What are we doing about war crimes in Aleppo?

By Aurora Ling

Two hospitals bombed, in one city, on one day.

On October 3, 2016, the M2 and M10 hospitals in Aleppo were attacked by airstrikes. The hospitals were bombed at 4 a.m. and 10 a.m., and this was the third time in a week that the M10 hospital had been attacked.[1] According to Physicians for Human Rights, since the war began, there have been approximately 400 attacks on 269 hospitals in Syria. 90 percent were perpetrated by the Syrian government and its allies.[2] UNICEF reports that, since September 30, 2016, 96 children have been killed and 223 have been injured.[3] Looking at these statistics alone—without even fully processing the horrific circumstances that plague Aleppo’s doctors and patients—we must ask, what can be done?

Attacks on medical facilities constitute as violations of international law—specifically, they are war crimes. Laid out in the Geneva Conventions in 1949, international law states that “Civilian hospitals organized to give care to the wounded and sick … may in no circumstances be the object of attack, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties in conflict.”[4] Under the Geneva Conventions, war crimes include willfully targeting a protected facility without advanced notice. Thus, the occurrences in Aleppo are blatant war crimes. The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon directly addressed what has been happening Aleppo, stating that those using “destructive weapons know exactly what they are doing. They are committing war crimes.”[5] Yet though there has been recognition even at the UN level, nothing has been done. Stating that the attacks are war crimes has been the only progress in the movement to stop them. Secretary General Ban commented that a “slaughterhouse is more humane”[6] than what has been happening in Aleppo— yet no official action has been taken to halt and prosecute the war crimes, to make the situation more “humane.”

War crimes are painstakingly difficult to prosecute; it takes many years and many more millions of dollars. Effective prosecution also requires that conditions be peaceful enough to gather witnesses, suspects, etc. Therefore, it is crucial to once again begin ceasefire talks , regardless of whatever tensions and frustrations might exist between countries. This is not about politics. This is about saving human lives, families, and homes.

As Andre Heller Pérache, spokesman for Médecins Sans Frontières, stated, “The risk is that people will normalize this horror. … We don’t want the bombing of hospitals to become the new normal, or accepted as a part of war.”[7] The necessity of prosecution is evident—if these explicit war crimes are not prosecuted , they may very well become the new norm.

While the world continues to have a “war of words,” with no action, between 250,000 and 430,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011; more than 4.8 million people have fled abroad, and approximately 6.5 million are internally displaced.[8] Time is of the essence. The international community must take action; it must demonstrate that the standards set forth in the Geneva Conventions of ethical behavior in wartime (as oxymoronic as that may seem) can and will be upheld. For now, the emptiness of the of the Conventions rings loud and clear as the dust settles from hospitals bombed in Aleppo.

The international community can begin addressing war crimes, like these hospital bombings, by moving beyond words, into action. It starts with initiating ceasefire talks and building on tribunal precedents in Nuremberg, Tokyo, Yugoslavia, and Rwanda. It ends by disregarding face-saving measures and remembering the human lives lost in a conflict humans have created.

Aurora is a third-year at UC Berkeley majoring in Peace and Conflict Studies with a concentration in Human Rights.