UN Inquiry alludes to Russia and Syria as bombers of aid convoy

A United Nations panel concluded in findings made public Wednesday that warplanes had bombed a humanitarian aid convoy in Syria three months ago, an episode the head of the world body called, at the time, a possible war crime, New York times said. 

The panel stopped short of identifying which countries did it, but said pointedly that American-led forces were “highly unlikely” to have been responsible for the deadly attack, which left only Syrian and Russian forces capable of carrying it out.

The findings came as diplomats, in a highly unusual effort, voted decisively in the General Assembly for a resolution to empower the United Nations to prepare war crimes cases in Syria for prosecution in a future court.

The vote — 105 for, 15 against and 52 abstentions — was a diplomatic embarrassment for Syria’s principal allies, Russia and Iran, which just this week began consultations, along with Turkey, on a political settlement to the nearly six-year-old war without even consulting the United Nations.

Those consultations, which also excluded the United States and other Western powers opposed to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, came after pro-Syrian forces made important gains on the ground against rebels in the war, notably seizing near-complete control of Aleppo, the northern city under siege for months.

The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki moon, appointed the board of inquiry to look into the Sept. 19 attack in a rebel-held town called Urum al-Kubra. At the time, Ban described it as “sickening, savage and apparently deliberate.”

But the board, headed by an Indian Army general, Abhijit Guha, was constrained in its investigation. The government of Syria only recently allowed board members into the country, and only for five days. It did not allow them to visit the site of the attack, citing security, the board members reported. So the conclusions in a seven-page summary of the report were vague about attribution.

The summary said that aircraft operating as part of the American-led coalition in Syria, as well as Syrian and Russian militaries, “all had the capabilities” for such an attack, and that armed opposition groups did not. The panel further noted that none of the combatants had alleged that the American-led coalition’s planes had carried out the attack, so their “involvement was highly unlikely.”

The panel also cautioned that it had no evidence to conclude that the assault was “a deliberate attack on a humanitarian target.”

The United States said at the time that Russia was probably responsible. Russia denied it and said Syrian planes could not fly at night.

The board submitted its report to Mr. Ban last Friday. His aides released a summary late Wednesday.

The war-crimes prosecution resolution approved by the General Assembly, which was proposed by Liechtenstein, creates an “international, impartial and independent mechanism” to prepare cases to be tried in a national or international court that could be convened in the future, or at the International Criminal Court, should it one day get jurisdiction.

The new “mechanism” could be housed in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, diplomats said, and would be financed by voluntary contributions.

Source: MENA