The United Nations will investigate attacks on U.N.-supported facilities and other humanitarian sites in northwest Syria, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday. Two days after two-thirds of the Security Council pushed for an inquiry. In effect, the UN is forced to investigate bombing of Syrian hospitals.
The desire to investigate indefensible crimes against women and children did not come voluntarily to the United Nations. Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Belgium, Peru, Poland, Kuwait, the Dominican Republic and Indonesia delivered a demarche – a formal diplomatic petition – to Guterres on Tuesday over the lack of an inquiry into attacks on some 14 locations.
However, to absolve itself from the responsibility of causing death to children, the United Nations has questioned whether sharing of locations with Assad and Putin made hospitals a target.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement that:
The investigation will cover destruction of, or damage to facilities on the deconfliction list and U.N.-supported facilities in the area [and to] ascertain the facts of these incidents and report to the Secretary-General. The Secretary-General urges all parties concerned to cooperate with the board once it has been established.
THE UN SHARED HOSPITAL LOCATIONS WITH KNOWN MASS MURDERERS
The UN shared the locations of Syrian hospitals with the Assad and Putin regimes in a bid to protect them. However, to absolve itself from the responsibility of causing death to children, the United Nations has questioned whether sharing of locations with Assad and Putin made hospitals a target.
Assad and Putin forces began an offensive on the last major insurgent stronghold three months ago. As a result, the United Nations declared it has killed at least 450 civilians and displaced more than 440,000 people.
An array of insurgents have a foothold in northwestern Syria. The most powerful is the jihadist Tahrir al-Sham. But Idlib is also home to secular fighters and over three million civilians Assad does not distinguish from real terrorists.
Deputy Russian U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told reporters it was a mistake for Guterres to cave to pressure and set up the inquiry. He said Russia would investigate Guterres’ legal basis for setting up the board of inquiry.
Russia, known for killing its own civilians, objected to the inquiry. Polyanskiy said:
We doubt very much that this is for the sake of investigation – this is for the sake of blaming Syria and Russia (for) the things we did not do
Both Assad and Putin have a history of violence against innocent civilians.
Syria has caused a deadlock in the Security Council. Both Russia and China have shielded Assad from accountability for his crimes against humanity during eight years of war.
Reuters contributed to this article.
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