On Tuesday 6 March, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, and the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, Christos Stylianides, said that the disastrous humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta could be the result of deliberate war crimes on the part of fighters allied to the Syrian regime.
“A year-long siege used for the purpose of starving the population and the indiscriminate shelling of the civilian population may amount to war crimes” the, they state in a joint press release, adding that the presence in the besieged enclave of the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Cham cannot on its own justify the atrocities committed. They called for the launch of investigations under the aegis of the United Nations to determine those responsible for the situation.
Calling for humanitarian workers to be allowed to do their work with no restrictions, in line with UN Resolution 2401, they said that the Russian proposal to create a daily five-hour pause was “simply not sufficient” to deliver aid to the civilian population and evacuate injured people who cannot be treated on the spot. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)