UN underlines violence committed by Syrian Kurdish group

GENEVA

The United Nations on Monday has said the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish armed group in Syria affiliated to the PKK, had looted and destroyed certain areas in the country.

"The commission always reported on violence commited by the YPG in previous reports," said Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria on Monday as he presented the commission's report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. "The YPG looted and destroyed some areas."

"Our findings suggest that the local population fears clashes between YPG and Daesh. We are also concerned about thousands being internally displaced," he added.

"The PYD [the political wing of the YPG]'s fight against Daesh as a tactical measure cannot hide widespread human rights violations committed by the PYD," Mehmet Ferden Carikci, the permanent representative of Turkey to the United Nations office in Geneva, said at the council.

"Syria has fallen apart before our eyes. A nation has collapsed into the world’s most chaotic and lethal battlefield. This war remains deadlocked, as violence rips through the social fabric of Syrian society," Pinheiro added.

"Half-hearted political steps are not enough anymore," Carikci said. "As long as Assad stays in power, Syria will remain in this vicious cycle."

"The Syrian tragedy has now reached European shores," added Pinheiro. "The profound human suffering, long seen in the hospitals and camps of Syria’s neighbors, is etched on the haggard faces of refugees huddled in European train stations and camping behind razor wire at Schengen borders. This is the spiralling cost of the failure to bring Syria back to peace."

He proceeded to warn states that were supplying to warring parties.

"States supplying arms have legal, as well as moral, obligations, he said. "Responsibility for crimes rests with the people who hold the weapons, and those who aid and abet by putting the weapons in their hands, be they state or non-state actors."

Syria’s devastating civil conflict, now in its fifth year, has left tens of thousands of people dead and millions displaced.