UN expands secret list of war crimes suspects
Serious human rights violations have soared in Syria in recent weeks, according to the head of a UN commission that has drawn up a secret list of officials suspected of carrying out war crimes.
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria receives credentials in Damascus from Cuba's new ambassador to Syria, Fernando Perez Massa (Reuters)
By Our Foreign Staff
9:37AM BST 17 Sep 2012
United Nations human rights investigators said on Monday that they had drawn up a new secret list of Syrians and units suspected of committing war crimes who should face criminal prosecution some day.
The independent investigators, led by Paulo Pinheiro, said they had gathered "a formidable and extraordinary body of evidence" and urged the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
"A second confidential list of individuals and units believed to be responsible for violations is being provided to the High Commissioner of Human Rights," Mr Pinheiro said.
Western countries are seeking yet another condemnation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government at the session.
The independent UN panel has confirmed that an increasing number of 'foreign elements,' including jihadis, are now operating in Syria.
The investigative panel appointed by the Human Rights Council says some of these forces are joining armed anti-government groups while others are operating on their own. The head of the panel, Brazilian diplomat and professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, said that "such elements tend to push anti-government fighters towards more radical positions."
Activists say at least 23,000 people have been killed in Syria in the past 18 months. Syrian authorities have blamed the anti-government uprising that began in March 2011 on a foreign conspiracy and accused some Gulf and Western countries of offering funding and training to the rebels, whom they describe as terrorists.
"Gross violations of human rights have grown in number, in pace and in scale," Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, a Brazilian who heads the United Nations' Independent Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Syria, told diplomats gathered in Geneva.
The independent investigators said that they had gathered "a formidable and extraordinary body of evidence" and urged the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court. Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the opposition was also responsible for summary executions after detailing incidents in the northern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo and the coastal region of Latakia.
The New York-based group said in a report Monday that torture and extrajudicial or summary executions of detainees in the context of an armed conflict are war crimes, and may constitute crimes against humanity if they are widespread and systematic. The group documented more than a dozen extrajudicial and summary executions by opposition forces.
HRW said three opposition leaders who were confronted with evidence of extrajudicial executions said those who killed deserved to be killed, and that only the "worst criminals were being executed." A UN-Arab League envoy would discuss "Arab and international moves required to resolve the current crisis in Syria," with Arab officials following a trip to Damascus.
Lakhdar Brahimi was to hold talks in Cairo on Monday with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi following his trip to Damascus. The veteran Algerian diplomat warned after a meeting with Mr Assad that the worsening conflict in Syria threatens both the region and the world at large.
"The crisis is dangerous and getting worse, and it is a threat to the Syrian people, the region and the world," said Mr Brahimi, who replaced Kofi Annan following the failure of the former UN chief's six-point peace plan.
