كونا : Pillay recommends to UNSC to urgently refer Syrian situation to ICC - الشؤون السياسية - 13/12/2011

كونا : Pillay recommends to UNSC to urgently refer Syrian situation to ICC - الشؤون السياسية - 13/12/2011

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Pillay recommends to UNSC to urgently refer Syrian situation to ICC
Politics 12/13/2011 9:15:00 AM

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 13 (KUNA) -- The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay late Monday recommended to the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
"I encouraged this Council (last August) to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court. Four months later, the situation in Syria has deteriorated and gross violations have been committed with impunity. The need for international criminal accountability has acquired ever greater urgency," Pillay told the Council according to a prepared speech she delivered in a Council closed-door session.
She told the Council that "it is my estimation that the total number of people killed since the protests began earlier this year is now close to 5, 000. This situation is intolerable." She also said that the "widespread and systematic human rights violations have intensified. (I) believe crimes against humanity have been committed in Syria," indicating that more than 14,000 are reported to be in detention, and at least 12,400 people have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.
"Inaction by the international community will embolden Syrian authorities, and ensure perpetrators go unpunished," she warned.
She later told reporters that based on the "reliable information" she has and evidence of widespread and systematic nature of the killings, detentions and torture, "I felt that these actions constitute crimes against humanity and I recommended that there should be a referral to the ICC." Rice said in a statement distributed by the US Mission that Pillay's briefing "underscores the urgency of the present moment. Let there be no doubt: Assad's days in power are numbered. The question is how many more Syrians-such as 13-year-old Hamza Khatib, who was tortured and murdered in April-must be beaten, killed or raped before Assad leaves office." She noted that the international community and international bodies are starting to match their severe disapproval of Syria's bloody crackdown with "concrete steps to bring it to an end. It is past time for the UN Security Council to do the same." Following Pillay's briefing, the representatives of France, US, UK, Germany and Portugal stood together to express to reporters their outrage at the crimes being committed by the Syrian regime.
US Deputy Permanent Representative Rosemary A. DiCarlo told reporters "we heard a very troubling briefing from Commissioner Pillay today. It's very clear from her briefing that we've got a human rights crisis in Syria that is also a threat to international peace and security." "We find it unconscionable that the Security Council has not spoken out on this issue in recent months given everything that has happened. We really need to see the Security Council on the right side of history here, to stand with the Syrian people," she noted. British Ambassador Mark Lyall-Grant described to reporters Pillay's briefing as "really distressing. It was the most horrifying briefing that we've had in the Security Council (in general) over the last two years." "We believe now that the Security Council needs to take action," he said, adding that there are a number of Arab League meetings coming up in the next few days, and "we are having consultations with members of the Arab League leaders, both in capitals and here in New York, and in the light of those consultations we shall decide what next steps to take in the Security Council." German Ambassador Peter Wittig told reporters "We are shocked and appalled" by the Pillay's assessment, expressing "fear that there is something being built up in Homs: that the government is planning an additional crackdown in Homs - and we are very worried about it." This crisis, he stressed, transcends internal affairs, it is a "regional crisis of a serious magnitude. Now the Security Council is asked to respond and to embrace what the Arab League has done. It should not be allowed to fall back behind what the regional organisation has said and demanded." French Ambassador Gerard Araud told reporters that the Council's silence on Syria is "scandalous" and that the Council is "morally responsible" for what is happening in Syria.
In an indirect reference to Russia and China which vetoed a Council resolution on Syria in October because they were afraid of the Libyan scenario, Araud told reporters "that's a ploy. They know that nobody, no country has the intension to intervene militarily in Syria." Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters "there is more in the Council that unites us than what divides us. We're all united by the fact that we are greatly troubled by the tragic developments in Syria in the past few months, and we would like that to stop." However, he accused Council western members of seeking a regime change in Syria. "This is dangerous," he said.
If things were allowed to degenerate into that direction, of further provocation, of fanning further confrontation, then may be hundreds of thousands (will be) dead, as we have seen in a neighbouring country to Syria where regime change ensued dramatic catastrophe of monumental proportions which is not fully overcome yet even now," he said, in an indirect reference to Iraq.
"Most importantly," he warned, "this push towards civil war (in Syria) must be reverted. If this were to continue by various influential players, pushing also the Arab League in that direction, that would have catastrophic consequences for the country." Syria's Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari told reporters that Pillay trespassed her mandate, violated her tasks and dishonored her office, because she came to brief the Council and "fell in the trap of politization of the issue of Human Rights." He said her briefing to the Council was a "huge conspiracy concocted against Syria since the beginning." Pillay's briefing to the Council was under the item "the situation in the Middle East." She did not brief on the Israeli violations of the Palestinians' human rights in the occupied territory, as it had been expected, but told the Council she would be happy to answer any questions on the issue.
She avoided answering a question by a reporter on whether she would recommend to the Council to refer the Israeli issue to the ICC, saying simply "I would support ICC investigating every serious situation where serious crimes may have occurred." Lyall-Grant described Lebanese, Russian and other Council members' insistence on having Pillay brief on the Israeli violations as a "very transparent ploy by those countries that did not want to hear Ms. Pillay's briefing on Syria. There has never been a request for her to come and brief on Palestine before. If there was, that would not cause the British Government any problems at all." "Indeed, the new found enthusiasm on the part of some of our colleagues who have traditionally opposed any briefing by the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Security Council seems now to have ended, and I would certainly anticipate that Ms. Pillay will be invited a number of times back to the Security Council to brief on Human Rights in a number of places across the world in the future," he said, in an indirect reference to Russia and China which do not want the Council to be briefed about human rights violations in their countries or in the countries of their allies. (end) sj.rk KUNA 130915 Dec 11NNNN


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