"I have no reason to doubt the stories that you hear from people. These stories are full of contradictions, but most likely true, all of them at the core. And that means that probably indiscriminate bombing and shelling takes place, probably manipulations with humanitarian assistance and distribution takes place, probably hostage taking and human shield policies take place. All this happen at the same time," Maurer said, answering a question about the credibility of the stories of people, who report about violations of humanitarian law by insurgents in Eastern Ghouta, a major militant foothold near the Syrian capital of Damascus.
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"I have always highlighted that in terms of violations we're not concerned only by bombardments, which by definition are most of the time by airplane, but we are as well concerned by rockets, which are indiscriminately thrown into civilian areas (…)", — the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
The situation in Eastern Ghouta has been tense over the past weeks resulting from the ongoing shelling of Damascus by local militants and the Syrian pro-government forces firing on the militants. Residents of Syria’s Eastern Ghouta who left the region on March 15 said that they did not see any signs of chemical weapons use.
Damascus says that it opens fire in response to shelling from Eastern Ghouta while Western countries are accusing the Syrian government and Russia of being responsible for the escalation of tensions in the area.
On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Syrian reconciliation said that over 73,000 civilians had left Eastern Ghouta since the opening of humanitarian corridors. Since Monday morning, over 6,000 people have left Eastern Ghouta and the process is ongoing.
