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A/HRC/22/59 120 GE.13-10627 III. Razing 15. Instances of razing in urban locations in Syria were documented. Typically, after shelling and bombarding an area, Government forces moved in with bulldozers and razed hundreds of civilian homes in residential areas. 16. One interviewee witnessed the destruction of what he estimates to be approximately 300 residential homes by explosives and bulldozers in Al-Tadamon in Damascus in early August. A former resident of Al-Tadamon now internally displaced, described the events beginning on 10 July. The neighbourhood was shelled, which caused the majority of the population to flee. Around 24 July, Government forces entered Al-Tadamon and levelled approximately 200 homes with bulldozers, among them the interviewee’s home and store. Prior to leaving the Damascus area, the interviewee went back to Al-Tadamon to see the neighbourhood. He described how his home and store, as well as all the other buildings on his street, were “reduced to stones.” Satellite imagery shows the total or partial destruction of an estimated 1,000 structures in Al-Tadamon (see Figure 1). Another neighbourhood experiencing this phenomenon is Qaboon, north of Damascus. 17. One interviewee, who witnessed the razing of residential homes in Al-Tadamon, noted that the houses demolished were facing the Hajiz Nasreen checkpoint, which was on the line between the city of Damascus and its suburbs. According to the interviewee, houses were razed because anti-Government armed groups were using the residential homes to attack the checkpoint. According to the interviewee, most of the houses were empty as people had fled due to the prior shelling and bombardment of the neighbourhood. 18. Analysed satellite imagery (see Figure 2) also shows the mass razing of residential homes in Hey el Arbeen neighbourhood of Hama. According to reports and ancillary imagery review, an 80-hectare area of Hama containing hundreds of residential structures was razed within the first week of October. Sources described the Hama site as a launching pad for anti-Government operations. 19. The Government justified these demolitions as part a pre-existing urban plan to remove illegal buildings. Media has reported that additional demolitions are planned. Findings 20. These events were analysed as attacks under the rubric of the law of armed conflict. No violation was found to arise from within the information collected. 21. With respect to the internally displaced persons who lived there, customary international humanitarian law, obliges the parties to a conflict to prevent displacement caused by their own acts. Further, under customary law, displaced persons have a right to voluntary return in safety to their homes or places of habitual residence as soon as the reasons for their displacement cease to exist.c In practical terms, this principle applies to all refugees and displaced persons forcibly removed from or otherwise forced to flee their “homes, lands, properties or places of habitual residence … regardless of the nature or circumstances by which displacement originally occurred.”d Guiding human rights principles on this issue take the position that war is not a justifiable ground upon which to c Rule 132. Return of Displaced Persons. ICRC Customary Law Study. d “Handbook on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons Implementing the ‘Pinheiro Principles’, March 2007, pg. 16–17 http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/pinheiro_principles.pdf