International Community’s Silence over Russia’s Crimes Serves Its Goal of Undermining Political Solution

Press Statement

Syrian Coalition

Media Office

January 11, 2016

The Syrian Coalition strongly condemns the massacre carried out by Russian warplanes in which three schools were targeted and a total of 35 civilians, mostly schoolchildren and teachers, were killed in the town of Ain Jara in rural Aleppo. Many more were wounded, some of them critically, in airstrikes carried out by Russian air force earlier this morning.

The Syrian Coalition reiterates that this crime and other crimes by the Assad regime and its allies represent a clear violation of UN Security Council resolution 2254 which calls for immediate cessation of all attacks against civilians. The international community must act quickly against Russia’s flagrant crimes against the Syrian people including children, women and the elderly. Russia’s actions in Syria, while representing a continuation of Assad’s terror since the start of Syrian revolution, are designed to break the will of the Syrian people and undermine the political solution.

The international community’s silence over the crimes of the Assad regime and its allies against Syrian civilians as well as its complete disregard for their blood is a shameful stain on humanity. The failure to explicitly and clearly condemn the Russian aggression and the inaction towards Russia’s massacres against the Syrian people constitute outright support for these crimes. This silence also represents complicity in undermining efforts to find a political solution in Syria.