UN So-called Committee of Inquiry (COI) Casually Blames Bashar Al-Assad for US-Sponsored High Crimes Committed by Terrorist Proxies Against the People of Syria

Launched preemptively in March 2011 by the Obama regime, escalated by Trump, US direct and proxy aggression in Syria will likely continue indefinitely no matter which right wing of its war party is in charge ahead.

Formed in September 2011, the so-called Committee of Inquiry on Syria (COI) is an instrument of pro-Western imperial propaganda.

Its reports largely blame Syria’s Bashar al-Assad government for high crimes of war and against humanity committed by US and so-called coalition partners, as well as ISIS and other jihadists used as imperial proxies.

Syria’s UN envoy Bashar al-Jaafari earlier slammed its biased reports, saying the following:

They deliberately “blow things out of proportion…fully disregarding or downplaying core issues,” adding:

“There are blood-curdling scenes that flagrantly contravene the Syrians’ dignity and human rights regarding the crimes of the armed terrorist groups…”

They “rang(e) from eating human flesh, cutting throats, mutilating bodies, beheadings on sectarian and confessional grounds, throwing bodies from rooftops to committing hundreds of suicide bombings using car bombs in populated areas, recruiting children, abducting and slaughtering clergymen, assassinating scholars in mosques, issuing instigative fatwas on ‘sexual jihad,’ killing children on the charges of infidelity, robbing factories and transporting them to Turkey.”

COI reports largely ignore these horrors, focusing attention on vilifying Assad, wrongfully blaming his forces for atrocities committed by US-supported  terrorists and Pentagon-led terror-bombing.

Its latest report is similar to earlier ones.

Focusing on Idlib province areas controlled by US-supported jihadists during the November 2019 to June 2020 period, it once again largely blamed government and allied forces (Russia and Hezbollah) for their atrocities and other high crimes, saying the following:

“Syrian children, women and men endured unfathomable suffering during the military campaign launched late 2019 by pro-government forces to re-take the last remaining areas under armed groups’ control in Syria (sic).”

What the COI calls “armed groups” include ISIS, al-Nusra (al-Qaeda in Syria), and likeminded terrorists — heavily armed, funded, trained and directed by the Pentagon and CIA.

“Deadly dangers awaited civilians at every turn,” the COI added — “from indiscriminate aerial bombardments and ground shelling (sic), to arrests and torture (sic), pillaging and dire displacement conditions at the border (sic)…”

“Now a perfect storm is in the making as this war-torn region faces the global pandemic” — that was made in a USA biolab and unleashed worldwide, the COI left unexplained, along with a whole lot more.

Time and again throughout over nine years of US state-sponsored direct and proxy aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic and its 17 million people, the COI reinvented reality on the ground — producing pro-Western propaganda reports, blaming victims for high crimes committed against them.

Throughout the new millennium, preemptive US wars against nonbelligerent states threatening no one continue endlessly — in Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Syria,  and Somalia.

Even in Iraq by Pentagon drone strikes at its discretion and ISIS jihadists, along with US-funded and supported endless Israeli war  on historic Palestine and its long-suffering people.

Ignoring US responsibility for endless war in Syria, COI chair Paulo Pinheiro said the following:

“It is completely abhorrent that, after more than 9 years, civilians continue to be indiscriminately attacked, or even targeted, while going about their daily lives (sic).”

Largely blaming government and allied forces for the above, he added:

“Children were shelled at school (sic). Parents were shelled at the market (sic). Patients were shelled at the hospital (sic)…and entire families were bombarded even while fleeing (sic).”

“What is clear from the military campaign is that pro-government forces…violated the laws of war and the rights of Syrian civilians (sic).”

To a lesser extent, he also blamed what he called “UN-designated terrorists” — meaning ISIS and al-Qaeda alone without naming them or including other US-supported jihadists in Syria.

He defied reality adding the following:

During the “military campaign to recapture Idlib and parts of western Aleppo, Syrian Government forces alongside the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out air and ground attacks which decimated civilian infrastructure (sic), depopulated towns and villages (sic), and claimed the lives of hundreds of Syrian women, men and children (sic).”

“Numerous hospitals, schools, markets and homes were destroyed by aerial and ground attacks (sic), the latter including the use of cluster munitions, in acts amounting to the war crimes of launching indiscriminate attacks, and deliberate attacks on protected objects (sic).

Throughout endless US direct and proxy war in Syria, the COI failed to explain and express support for the liberating struggle of its military and people, aided by Russia and Hezbollah.

Like many other countries throughout the post-WW II period, Syria and its people are victims of US-sponsored aggression that’s all about aiming to transform the country into a pro-Western vassal state.

Aerial attacks by Syrian and Russian warplanes are conducted solely against jihadist positions, great care taken to minimize civilian casualties.

They’re polar opposite Pentagon scorched-earth terror-bombing of Mosul, Iraq, Raqqa, Syria, and countless other targeted sites.

US new millennium wars of aggression alone are responsible for millions of casualties and vast destruction — in the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa.

The COI’s latest report reads like its earlier exercises of pro-Western propaganda.

They fail to lay blame entirely where it belongs for endless war, carnage, and human misery in Syria.

Nor did the latest COI report mention the US genocidal Caesar Act.

The legislation aims to starve 17 million Syrians into submission by threatened sanctions on nations, entities and individuals that maintain legitimate economic, financial, military, and intelligence ties to Damascus — their legal right under international law.

On all things related to endless war in the country, Damascus, Moscow, and Hezbollah are on the right side of history.

The US, its coalition partners and jihadist proxies are guilty of the highest of high crimes of war and against humanity.

COI reports consistently failed to focus on what’s most important.

Instead of explaining US-sponsored aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic and its people, its pro-Western propaganda supports regime change, a flagrant UN Charter breach.

A Final Comment

By its own admission, Israel’s IDF earlier said it conducted hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian targets in recent years.

COI reports since 2011 failed to mention Israeli aggression, what they should highlighted and condemned.

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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Featured image is from Syria News


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Articles by: Stephen Lendman

About the author:

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.

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