Justice and Accountability In Syria: Now and Then.
In two interventions in the House of Lords, Lord Alton said that the future of Syria will depend on justice and accountability – both for those who last week committed heinous killings against ethnic and religious minorities in Syria’s coastal area but also for the perpetrators of the earlier genocide by ISIS operatives:
“On Justice and Accountability – Following what the charity Aid to the Church In need has described as “a black and painful day for Syria” – with entire families killed in the violence – can the Minister welcome the importance of the decision by Syria to appoint an independent commission of inquiry into the horrific atrocities committed in Syria’s coastal areas against ethnic and religious communities, including Druze, Christians, Alawites, Ismaili, and the arrest of many of the perpetrators. Can we give direct support to this holding to account, to the collecting of evidence, to reporting mechanisms, to transparency, to measures necessary to prevent similar incidents in the future, and say whether we will work with others to create a route through which the UK can monitor the situation of egregious human rights violations and religious freedom, making UK aid to Syria and any lifting of sanctions conditional to introducing measurable improvements in the situation of human rights in Syria – which is crucial to its future.
Can she also say a word about Turkish bombing of civilian areas in Northern Syria and the continuing danger posed by ISIS operatives in camps in Syria – some of who are UK nationals and subject of a current inquiry by the JCHR whose work on this I would encourage the Minister to follow and to engage with.“
This was followed by a a second intervention about ten minutes later on the failure to bring to justice the ISIS operatives from the UK who are in Syrian camps.
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