veto, a

majority of council members pre-

vailed on the UN secretary-general

to launch an inquiry into the

destruction of Idlib’s hospitals and

other UN-supported facilities. But,

like similar inquiries , it will probably

be boycotted by the regime and its

fi ndings ignored. Of urgent, force-

ful action to stop the killing there

was none.

Possibly reacting to this storm of

criticism, Assad’s regime, backed by

Moscow, offered a limited truce on

Friday, conditional on opposition

forces quitting a buffer zone created

last September and repeatedly vio-

lated by both sides. That’s a big ask.

Ceasefi res typically do not last long

in Syria. Assad’s forces, unsuccessful

so far in their bid to overrun Idlib,

may simply want time to regroup.

The battle for Idlib goes to the

heart of what governments on all

sides really do care about: the future

balance of power in Syria. A closely

related issue, for example, is who

controls post-Islamic State areas

of north-east Syria. US troops are

still there, despite Donald Trump’s

vow to withdraw them. So, too, are

the Turks. US cooperation with

Syrian Kurdish forces, whom Turkey

regards as terrorists, has brought

renewed threats of a Turkish mili-

tary land grab east of the Euphrates,

akin to last year’s operation in Afrin.

Meanwhile, anti-refugee sentiment

inside Turkey appears to be surging

• another problem for fl eeing Idlib
  residents.
  Iran, too, is jockeying for posi-
  tion. Its militias have reportedly sat
  out the Idlib offensive, but its sup-
  port for Damascus is undiminished,
  as shown by its continuing oil deliv-
  eries to Syria’s Baniyas refi nery. In
  June, offshore underwater pipelines
  there were blown up by mystery
  attackers , according to the Bellingcat
  investigatory website. This coincided
  with limpet mine attacks on tankers
  in the Gulf that were blamed on Iran
  (which denied involvement). And it
  shortly preceded Britain’s seizure,
  apparently on US orders, of a fully-
  loaded Iranian tanker off Gibraltar.
  Is it possible Trump and his
  neighbourhood friends are more
  interested in pursuing their vendetta
  with Iran than saving Syrian chil-
  dren’s lives? The only-too-obvious
  answer to that question – a grim
  question of priorities – holds the
  key to the universally shaming,
  unfi nished tragedy of Idlib.

Simon Tisdall

A child saved from rubble after

an airstrike on Idlib by Russia

and the Assad regime. Getty

Continued from page 24

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