Aleppo needs urgent deployment of monitors

Thousands of dejected and distressed Syrians left the rebel enclave of Aleppo on Monday as the UN Security Council unanimously voted to deploy observers there. The council also announced the plan for a new peace talks in Geneva in February.
Families in Aleppo had spent hours waiting in below-freezing temperatures, sheltering from the rain in bombed-out apartment blocks and waiting desperately for news of a new wave of departures.
After an agonising delay, the operation resumed under a complex agreement that will see regime forces exert full control over Syria’s second city.
But the assassination of Andrei Karlov, Russian ambassador to Turkey, has thrown up new challenges in the way of peace process. It can further harm the bilateral ties of Turkey and Russia, the main protagonists in evacuation deal.
The UN Security Council’s decision to send observers to Aleppo to oversee evacuations is a right step forward. Innocent civilians are trapped in ‘hell like situation’ for four months. It will pave the way to break the logjam over relief for thousands in the war-ravaged city.
The UN actions follow the hours of negotiations to avert a veto by Russia —the staunch backer of Assad— which changed the equation of six-year old conflict. With the support of Russian fire power, Assad forces and allied militias trounced rebel forces and took control of eastern Aleppo.
First the resolution called for demands that the warring parties should provide monitors safe and swift access. But the French-sponsored measure was later modified that makes the consultations with warring parties as condition for observers to monitor the evacuation
The resolution is a “fig leaf,” said Faysal Itani, an analyst with the Atlantic Council in Washington. “Way too late for this sort of thing to make any difference,” Itani said. “There won’t be much to monitor. Much of the population in east Aleppo will be out already, the rest will be ruled by the regime.”
Much of eastern Aleppo is in ruins. Houses, schools and hospitals have been destroyed. Families have been torn apart. Thousands of children have been orphaned and left to survive alone. And there are reports of sexual abuse. People are dying without foods and medicines. Bodies are rotting in streets. And graveyards have no room for the dead. The events unfolding in the city are worst humanitarian tragedy of the 21st century.
The crisis demands the immediate cessation of hostilities, humanitarian aid access to the battered eastern Aleppo and end to sieges. “The Syrian, Russian and Iranian militaries should immediately comply with the UN Security Council resolution demanding that UN monitors be granted access to Aleppo,” said Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch. “Such monitoring is crucial as Syria and its allies have abysmal records complying with their obligations to protect civilians in Syria and allow aid access.”
More than 100 monitors already in western Aleppo can be redeployed. The resolution allows for UN presence inside those parts of eastern Aleppo that have been conquered by the Assad forces and allied militias, which have been accused of torture and summary killings.
Aleppo is already a Srebrenica. It has become a synonym for hell. And so the urgent implementation of this resolution is everything that is needed now.