Reuters, Geneva :
The top United Nations human rights official said on Friday that the siege and bombing of eastern Aleppo in Syria constituted “crimes of historic proportions” that have caused heavy civilian casualties amounting to war crimes.
Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, in a speech by video to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, called again for major powers to put aside their differences and refer the situation in Syria to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the U.N. commission of inquiry on Syria who addressed the special session, said that the panel would continue to document war crimes in Aleppo and appealed to the government of President Bashar al-Assad to provide information on violations.
Meanwhile, the United Nations says it hopes to carry out the first medical evacuations from eastern Aleppo on Friday after getting clearance from all warring parties in the devastated Syrian city.
The head of the UN’s humanitarian taskforce for Syria, Jan Egeland, who announced the tentative evacuation plan, also said Thursday’s truce in east Aleppo could be extended for up to four days.
The 11-hour truce, which was broadly holding in besieged east Aleppo, was declared by regime ally Russia. Egeland told reporters in Geneva that Moscow was weighing a UN request for an extension.
“We believe we now have all of the green lights that we need both from the Russians and the government and from the armed opposition groups,” to begin evacuations on Friday, Egeland said following a humanitarian taskforce meeting.
“We hope that the first medical evacuations can take place tomorrow”, he added, noting the World Health Organization, Red Cross and civil society groups would carry out the operation.
The sick and injured will be able to choose whether they want to be taken to government-controlled west Aleppo or Idlib, which is held by the opposition.
Egeland offered few assurances that Thursday’s truce would be extended through the weekend.
But he indicated that if Russia backs the extension, the UN may be able to carry out hundreds of medical evacuations, including patients and their families, while transporting urgently needed medical and food supplies for east Aleppo’s 250,000 besieged civilians.
The top United Nations human rights official said on Friday that the siege and bombing of eastern Aleppo in Syria constituted “crimes of historic proportions” that have caused heavy civilian casualties amounting to war crimes.
Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, in a speech by video to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, called again for major powers to put aside their differences and refer the situation in Syria to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the U.N. commission of inquiry on Syria who addressed the special session, said that the panel would continue to document war crimes in Aleppo and appealed to the government of President Bashar al-Assad to provide information on violations.
Meanwhile, the United Nations says it hopes to carry out the first medical evacuations from eastern Aleppo on Friday after getting clearance from all warring parties in the devastated Syrian city.
The head of the UN’s humanitarian taskforce for Syria, Jan Egeland, who announced the tentative evacuation plan, also said Thursday’s truce in east Aleppo could be extended for up to four days.
The 11-hour truce, which was broadly holding in besieged east Aleppo, was declared by regime ally Russia. Egeland told reporters in Geneva that Moscow was weighing a UN request for an extension.
“We believe we now have all of the green lights that we need both from the Russians and the government and from the armed opposition groups,” to begin evacuations on Friday, Egeland said following a humanitarian taskforce meeting.
“We hope that the first medical evacuations can take place tomorrow”, he added, noting the World Health Organization, Red Cross and civil society groups would carry out the operation.
The sick and injured will be able to choose whether they want to be taken to government-controlled west Aleppo or Idlib, which is held by the opposition.
Egeland offered few assurances that Thursday’s truce would be extended through the weekend.
But he indicated that if Russia backs the extension, the UN may be able to carry out hundreds of medical evacuations, including patients and their families, while transporting urgently needed medical and food supplies for east Aleppo’s 250,000 besieged civilians.
