A/HRC/36/55
evacuated to final destinations of their choice and were not provided with satisfactory
conditions of shelter, hygiene, health, safety or nutrition either en route or once they
reached Idlib.
33.
Some of those displaced from Madaya and Barza were initially accommodated in
schools in Idlib, which were ill-prepared to receive them. Others later moved to
overcrowded camps for internally displaced persons, or to towns in the Idlib countryside
described by an evacuee as “desperate”. While civilians throughout Idlib Governorate
continue to live under 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
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