U.N.: Executions 'Common Spectacle' on Jihadist-Held Syria

إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية W460

Public executions, amputations, lashings and mock crucifixion are a regular fixture in jihadist-controled areas of Syria, a U.N. probe charged Wednesday, also accusing Damascus of repeatedly using chemical weapons against civilians.

"Executions in public spaces have become a common spectacle on Fridays" in parts of Syria under control of the jihadist Islamic State (IS), the independent Commission of Inquiry on the human rights situation in Syria said.

In its latest report, the four-member commission detailed a litany of horrors committed by IS, including the beheading of boys as young as 15, amputations and lashings in public squares as residents, including children, are forced to watch.

The group "seeks to destroy and remould humanity in its image, wreaking havoc on civilians, minorities and the basic freedoms of women and children," commission head Paulo Pinheiro told reporters in Geneva.

He described how bodies of those killed were placed on public display, "creating an atmosphere of fear and terror."

IS, which declared a "caliphate" in an area spanning northern Iraq and eastern Syria, is also recruiting and training children as young as 10, with teens being used in active combat and suicide-bombing missions, the report said.

The jihadists, who sparked worldwide outrage last week when they released a video showing the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley, are guilty of widespread crimes against humanity in Syria, the commission said.

Pinheiro emphasized, though, that IS "does not have the monopoly of brutality in the Syrian conflict."

In their 45-page report, covering the period from January 20 to July 15, Pinheiro and his colleagues also detailed a wide range of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the Syrian government and other armed opposition groups.

The government, which during the first years of the conflict was blamed for the lion's share of abuses and deaths, had since January continued to kill hundreds of men, women and children every week due to the "indiscriminate firing of missiles and barrel bombs into civilian areas", the report found.

It also said Damascus appeared to have dropped barrel bombs containing the chemical agent chlorine on civilian areas in the north on eight different occasions last April.

"Reasonable grounds exist to believe that chemical agents, likely chlorine, were used on (northern Syrian villages) Kafr Zeita, al-Tamana and Tal Minnis in eight incidents within a 10-day period in April," the report said.

President Bashar Assad's regime and rebels have both accused the other of using chemical agents, including chlorine, in the bloody uprising that began in March 2011 and in spite of Damascus promising to hand over all its chemical arms.

The commission, which was created three years ago by the U.N. Human Rights Council, lamented the "atmosphere of impunity" for all warring parties in Syria.

The investigators especially lashed out at the lack of international action to end the conflict estimated to have killed nearly 200,000 people.

"For three years, we have been gathering evidence against the perpetrators, and each day new crimes occur (yet) the international community does nothing," said commission member and legendary former war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte.

"The international community as a whole, including the U.N., is paralyzed by the unwillingness of states to act to end the conflict," Pinheiro agreed.

They insisted that the only way to move towards an end of the conflict was for the U.N.'s deadlocked Security Council to refer the Syrian crimes to the International Criminal Court.

The investigators, who have never been granted access to Syria, relying on interviews in the region and via Skype, as well as photographs and other documents to reach their conclusions, also stressed that their secret list of suspected perpetrators was getting longer by the day.

Del Ponte suggested that the Security Council name the four commissioners to prosecute the crimes.

"We are ready," she said.

Comments 6
Thumb kanaandian 27 August 2014, 14:17

what attracts these radical psychos to neanderthalic, barbaric, head chopping, filty looking, pedo, crucifiers? how sicker can the world get? i understand they are emmulating the saudi religious system (wahabi cult) but why not just find a new religion. this has to be destroyed.

Default-user-icon Canaadian-Shia (Guest) 27 August 2014, 15:38

your hizbullah has now found a superior brutal force. Enjoy

Default-user-icon la tnakishni wla! (Guest) 27 August 2014, 17:15

The only difference between them and the Assad posse is that they do it in public Hamas style rather than in private like Assad's posse. To be fair Assad's posse have over 40 years of experience doing it.

Missing panzergen 27 August 2014, 19:04

President Assad and his Syrian Arab Armies warns civilians before commencing bombing by dropping leftlets. Now if these civilians don't head the warning, then is it the Syrian governments fault if there are civilians among the casualties after bombings? What it is is that most of the remaining civilians who does not fled is because they support the rebels and or they are the rebels relatives and in many cases the rebels hide among the civilian population to use them as Human shields. Then the rebels would stage a propaganda and make sure the children's bloody images are photographs and distributed front page to the worlds press. Because of these repeated staged propagandas that the rebels gain sympathy from the west. But why are the rebel's indiscriminate firing of rockets that kills many innocent Syrian minorities under goverment control not given the same media attention?

Missing panzergen 27 August 2014, 19:04

President Assad and his Syrian Arab Armies warns civilians before commencing bombing by dropping leftlets. Now if these civilians don't head the warning, then is it the Syrian governments fault if there are civilians among the casualties after bombings? What it is is that most of the remaining civilians who does not fled is because they support the rebels and or they are the rebels relatives and in many cases the rebels hide among the civilian population to use them as Human shields. Then the rebels would stage a propaganda and make sure the children's bloody images are photographs and distributed front page to the worlds press. Because of these repeated staged propagandas that the rebels gain sympathy from the west. But why are the rebel's indiscriminate firing of rockets that kills many innocent Syrian minorities under goverment control not given the same media attention?

Default-user-icon step right up (Guest) 27 August 2014, 19:24

FT you are confusing the Syrian Arab Armies with the Israeli Zionist Armies, it's an easy mistake to make.