The UN implicates Assad in Syria war crimes

The UN’s human rights chief says an inquiry has produced evidence that war crimes were authorized in Syria at the “highest level,” including by President Bashar al-Assad.

Navi Pillay

It is the first time the UN’s human rights office has so directly implicated Assad.

Commissioner Navi Pillay said her office held a list of others implicated by the inquiry.

The UN’s commission of inquiry into Syria has produced “massive evidence... [of] very serious crimes, war crimes, crimes against humanity,” Ms Pillay said.

“The scale of viciousness of the abuses being perpetrated by elements on both sides almost defies belief," she said.

The evidence indicated responsibility “at the highest level of government, including the head of state,” she added.

The inquiry has also previously reported it has evidence rebel forces in Syria have been guilty of human rights abuses.

However, the investigators have always said the Syrian government appears to be responsible for the majority, and that the systematic nature of the abuse points to government policy.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad was dismissive of Ms Pillay’s remarks.

"She has been talking nonsense for a long time and we don't listen to her," he told AP.

Mekdad was in The Hague at a meeting of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to discuss the effort to destroy Syria's chemical weapons. Mekdad told the BBC's Anna Holligan, Syria needed lorries and armored vehicles to move the chemicals

He told the BBC Syria needed more money and equipment from the international community.

He said Syria needed lorries and armored vehicles to transport chemicals to prevent “terrorists” attacking the vehicles on their way to the port of Latakia, where they will be loaded onto a US naval vessel for destruction.

An OPCW spokesman at the conference told the BBC that any donations of dual-use equipment would be carefully monitored and there would have to be strict guidelines imposed to make sure the machinery could only be used for the purpose of removing the weapons.

Ms Pillay said the UN commission of inquiry had compiled a list of those believed to be directly responsible for serious human rights violations.

It is assumed senior figures in the Syrian military and government are on that list, the BBC's Imogen Foulkes reports from Geneva.

However, the names and specific evidence relating to them remain confidential pending a possible prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

She has previously called on the UN Security Council to refer Syria to the ICC.

Foulkes says Ms Pillay has repeatedly called on the UN Security Council to refer Syria to the ICC, something it has not so far done. Her surprising candor today may be a sign of her impatience.

Syria is not a state party to the ICC and therefore any investigation into the conflict would need to be mandated by the Security Council.

However, Russia and China have a veto on the council and would be highly unlikely to let such a move pass.

Human rights groups say the regime's use of air power often amounts to war crimes

Ms Pillay's statement is a reminder of the severity of the situation in Syria as preparations are made for the Geneva-2 peace conference next month, the BBC correspondent says.

Ms Pillay, a former judge at the ICC, said perpetrators of crimes must face justice.

"Accountability should be key priority of international community, and I want to make this point again and again as the Geneva-2 talks begin," she said. "I reiterate my call to all member states to refer the situation to the ICC."

Both the government and the opposition National Coalition have said they will attend the conference, but the head of the Western-backed rebel Free Syrian Army has said it will continue fighting during the talks.

The National Coalition says it categorically rejects any role for Assad in any transitional government, while the regime has said it is not going to negotiate a "handover of power".

Also on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based activist group that monitors deaths in the conflict, said its estimate of the number of dead had now reached 125,835, more than a third of them civilians.

Almost 28,000 rebel fighters had died, and more than 50,000 on the side of the government, including both regular soldiers and pro-regime militias. The latter figure also includes almost 500 dead from the Lebanese Hezbollah movement and other foreign Shiite militias.

However, it said it believed these figures were an underestimate as both sides were reticent about reporting deaths in their ranks.

BBC/Agencies

Syria monthly death toll at 5,000, says UN

"Sorry, we do not accept natural death cases" (freesyria.tumblr.com)

As at 30 April 2013, at least 93,000 people have been killed in Syria since the start of the conflict, according to new United Nations figures.

This represents a rise of more than 30,000 since the UN last issued numbers covering the period to November 2012.

“The constant flow of killings continues at shockingly high levels -- with more than 5,000 killings documented every month since last July,” from around 1,000 per month in the summer of 2011, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay announced Thursday.

“Unfortunately, as the study indicates, this is most likely a minimum casualty figure. The true number of those killed is potentially much higher,” she said

“This extremely high rate of killings, month after month, reflects the drastically deteriorating pattern of the conflict over the past year,” Pillay said.

Some 82.6 percent of the victims documented so far are male, while 7.6 percent are female. The gender of the victim is not indicated in 9.8 percent of cases.

Nevertheless, “the killings of at least 6,561 minors, including at least 1,729 children under ten years old, have been documented,” the High Commissioner said.

“There are also well-documented cases of individual children being tortured and executed, and entire families, including babies, being massacred – which, along with this devastatingly high death toll, is a terrible reminder of just how vicious this conflict has become.”

While the study stresses the accuracy of geographical patterns may be affected by variable reporting by the different data sources, it shows that the greatest number of documented killings has been recorded in the governorates of:

• Rif Dimashq (17,800)
• Homs (16,400)
• Aleppo (11,900)
• Idlib (10,300)
• Deraa (8,600)
• Hama (8,100)
• Damascus (6,400) and
• Deir Ezzor (5,700)

OHCHR called for an immediate ceasefire "before tens of thousands more people are killed or injured.”

Qusayr gets an FSA boost and a mean Russian blow

Col. Aqidi in Qusayr town center (top), checking trenches (left) and with Hani el-Abdallah

Col. Aqidi checking on wounded Dr. Fayez Matar and with Drs.Saleh (top right) and Qassem

Col. Abdul-Jabbar Aqidi, member of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) Military Council headed by Gen. Salim Idriss, showed up on the frontlines and bombed streets of Qusayr yesterday, saying: “If there’s a will there’s a way” to come into the embattled town.

Aqidi, who is former chief of the Military Council of Aleppo, will presumably assume overall command of opposition forces defending Qusayr, which is under a bloody siege by Syrian troops and Hezbollah guerrillas.

Standing in the devastated town square, he told Hadi el-Abdullah, recognized spokesperson for Qusayr via Skype, he would be staying in the town to defend it.

Aqidi later visited some of the injured in makeshift facilities and talked to a skeleton of medical staff tending to hundreds of people wounded in the onslaught by government forces.

Dr. Fayez Matar is one of the wounded and the remaining medical staff includes Dr. Saleh and Dr. Qassem.

Activists counted 12 airstrikes and two surface-to-surface missiles against Qusayr today.

Russia yesterday blocked a UN Security Council declaration of alarm over the blockade of Qusayr, Security Council diplomats told Reuters.

Britain, president of the 15-nation council, had circulated a draft statement to fellow members voicing "grave concern about the situation in Qusayr, Syria, and in particular the impact on civilians of the ongoing fighting."

Qusayr, near the Syrian-Lebanese border, is usually home to an estimated 30,000 people. Fighting for control of the town has raged for two weeks.

Council statements must be agreed unanimously. Russia blocked the draft text, saying it was "not advisable to speak out as the UN Security Council didn't when Qusayr was taken by the opposition," a council diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Another diplomat confirmed the remarks.

Moscow's move to block the statement highlights the deep chasm between Russia and Western nations on how to deal with the Syria war. Russian diplomats in New York did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Dead children in Qusayr

The draft statement, obtained by Reuters, also urged forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and rebels trying to oust him "to do their utmost to avoid civilian casualties and for the Syrian Government to exercise its responsibility to protect civilians."

It appealed to Assad's government "to allow immediate, full and unimpeded access to impartial humanitarian actors, including UN agencies, to reach civilians trapped in Qusayr."

Diplomats said Russia told council members the best way to deal with Syria was through intensive diplomacy. However, one council diplomat noted that Russia continues to sell weapons to Assad's government.

Moscow and Washington are trying to organize a peace conference in Geneva this month that would involve the government and rebels. There has been wrangling over who should participate in the conference and no date has been set for it.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius suggested today that the conference could take place in July. He said the Syrian government and the opposition must attend what he called "the last chance" for a negotiated solution.

"It's not just about getting round the table and then asking what are we going to talk about. It needs to be prepared. That is why I say that the July date would be suitable," Fabius said.

Both the UN and the Red Cross have issued near simultaneous appeals for immediate access to be granted to Qusayr, where conditions are reported to be desperate.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos and UN human rights head Navi Pillay have all called for the protection of civilians and urged that thousands of trapped residents be allowed to flee the city.

Wounded children in Qusayr

Ban reminded the Damascus government of its responsibility to protect civilians who come under its control, including from the threat of militias. He also called on the warring parties to allow trapped civilians to flee.

In a separate statement later in Saturday, Ms. Amos and Ms. Pillay said they were “extremely alarmed” by reports that there are as many as 1,500 wounded people in the city in urgent need of immediate evacuation for emergency medical treatment.

“The general situation in Qusayr is desperate,” Ms. Amos and Ms. Pillay said based on information they are receiving.

This includes “reports that civilian neighborhoods continue to be indiscriminately attacked, and that other major violations of human rights and international humanitarian law are being committed,” according to the statement.

Activists say escape routes for civilians have become unsafe. They reported this week that Syrian forces attacked a convoy of civilians seeking to flee Qusayr.

In Geneva, the Red Cross expressed alarm over the situation in Qusayr, and appealed for immediate access to deliver aid.

"Civilians and the wounded are at risk of paying an even heavier price as the fighting continues," said the head of ICRC operations in the region, Robert Mardini.

The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the fact both the UN and ICRC have issued urgent statements at the same time is an indication of how desperate they believe the situation has become.

Over 60,000 Syrians killed in conflict, says UN

An exhaustive analysis carried out by data specialists on behalf of the UN Human Rights Office has led to the compilation of a list of 59,648 individuals reported killed in Syria between 15 March 2011 and 30 November 2012, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said today, Wednesday.

“Given there has been no let-up in the conflict since the end of November, we can assume that more than 60,000 people have been killed by the beginning of 2013,” Pillay said. “The number of casualties is much higher than we expected, and is truly shocking.”

The preliminary analysis, which took five months to complete, was conducted using a combined list of 147,349 reported killings, fully identified by the first and last name of the victim, as well as the date and location of the death. Any reported killing that did not include at least these four elements was excluded from the list, which was compiled using datasets from seven different sources, including the Government.

Each reported death was compared to all the other reported deaths in order to identify duplicates. The analysis used manual classifications and a data mining technique called an “alternating decision tree” to identify the duplicate records. After duplicates were removed, the combined dataset was reduced to 59,648 unique records of conflict-related deaths as of 30 November 2012.

“Although this is the most detailed and wide-ranging analysis of casualty figures so far, this is by no means a definitive figure,” the High Commissioner said. “We have not been able to verify the circumstances of each and every death, partly because of the nature of the conflict and partly because we have not been allowed inside Syria since the unrest began in March 2011. Once there is peace in Syria, further investigations will be necessary to discover precisely how many people have died, and in what circumstances, and who was responsible for all the crimes that have been committed. This analysis provides a very useful basis upon which future investigations can be built to enhance accountability and provide justice and reparations to victims' families.”

“This massive loss of life could have been avoided if the Syrian government had chosen to take a different path than one of ruthless suppression of what were initially peaceful and legitimate protests by unarmed civilians,” Pillay said. “As the situation has continued to degenerate, increasing numbers have also been killed by anti-government armed groups, and there has been a proliferation of serious crimes including war crimes, and -- most probably -- crimes against humanity, by both sides. Cities, towns and villages have been, and are continuing to be, devastated by aerial attacks, shelling, tank fire, bomb attacks and street-to-street fighting. In addition, the increasingly sectarian nature of the conflict, highlighted in the recent update by the independent international Commission of Inquiry on Syria, means a swift end to the conflict will be all the more difficult to accomplish.”

The analysts noted that 60,000 is likely to be an underestimate of the actual number of deaths, given that reports containing insufficient information were excluded from the list, and that a significant number of killings may not have been documented at all by any of the seven sources. The recording and collection of accurate and reliable data has grown increasingly challenging due to the conflict raging in many parts of the country.

The analysis -- which the High Commissioner stressed is "a work in progress, not a final product" -- shows a steady increase in the average number of documented deaths per month since the beginning of the conflict, from around 1,000 per month in the summer of 2011 to an average of more than 5,000 per month since July 2012. The greatest numbers of reported killings have occurred in Homs (12,560), rural Damascus (10,862) and Idlib (7,686), followed by Aleppo (6,188), Deraa (6,034) and Hama (5,080).

Over 76% of the victims documented so far are male, while 7.5% are female, according to the analysis. The gender of the victim is not clear in 16.4 percent of cases. The analysis was not able to differentiate clearly between combatants and non-combatants.

“While many details remain unclear, there can be no justification for the massive scale of the killing highlighted by this analysis,” the High Commissioner said. “Unless there is a quick resolution to the conflict, I fear thousands more will die or suffer terrible injuries as a result of those who harbor the obstinate belief that something can be achieved by more bloodshed, more torture and more mindless destruction. Those people carrying out these serious crimes should understand that they would one day be brought to justice. The case against them will only be strengthened by adding more crimes to those already committed.”

“The failure of the international community, in particular the Security Council, to take concrete actions to stop the blood-letting, shames us all,” Pillay said. “For almost two years now, my staff and the staff of the independent Commission of Inquiry have been interviewing Syrians inside and outside the country, listening to their stories and gathering evidence. We have been repeatedly asked, ‘Where is the international community? Why aren't you acting to stop this slaughter?’ We have no satisfactory answer to those questions. Collectively, we have fiddled at the edges while Syria burns.”

The High Commissioner also called for serious preparations to restore law and order when the conflict comes to a halt. “We must not compound the existing disaster by failing to prepare for the inevitable – and very dangerous – instability that will occur when the conflict ends,” she said. “Serious planning needs to get under way immediately, not just to provide humanitarian aid to all those who need it, but to protect all Syrian citizens from extra-judicial reprisals and acts of revenge and discrimination. Investment in a massive stabilization effort will cost far less than decades of instability and lawlessness such as those that have afflicted Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and several other states where the transition from dictatorship and conflict to democracy was given insufficient support.”

See also the “Preliminary Statistical Analysis of Documentation of Killings in the Syrian Arab Republic”

UN chief on Iran, Assad, Mubarak and Saleh

Raghida Dergham

UN chief Ban Ki-moon says assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists are “terrorist deeds,” adding: “Any assassination of civilians or scientists should be condemned and spurned to uphold human rights.”

Raghida Dergham, U.S.-based senior diplomatic correspondent for pan-Arab daily al-Hayat, today quotes the secretary-general as telling her on the plane from New York to Beirut:

• “The onus is on Iran to prove its nuclear program is in truth for peaceful purposes. They have to prove and substantiate this.”
• Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani told me at our last meeting in New York he would be coming back “together with Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby to brief the Security Council (presumably about the Syria observer mission).” Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “will next week begin to train” Arab observers to Syria. My coordination with Elaraby is ongoing. “I cooperate with him closely and continuously. We consult on how best the UN and Arab League can address this matter.”
• Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “lost his legitimacy and should stop killing his people… And he has to initiate bold reform measures before it is too late,” since “there’s always room for redress so civil war in Syria does not become inevitable.”
• “The current situation in Syria could have serious repercussions on peace and stability in Lebanon.”
• “As a matter of principle,” I would not endorse the call (by prosecutors and civil rights lawyers) for a death sentence for Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak. "The United Nations passed a resolution” declaring a global moratorium on capital punishment.
• Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh “should fully implement the commitment he made to his people alongside the Gulf Cooperation Council.”