Geneva / Information Office / June 14
The State of Qatar affirmed its keenness to support all international efforts aimed at reaching a political solution to the Syrian crisis.
This came at Qatar's speech delivered by Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations Office in Geneva HE Ambassador Ali Khalfan Al Mansouri during the interactive dialogue with the International Independent Investigation Commission on the Syrian Arab Republi under item 4 before the 35th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
HE Al Mansouri condemned the continued violations and crimes committed against the Syrian people over seven years taking place under the eyes of the world and faced by a complete inability to address them.
The United Nations recently announced that the number of besieged areas has fallen however the agreements imposed by the Syrian regime and its allies under cover of the so-called 'national reconciliation' and their threats to Syrians to choose between death under indiscriminate shelling and explosive barrels or displacement and forced displacement are the real reasons behind this decline.
These policies aimed at causing demographic and population change represent clear violations and crimes in accordance with international laws, he said, urging the international community to take serious steps to save the trapped population and deliver humanitarian assistance to them.
International reports on Syrian regime's prisons and detention centers have found evidence of torture, starvation, executions and burning of corpses, which can only be described as a policy of genocide that includes war crimes and crimes against humanity, Al Mansouri stressed.
They also constitute hideous methods to conceal and remove all facts and evidence condemning these crimes and those responsible for atrocities in Syria, the Qatari diplomat added.
He condemned the deliberate targeting of medical facilities and personnel by the regime and its allies in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, calling on the international community to end these attacks considered as war crimes, which should not be tolerated.
He also strongly condemned Syrian regime's use of banned heavy weapons and the chemical attack at Khan Sheikhoun, calling for an international investigation and taking the necessary measures to ensure the protection of the Syrian people.
HE Al Mansouri also stressed the need to hold accountable those responsible for crimes and human rights violations, bring them to criminal justice and provide further support to the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011 (the "mechanism").