UN: War in Syria will ignite new wars

“The continuation of the war in Syria will inflame new wars fuelled by the desire of some countries to maintain their influence,” a senior UN official has warned yesterday.

Speaking during the presentation of his report to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, the chairman of the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, said that this situation will turn Syria into a “state of burning buildings and abandoned alleys and will force its people to live in other countries and to speak languages ​​other than their mother tongue”.

Pinheiro stressed: “The need to overcome, as soon as possible, the diplomatic failure of all efforts to stop the internecine war,” adding that “now is an appropriate time to resolve the crisis due to the existence of an action plan with the UN envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, and the presence of an American-Russian agreement on the need to find a solution.”

“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… This disintegration, this rending of a nation, is the price of doing nothing made manifest,” said Pinheiro

Pinheiro called on the UN Security Council to assume its full responsibilities and on countries that have power and influence in Syrian to intensify their efforts to end the tragedy there and to stop arms support to the warring parties.

He pointed to the suffering of millions of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries whose tragedy reached the shores of Europe as well as the crisis of internally displaced persons, saying both groups live in intolerable conditions.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria was created in 2011 by the United Nations Human Rights Council to monitor violations and war crimes in Syria.

The Committee submits periodic reports to the United Nations and has previously proposed to take the Syrian file to the International Criminal Court or to establish a special court to discuss the war crimes committed in Syria.

The Syrian authorities do not allow Committee members to enter the country.