UN has enough evidence to indict Assad but Russia prevents it
International Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said that the investigation of crimes in Syria has yielded enough evidence to prosecute President Bashar Assad.
Carla del Ponte became famous for her investigations of war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. Last week, she said that she is withdrawing from the UN Commission on Syria in protest. She is unhappy that the UN Security Council is not creating a special tribunal for Syria, to bring to justice those responsible for war crimes.
One of those who should appear on the docket, according to Del Ponte, is Bashar Assad. She believes that the UN commission has enough evidence of his guilt in committing war crimes in Syria.
The commission was established in August 2011. Although the UN is setting up a new body to prepare the prosecution, there are no signs that a court will be created to investigate war crimes or that there will be a UN Security Council appeal to the International Court of Justice in The Hague regarding this situation.
"For six years, the commission has been investigating. Now the prosecutor must continue and bring the war criminals to a special court. But that is what Russia is blocking with its veto in the UN Security Council," Del Ponte said.
In answering a question as to which side the commission was investigating, Del Ponte replied: "They all committed war crimes. We dealt with all of them."
The civil war in Syria has been ongoing since March 2011. According to human rights activists, about 475,000 people have become victims of the conflict. More than 5.1 million Syrians have become refugees. According to the latest data, 600,000 refugees returned to Syria in 2017.