UNITED NATIONS
(AP) -- The head of the U.N. commission investigating human rights
abuses in Syria warned Monday that the country is in "free fall" and has
become a battlefield where civilians are the main victims of acts of
terror, from indiscriminate shelling to rape and sectarian killing.
Paulo
Pinheiro told the U.N. General Assembly that "massacres and other
unlawful killings are perpetrated with impunity" - most by
pro-government forces and some by anti-government armed groups.
He
urged the international community to demand a diplomatic solution to
the 2 1/2-year conflict that has killed more than 100,000 people.
"The
world must hear the cry of the people - stop the violence, put an end
to this carnage, halt the destruction of the great country of Syria!,"
he said.
Pinheiro painted a devastating
picture of the war-ravaged country: people fleeing to escape bombs from
their own government, a collapsing economy and a conflict spilling
across borders, "igniting tensions in the whole region."
"The war remains deadlocked as both sides labor under the illusion that a military victory is possible," he said.
He
said 4.5 million people are displaced inside Syria, 18 million remain
in their homes and have become the first providers of humanitarian aid
to their fellow citizens, and more than 2.5 million are unemployed and
struggling to survive.
"The estimated cost of
the conflict to Syria's economy is between 60 to 80 billion dollars, a
third of its pre-war GDP," he said.
The
government is relying on its superior weaponry and control of the skies
to maintain control of major cities and lines of communications while
hundreds of anti-government armed groups have increased operations in
the north and south, Pinheiro said.
Few of
these rebel groups are able to fight across several fronts, and the
majority are seriously fragmented, with fighters shifting allegiances
usually to better-equipped and better-funded groups, he said.
Pinheiro
demanded that the government stop using imprecise weapons such as
unguided missiles, cluster munitions and "thermobaric bombs" on civilian
areas.
He said both sides must stop laying
siege to cities and towns and cutting off vital supplies of food, water,
medicine and electricity.
"Civilians are the
real victims of this prolonged war," Pinheiro said. "Crimes that shock
the conscience have become a dreadful daily reality in Syria."
An
untold number of men and women have disappeared from checkpoints and
the streets, he said, and those freed from detention "are living with
the physical and mental scares of torture."
Pinheiro
said a significant proportion of casualties are deaths from
indiscriminate or disproportionate shelling from mortars that have
landed in streets, barrel bombs that have turned homes into rubble and
surface-to-surface missiles that have destroyed not only homes but
neighborhoods.
"Of extreme concern is whether
both government forces and anti-government armed groups are positioning
military objectives within civilian areas, exposing residents to attacks
by the opposing side," he said.
He said
crimes of sexual violence, including rape, have been documented taking
place at checkpoints, during house searches and in detention centers.
"That
civilians should come under such sustained unlawful attacks should
shock your conscience and spur you to action," Pinheiro told diplomats
from the 193 U.N. member states. "But it has not. As the conflict drags
on, you - and the world - have become accustomed to levels of violence
that were previously unthinkable."
The General
Assembly has adopted several resolutions calling for an end to the
Syrian conflict, but they are not legally binding. The Security Council,
whose resolutions are legally binding, has been paralyzed and unable to
act because of deep divisions between its Western members who support
the opposition and Russia and China, who back President Bashar Assad's
regime.
The U.S. and Russia are supporting a
new international conference to try to get both sides to agree to a
transitional government.
Pinheiro said it isn't enough for "those walking along the corridors of power" to be appalled.
"There is an obligation to do what you must to bring this war to a close," he said.
(AP)
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