Equipo Nizkor - UNSC S/2016/667 - Letter from Syria regarding the massacres committed against Syrian civilians in the north of the country on 28 and 29Jul16.

United Nations
Security Council

S/2016/667

Distr.: General
3 August 2016
English
Original: Arabic

Identical letters dated 29 July 2016 from the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council

On instructions from my Government, I should like to inform you of the bloody and brutal massacres committed against peaceable Syrian civilians in the north of the Syrian Arab Republic on Thursday 28 and Friday 29 July 2016.

Once again, aircraft from the so-called international coalition led by the United States perpetrated a massacre near the city of Manbij, north of Aleppo, when the aircraft of that coalition subjected the village of Ghandurah to heavy bombardment. Reports from the site have confirmed that 45 civilians were killed, including seven children, and some 50 civilians were injured, some critically. This new bombing is part the ongoing campaign being conducted by coalition aircraft, including the bombing of the village of Tukhan al-Kubra on 19 July 2016. As of 29 July 2016, the toll from that bombing has risen to over 300 dead and over 100 injured, some seriously. The bombing victims always include children, women and elderly persons. That is not to mention the vast destruction of private and public property caused by that coalition's aircraft on each occasion.

The above-mentioned massacres perpetrated by the "international coalition" coincided with a massacre perpetrated by the terrorist Al-Qaida organization against peaceable civilian residents of the village of Buwayr, also located near the city of Manbij, where Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) criminals executed 24 civilians.

This latest American bombing, like the French bombing and other unjustified air attacks on civilians and economic and service infrastructure that preceded it, is of a piece with the crimes being perpetrated by armed terrorist groups in cities and towns across Syria as part of an effort to inflame the Syrian situation in response to the major shift brought about by the Syrian Arab Army's eradication of pockets of terrorists from the city of Aleppo, the most recent achievement in that regard being the elimination of terrorist groups from Bani Zayd and Lirmun in Aleppo.

The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic condemns in the strongest possible terms attacks on innocent civilians, economic and service infrastructure, and private and public property, whether by hostile aircraft belonging to the United States-led "international coalition" or by such armed terrorist groups as ISIL, the Army of Conquest, the Free Army, Ahrar al-Sham, the Nur al-Din Zanki movement, Liwa' al-Tawhid, the Badr Martyrs Brigade, the Emigrants Brigade, the Islamic Front and the Nusrah Front. Syria demands the immediate cessation of these attacks and massacres and punishment of the perpetrators. The Syrian Government reiterates that the only way to combat terrorism in Syria that stands a chance of succeeding is through coordination with the Syrian Government in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations.

In that regard, the Syrian Government stresses that recent efforts by the Nusrah Front to burnish its image by renaming itself the Levant Conquest movement is nothing but a desperate effort to clean its slate and wipe away the crimson stain left by the innocent blood it has spilt. The Syrian Government notes that as long as France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar continue to provide all manner of support to the terrorist groups that they like to call "the moderates", and as long as they continue to sponsor and harbour them and change their names and guise, what those countries are actually doing is blatantly financing and supporting terrorism not only in Syria but all around the world.

The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic stresses that these massacres, crimes and destruction will not deter it from carrying out its duty to fight terrorism and to work for a political solution in Syria based on intra-Syrian dialogue, under Syrian leadership, and without foreign intervention, that leads to an end to terrorism in Syria.

The Syrian Government calls on the Security Council to carry out its responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security by putting an end to the crimes of the United States coalition against Syrian civilians and taking punitive measures immediately in respect of those regimes and States that support, fund and sponsor terrorism -- in particular the Riyadh, Ankara, Doha, Paris and London regimes. The Council must prevent those regimes from prolonging the crisis in Syria and undermining international security and peace, and compel them to implement fully the relevant Security Council resolutions, including resolutions 2170 (2014), 2178 (2014), 2199 (2015) and 2253 (2015).

I should be grateful if you would have the present letter issued as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Bashar Ja'afari
Ambassador
Permanent Representative

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03Aug16

Letter from Syria regarding the massacres committed against Syrian civilians in the north of the country on 28 and 29Jul16