User blog:Bzero/Both sides in Syria ‘increasingly reckless’ with civilian lives – independent UN panel

11 March 2013 – The violence in Syria has reached “new heights of destruction,” independent United Nations human rights investigators today said, presenting a new report which urges a political solution to what has become an increasingly militarized and sectarian conflict.

“There is an urgent need for a sustained diplomatic initiative to put an end to the violence and the suffering of the Syrian population,” the Chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Paulo Pinheiro, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“If the national, regional, and international actors fail to find a solution to the conflict and stop the agony of millions of civilians, the alternative will be the political, economic and social destruction of Syria and its society, with devastating implications for the region and the world,” Mr. Pinheiro warned, speaking on behalf of the four-member Commission.

He added that “the war displays all the signs of a destructive stalemate” where neither the Government nor anti-Government forces have been able to prevail militarily and are thus escalating force “in the fallacious belief that victory is within reach.”

In the report presented by Mr. Pinheiro, the Commission concluded that the main cause of civilian casualties, mass displacement and destruction “is the reckless manner in which parties to the conflict conduct hostilities,” including indiscriminate shelling and aerial bombardment.

“The parties must take all feasible precautions to protect civilians,” the Commission urges, reiterating that the conflict is waged by both Government forces and anti-Government armed groups in violation of international humanitarian law.

The 10-page update, which is based on first-hand accounts from 191 interviews conducted last month, describes a dramatic erosion of civilian space with mass displacement exacerbated by diminishing areas in which civilians can seek refuge.

Up to 70,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011 and about a million people have fled to neighbouring countries. In addition, 2 million have been internally displaced and over 4 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

The report notes in particular the use of medical care as a tactic of war. Medical personnel and hospitals have been deliberately targeted and are treated by parties to the conflict as military objectives, the Commission notes, adding that medical access has been denied in certain cases “on real or perceived political and sectarian grounds.”