The UN human rights boss yesterday said that those committing crimes against humanity in Syria’s brutal war should not be let off under any deal, as peace talks struggled in Geneva.
“We do have a principled position in the United Nations that no amnesties should be considered for those suspected of having committed crimes against humanity or war crimes,” US High Commissioner for Human Right Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein told reporters in Geneva.
The Geneva talks represent the biggest push to date to chart a way out of the tangled almost five-year-old Syrian war that has killed more than 260,000 people.
Photo: Reuters
The urgency to find a solution was brought home on Sunday when multiple explosions killed 71 people near a Shiite shrine outside Damascus, according to a Britain-based monitoring group. The blasts were claimed by Islamic State.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura’s aim is to coax the warring sides into six months of indirect “proximity talks” as part of an ambitious roadmap agreed to by the many outside powers embroiled in the war.
The plan, hammered out in November last year, envisions elections within 18 months, but the key question of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was left until later.
Representatives for Assad arrived in Geneva on Friday, followed reluctantly a day later by the opposition umbrella group, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC).
However, the Saudi-backed HNC is refusing to play ball unless al-Assad’s regime first allows humanitarian access to besieged towns, stops bombarding civilians and releases prisoners.
A Western diplomat said that on Sunday de Mistura made proposals to what he called a mistrustful HNC in talks in a Geneva hotel, but that they were still hesitating.
Damascus’s lead negotiator, Ambassador to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari, on Sunday called the opposition “not serious.”
A meeting tentatively scheduled between de Mistura and Jaafari for yesterday morning was postponed until the Italian-Swedish diplomat could meet with the HNC at the UN’s headquarters, his office said.
Outside powers were also in Geneva keeping a close eye on proceedings, with al-Jaafari reportedly meeting with the Russian ambassador. US Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Anne Patterson and US Syria envoy Michael Ratney were reportedly due to meet Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov in Geneva yesterday.
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