Russia and China veto UN move to refer Syria to international criminal court

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Created on Thursday, 22 May 2014 00:00

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Russia and China veto UN move to refer Syria to international criminal court

Washington condemns Moscow and Beijing for sinking draft resolution backed by 65 countries and rest of security council

Ian Black, Middle East editor

Russia and China have vetoed a draft UN resolution calling for the crisis in Syria to be referred to the international criminal court – ignoring support for the measure by 65 other countries and all other members of the security council.

Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN ambassador, had earlier dismissed the vote as a "publicity stunt" and warned that if the resolution had passed it would hinder efforts to end the country's three-year war. However, no peace negotiations are currently taking place.

Thirteen of the security council's 15 members voted for the resolution. Russia and China both cast their vetoes – which are restricted to the five permanent members.

Samantha Power, the US ambassador, immediately attacked Moscow and Beijing, saying: "The Syrian people will not see justice today. They will see crime, but not punishment. The vetoes today have prevented the victims of atrocities from testifying at The Hague."

She cited the testimony of a Syrian defector, codenamed Casear, who produced photographic evidence – first reported by the Guardian – of the killing of 11,000 detainees in Syrian government custody.

William Hague, Britain's foreign secretary, said: "I am appalled by Russia and China's decision to veto a non-political resolution to refer all those responsible for war-crimes and crimes against humanity, regardless of affiliation, to the ICC.

"This was an opportunity for the world to stand up for justice for the Syrian people. Russia and China's actions in preventing this are indefensible."

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, called Syrian conflict an "extraordinarily brutal war" and warned that the UN's credibility would suffer if was unable to help end it.

It was the fourth time Russia had blocked a security council resolution on Syria, consistent with its defence of President Bashar al-Assad and his government from serious pressure or censure.

The US had agreed to support the draft resolution after ensuring that Israel would be protected from any possible prosecution at the ICC related to its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights.

Washington has not signed up to membership of the court.

The Syrian conflict has cost an estimated 160,000 lives and displaced millions of people since it began in March 2011.

France first circulated the proposal last month after briefing the security council on the evidence, provided by Caesar of the mass killings of detainees. It called for the ICC to be given a mandate over crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Syria.

Russia's veto was signalled clearly in advance, but supporters of the draft resolution insisted the proposal still had symbolic and moral value.

Jan Eliasson, the UN's deputy secretary general, said: "The Syrian people have a fundamental right to justice."

Sixty-five countries had appealed to all 193 UN member states to co-sponsor the resolution, under which the ICC would be authorised to investigate allegations of heinous crimes by the Syrian government, pro-government militias, and armed opposition groups.

The 65 countries condemned "widespread violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed in a pervasive climate of impunity by the Syrian authorities and pro-government militias as well as by non-state armed groups".The draft resolution deliberately did not target one side.

Syria is not a party to the statute that established the ICC, so the only way it can be referred to the tribunal at The Hague is by the UN security council. The council has previously referred conflicts in Darfur and Libya to the court. But support for the resolution was far greater than in those cases – suggesting an advance for the principle of impunity for war crimes.

The draft resolution took note of reports by an independent commission appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate violations in Syria. In its latest report last September, the commission said there had been at least eight massacres perpetrated by Assad forces and one by rebels in the previous year and a half. A confidential list of suspected criminals is being produced by the commission and kept by the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay.

France's UN ambassador pointed out –in response to Russia's argument against the resolution – that no negotiations were taking place and none were in prospect.

"Moscow and Beijing can veto a resolution but they can't suppress the desire for justice by the Syrian people and the dozens of governments that stood for their rights," said Richard Dicker, international justice director at Human Rights Watch. "With the Syrian crisis entering a fourth year, atrocities raging on all sides, and the death toll skyrocketing well over 150,000, Russia and China's vote for continued impunity is a disgrace."

Source: The Guardian UK