The United Nations (UN) prohibits crimes against civilians and enemy combatants. War Crime during domestic or an international armed conflict is considered as a serious breach of international law. War Crime is defined as “willful killing, torture or inhumane treatment including… willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of protected person…taking hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.”
In 2020 the war in South Caucasus attracted attention of international community. In response to Armenian provocation, on 27th September 2020, Azerbaijani Army launched counter-offensive operation to suppress the combat activity of the armed forces of Armenia and ensure the safety of the civilian population of Azerbaijan. and Patriotic War of Azerbaijan started. In 44 days, Azerbaijan liberated its occupied territories from Armenia and restored its territorial integrity. Contrarily, Armenians horizontally expanded the war by attacking Azerbaijan’s energy pipelines, water supply networks, villages, towns and urban centers with rockets, heavy artillery and ballistic missiles including Iskander, Tochka-U and Smerch. Ganja second largest city with population of 335.000 became an attractive target for Armenian armed forces. It was attacked with ballistic missiles and Smerch rockets. The International Partnership for Human Rights reports 26 civilians, including 6 children were killed while 127 civilians including 29 children were injured in the attack. Several residential buildings were damaged. United Nations High Commissioner, Human Rights Watch and New York Times reports confirms that on October 29, 2020 twenty-one citizens were killed and another seventy were injured in Armenian Smerch rockets attack on Barda City.
Ganja is located far away from the frontlines. Deliberate attack on Ganja city was gross violation of internationally accepted laws. Heinous attacks against civilians were part of an indirect approach to demoralize civilian population in attempt to preserve the status-quo. Certainly, it was an act of aggression a violation of international humanitarian law. Armenia committed crime against humanity and War Crimes. Armenian politico-military leadership bears complete responsibility for killing innocent unarmed civilians and War Crimes.
Human Rights Watch in its reports confirmed that Armenia attacked population centers where there were no military installations. Planned violations of laws of war require impartial investigation to be unanimously recognized by international community as war crime. The rules of international humanitarian law prohibit firing of unguided missiles, rockets and artillery shells on civilian centers. Scud-B missile fired against Azerbaijani civilian centers can miss its targets by at-least five-hundred meters. Missiles inherent lack of precision and failure to distinguish counter value from counterforce targets results in terrorizing the civilians. These weapons are labeled as terror weapons. Imprecise nature and indiscriminate impact of missiles on Azerbaijani civilian population affirms breach of international customary laws.
Armenian attacks on civilian can be regarded as war crimes in the lights of Article 2 (c) and (d) of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Statutes and Article 8(2) (b) (iv) of the Rome Statutes. ICTY and Rome Statutes defines war crimes as ‘intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects … which would be clearly excessive’. Armenian authorities willfully caused great suffering, serious injuries, extensively destroyed public and private properties, killed innocent civilians and took urban centers as hostage. Further, Armenian attacks are not justified by military necessity. Contrary to international laws which require constant care during military operations to avoid civilian causalities Armenian authorities deliberately attacked and killed civilians. International Court of Justice (ICJ) requires combatants to observe extreme care to avoid civilian causalities failing it to constitute grave breaches of international law and massive human rights violations.
Key takeaway gleaned from above is firing of inherently imprecise missiles against Azerbaijani civilians was on-purpose to cause deliberate civilian killings. It disregarded ICJ, human rights watch and ICTY’s advices to avoid inflicting deliberate harms to civilian population. Videos available on social media provide bulk of verifiable information of Armenian attacks on Azerbaijan’s civilian centers in breach of international humanitarian law.
Saima Kausar, M.Phil Scholar Department of International Relations Iqra University,Islamabad
Dr. Ashfaq Ahmed, Assistant Professor Department of Politics & International Relations University of Sargodha