By Stephanie Nebehay
REUTERS

GENEVA: Syria’s crackdown on anti-government protesters may be grounds for prosecutions for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court, U.N. investigators said Thursday, adding that they had evidence against 50 suspects.
Syrian forces have fired on peaceful protesters throughout the country, often at short range and without warning, killing at least 1,900 civilians, including children, the investigators said in a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council. Their wounds were “consistent with an apparent shoot-to-kill policy.”

Some were reportedly finished off with knives. Security forces were alleged to have killed civilians by putting them alive in refrigerators in hospital morgues, it said.
Tanks, grenades, snipers, heavy machine guns and helicopters have been used in the assault aimed at quashing opposition to the rule of President Bashar Assad.

“The mission found a pattern of human rights violations that constitutes widespread or systematic attacks against the civilian population, which may amount to crimes against humanity,” the report said.
The U.N. Security Council should consider referring the situation in Syria to the ICC, it recommended.

Syria has signed but not ratified the treaty setting up the U.N. court, meaning that the Hague-based ICC has no jurisdiction there unless the Security Council specifically refers Syria to the court. The Security Council referred Libya to the ICC in February for its violent crackdown.

The team led by deputy U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang, whose report covers mid-March to mid-July, was not allowed into Syria but interviewed victims and witnesses in four countries, including some still in Syria.

It compiled a confidential list of 50 people at various levels of government allegedly linked to the crimes and said it may present it “in the context of future investigations and possible indictments by a competent prosecutor.”
Many heads of security intelligence branches in provinces or cities were identified by victims or witnesses as having ordered atrocities including summary executions, arbitrary arrests and torture, the report said, noting that they were essentially immune from prosecution within Syria.

“Victims and witnesses reported widespread attempts to cover up killings by the security forces, including the use of mass graves,” it said, adding that garbage trucks had been seen collecting dead bodies in at least one town.
Syrian authorities did not dispute the death toll of 1,900 but said it included police and security officers, and said the protests were a cover for saboteurs aiming to overthrow the regime, according to the 22-page report.

The report’s publication coincides with a Security Council session being held Thursday in New York, where U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay is to announce a higher toll reflecting escalating casualties since mid-July.
“Reports from witnesses indicate that there was a widespread modus operandi to kill civilians by using a) forces on the ground, b) snipers on rooftops and c) air power. Consistent with an apparent shoot-to-kill policy, most of the victims’ bullet wounds were located in the head, chest and general upper body area,” the report said.

“Children have not only been targeted by security forces, but they have been repeatedly subject to the same human rights and criminal violations as adults, including torture,” it said.
Torture, including severe beatings and electric shocks, has been widespread, while the fate of hundreds of others swept up in mass arrests is unknown, the investigators said.

The team had corroborative eyewitness statements regarding “numerous summary executions, including 353 named victims,” it said. Victims included 26 men blindfolded and shot dead at the football stadium in the southern town of Deraa on May 1.

On the protests, it said: “The majority of killings reported were due to live ammunition, coming from security forces, the military and Shabbiha elements.” Shabbiha is an Alawite civilian militia close to the government.

Former soldiers testified that they had received clear orders to use live ammunition against protesters. “Those who did not shoot civilians were shot from behind by other security officers and Shabbiha units,” the report said.
“There was a clear pattern of snipers shooting at demonstrators, including reports that officers were specially trained to be used against civilian demonstrations,” it said.

U.N. investigators interviewed more than 180 people in four countries, including many in Turkey. Witnesses included Syrian soldiers who had defected, “some of whom had refused to follow orders to shoot civilians,” according to the report.

At a demonstration in Hama on June 3, a few protesters got through a security perimeter and handed flowers to security officers, who had ordered them not to approach.
“As they turned back, security forces fired on the protesters, causing them to either disperse or lie flat on the ground … Tens of demonstrators were reportedly killed, while others who were wounded were said to have died due to absence of adequate or timely medical treatment.”

In the village of Al-Mastuam, south of Idlib, it said: “Witnesses described a peaceful march with demonstrators carrying olive branches but that they were fired upon with live ammunition without warning … An estimated 200 people were injured and 30 others killed, some of them reportedly being ‘finished off’ with knives.”

In Jisr al-Shughour in June, witnesses said security forces used tear gas and helicopters to fire at crowds, but 17 soldiers who refused the orders were killed by a senior security official whose fate was not clear, the report said.
The U.S. and EU called on Assad to step down Thursday.

While U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Assad assured him that military operations finished, activists said Syrian forces had carried out raids in Deir al-Zour and Latakia Thursday.