Post date: Jun 04, 2013 2:23:37 PM
As independent investigators present a report condemning human rights abuses on both sides of Syria's civil war, the country's representative to the U.N.'s human rights council questions its neutrality.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (JUNE 4, 2013) (REUTERS) - Independent U.N. human rights investigators condemned a worsening humanitarian "catastrophe" in a report published on Tuesday (June 4), amid accusations of bias from allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In the report, investigators said they had "reasonable grounds" to believe that limited amounts of chemical weapons had been used in Syria and said the international community could not sit by and observe the "catastrophe"."Crimes that shock the conscience have become a daily reality. Humanity has been the casualty of this war. Syria needs not a military surge, Syria needs a diplomatic surge. We cannot continue to stand idly by and watch this catastrophe unfold," Paulo Pinheiro, who chairs the U.N. commission of inquiry, said as he presented the report in Geneva.
He called on states which might have an influence over the parties involved in the conflict to weigh in to help protect civilians.
Listening to his address, the Russian ambassador to the council Alexey Borodavkinexpressed doubts about the neutrality of the report.
Whilst he welcomed the fact that investigators had recognised human rights abuses on the part of Syrian rebels, including the use of child soldiers, he said it laid the blame too firmly at the door of President Bashar al-Assad and his government.
"The authors of the report were not able to take an impartial position. Together with objective assessments in the report, there are a number of politically biased statements. In particular, we cannot agree with the fact that the main fault for the ongoing violence in Syria is laid exclusively upon Damascus," he said.
But elsewhere in the chamber, U.S. representative Eileen Chamberlain said it was the Syrian government who started the war when it fired on protesters demonstrating against the regime, a fact that should not be forgotten.
"We reiterate our call, united with the Syrian people, and members of the international community, for an immediate end to all violations and abuses, but especially the Assad regime's egregious, widespread and continued violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. The bloodshed must end," she said.
The U.N. rights team of more than 20 investigators conducted 430 interviews from January 15 to May 15 among refugees in neighbouring countries and by Skypewith people still in Syria.
But findings remained inconclusive and it was vital that a separate team of experts be given full access to Syria to collect samples from victims and sites of alleged attacks, the rights investigators said.
For the past two weeks, Syrian government forces have laid siege to the border town of Qusair where aid agencies say hundreds of wounded and other civilians are trapped in dire conditions.
Syrian rebels and allied foreign militants have murdered civilians as well as captured soldiers, often after "show trials" in an increasingly sectarian conflict, the report said.
Despite criticism of the rebels, Syria's envoy Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui said the report was selective.
"There are positive points and negative points, as every time. But there are many more negative points than positive ones," he told Reuters.