Media Statement
Syrian Coalition
Istanbul, Turkey
May 30, 2013
The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces has been followıng up the proceedings of the Urgent Debate held by the Human Rights Council, the deteriorating situation of human rights in Syria and the developments in the city of Qusair. The Coalition welcomes the resolution adopted by the Council, and extends ıts apprıcıatıon to the sponsoring countries, maınly Qatar, Turkey and the United States, in addition to the countries that voted in favor of ıt.
The Syrian Coalition would also like to clarify the following points:
- The ınterntıonal efforts to put an end to the Assad regime’s violations of the basic human rights across Syria are still incapable of detering the Assad regime, or stopping its systematic gross violations that amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity, which resulting daily lost of lives of hundreds of innocent Syrians.
- Although the international community has took action on the situation in Qusair at the Human Rights Council level, we call upon the international community to take action through the United Nations Security Council them to put an end to the Assad regime’s autrocities in Syria.
- The full and clear participation of Hizboulla Militia in the crimes commited against the syrian people in Qusair requiers that the countries who claims to stand up for soverignty and territorial integrity principles, and to be in linbe with these principals; to publicly condem such participation and call for its immediate withdroawl, and to hold its leaders accountablke for the crimes commited by it.
- Some international parties has the tendancy to level the violations commited by some opposition members to the gross violations commited by Assad regime;The Syrian Coalition stresses that the violations committed by some members of the Syrian opposition – if any – are limited and isolated incidents and have never been systematic. They cannot in any way be compared to the violations of the Assad regime, which are syestimatic and ordered by the highest levels of the military and political comand.
- The Syrian Coalition has spared no efforts to prevent opposition forces from committing gross human rights violations. The latest of these efforts is an awareness raising campaign for Free Syrian Army soldiers by the name: “Fighter, not a Killer,” which was launched in cooperation with a number of international and local human rights organizations. We welcome any support from international institutions in this area, in particular the OHCHR.
- The Syrian Coalition has already called for referring the crimes committed in Syria to the International Criminal Court and would like to take this opportunity to renew this call. We ask the countries that are protecting the Assad regime to stop using their veto power in the Security Council to block this referral.
- Any political settlement that may take place in the future cannot be at the expense of the innocent Syrian people. It can only be based on the principles of justice and accountability for those who have committed crimes – not impunity.
In conclusion, it is clear that the real criminals in Syria are the Assad regime and as a sign of the Syrian Coalition’s readiness to cooperate fully with international human rights mechanisms, the Coalition calls on the International Commission of inquiry established by the Human Rights Council Resolution S-17/1 to enter the liberated areas and exercise its mission and fulfil its mandate with the full cooperation and support of all components of the Syrian Coalition.
We ask Mercy for our martyrs, recovery for our wounded, and freedom for our detainees.
Long live Syria and its people, free and with honor.
