Syria investigator quits, blames UNSC

A member of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said on Sunday she was quitting because a lack of political backing from the UN Security Council had made the job impossible, Swiss national news agency SDA reported.

Carla del Ponte, 70, who prosecuted war crimes in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia, told a panel discussion on the sidelines of the Locarno Film Festival she had already prepared her letter of resignation. “I am quitting this commission, which is not backed by any political will,” she said, adding that her role was just an “alibi”.

“I have no power as long as the Security Council does nothing,” she said. “We are powerless, there is no justice for Syria.”

Del Ponte, a former Swiss attorney general, joined the three-member Syria inquiry in September2012,chroniclingincidents such as chemical weapons attacks, a genocide against Iraq’s Yazidi population, siege tactics, and the bombing of aid convoys. The UN Commission of Inquiry said in a statement that del Ponte had informed colleagues in June of her decision to leave in the near future. It said the investigations would continue.

“It is our obligation to persist in its work on behalf of the countless number of Syrian victims of the worst human rights violations and international crimes known to humanity,” it said.

Del Ponte’s departure leaves only two commissioners, Brazil’s Paulo Pinheiro and Karen Koning AbuZayd from the US.

The commission has regularly reported on human rights violations, but its pleas to observe international law have largely fallen on deaf ears. REUTERS