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The UN Security Council is expected to put to vote next week a resolution which would call Syria to the International Criminal Court; the measure, however, will likely fail due to opposition from China and Russia.
The resolution was drafted by France and aims to “send a message that there is accountability for the crimes committed in Syria”.
According to one diplomat, “there is a clear need to demonstrate that the international community is interested in accountability” for over three years of violence upon the Syrian people seen by the Syrian government. Western powers have criticized the mounting atrocities, which are said to include chemical attacks, systematic torture and the use of “barrel bombs” filled with explosives. The Syrian conflict so far has killed over 150,000 people and almost half its population displaced, with the Syrian government being accused of using “starvation and siege tactics” against its people. The vote in the Security Council comes next week amid growing suspicions that the Syrian government is using chemical weapons on its own people.
The Human Rights Watch in a report it published earlier in the week said that it had collected evidence which showed that the Syrian government had put chlorine canisters in barrel bombs it had dropped from helicopters on towns in northern Syria held by rebel forces. Analysts say that Russia will reject the measure, as it has done so on three previous occasions; the measure needs a minimum of nine votes to pass, with a veto from any of the Security Council’s permanent members – France, Russia, Britain, United States and China – will also result in the measure being cancelled.
Russia has already indicated that it might not back the measure. Russian ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said, “We believe you need to build a positive momentum”. The resolution’s draft expresses the council’s “strong condemnation of the widespread violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by the Syrian authorities and pro-government militias” and assails “human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law by non-state armed groups” in Syria.