"Au cours des deux dernières semaines, nous avons reçu des rapports faisant état d'une multiplication des exécutions de masse de civils et de combattants ne participant plus aux hostilités à Alep, Idlib et Raqqa par des groupes d'opposition armés extrémistes", a indiqué Mme Pillay.
Elle a également averti les responsables qu'il s'agissait de crimes de guerre.
Selon la Haut-commissaire, la plupart des exécutions ont été perpétrées par des membres du groupe Etat islamique en Irak et au Levant associé avec Al-Qaïda.
Selon les estimations de l'Onu, depuis mars 2011, le conflit syrien a fait plus de 115.000 morts, tandis que plus de 13 millions de personnes ont dû quitter leurs domiciles.
http://fr.ria.ru/world/20140116/200234195.html
16/1/14
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Outrage at Syrian rebel shown 'eating soldier's heart'
Syrie: les rebelles accusés par une ONG de dizaines d'exécutions de civils...
- Syria rebels executed 67 Alawite villagers: Human Rights Watch...
- Syria: soaring number of executions in violation of international law – Pillay
GENEVA (16 January 2014) – As reports continued to emerge of a succession of mass executions in northern Syria, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Thursday warned armed opposition groups that executions and unlawful killings are in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes.
“In the past two weeks, we have received reports of a succession of mass executions of civilians and fighters who were no longer participating in hostilities in Aleppo, Idlib and Raqqa by hardline armed opposition groups in Syria, in particular by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS),” the High Commissioner said.
“While exact numbers are difficult to verify, reliable eyewitness testimony that we have gathered suggests that many civilians and fighters in the custody of extremist armed opposition groups have been executed since the beginning of this year.”
Reports suggest that in the first week of January, numerous individuals were executed in Idlib by armed opposition groups. On 6 January, in Aleppo, three individuals who had reportedly been held by ISIS at its base in Makhfar al-Saleheen were found dead, handcuffed, with bullet wounds in their heads. On 8 January, in Aleppo, numerous bodies, again mostly handcuffed and blindfolded, were found in a Children’s Hospital which had been used as a base by ISIS until it was forced to withdraw after a raid by other armed opposition groups. An eyewitness interviewed by the UN Human Rights Office identified at least four local media activists among the dead, as well as captured fighters affiliated with various armed opposition groups.
“Information from Raqqa has been more difficult to verify, but there are deeply disturbing reports emerging of mass executions by ISIS when the group withdrew from Raqqa at the beginning of this month, and when it regained control earlier this week,” Pillay said.
Pillay reminded all parties to the conflict that international law prohibits violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment, and torture at any time and under all circumstances. Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions states that “persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely.”
- “Recent incidents suggest that some armed opposition groups are carrying out executions when they are forced to abandon their bases and leave behind individuals in their custody,” Pillay said.
The High Commissioner reiterated her call on all parties to the conflict to treat individuals held in their custody with humanity and to immediately release all those who are deprived of their liberty in violation of international law.
“I further urge all parties to the conflict to strictly respect their obligations under international law and remind them that everyone involved in serious crimes must be held accountable,” Pillay said.
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/Media.aspx?IsMediaPage=true&LangID=E
16/1/14
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Rising number of mass executions may amount to war crimes, senior UN official warns...
ReplyDelete16 January 2014 – The United Nations human rights chief today warned armed opposition groups in Syria that executions and unlawful killings violate international law and may amount to war crimes, as reports continue to emerge of mass executions in the northern part of the strife-torn nation.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a news release that it has received reports in the past two weeks of a succession of mass executions of civilians and fighters who were no longer participating in hostilities in Aleppo, Idlib and Raqqa by hardline armed opposition groups in Syria, in particular by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“While exact numbers are difficult to verify, reliable eyewitness testimony that we have gathered suggests that many civilians and fighters in the custody of extremist armed opposition groups have been executed since the beginning of this year,” said High Commissioner Navi Pillay. ......http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=46939&Cr=Syria&Cr1=#.UtgCV_sUpqg
16/1/14
UN documents war crimes on both rebel and govt side as Syria crisis persists...
ReplyDeleteMore tortures and murders, committed by both the rebels and government forces, were revealed by UN war crimes specialists in Syria. The UN believes these crimes could successfully be taken up by the International Criminal Court.
A fourth and confidential list of war crimes suspects has been compiled since July, said Karen Koning AbuZayd, an American expert serving on the UN independent commission of inquiry.
In particular, foreign insurgents in Syria have their "own agenda", she stated, which includes founding sharia courts that hand down sentences and carry them out on the spot.
"Civil wars can be pretty bad, but people coming in from outside with radical agendas really don't give a damn what they do to things or people in that wonderful country that Syria was," AbuZayd told Reuters.
In September, the UN specialists said that the militants stepped up killings, executions and abuses in the north.
"Since there is tension between and among the various opposition groups, we're getting more information about opposition groups from other opposition groups. So there is more information on both sides now," AbuZayd pointed out.
Russia has warned about the insurgents’ actions many times. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told RT, in an exclusive interview, that the militant groups only worsen the plight of the war-torn country.
“In reality the humanitarian crisis is getting worse mostly because of the militants, because of those groups which many countries have officially recognized as extremist and terrorist. So we do need to address humanitarian issues, but instead of fighting symptoms we should root out the cause of the crisis,” Lavrov said. “And the root cause of the crisis is that the terrorist threat is extremely serious in Syria today.”
“Another concern is that we see among the rebels an increasing number of jihadists who pursue extremist objectives. They want to set up a caliphate and impose sharia laws, and basically they are already terrorizing minorities,” he added.
In December, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said that evidence collected by the investigators implicates President Bashar Assad. But she later denied that she had direct knowledge of the report.
AbuZayd only said the lists went up to "higher levels" of the Syrian government, but did not elaborate.
On the other hand, the UN experts could not so far confirm earlier reports by CNN and the Guardian, implicating Assad’s government in the torture and deaths of about 11,000 detainees. The news outlets said they possessed some 55,000 pictures, allegedly taken by a Syrian military police photographer, showing the mutilated bodies of the purported victims.
"For us of course it is also a single source, which we wouldn't use because it is only a single source," AbuZayd stressed.
All in all, the researchers’ team of more than 20 investigators interviewed 500 refugees, defectors and people still in Syria since July, bringing the total number of testimonies gathered to 2,600 since September 2011, Reuters reported..............http://rt.com/news/un-syria-war-crimes-195/
25/1/14