Official Statement Regarding the Human Rights Council Resolution

Media Statement – Syrian Coalition – Istanbul, Turkey

May 30, 2013 – Following the proceedings of the emergency session of the Human Rights Council, The Syrian Coalition sat down to discuss the deteriorating situation in Syria and the rapid developments in the city of Qusair.

The Coalition welcomes the resolution issued by the Council, and thanks the sponsoring countries, chiefly Qatar, Turkey and the United States, in addition to the countries that voted in favor.

The Syrian Coalition would also like to clarify the following points:

We urge international efforts to halt the Assad regime’s basic human rights violations across Syria, as they have failed to deter the Assad regime’s crime of genocide and halt the killing of hundreds of innocent Syrian lives each day in a systematic fashion.

In addition to the international community’s action to discuss the situation in Qusair at the level of the Human Rights Council, we call on them to put a stop to the violations committed against Syrians.

Call Hezbollah to withdraw and hold them accountable for the crimes in Qusair and for their complicit involvement with the murder of innocent Syrian people.

The Syrian Coalition stresses that the violations committed by some members of the Syrian opposition – if any – are limited and isolated incidents and have never taken on a systematic approach. They cannot in any way be compared to the violations of the Assad regime, which are ordered by the highest levels of the military and political leadership. The link between these two groups does not exist.

The Syrian Coalition has spared no efforts to prevent opposition forces from committing gross human rights violations. The latest of these efforts is an awareness raising campaign for Free Syrian Army soldiers by the name: “Fighter, not a Killer,” which was launched in cooperation with a number of international and local human rights organizations. We welcome any support from international institutions in this area, in particular the OHCHR.

The Syrian Coalition has already referred the issue of crimes committed in Syria to the International Criminal Court and would like to take the opportunity to renew this call. We ask the countries that are protecting the Assad regime to stop using their veto power in the Security Council to block this referral.

Any political settlement that may take place in the future cannot be at the expense of the innocent Syrian people. It can only be based on the principles of justice and accountability for those who have committed crimes – not impunity.

In conclusion, it is clear that the real criminals in Syria are the Assad regime and as a sign of the Syrian Coalition’s readiness to cooperate fully with international human rights mechanisms, the Coalition calls on the International Investigation Commission formed under Human Rights Council Resolution S/17 to enter liberated areas and exercise its mission and fulfil its mandate with the full cooperation and support of all components of the Syrian Coalition.

We ask for Mercy for our martyrs, health for our wounded, and freedom for our detainees.

Long live Syria and its people, free and with honor.