The battle involving Iraqi
and US-led coalition forces against the Islamic State (ISIS) in west Mosul’s Old
City poses a considerable threat to civilians and civilian objects,
international humanitarian and human rights organizations said today. All
warring parties should cease using explosive weapons with wide area effects and
inherently indiscriminate weapons in densely populated west Mosul. ISIS’s
unlawful use of civilians as “human shields” and the difficulty of identifying
civilians in buildings increases the risk of civilian casualties.
The
United Nations has estimated that 200,000
civilians remain in the two-square-kilometer area in west Mosul’s Old City,
which Iraqi and US-led coalition forces are encircling in preparation for the
battle there.
"More than 12,000 munitions were used by the US-led
Coalition at Mosul between March and May alone, according to official data -
comprising airstrikes, rocket and artillery salvos, mortar attacks and
helicopter actions. In addition, thousands more munitions were released by Iraqi
air and ground forces - at times with little apparent discrimination. This
despite the city still containing hundreds of thousands of trapped civilians,"
says Airwars Director Chris Woods.
"The result of this ferocious
bombardment on a densely populated city has been inevitable - with thousands of
Moslawis reported killed in Coalition, Iraqi government and ISIS actions.
Determining responsibility is proving particularly challenging, given the high
number of munitions involved. We urge both the Coalition and Iraqi forces
imediately to end the use of wide area effect and indiscriminate munitions in
Mosul, in order to save lives."
The groups expressing concern are:
Airwars; Amnesty International; Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC); Human
Rights First; Human Rights Watch, the International Network on Explosive Weapons
(INEW), and War Child.
On May 25, 2017, anti-ISIS forces dropped leaflets
urging civilians to immediately leave areas under ISIS control. Anti-ISIS forces
should take all feasible precautions to minimize harm when carrying out attacks
and ensure that civilians can safely evacuate the Old City and get humanitarian
assistance both inside and outside the besieged area. With the offensive to take
west Mosul entering its 109th day, the situation for civilians trapped there is
growing increasingly perilous. Those fleeing Mosul have told humanitarian and
human rights organizations that markets are being emptied of food, with
civilians subsisting on little more than wheat and rainwater.
In
mid-February, the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) supported by the US-led coalition,
known as the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR),
began the offensive to retake west Mosul, a densely populated set of urban
neighborhoods.
Rising civilian
casualties from aerial operations have heightened concerns regarding
coalition and Iraqi forces’ use of airstrikes. The use of explosive weapons with
wide-area effects such as air-dropped bombs of 500lbs and above, which have been
used
in the context of the operation, in densely populated civilian areas of western
Mosul may be resulting in civilian casualties and damage to civilian objects
that is excessive to the anticipated military objectives of the strikes. Such
disproportionate military attacks are prohibited under international
humanitarian law.
Iraqi forces have also been launching
locally fabricated rockets, commonly known as improvised rocket-assisted
munitions (IRAMs), into west Mosul. Images published by media outlets and the US
military also depict US forces and Iraqi forces firing mortars and unguided
artillery rockets into western Mosul. Both of these weapons are inaccurate and
can be unlawfully indiscriminate if used in heavily populated areas.
The
difficulty of detecting civilians in the packed city, even with advanced
targeting systems and continuous observation, make it difficult to determine
accurately the number of civilians occupying a target area prior to approving
strikes. The dangers are increased by ISIS’s use of civilians as “human
shields,” which is a war crime.
Dozens of newly displaced people from
west Mosul, including the Old City, have told humanitarian and human rights
organizations that ISIS fighters forced them and their families to move with
them up to three times, packing large numbers of families into small
neighborhoods still under their control. They witnessed fighters summarily
killing dozens of men as punishment as they and their families tried to flee
ISIS control. They also saw ISIS fighters fire on groups of civilians as they
fled; and some saw fleeing civilians shot and killed.
As the fighting
intensifies and ISIS increases its use
of civilians as shields, anti-ISIS forces should use all available means to
verify the presence and location of civilians in the immediate vicinity of any
fighters or military objectives targeted. In December 2016, US forces made
procedural changes
in its targeting that may increase the likelihood of civilian
casualties.
All parties to the conflict are prohibited under the laws of
war from conducting deliberate attacks against civilians or civilian objects, as
well as indiscriminate, or disproportionate attacks. Indiscriminate attacks are
attacks that strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects
without distinction. An attack is disproportionate if it may be expected to
cause incidental loss of civilian life or damage to civilian objects that would
be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage
anticipated from the attack.
Individuals who commit serious violations of
the laws of war with criminal intent – that is, deliberately or recklessly – are
responsible for war crimes. Individuals also may be held criminally liable for
attempting to commit a war crime, as well as assisting in, facilitating, aiding,
or abetting a war crime.
The laws of war require that the parties to a
conflict take constant care during military operations to spare the civilian
population and to “take all feasible precautions” to avoid or minimize the
incidental loss of civilian life and damage to civilian objects. When used in
populated areas, munitions with large payloads of high explosives can have a
wide-area destructive effect, and it is not possible when using them to
distinguish adequately between civilians and combatants, almost inevitably
resulting in civilian casualties.
Weapons such as mortars and
multi-barrel rocket launchers when firing unguided munitions and IRAMs are
fundamentally inaccurate. This can make discriminating between civilians and
combatants during an attack on a densely populated area virtually impossible.
Human rights and humanitarian organizations and journalists have documented the
use by Iraqi forces of IRAMs that lack the ability to be aimed beyond a basic
orientation toward the target and are inherently indiscriminate.
Mortars
and multi-barrel rocket launchers firing unguided munitions used by anti-ISIS
forces can be aimed and adjusted by an observer, but are area-fire weapons and,
when used in densely populated areas, are prone to unlawful indiscriminate use.
Iraqi and US-led coalition forces should avoid all use of these weapons in the
densely populated Old City of west Mosul.
Signatories:
Airwars
Amnesty International
Center for Civilians in
Conflict (CIVIC)
Human Rights First
Human Rights Watch
International
Network on Explosive Weapons – INEW is governed by a Steering
Committee whose members are Action on Armed Violence, Article 36, Handicap
International, Human Rights Watch, Norwegian People’s Aid, Oxfam, PAX, Save the
Children and the Women’s International League for Peace and
Freedom.
War Child
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment