Unlawful Attacks on Medical Facilities and Personnel in Karabakh: Human Rights Watch

• 02.27.2021, 15:38
•  World,  NKR

Three unlawful attacks on medical facilities by Azerbaijani forces during the six-week armed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh have come to light in recent Human Rights Watch research in the region.

Human Rights Watch documented multiple unlawful strikes on a public hospital in Martakert in September through November 2020, and an unlawful strike on a military hospital in the town’s outskirts in October. The hospitals were very close to the front lines at the time.

The weapon used by Azerbaijani forces against the military hospital – a satellite-guided variant of an Israeli-supplied rocket artillery system called LAR-160 – suggests that the strike was intentional. The strikes on the public hospital, including with Grad rockets and cluster munitions, appeared indiscriminate.

The attacks damaged both hospitals and impeded medical work, but no one was wounded or killed in the attacks.

On-site observations, analysis of videos, most of which were on social media, and satellite imagery analysis enabled Human Rights Watch to identify numerous legitimate military targets in Martakert, some of them close to the two hospitals. By locating military facilities, equipment, or personnel inside the city, and near the two hospitals, Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian authorities endangered civilians and put medical workers and their patients at risk.

Human Rights Watch also documented a deliberate attack on September 28, apparently by Azerbaijani forces, on an Armenian military ambulance, in which assailants shot and killed a military doctor.  

Human Rights Watch previously documented damage to two hospitals in Stepanakert, (also referred to as Khankendi in Azerbaijan), the capital city of Nagorno-Karabakh, due to Azerbaijan’s indiscriminate strikes in October, and documented damage to a health clinic in the Azerbaijani city of Barda, in an indiscriminate attack by Armenian forces.

Medical facilities and personnel are civilian objects with special protections under the laws of war. They include hospitals, clinics, medical centers, and ambulances and other medical transportation, whether military or civilian. Parties to a conflict are obligated to ensure that they do not endanger or harm medical personnel, and do not attack or damage hospitals and ambulances.

The analysis of these unlawful attacks is not intended to be a comprehensive account of all damage to medical facilities during the armed conflict. The Azerbaijani government alleged, as of October 13, that six medical facilities had been damaged. Armenian authorities told Human Watch that at least nine medical facilities were damaged in Stepanakert, and in the Martakert, Martuni, and Askeran districts of Nagorno-Karabakh.