UN sees images of Syrian tortured and dead

By Erol Avdovic

UNITED NATIONS 

The UN Security Council was shown grim images of those killed and tortured in Syria during a closed door session organized by the French Mission to the United Nations on Tuesday.

The council members were shown 10 photos out of thousands publicly released in January this year. Some of those images were published by several leading global media organizations including Anadolu Agency (AA).

The images shown Tuesday are part of a 55,000 digital photo archive of Syrians who were tortured and slain by the Assad regime, according to the French diplomats who hosted the closed Security Council meeting.

France’s UN ambassador Gerard Araud told journalists after the Security Council briefing that those gathered “fell silent” after diplomats viewed a series of images detailing some of those killed in the Syrian conflict. The images chosen were all of men, Araud said, since organizers decided not show images of women.

The photos, shown to UN journalists, were evidence of “industrialized systematic killing," said David Crane, former Sierra Leone Special Court prosecutor and now a member of a special panel funded by the government of Qatar to file a study on Syria known as the Caesar Report. 

"Doesn't this bring back some interesting images from Dachau, and Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen?" Crane asked, describing what he viewed as "bodies in, bodies out,” systematic killing in Syria. 

The victims “died in agony over months of starvation and torture, and then almost mercifully were executed,” Crane said.  

- Code-name Caesar

Crane said the photos were collected by a former Syrian military sergeant, code-name Caesar, who had been an official photographer for the regime before he defected. Crane deemed the photographer credible. 

Crane, Stuart Hamilton, a forensic pathologist from Great Britain and Sir Geoffrey Nice, the lead prosecutor of former president Slobodan Milosevic before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), co-authored the Caesar Report.

There are now three possible scenarios for punishing the perpetrators of these crimes in Syria, Crane said. 

The perpetrators can be tried by the Syrian people, secondly, they can be brought for trial before the ICC (International Criminal Court) or they can be brought to justice at an ad-hoc tribunal established by the Security Council of the UN. 

But knowing that Russia and China have thrice vetoed resolutions sanctioning the Bashar al Assad regime, it is unlikely that the third proposal would even be put on the agenda, UN diplomats said.  

France’s Araud said those present at the Security Council briefing “were truly moved” though there were questions on the credibility of the images. 

France made the presentation, Araud said, because they “have evidence now” and his country feels the responsibility and obligation to present an official record of these crimes to diplomats at the Security Council.

Araud rejected suggestions that the timing was chosen “in order to politicize” ongoing issues regarding Syria.

englishnews@aa.com.tr