syria-un-20140212 22

A/HRC/25/65 22 abductions have made it impossible for the residents of Mirdash and Shatha to cultivate their land, depriving them of their main source of income and sustenance. Carrying out attacks against farmers cultivating their land with the specific purpose of preventing them access to agricultural produce is prohibited under international humanitarian law. E. Arbitrary and forcible displacement 1. Government forces and pro-government militia 144. By launching indiscriminate and disproportionate aerial bombardment and shelling, the Government has caused large-scale arbitrary displacement. In doing so, it has failed in its obligations under international human rights law to protect civilians from such displacement. It has failed to comply with its duties under international humanitarian law to provide displaced civilians with shelter, hygiene, health, safety and nutrition and to ensure that members of the same family are not separated. 2. Non-State armed groups 145. Two instances of forcible displacement by armed groups, as defined under international humanitarian law, were documented. 146. On 20 July, ISIS, Jabhat Al-Nusra, the Al-Sakhana Brigades, Saw’aiq Al-Rahman, the Ibn Taimia Brigades and Ahrar Al-Sham clashed with YPG forces in Tal Abyad (Ar Raqqah). 147. On 21 July, when YPG forces withdrew, armed groups broadcast orders from mosques in Al-Jisr, Harat Al-Leil and Hay Al Shallala neighbourhoods, instructing Kurdish civilians to leave the town or face immediate attack. Thousands of Kurdish civilians subsequently fled. Many were abducted at checkpoints encircling the area. The property of those who fled was looted and burned. 148. In Aleppo, on 28 July, clashes erupted in the Kurdish enclaves of Tal Aran and Tal Hasel between Jabhat Al-Akrad and YPG forces on the one side, and affiliated groups of Jabhat Al-Nusra, ISIS and FSA on the other. The latter groups seized control of Tal Aran, setting up checkpoints and sniper positions. Using mosque loudspeakers, armed group fighters ordered the Kurdish population to leave, under threat of violence. Thousands fled the following day. 149. On 29 July, the fighting spread to Tal Hasel, with the YPG engaging in hostilities with the above-mentioned armed groups. After short, intensive clashes, the armed groups encircled the town and conducted raids on Kurdish houses, abducting fighting-age men. Using mosque loudspeakers, the groups called Kurds “unbelievers”, declaring that “swords are between us and those who decide to stay in Tal Hasel”. Specific threats were directed against Kurdish women and children, saying that those who remained would be considered “halal for the mujahideen”. 150. The pattern of conduct perpetrated by non-State armed groups in Ar Raqqah and Aleppo in July indicates a coordinated and planned campaign to forcibly displace Kurdish civilians. The methods employed, the threat of violence and subsequent abductions demonstrate the deliberate displacement of a population on the basis of its ethnic identity. Such conduct amounts to the war crime of forcible displacement