Civilians are Asking for an End to the Killing: UN Under Secretary Rosemary Dicarlo

United Nations Security Council Considers Situation in Syria DPPA – Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs on 28 February, 2020~***UN Photo/Loey Felipe***

In her remarks to a Security Council meeting in emergency session on Syria following the death on the battlefield of dozens of Turkish troops, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary Dicarlo said that civilians living in daily terror from the guns, shells and mortar rounds across Syria, were “not asking for a pause in the fighting. They are asking for an end to the killing.”

Di Carlo said, “the UN has countless times reminded all parties that any attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are simply unacceptable. We have repeatedly called for a ceasefire. We have reaffirmed to the parties that all military operations must respect the rules of international humanitarian law. If such horrific acts and tactics persist despite global outrage, is it largely because their authors do not fear accountability and justice?”

Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya told the Council that coordinates conveyed by Turkey “did not mention where ultimately the Turkish soldiers died.”

Nebenzya said, “as soon as it became clear that it happened, the Russian side took exhaustive measures to cease hostilities and to ensure the safe evacuation of the dead and injured” and regretted “the fact that the Turkish soldiers died, just as we regret the reports about the death of Syrian soldiers.”

He said, “we are convinced that respecting the agreements, including on deconflicting will avoid such tragedies in the future. Forces on the ground are prepared to work towards that.”

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Jaafari said, “after two years of the Astana understandings, and after a year and a half of the Sochi agreements, the Turkish regime turned the observation posts on Syrian territory, which were supposed to control the activities of terrorists, preventing terrorists from committing those terrorists acts and thereby repelling any aggression on the positions of the Syrian Arab Army and the Russian forces, so, those observation posts were turned into operations rooms and ways to support terrorist organizations.”

For his part, Turkish Ambassador Feridun H. Sinirlioglu said, “the Turkish contingent under attack yesterday was deployed in accordance with existing de-escalation arrangements in Idlib: -to ensure the security of our military personnel serving at observations posts, -to protect the civilians against the regime’s aggression, -to ensure rapid and uninterrupted humanitarian access to those in need, -to prevent mass displacement movements into Turkey and beyond, -to preserve the de-escalation area status of Idlib, -and to contribute to the establishment of a nationwide ceasefire as called for by this Council’s resolution 2254.”

On Thursday, following strikes on Turkish troops inside Syria, the Turkish Ministry of Defence said that 33 of its soldiers were killed, and 32 wounded, by strikes it attributed to the Syrian Government~ UNIFEED