Syria

GENEVA — United Nations investigators, reporting a dramatic escalation in indiscriminate attacks by government forces against civilians, said on Tuesday they have collected "a formidable and extraordinary body of evidence" against those responsible.

Civilians are bearing the brunt of indiscriminate assaults by air and ground forces now occurring daily, Paulo Pinheiro, the Brazilian investigator leading a U.N. commission of inquiry, told the United Nations Rights Council.

Mr. Pinheiro was presenting a report on human rights completed last month that says both government and anti-government forces had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. He warned those responsible "we have collected a formidable and extraordinary body of evidence" including the names of individuals and units that could support future action by national or international courts.

He recommended that this evidence, deposited with the U.N.'s human rights office, should be sent to the Security Council which has the authority to refer the abuses to the International Criminal Court.

The escalating conflict was marked by an increasing presence of "foreign elements," including jihadist militants, Mr. Pinheiro reported. Some of them joined anti-government forces and some operated independently, he said, observing that "such elements tend to push anti-government fighters toward more radical positions."

Drawing attention to events since that report was compiled, Mr. Pinheiro called for further investigation of government operations in the town of Daraya in late August when government forces and civilian militiamen known as shabiha killed more than 100 people, leaving bodies that bore clear signs of summary execution.

The anti-government Free Syrian Army appeared to have adopted a code of ethics, Mr. Pinheiro noted, but he added that groups affiliated to it were reported to have summarily executed 21 government soldiers in Aleppo earlier this month. They had used prisoners to detonate vehicle-born explosives resulting in the prisoners' deaths and had used other indiscriminate improvised explosive devices that posed a threat to civilians.

"It is apparent that the crimes and abuses committed by anti-government groups, though serious, did not reach the gravity, frequency and scale of those committed by the government forces and Shabbiha," Mr. Pinheiro told the Human Rights Council.

But he also reported a dramatic increase in sectarian tensions, with abductions and killings committed by Sunni Muslims on one side and Shiites and minority Alawites on the other, prompting other minority groups to organize their own self-defense groups.

After 18 months of escalating violence, Syria's conflict looked set to continue until the exhaustion of one side or the other, but "this is a war neither side can win," Mr. Pinheiro said. The spiraling violence was inflicting "untold damage" to the foundations of the Syrian state, he said, urging international backing for United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi's efforts to broker a political settlement.

By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE 17 Sep, 2012

-
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/world/middleeast/syria.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Syria

Dengan url

http://ishappyhealthy.blogspot.com/2012/09/syria.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Syria

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Syria

sebagai sumbernya