UN Human Rights Warns Assad Regime of Using Starvation as War-like Weapon

Geneva, MINA – UN human rights experts warned here Friday Assad regime of use of starvation as a weapon of war, adding that it is a war crime and expressing concern about the severe shortage of food supplies and the scarcity of water, electricity and fuel in the Eastern Ghouta, Saudi Arabian news agency SPA reported.

The experts demanded that Assad regime urgently authorize medical evacuations of more than 430 patients and people trapped, in the Eastern Ghouta, including children under the age of five, as seven of them died as a result of waiting for the regime to release them for treatment.

In addition to allowing food and medical supplies to reach hundreds of thousands of besieged civilians, in this rural area, near Damascus.

In a joint statement issued by the UN Rapporteur on the Right to Health Care Dainius Puras and Rapporteur on the Right to Food Hilal Elver, recalled Assad regime of its international legal obligations under international human rights law and international humanitarian law to be respected, reminding it of civilian health care and that its siege for 4 years constitutes a flagrant violation of international laws and humanitarian norms.

The statement stressed that the residents of the Eastern Ghouta, whom are under a siege the regime imposed upon them, since October 2013, have been subjected to human rights violations and clinics are no longer able to meet their medical needs, due to lack of medication for chronic diseases and dialysis supplies. (T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)