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kenneth roth

Kenneth Roth is the executive director of Human Rights Watch

The citizens in eastern Aleppo are trapped – and the situation is seemingly worsening by the hour.

On Dec. 13, Russia announced that it had struck a deal with Turkey and the rebels to halt the fighting in eastern Aleppo and to evacuate fighters and possibly civilians. The very next day, however, the fighting resumed.

In what must have been an embarrassing diplomatic setback for Russia, it appears the Syrian government and its Iranian allies on the ground did not agree with the terms.

The key to curbing this slaughter of civilians lies with Russia. This is still true despite the Syrian-Iranian apparent rejection of the recent Russian-brokered ceasefire. Much of the progress Syrian-affiliated forces have made, including their recapture of most of Aleppo, is clearly due to the overwhelming aerial firepower that Russia has brought to the table.

Before the ground offensive, Russian and Syrian planes were pounding opposition-controlled parts of Aleppo, including unlawfully bombing civilians. If Russia were to discontinue its aerial support in Syria, Syrian government forces would likely find themselves in the same stalemate with the rebels that has marked the last few years of the conflict. The question now is whether Russia is willing to use that leverage to end unlawful attacks in Aleppo.

But civilians in eastern Aleppo do not only fear artillery and airstrikes. Bone-chilling reports of atrocities are also trickling out of areas the Syrian government has recently taken over.

We have every reason to fear the worst for those civilians left in the city, given the government forces' history of retaliation against civilians in areas that they recapture, including the use of arbitrary detention, torture and summary executions.

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, along with his proposed secretary of state, claim to have the kind of constructive and open relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin that could persuade him to help end the atrocities. They should use it, today.

This is the moment to show whether they stand with the most basic principles for the lawful conduct of war, or whether they are indifferent to decades of efforts to minimize the civilian costs of armed conflict. With so many civilian lives at stake, now is the time for Mr. Trump to use whatever connections he has with Mr. Putin to convince him to stop the slaughter and mistreatment of civilians.

We understand that it is unorthodox to appeal to an incoming president. Barack Obama remains the U.S. President and still has an important role to play in building pressure for the protection of Syrian civilians at the United Nations General Assembly and elsewhere.

His diplomats in New York, including Ambassador Samantha Power, have been tireless in their appeals to Syria, Iran and Russia to stop the carnage. But it's been Canada that has led successfully on efforts to forge a new path.

On Dec. 9, the General Assembly adopted a Canadian-drafted resolution on Syria demanding an end to all attacks on civilians, calling for unhindered humanitarian access throughout the country, and stressing the need for accountability for grave crimes. The resolution was adopted with 122 votes in favor; just 13 countries voted against it, including Russia, China, Iran and Syria.

Over 223 civil society groups, including my organization Human Rights Watch, have called for the General Assembly to do more and convene an emergency special session on Syria. With the breakdown of the ceasefire in Aleppo and civilians again finding themselves trapped under intense bombardment in a tiny piece of territory, this call is more urgent than ever.

But greater action is needed to avoid further large-scale loss of civilian life. Meetings at the UN, while undeniably important, will not be enough. Mr. Trump has said his primary concern is to join with Russia to fight Islamic State. But this can't mean closing one's eyes to the further slaughter of civilians.

The General Assembly should create a special investigative mechanism mandated to collect and preserve potential evidence for future criminal prosecutions.

If not for the principled and purely humanitarian reasons of protecting civilian life, then Mr. Trump should act for the pragmatic reason that war crimes and other abuses have been one of Islamic State's best recruitment tools.

Mr. Trump should recognize that the fight against Islamic State, whether in its current form or its inevitable evolution, will not succeed if steps are not taken now to spare Syrian civilians from further bloodshed and suffering.

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