Tag: geneva conference
Photos May Provide Evidence Of Torture, Killing Of Syria Detainees

Photos May Provide Evidence Of Torture, Killing Of Syria Detainees

By Raja Abdulrahim, Los Angeles Times

With peace talks due to begin this week in Switzerland, a report lays out new evidence that the Syrian government engaged in the “systematic torture and killing” of detainees that it says could support charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

A team of legal and forensics experts, including three lawyers with experience prosecuting war crimes in Sierra Leone and the former Yugoslavia, was asked by a London law firm acting on behalf of Qatar to review about 55,000 images said to show bodies of people who died in Syrian custody.

Their findings, contained in a 31-page report, were made available to CNN and Britain’s Guardian newspaper, along with the United Nations, international governments and human rights groups.

The inquiry team concluded that the images document the deaths of about 11,000 people and show evidence of binding, beatings, burns, strangulation and other assaults, including injuries that would not have occurred as a result of armed combat. There are also photographs of severely emaciated bodies and bodies with no eyes.

Many of the disturbing images were said to have been smuggled out of Syria by a defector from the military police, code-named “Caesar” in the report for his safety. The investigators, who said they approached the task of verifying Caesar’s evidence with some skepticism, noted that he did not claim to have witnessed torture or killings himself, which they argued added to the credibility of his account.

Caesar told the inquiry that his job before the war was to photograph crime and accident scenes. But once the uprising began in 2011, leading to the arrest of thousands of people, it was his job to photograph bodies that were taken from detention facilities to a military hospital.

The photographs were taken so that death certificates could be prepared without families seeing the bodies, thus avoiding questions about how the victims died, he was quoted as saying in the report. Documentation was also needed to satisfy authorities that orders to execute detainees had been carried out, he said.

“In the view of the inquiry team, the need to photograph those who were killed is a strong pointer to the fact that the killings were systematic, ordered and directed from above,” the report said.

The authors — Desmond de Silva, a former chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone; Geoffrey Nice, former lead prosecutor of the late Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic at an international criminal tribunal; and David Crane, who indicted former Liberian President Charles Taylor at the Sierra Leone court — concluded that the material reviewed was evidence of crimes against humanity by the Syrian government and might also support findings of war crimes.

“This report offers further evidence of the systematic violence and brutality being visited upon the people of Syria by the Assad regime,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague was quoted as saying by the Guardian. “We will continue to press for action on all human rights violations in Syria, and for accountability for those who perpetrate them.”

The Syrian government denies allegations of abuse. A spokesman for the Syrian Information Ministry, Bassam Abu Abdullah, questioned the provenance of the photographs, telling the BBC that the investigators should be interviewing Qatar, which paid for the report and has provided support to rebels fighting the government of President Bashar Assad.

The findings, first reported by CNN and the Guardian on Monday, were released ahead of the so-called Geneva II peace conference, which begins Wednesday in the Swiss city of Montreux. The conference aims to find a peaceful resolution to nearly three years of conflict, although expectations are low, especially as fierce fighting continues in Syria.

The United Nations and international human rights groups have documented abuses by both sides in the war.

In its annual World Report released Tuesday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch highlighted the “unchecked slaughter of civilians in Syria.” The rights group accused Russia, which is backed by China, of protecting the Syrian government from U.N. action, such as an arms embargo or referral to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

“As the Geneva II peace talks begin, with uncertain prospects of success, they shouldn’t become the latest excuse to avoid action to protect Syrian civilians,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “This requires real pressure to stop the killing and allow the delivery of the humanitarian aid they need to survive.”

AFP Photo/Karam al-Masri

Vatican Urges Syria Ceasefire As Kerry Visits

Vatican Urges Syria Ceasefire As Kerry Visits

Vatican City (AFP) – The Vatican urged an unconditional ceasefire in Syria and the involvement of all regional players including Iran in peace talks next week, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited the Holy See on Tuesday.

Kerry spoke to the Vatican’s right-hand man, Pietro Parolin, chiefly about Syria and preparations for the Geneva II talks due to start on January 22, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters.

“The Holy Father’s stance on peace was reiterated,” he said, adding that Kerry and Parolin also discussed the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and efforts to restore stability in South Sudan.

A statement following a workshop on Syria in the Vatican on Monday said the recent interim deal over Iran’s nuclear program could have a positive effect for the Geneva II talks.

“To build the basis for regional peace, Geneva II needs to ensure inclusive participation of all parties to this conflict, within the region and beyond,” it said.

The deal with Iran creates “a vital foundation for a lasting peace in Syria” and “gives the world great hope that an extended period of grave distrust between Iran and other nations in the region and beyond might now be followed by a new era of trust and even cooperation.”

Russia, the chief ally of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, is keen to see Iran at the table for the Geneva II talks, but the United States has said Tehran should first back an accord setting a path to a transitional government in Syria.

“The first and most urgent step… should be an immediate ceasefire and end to violence of all kinds, an end without political preconditions,” the Vatican said, echoing a joint call by Moscow and Washington on Monday for local ceasefires and humanitarian corridors.

“All internal combatants should put down their weapons. All foreign powers should take immediate steps to stop the flow of arms and arms funding that feed the escalation of violence and destruction,” it said.

The Vatican said it was ready to support reconciliation between all religious communities in Syria and urged reconstruction work to begin as soon as a ceasefire is agreed, even before a final peace agreement.

The closed-door Vatican workshop brought together top Catholic leaders, academics and diplomats and is the latest in a series of peace initiatives by Pope Francis including a day of fasting and prayer in September 2013.

AFP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

U.S., Russia Call For ‘Local Ceasefires’ Ahead Of Syria Talks

U.S., Russia Call For ‘Local Ceasefires’ Ahead Of Syria Talks

Paris (AFP) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Monday called for “localized ceasefires” in Syria ahead of peace talks later this month in Switzerland.

Lavrov and UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi also said Damascus ally Iran should take part in the so-called Geneva II talks due to start in Montreux on January 22, after a meeting in Paris.

“We talked today about the possibility of trying to encourage a ceasefire, maybe a localized ceasefire beginning with Aleppo [north of Syria],” Kerry said.

Both said they hoped ceasefires could be in place before the talks, along with plans for prisoner exchanges and the opening of humanitarian corridors.

“What can be done before the beginning of the conference should be done,” Lavrov said. “We are going to try to send signals to all the Syrian sides on the need for the establishment of a localized ceasefire.”

Lavrov added, however, that these issues would not be a precondition to the talks.

He also reiterated Russia’s support for Iran taking part in the peace talks, which has been repeatedly rejected by the United States.

Kerry said Tehran could take part in the talks only if it agrees to the principles set out at the first Syria peace talks in Geneva, including the goal of creating a transitional government.

“Iran has yet to state whether or not it supports implementing the Geneva 1 communique,” Kerry said. “We would welcome Iran participating if Iran is coming to participate for the purposes of the conference.”

“I invited Iran today to join the community of nations… and be a constructive partner for peace,” he said.

The Swiss talks have been organised to try and revive the idea of moving to a transitional government in Syria — where the nearly three-year conflict has killed 130,000 people — including figures from the current regime and the opposition.

The Syrian opposition has in the past called for President Bashar al-Assad to stop using heavy weapons, lift sieges on a number of opposition-held areas and allow the opening of humanitarian corridors as a show of good faith ahead of any talks — to no avail.

Photo: AFP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais