U.N. documents new war crimes in Syria for future prosecution
Geneva, 27 January 2014: U.N. war crimes experts have documented more torture and
killings by both sides in Syria and are confident they can build a case that could
be taken up by the International Criminal Court, a leading member of the team said
on Friday.
According to Reuter’s report, they are drawing up a fourth confidential
list of suspects, either individuals or units linked to crimes committed since July,
Karen Koning AbuZayd, an American expert serving on an independent commission of inquiry
set up by the United Nations in 2011, said in an interview.
U.N. human rights
chief Navi Pillay said in December that evidence collected by the investigators implicates
President Bashar al-Assad, later denying that she had direct knowledge of their secret
lists.
AbuZayd said the lists went up to "higher levels" of the Syrian government,
declining to be more specific in the interview in Geneva, where the first talks involving
the warring parties are expected over the coming week.
Foreign fighters in
Syria, mainly Islamist groups, have their "own agenda", sometimes setting up sharia
courts that issue summary sentences carried out immediately, including executions,
AbuZayd said.
"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."Source: Reuters