Alexblx

Alexblx · @Alexblx

13th Oct 2015 from TwitLonger

The @amnesty report does not prove that the #YPG committed forced displacements"
@amnesty have issued a VIDEO report about #YPG 'forced displacements' in the Kurd self governing territories recovered from #ISIS.

Here is the report:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlOzoCHaNeM&feature=youtu.be

It's clear from the report that some local Arab and Turkman families were forced out of their homes and that many homes were demolished, and one whole village, was razed.

Apart from threats of property destruction - no actual personal violence was said by the villagers to have been engaged in by the Kurd fighters - or even threatened!

Clearly displacements occurred, but the report does not prove that they were done by the #YPG as part of official policy, which leaves several options open.

One - the displacements could have been by a local renegade Commander who had some personal agenda - perhaps a bribe from a local landowner, family, or clan, of whatever ethnicity, who wanted to steal the villager's land.

In war these things, and much worse, can happen.

There is verbal, but no video or photographic evidence, of official YPG soldiers forcing the displacements.

In North #Syria, many serious criminal acts and rackets were perpetrated on local civilians by armed groups posing as #FSA, or groups, who were #FSA in name and uniform only, but rarely ever fought and often looted and stole.

Two - given that forced civilian displacement is not official #YPG policy or practice - any more than it is or was for the #FSA - another more likely possibility is that this displacement occurred from orders of an over zealous YPG Commander, who feared ongoing #ISIS Commando raids, and knowing this town had some #ISIS supporters as confirmed in the video report by the villagers, adopted an altogether over zealous 'clearance' policy of his own.

I think this is the most likely explanation.

Forced displacements can occur in this war if the village is used as base for #ISIS covert Ops which was not unusual as #ISIS mounted many murderous raids deep into #YPG held #Rojava territory and even reached #Kobane city itself and perpetrated monstrous war crimes on town civilians.

We need to keep some perspective here.

In the very dirty primitive jungle that is the #Syria civil war, no other ethnic group in #Syria has been as fair and as humane as the Kurd's.

They are the boldest and bravest of warriors but are honorable soldiers and do not execute prisoners.

Always their first concern in battle has been for civilians and for preserving life.

In this situation, war crimes can only be imputed against the #YPG if the forced civilian displacements were carried out as a matter of official YPG policy or practice.There is zero evidence of this in the amnesty report.

The fault of the amnesty report [by the woman who appears to have reached the conclusions in the report] it that it does not make this clear - sure she uncovered some renegade or overzealous acts but she does not, nor could she, prove these acts to be part of official YPG policy and practice.

Kurd's do not have a monopoly on virtue however, and some rare Kurd Commanders may have personally contravened official YPG policy and practice and individually acted immorally or inhumanely or over zealously, and the later I think, is the most likely explanation in this case.

One thing is crystal clear.

The @amnesty report does not prove that the #YPG committed or condoned forced displacement war crimes.

Nor does any evidential or legal issue arise of the Kurd's engaging in 'ethnic cleansing', as was made emphatically clear, in the Report of the #Syria Observatory of Human Rights in June: http://kurdishquestion.com/index.php/kurdistan/west-kurdistan/interview-with-rami-abdulrahman-of-sohr/1002-interview-with-rami-abdulrahman-of-sohr.html …

If all the combatant groups, in the living hell on earth that is the #Syria civil war, had acted as honorably and as humanely as soldiers, as the Kurds have - the Syria civilian death toll would be less - by several hundred thousand men, women, and children.

@Alexblx

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