Geneva, SANA – Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva Hussam Eddin Ala said on Tuesday that the report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria is biased and its conclusions are not based on professional or neutral data.
In a statement at the 29th session of Human Rights Council, held in Geneva on the state in Syria, Ambassador Ala affirmed that the period included in the commission’s report witnessed intense shelling of mortars and rockets by terrorists on Damascus and Aleppo that claimed the lives of dozens of civilians including women and children.
He added that the same period also witnessed a number of massacres committed by terrorists of Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Ishtabraq and Qalb Louza in Idleb and Palmyra in Homs, leaving hundreds of civilians killed or abducted, yet these crimes and massacres were not included in the commission’s report despite the fact that Syria had documented the incidents and sent them to the Commission and the Human Rights Council.
“This deliberate disregard and negligence of information provided by the Syrian government on terrorists and their supporters indicates to the commission’s insistence on the approach it has adopted for the past four years; an approach that seeks a sole goal to distort and defame the Syrian state using fabricated information ,” Ala said.
He added that accusations of “deliberate shelling on civilians, institutions including schools, hospitals and archaeological sites and preventing the refugees from receiving humanitarian aid” are rejected and politicized, affirming that logic and the situation on the ground refute such allegations.
“The Commission has deliberately disregarded pointing to the International Human Law articles which ban the armed groups from taking havens in residential and populated areas,” Ala said, adding that the Commission should inspect the UN reports, including the Special Envoy on Human Rights, who stressed that the armed groups are deliberately taking places in populated areas and having civilians as human shields with the aim of accusing the government of targeting the civilians.
Ambassador Ala also said the UN team operating in Syria had documented that the armed terrorist groups are using schools and hospitals as military posts and detention centers but the Commission decided to turn a blind eye on these facts too.
“The Syrian government spares no effort to meet the needs of its citizens indiscriminately despite the systematic attacks on its infrastructure and service institutions,” he stressed.
He said “Contrary to the commission’s report, the Syrian government actually cooperated with the UNRWA and the Red Crescent to facilitate bringing out over 15,000 civilians from al-Yarmouk Camp after ISIS terrorists entered the area, the government evacuated the locals to safe areas and provided them with all basic needs.”
He regretted the report’s negligence to the fact that “Jabhat al-Nusra” and “Jaish al-Islam” terrorists targeted and destroyed archaeological sites in a number of areas, including Aleppo city where they dug tunnels under these sites and detonated them later.
Ala said the video tapes circulated by Turkish media which showcased the Turkish regime’s involvement in sending weapons to Jabhat al-Nusra in lorries allegedly carrying humanitarian aid in addition to the statements made by Turkish drivers who confessed to transporting ISIS terrorists to Syria clearly indicate Recep Tayyeb Erdogan’s involvement in supporting terrorism.
He added that the report did not mention the names of the countries that support terrorism in Syria despite the fact that it confessed to such involvement, adding that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Jordan and other countries which are involved in the bloodshed in Syria were not named.
Ambassador Ala concluded by saying “The commission’s insistence on adopting this biased approach against the Syrian government leaves us no choice but to reiterate our rejection of the commission’s reports.”
M.Nassr/Mazen