Human rights group accuses Damascus over May siege of Talkalakh, while up to 22 reported killed in crackdown in Hama.
Syria has drawn strong condemnation for its deadly crackdown on protesters in the central city of Hama, with human rights campaigners hinting at the possibility of the country’s leaders being tried for crimes against humanity.
Tuesday’s attack in Hama killed 22 people and left more than 80 wounded as troops pushed through improvised road blocks made by residents, according to human rights groups.
As international condemnation piled on Syria, Amnesty International said a deadly siege in May in Talkalakh, which lasted less than a week, may have amounted to crimes against humanity as a result of deaths of protesters in custody, torture and arbitrary detention.
“The accounts we have heard from witnesses to events in [Talkalakh] paint a deeply disturbing picture of systematic, targeted abuses to crush dissent,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa deputy director.
“Most of the crimes described in this report would fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. But the UN Security Council must first refer the situation in Syria to the court’s prosecutor.”
The London-based rights group’s report, which was released on Wednesday, said the attacks “appear to be part of a widespread, as well as systematic, attack against the civilian population”
Categories: Asia, Human Rights, Syria
“The UN security council has to refer the case to the International Criminal Court”. This means that quite officially Politics comes before the Rule of Law.