The United Nations, which is helping to investigate the most serious crimes in Syria, said on Monday that the country’s new officials were “very receptive” to requests for assistance during a recent visit to Damascus and that it is preparing to deploy it.
The visit, led by Robert Petit, head of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria, is the first since it was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2016.
It was created to assist in the evidence-gathering and prosecution of those responsible for possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide since the Syrian civil war began in 2011.
Pettit highlighted the urgency to preserve documents and other evidence before they are lost.
After rebels ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebels opened prisons and detention centers, there have been growing demands from Syrians to prosecute those responsible for atrocities and killings during his time in power.
“The fall of the Assad regime is an important opportunity for us to fulfill our mandate on the ground,” Pettit said. “Time is running out. There is a small window of opportunity to protect these sites and the content they host.”
U.N. spokesman Stephane Tremblay said on Monday that the investigative team was “preparing for operational deployment as soon as possible and as soon as it is authorized to conduct activities on Syrian soil.”
A spokesman for the institute, known as IIIM, which was traveling with Pettit, told The Associated Press: “We are preparing to deploy in the hope that we will get authorization.”
“Executive agency representatives are very receptive to our request for assistance and are aware of the scale of the work ahead,” the spokesman said on condition of anonymity. “They emphasized that they needed expertise to help preserve newly accessible documents.”
IIIM did not disclose which officials in the new government it met with or which sites Pettit later visited.
“Even in one facility,” Pettit said, “mountains of government documents reveal the regime’s effectiveness in organizing atrocious crimes.”
He said collective efforts by Syrians, civil society organizations and international partners will be needed as a priority, “to preserve evidence of crimes, avoid duplication and ensure inclusive representation of all victims in the pursuit of justice.”
In June 2023, the 193-member General Assembly also established an independent body on missing persons to clarify the fate and whereabouts of more than 130,000 people who have disappeared due to the conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic.
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