UN rights body orders Syria crackdown probe

[News_Editor]

UN rights body orders Syria crackdown probe

2011-08-24 18:13:13 GMT+7 (ICT)

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (BNO NEWS) -- The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has called for an immediate ceasefire in Syria and ordered an inquiry to investigate alleged abuses committed during the Government's crackdown on protesters.

The resolution was adopted at the end of a two-day special session during which UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay presented the Report of the Fact-finding Mission on Syria, previously requested by the Council and released on Thursday.

The report, which investigated events from March 15 to July 15, outlined a series of Government abuses ranging from murder, enforces disappearances, deprivation of liberty and the torture even of children to an apparent "shoot-to-kill" policy against protesters with snipers posted on rooftops and air power.

By a vote of 33 in favor to 4 against, with 9 abstentions, the Human Rights Council welcomed the report and expressed profound concern about its findings while strongly condemning the "continued grave and systematic human rights violations by the Syrian authorities."

The probe, led by an independent international commission, will investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law since March 2011, and establish the facts and circumstances that may amount to such abuses.

The inquiry will also, where possible, identify those responsible with a view of ensuring that perpetrators of violations, including those which may constitute crimes against humanity, are held accountable. The UN Human Rights resolution requests that the report of the commission of inquiry be made public as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, a UN humanitarian team, led by Rashid Khalikov, the director of the Geneva office of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), is currently in Syria to assess food and medicine needs among the civilian population.

At least 2,200 people have been killed and tens of thousands have been arrested since pro-democracy demonstrations began in Syria in mid-March as part of a broader uprising across North Africa and the Middle East that has led to the toppling of entrenched regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and conflict in Libya.

The Syrian government has repeatedly claimed that the violent acts have been instigated by terrorists who use military uniforms and weaponry to pose as soldiers while attacking citizens but these claims have been rejected by residents, human rights groups, and the international community.

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