GENEVA: The deal to avoid a Syrian government offensive on Idlib province is still being worked out by Russia and Turkey, the UN said on Thursday, stressing that the threat to civilians remained high.
“This is not a peace deal. It is an aversion of (a) whole-scale-war deal,” the head of the United Nations Humanitarian Taskforce for Syria, Jan Egeland, told reporters in Geneva.
Syrian government ally Russia and Turkey reached an agreement to create a demilitarised buffer zone in Idlib, Syria’s last opposition bastion, where half of its three million residents have been displaced from areas retaken by Syrian forces.
While briefing the taskforce about the pact on Thursday, Russian and Turkish envoys made clear they “are still working... on the details,” Egeland said.
He expressed hope it was an indication that “the big war was averted” in Idlib, although Russia stressed it would continue operating against fighters it identifies as terrorists.
“I see a great potential for a lot of fighting,” Egeland said. “We are concerned for the civilians in these areas, so it is not over.” The UN has repeatedly warned that a full-scale assault on Idlib could trigger the bloodiest episode of Syria’s seven-year war, which has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions.
Despite the ongoing concerns, Egeland said he was “relieved” for now.
“The outcome here was the least bad of (the) realistic solutions,” he said.
CRIME CASES
Meanwhile, the UN judge responsible for preparing war crimes charges against individuals over the Syrian conflict said on Thursday her office plans to open at least two cases by year’s end.
Catherine Marchi-Uhel, a French national, heads the body known as the “International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism,” which is tasked with bringing those responsible for the most serious crimes in Syria to justice.
“We expect to open two or more specific investigative case files before the end of this year,” Marchi-Uhel told reporters in Geneva, without providing details.
Mutiple other UN-backed probes have found evidence of major international crimes by government forces and rebels in the seven-year conflict.
But those inquiries have not attributed legal responsibility to individual leaders or commanders.
In building her cases, Marchi-Uhel said she will focus in part on crimes representative of the widespread violations committed during the conflict as well as acts that had a large impact on the broader war.
She also highlighted that she will focus on all parties to the complex conflict.
Marchi-Uhel described her office as a “quasi-prosecutor” which will be looking to share files with regional and national courts, in addition to the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
Her office is currently working on requests for cooperation from seven different jurisdictions, she said.
The French judge is a veteran of international tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Cambodia. — AFP
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