International
A U.N. panel said Thursday it believes the Syrian government is committing a crime against humanity by making people, most of them young men, systematically vanish, and that rebels have also recently begun making their opponents disappear.
The expert panel said it found "a consistent country-wide pattern" of Syrian security, armed forces and pro-government militia seizing people in mass arrests or house searches and at checkpoints and hospitals, then making them disappear — and denying that the people exist.
The disappearances are "part of a widespread campaign of terror against the civilian population," and amount to a crime against humanity, the U.N. Syria war crimes panel, chaired by Brazilian diplomat and scholar Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, reported. The panel pressed Syria's government to provide information on the whereabouts of missing individuals and called on both sides to stop the practice.
The U.N. panel didn't quantify the phenomenon, but said the accounts it has received "only hint at the scope of the crisis ... and the state of fear in which ordinary citizens live." Among the cases were a 60-year-old woman put in Homs prison for asking about her missing son, and the brother of a peaceful protester taken in a house raid by political security agents.
The report written by four commission members said that rebel groups, such as the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), that control large parts of northern Syria also have begun seizing people and running secret prisons.
It said the opposition's abductions of human rights advocates, journalists, activists, humanitarian workers, religious leaders and perceived supporters of President Bashar al-Assad's government usually differ because the victims tend to be taken as hostages for ransom or prisoner exchanges, and their existence isn't concealed.
In recent months, however, the opposition groups have also begun adopting the government's practice of making people vanish.
Amnesty International also reported Thursday, based on interviews with former detainees, that the ISIL has "ruthlessly flouted the rights of local people" at secret prisons in northern Syria at which torture and summary killings are common.
In an 18-page report, the Britain-based international human rights group said children as young as eight are held along with adults in seven ISIS-run detention facilities in Syria's Aleppo and Raqqa provinces. Many are held for challenging ISIS's rule, crimes like theft or for committing purported "crimes against Islam" such as smoking cigarettes.
Syrian human rights monitors have said the number of those gone without a trace is in the thousands, and the targets often are doctors, aid workers, lawyers and other peaceful regime opponents.
As human rights groups and international organizations continue to document the abuses stemming from the Syrian civil war, political efforts to find a solution to the almost three-year-old conflict continued yesterday.
On Thursday that came in the form of a rare Russian rebuke of its stalwart Syrian ally.
A Russian diplomat signaled that Assad should refrain from statements suggesting he might seek re-election because it could fuel tension before planned peace talks.
Russia has been Assad's most important international ally during Syria's civil war, but the remarks by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov to Interfax news agency appeared to be a rare public criticism of Assad by Moscow.
Assad has publicly said that he has no intention of quitting, despite pressure to do so from the U.S. and rebels fighting government forces.
"Such rhetorical statements affect the atmosphere and do not make the situation any calmer," Bogdanov was quoted as saying.
Looking ahead to an international peace conference on Syria planned for next month in Geneva, he said: "Our position is that ahead of the start of negotiations, there should be no remarks that could displease anyone or provoke emotions and a response. They should rather be avoided."
Russia has blocked Western-backed efforts to condemn Assad at the U.N. Security Council or to push him out of power. Moscow says it is not trying to prop up Assad but that his departure cannot be a precondition for peace moves.
A new wrinkle on Thursday added to the complications of pulling off January’s peace conference: Syrian Kurds demanding their own delegation separate from both the government and opposition, Kurdish political leaders said.
The Kurds say they need independent representation because their demands in negotiations over Syria's future are distinct from those of the government or the opposition Syrian National Coalition, which seeks to end Assad's rule.
"The (Syrian National) Coalition are no different from Assad's Baath party rule when it comes to their position on the Kurds. They do not recognize the rights of Kurds to live on their land with recognition of their basic rights, including the right to administer their own region," said Abdelsalam Ahmed, a leading figure in the Democratic Union Party (PYD).
According to Reuters, Kurdish leaders called their demand for a united delegation a positive step toward healing rifts and strengthening the Kurdish position in Syria.
Al Jazeera and wire services
Error
Sorry, your comment was not saved due to a technical problem. Please try again later or using a different browser.