A UN list
of senior Syrian officials who should face investigation is reported to include
the president, Bashar al-Assad
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Burning buildings in Baba Amr, Homs, an area heavily shelled by the
Syrian regime. Photograph: Local Co-ordination Committees/EPA
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The UN has
accused the Syrian regime of "crimes against humanity" – including
the use of snipers against small children – and has drawn up a list of senior
officials who should face investigation, reportedly including President Basharal-Assad.
The UN
report was delivered as two journalists injured in the attack that killed
Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Rémi Ochlik issued
dramatic appeals to be evacuated from the besieged city of Homs, where they are
trapped.
Western
officials urged Damascus to give immediate humanitarian access to trapped civilian
populations in Homs and elsewhere, including the evacuation of the western
journalists, but said the lack of a security council mandate meant they were
powerless to provide assistance without the regime's permission.
The UN
report found evidence that "army snipers and Shabbiha gunmen [from
pro-Assad militias] posted at strategic points terrorised the population,
targeting and killing small children, women and other unarmed civilians.
Fragmentation mortar bombs were also fired into densely populated
neighbourhoods."
It said:
"Security agencies continued to systematically arrest wounded patients in
state hospitals and to interrogate them, often using torture, about their
supposed participation in opposition demonstrations or armed activities."
The list of
Syrian regime officials claimed to be involved in the crackdown will remain
sealed until the alleged crimes can be investigated by an international human
rights court. Such an investigation has so far been blocked by Russian and
Chinese UN security council vetoes of concerted international action against
the Damascus regime.
One
commissioner who helped draw up the UN report, Yakin Ertürk, said: "All
the crimes we listed came from several consistent witness accounts and showed
systematic abuses."
She said
the list of the named top officials believed to be involved had been kept
sealed because "we are not a court. We could not investigate and sentence
like a court.
"So it
has been deposited with the UN high commissioner for human rights. When and if
these incidents are investigated by a court, it will be made available and
provide an input into the investigation."
The UN
inquiry said it found "a reliable body of evidence" implicating
"commanding officers and officials at the highest levels of
government" in the commission of "crimes against humanity and other
gross human rights violations". Although no names were released, Assad was
reported to be top of the list.
The report
also says rebel groups, known collectively as the Free Syrian Army, have
committed torture and extra-judicial executions, but argues those violations
are in no way "comparable in scale and organisation" to the abuses
being carried out by the Assad regime, which have led to thousands of deaths.
"I am appalled
by the evidence that young children are being targeted by snipers, and that
security forces continue to arrest and torture wounded patients in state
hospitals," said Alistair Burt, the Foreign Office minister for the Middle
East.
"I am
also very concerned at evidence of abuses by the Free Syrian Army, though the
report makes clear these are on a far smaller scale than the widespread and
systematic violations by the Syrian authorities. I call on all Syrians to
respect human rights standards, end the violence immediately and ensure neutral
and impartial access for humanitarian organisations to deliver desperately
needed supplies and medical care. "
Speaking in
London, on the sidelines of a conference on Somalia, the French foreign
minister, Alain Juppé, warned that the Assad regime would be held accountable
for its crimes "one day or another". He said: "With every
passing day it gets more revolting, scandalous and shameful. The regime is
massacring its people."
The
minister said he had received reports that the Syrian government had ordered
the governor of Homs to lift the siege on the rebel-held parts of the city, but
said he could not confirm the news. He said a meeting of the Friends of Syria
group in Tunis would demand a ceasefire and for humanitarian access to be
allowed to besieged civilians, but he warned the international community could
not force its way in.
"There
is no military option at the moment on the table," Juppé said. "We
are hugely frustrated. I can understand the sense of impotence. The dead are
piling up. I can't say it's anything but a very deep source of anguish for me.
We are doing everything we can, but we can't break the rules and act without
the approval of the UN security council."
Syrian
forces continued their onslaught against opposition strongholds throughout the
country, with heavy artillery barrages against Baba Amr, the district of Homs
where Colvin and Ochlik were killed.
Opposition
activist Omar Shaker told the Associated Press that food, water and medical
supplies were running dangerously low. "Every minute counts. People will
soon start to collapse from lack of sleep and shortages in food," he said.
In a
separate incident, opposition activists reported that government forces had
lined up and shot dead 13 men and boys from one extended family in the village
of Kfartoun in Hama province.
Chinese and
Russian vetoes have complicated the international response to the humanitarian
disaster unfolding in Homs and other Syrian cities in the line of fire as
Assad's forces seek to liquidate rebel strongholds.
Western and
Arab leaders will meet in Tunis on Friday, without Russian or Chinese
participation, in an attempt to unify the opposition to the regime, increase
pressure for a ceasefire and prepare humanitarian relief.
The latest
developments come amid strong indications that UK and US officials are working
behind the scenes to attempt to unify Syria's fractured opposition.
Earlier
this week the International Committee of the Red Cross called for temporary
ceasefires so it could reach those trapped and wounded in the worst-affected
areas.
The UN
panel was denied entry to Syria by the government, which accused it of ignoring
official information and exceeding its mandate.
The panel
instead gathered much of its information from sources outside the country,
including human rights activists and Syrian army defectors.
The report
claims the ruling Ba'ath party's national security bureau was responsible for
translating government policies into military operations that led to the
systematic arrest or killing of civilians.
It says the
four main intelligence and security agencies reporting directly to Assad –
military intelligence, air force intelligence, the general intelligence
directorate and the political security directorate – "were at the heart of
almost all operations".
The report
details how businessmen helped hire and arm informal pro-government militias known
as the Shabbiha.
"In a
number of operations, the commission documented how Shabbiha members were
strategically employed to commit crimes against humanity and other gross
violations," it said.
The report
also identifies 38 detention centres "for which the commission documented
cases of torture and ill-treatment since March 2011".
UN list
A panel of
United Nations investigators has accused regime officials "at the highest
level" of human rights violations which could subject them to prosecution.
The UN
report accuses the regime of systemic attacks on the political opposition,
human rights defenders and the media. It also alleges there have been
widespread patterns of arbitrary arrests, disappearances and abductions.
The names
on the UN list are as yet confidential but they are likely to include the
following leading members of Syria's formidable security apparatus, who are
alleged to have played prominent roles in the crackdown.
Major
General Jumah Al-Ahmad
The
commander of Syria's special forces and one of the most influential figures in
the country's military. His unit is alleged to have played a key role
disrupting rights protests with lethal force across the country.
Colonel
Lu'ai Al-Ali
Head of
Syrian military intelligence in Dera'a. The south-western city near the border
with Jordan was the birthplace of the Syrian uprising last March. Violence
started when troops opened fire on demonstrators who had gathered to protest
against the detention of children who had been accused of writing graffiti on
town walls. Dera'a remained a hub of dissent and regime-led violence throughout
last summer.
Lt General
Ali Abdullah Ayyub
The deputy
chief of general staff (personnel and manpower), who is the officer primarily
responsible for moving military forces around Syria. He is seen as a logistical
key to the crackdown.
Lt General
Jasim Al-Furay
The chief
of general staff and one of the most trusted advisers to President Bashar
al-Assad. He has supervisory oversight across all of Syria's military operations
and is a key strategist and tactician.
General Aous Aslan
The head of
a battalion in the Republican Guard. He is also a key adviser to Assad and to
his brother, Maher al-Assad, who directs the fourth division of the Syrian
Army, the unit that has been at the frontline of most of the country's
flashpoint areas, particularly Dera'a, Homs and Hama.
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