Brussels, 22/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 22 October, human rights supporters called for the protection of civilians to be made the focus of the Syrian issue by creating a safe haven on Syrian territory, where the population could be guaranteed that they would be spared from the airstrikes currently being conducted separately by an international coalition and the Russian Federation.
It is now necessary to think of setting up this type of safe haven because “this seem to be the least onerous solution, the least interventionist and the most effective” for protecting those of the Syrian population that have not fled the country, said Yasmine Nahlawi, the advocacy and policy coordinator for a Syrian civil society organisation, Rebuild Rethink. She was speaking at a debate in the European Parliament's sub-committee on human rights, and stated that most of the deaths are due to bombs. She believed that an approach whereby only ISIL was targeted would not be enough. Bombing without protecting the population amounts to making the population take sides with any group in order to be protected, and this stirs up radicalisation, she said.
She therefore called for emphasis to be put “on protecting civilians”. And while a political solution alone could bring a successful end to the conflict, with the military solution having “no interest”, she conceded that this “seems difficult to imagine for the moment”. A political solution can nevertheless be encouraged and she proposed focusing on the protection of the population because this approach is “much more likely to make the parties come to the negotiating table than any other measure”.
In the view of Nadim Houry, from the Human Rights Watch NGO, if a safe zone is to be created, discussions must take place with Russia on its international obligations to protect civilians. “We can't claim to help fight terrorism when we kill civilians and when we thus help radicalisation”, he said. Nahlawi believed that there are over 150 civilians who have been killed by the Russian airstrikes - which could also have enabled ISIL to advance by nearly 10 km towards the strategic city of Aleppo.
In Houry's opinion, “Europe can't turn its eyes away from Syria”, and even less so today with the operations launched by Russia. “The Russian intervention is a key factor”, which raises the question of the “message the EU will send”, he said. He therefore wondered what the EU would do on the issue of protecting civilians against the backdrop of the Russian intervention. In his view, the EU is not strong enough on this issue. “The issue doesn't only concern ISIL (because) the discussion needs to be refocused on civilians”, he continued, insisting on the fact that this is the only way to put an end to the conflict.
Bashar al-Assad's regime was also discussed during this debate, and Nahlawi said that “if Europe wants to fight terrorism, it must fight the main reason for it - the Assad regime”. She urged the EU to take its “responsibilities and strong measures”. “The world has long turned away its eyes but it is not too late to do things better”, she said. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)