syria-un-20170808 8

A/HRC/36/55 8 bombardment, suffer from a lack of aid and are exposed to the effects of increased armed group infighting (see para. 13 above), the final destinations of those transferred from Government-sympathetic Fu’ah and Kafraya were areas under Government control in Homs, Tartous and Latakia Governorates. 34. Additionally, the Government has reportedly implemented legislative measures to dispossess dissenting populations of their property, and has raised legal and administrative measures to impede displaced persons from registering or retaining private property. Recently issued presidential decrees require in-person registration and contestation of land titles countrywide. Requirements to register land titles or contest ownership in person would render it virtually impossible for many internally displaced persons and refugees to protect their properties. The use of such legal and administrative tools may also be intended to pressure certain populations to reconcile, so as not to lose their property. Such measures may have the opposite effect, however, by further disenfranchising significant segments of the population, and complicating future efforts towards conflict resolution and, ultimately, reconciliation. 35. For each civilian who was unable to freely decide on his or her movement or destination, the agreement to evacuate him or her amounts to an unlawful order. There is no indication that any of the evacuations satisfied the exceptions permitted on the basis of security of civilians or imperative military reasons. Therefore, the ordering of dissenting populations to evacuate Madaya and Barza, the general evacuation of Fu’ah and Kafraya, and the ordering of the entire civilian populations to evacuate Tishreen and Qabun constitute the war crime of forced displacement. The Commission has received conflicting information on the presence of civilians in Zabadani at the time of its evacuation. B. Targeting and hostage-taking of religious minorities 36. Like government forces, armed groups have galvanized bases of support throughout the conflict, manifesting in heightened religious tensions and leading to violence with sectarian undertones carried out against civilians. The emergence of terrorist and extremist armed groups further fuelled such tensions. During the reporting period, terrorist and armed groups continued previously documented patterns of carrying out intentional attacks against civilians, many of them women and children, belonging to minority religious groups, and using other religious minorities as hostages. 37. On 11 March, at midday, two explosions detonated near the Bab al-Saghir cemetery, a well-known Shia pilgrimage site south of the old city of Damascus. The explosions detonated 10 minutes apart in the parking lot of the cemetery, where buses transporting pilgrims were parked. The first explosion was set off by a passing bus. As ambulances arrived and first responders tended to victims, a suicide bomber killed more pilgrims and several rescuers. 38. Overall, the two explosions killed 44 civilians, including 8 children, and injured another 120, leaving several women and children in critical condition. The majority of victims were Iraqi Shia pilgrims visiting Bab al-Saghir and the nearby Sayeda Zeinab shrine. Thirteen Syrians, mostly first responders, also died in the attack. The following day, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming it was targeting Iranian militias and government forces. The Commission found no evidence to substantiate the claim. 39. In the early hours of 14 April, evacuees from Fu’ah and Kafraya (see paras. 19 and 25 above), arrived in opposition-held Al-Rashidin on the outskirts of Government-held western Aleppo city. They remained there the following day while warring parties worked out disagreements among themselves. Evacuees recalled fearfully boarding buses prior to leaving Fu’ah and Kafraya after armed group members fired shots that injured two women. 40. While waiting in Al-Rashidin, evacuees received very limited amounts of food so, when at around 3 p.m. someone began distributing snacks from a silver car, dozens of children gathered around the car. About a half an hour later, a blue pickup arrived and evacuees, mostly women and children, rushed to it believing it too would be bringing food. Instead, within seconds, the pickup exploded, killing at least 96 people, including 68 childre