Syrian Coalition Welcomes UN Human Rights Council Call for War Crime Investigation

Nora Al Ameer, Vice-President of the Syrian Coalition, commends the decision of the UN Human Rights Council to renew its war crimes investigation in Syria for another year and to bring all those responsible for war crimes to fair trial. “We highly estimate this step as it restores confidence to the Syrian people of the Council. However, international community must activate this decision and refer the Syrian file to the UN Security Council to put pressure on the Assad regime to stop its massacres against the defenseless people. It has become clear that all international efforts to bring about a political solution, including those of Geneva II, are doomed to fail unless they are accompanied by real guarantees that the Assad regime will be forced to comply with the international resolutions. We all remember how the Assad regime unhesitantly agreed to relinquish it chemical weapons cache after the U.S threats of possible strikes against regime positions.” Al Ameer went on: “We think that forcing the Assad regime to negotiate and allow the delivery of humanitarian aid and the lifting of the siege on civilians is as important as the protection of the region and the Syrian people from Assad’s use of chemical weapons.” Furthermore, Al Ameer described the remarks made by the regime’s ambassador to the United Nations, who said that the UN decision ignored “the terrorist groups that are trying to impede the entry of relief aid and the handover of chemical weapons, as unbalanced and an attempt to shuffle the cards. “It is illogical that rebels try to prevent the entry of humanitarian aid into the areas they control or to attack or hinder the convoys moving the chemical weapons as was claimed by Bashar Jaafari, as it simply the families of those rebels who were killed by these weapons. The UN Human Rights Council resolution has condemned violations committed by the Assad regime against Syrian children, calling for respect of international law and the law of war, ending human rights violations on the basis of religion or ethnicity. It also calls for stopping of violence and targeting of medical facilities and schools. The resolution renewed the mandate of the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria for another year and called on it to continue investigations and submit reports to the Human Rights Council, demanding that the Assad regime cooperate with the International Committee to perform its mission and give it unhindered access to all Syrian territory. The resolution also condemns the killing under torture of thousands of detainees in the prisons of the Assad regime, demanding the release of all detainees and submitting a list of places of detention and allowing international observers to visit them, stressing the right of the Syrian people to set up a mechanism for justice and reconciliation and truth and to compensate the victims. The resolution also condemned the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people and the use of starvation as a weapon of war against civilians. Moreover, it condemned the blocking of entry of humanitarian aid, blaming Assad for the deterioration of the humanitarian situation and the targeting of aid workers. The resolution concluded by stressing on the need to support the international efforts and to put pressure on all sides to resume Geneva II negotiations in accordance with Geneva I communique, which demands the formation of a transitional governing body with full powers.” (Source: Syrian Coalition)