U.N. official: Aleppo is a ‘slaughterhouse’
Human rights leader calls for investigation of alleged war crimes
GENEVA — The top U.N. human rights official on Friday called the weekslong bombardment and siege of rebel-held parts of Aleppo “crimes of historic proportions” that had turned the ancient Syrian city into a “slaughterhouse.”
As a “humanitarian pause” in attacks, declared unilaterally by Russia, entered a second day — and as the besieged rebel-held eastern side of the city had a respite from the Syrian and Russian airstrikes that have devastated the area — the United Nations official, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, called for a war crimes investigation.
The comments by al-Hussein, the high commissioner for human rights, came in a videotaped statement at the opening of a special session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The 47-member council later adopted, 24-7, a resolution that called for an immediate end to the bombing of Aleppo. The resolution also asked the U.N. commission of inquiry monitoring human rights in Syria to investigate events in the city, identifying those responsible for war crimes and other violations. Sixteen council members abstained.
Hours later, in a separate U.N. attempt to establish accountability for atrocities in the Syria war, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced a panel to investigate the Sept. 19 destruction of a 31-truck humanitarian aid convoy in northern Syria. The convoy was the first attempt to help civilians under a weeklong cease-fire negotiated by Russia and the U.S. that quickly collapsed.
In a statement, Ban’s office said the inquiry would be led by Lt. Gen. Abhijit Guha of India, a veteran peacekeeping official, and “ascertain the facts of the incident.” Russia and Syria have denied responsibility.
Opposition groups have shelled government-controlled civilian areas of western Aleppo, but an overwhelming majority of civilian casualties have come from Russian and Syrian airstrikes on the rebel-held eastern areas, alHussein said.
“Every party to the conflict should know they will be held accountable for the international crimes they commit,” he added, urging the Security Council to promptly refer the conflict to the International Criminal Court.
Britain and the United States, among other countries, had called the session to increase international pressure for a halt to hostilities in Syria.
Aleppo is a major prize in the five-year Syrian war and the crux of a dispute between Russia, which backs the Syrian government, and the United States, which supports some rebel groups. Russia has long demanded that the United States force the groups it supports to separate themselves from fighters for the Levant Conquest Front, the al Qaida-associated group once called the Nusra Front.
The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has offered to personally escort the Nusra fighters, who number several hundred among about 8,000 rebels, he says, to the insurgent-held province of Idlib if the government allows the other fighters and civilians to stay in eastern Aleppo and govern themselves. There is no sign that either side might agree to that proposal.
“Russia, you are making the situation worse, not solving it,” Tobias Ellwood, Britain’s junior foreign minister for the Middle East and Africa, told the council. He condemned as “shameful” its veto of a Security Council resolution this month demanding an immediate end to the bombing of Aleppo.
Alexey Borodavkin, the Russian ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, shot back that the resolution had failed to take into account the latest pause in hostilities. He called on the body to support what he called the Syrian government’s fight against terrorists.