UN compiles Syria crimes investigation list
Latest in Middle East
Related articles
On Facebook
From the blogs
The Photography Blog: Rise of the smartphone, but smart photography too?
Assuming Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t got his sums wrong, the market for smartphone photography is booming...
Top of the posts: Breastfeeding, vegetarians and photography
The top blogs from the past week, as determined by stats.
The age old classic of a drunken rant – immortalised on the internet
We’ve all been there at some point in our lives. You wake up on the morning after with a big black h...
Are you Mom Enough? Putting parenting choices under the microscope
Much ink has already been spilled on the recent, controversial, TIME magazine cover which features a...
The United Nations has a secret list of top Syrian officials who could face investigation for crimes against humanity carried out by security forces in their crackdown against an anti-government uprising, a panel of UN human rights experts said.
The UN experts indicated that the list goes as high as President Bashar Assad.
Thousands of Syrians have died in the violence since March and the panel, citing what it called a reliable source, said at least 500 children are among the dead.
"A reliable body of evidence exists that, consistent with other verified circumstances, provides reasonable grounds to believe that particular individuals, including commanding officers and officials at the highest levels of government, bear responsibility for crimes against humanity and other gross human rights violations," said the report by the UN-appointed Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria.
It added: "The commission has deposited with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights a sealed envelope containing the names of these people, which might assist future credible investigations by competent authorities."
It does not say who these investigating authorities might be, but the UN's top human rights official has previously called for Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Members of the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council are expected to hold a special meeting on Syria in Geneva next week, at which the panel's report will be presented.
The panel, led by Brazilian professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, said its list also identifies some armed opposition cells thought to have committed gross abuses.
International pressure has been building on Assad's government to halt its violent suppression of the 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.
But human rights groups say the violence is only increasing, with dozens dying every day from government shelling of cities like Homs, a rebel stronghold.
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 that the ruling Baath 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".
Armed opposition groups, loosely connected under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army, also committed some gross human rights abuses, the panel said. It cited the torture and execution of soldiers or suspected pro-government militia members.
But such actions were "not comparable in scale and organisation with those carried out by the state", it added.
- 1 High-flyers turn hunger strikers after Dubai desert dream ends in jail
- 2 News in pictures
- 3 Evidence in Trayvon shooting indicates killer was badly beaten
- 4 In pictures: The bewildering face of China
- 5 Capitalism at a crossroads
- 6 Spain crisis rocks Europe as Moody's downgrades banks including Santander
- 7 Ten adverts that shocked the world
- 8 Frog found in supermarket asparagus
- 9 ‘All we want to do is work, to be able to support ourselves. But thanks to the rich being greedy, we can’t even have that’
- 10 Briton arrested in Thailand after being found with six roasted human foetuses
- 1 Man enough to be a woman and still rock'n'rolling
- 2 Batman: Arkham City gets Harley Quinn’s Revenge Trailer
- 3 Philip Hensher: Will nobody mourn the death of classical music?
- 4 Portugal 'sells' Ronaldo to Spain in £160m deal on national debt
- 5 Is this the end of meat?
- 6 Owen Jones: Hatred of those on benefits is dangerously out of control
- 7 Briton arrested in Thailand after being found with six roasted human foetuses
- 8 QPR captain Joey Barton threatens to 'expose' Gary Lineker and says of Match of the Day pundit Alan Shearer - 'I despise him'
- 9 French in uproar over oral sex anti-smoking posters
- 10 Coke reveals its secret: It may need to carry a cancer warning
Experience the Heineken Hub
Get free wi-fi and exclusive i content while you enjoy a tasty pint of Heineken at participating pubs.
Can you imagine a career in teaching?
Be inspired to teach - let real teachers show you how rewarding the job can be.
Keeping pace with the London 2012 Games
Cisco is providing the solutions for London 2012's complex IT needs.
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page
Pathetic fantasist or Nazi spy? The mysterious Mrs O'Grady
Patrick Cockburn: Goodbye to recent delusions...
Can Hollande live down the rain on his parade?
All-action gals... just like mother


