Syria war crimes investigator blasts impunity in farewell speech

This file photo taken on July 12, 2017 shows the entrance of Khan Sheikhun, a rebel-held town in the northwestern Syrian Idlib province, 100 days following a suspected toxic gas attack that was reported to have killed 88 people, including 31 children. (AFP)

GENEVA: Outgoing Syria war crimes investigator Carla Del Ponte said on Monday she had quit her post out of frustration over “total impunity,” in a fiery farewell speech.
Del Ponte, an accomplished war crimes prosecutor, announced last month that she was leaving the Commission of Inquiry (COI) for Syria, a UN-backed panel that has collected evidence of alleged atrocities committed in the country since the outbreak of civil war in 2011.
“I resign to put an end to my frustration,” Del Ponte told the Human Rights Council, after the COI presented its latest report.
“Seven years of crimes in Syria and total impunity. That is not acceptable.”
Del Ponte, a Swiss national, worked on the international tribunals that prosecuted war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
She said that when she joined the COI she did not anticipate that the international community would fail to set up a court capable of trying crimes committed in Syria.
The commission has repeatedly urged the UN Security Council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court, an effort that has been blocked by the Damascus regime’s ally Russia.
“Why is it not possible to have a tribunal?” Del Ponte asked, addressing some of her farewell remarks directly at Syria’s UN ambassador Hussam Edin Aala.
The COI has accused all sides — including the regime and opposition fighters — of committing war crimes in Syria.
Its most recent report, submitted to the rights council on Monday, charged Damascus with carrying out a chemical attack, which killed dozens of people in Khan Sheikhun in April.
A new UN body — called the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism — has recently started work in Geneva with a mandate to prepare cases against specific individuals.
Del Ponte called that effort “a little step toward justice.”
But the mechanism’s chief, Catherine Marchi-Uhel of France, cautioned earlier this month that her office was not a court and had no power to bring international charges.
Meanwhile, Russia has criticized the latest report by UN investigators into Syria’s war as biased and has denounced alleged “war crimes” committed by the US-led coalition.
Diplomat Alexey Goltyaev says the 14th Commission of Inquiry report on Syria “doesn’t contain a single word about war crimes committed by the US military and its coalition partners during the storming of Raqqa” to battle Daesh militants.
He did not elaborate in his brief comments to a Human Rights Council on Monday, and refused to comment further to The Associated Press.
The Sept. 6 report faulted US forces for not taking all steps to protect civilians, but alleged “war crimes” by Syrian and/or Russian forces for “deliberately” attacking medical personnel.
Goltyaev said the commission “has served the interests of its sponsors,” allegedly countries who want to oust Syria’s Russian-backed regime.