Bashar al-Assad implicated in Syria war crimes, says UN

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UN inquiry finds 'massive evidence' that president is responsible for crimes against humanity as conflict's death toll hits 126,000

A UN inquiry has found "massive evidence" that the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, is implicated in war crimes as the latest reported death toll in the country's civil war reached 126,000.

Navi Pillay, the UN's human rights chief, said a commission of inquiry into human rights violations in Syria "has produced massive evidence … [of] very serious crimes, war crimes, crimes against humanity" and that "the evidence indicates responsibility at the highest level of government, including the head of state."

The report is the first time the UN body has accused Assaddirectly and it is unclear how it will affect January's Geneva II peace conference to try to end the country's bloody conflict, now in its 33rd month.

Damascus swiftly dismissed Pillay's remarks. "She has been talking nonsense for a long time and we don't listen to her," Faisal Miqdad, the deputy foreign minister, told AP.

In May. Pillay said the conflict in Syria had "become an intolerable affront to the human conscience".

The UN commissioner's statement, reported from Geneva, coincided with the publication of a new death toll of 125,835 for the last 33 months. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), based in the UK, said the dead included 44,381 civilians, including 6,627 children and 4,454 women. The SOHR said at least 27,746 opposition fighters had been killed, among them just over 19,000 civilians who took up arms to fight the Assad regime. The opposition toll also included 2,221 army defectors and 6,261 non-Syrians who joined the rebels.

The figures cover the period from 18 March 2011 – when the Syrian uprising began with protests in the southern city of Deraa – to 1 December 2013.

The UN commission has repeatedly accused the Syrian government, which is supported by Russia and Iran, of crimes against humanity and war crimes. It has said the rebels, who are backed by both western and Arab countries, are also guilty of committing war crimes.

But the four-member panel, headed by the Brazilian Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro and including the former UN war crimes prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, has never before directly named or accused Assad, who is both Syria's head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Pillay said the names of perpetrators "remain sealed until I am requested to furnish them to credible investigation … It could be a national investigation or international investigation."

Pillay reiterated her call for the case to be handed over to the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague to ensure accountability. But an ICC referral requires the backing of the "big five" permanent members of the UN security council, where Russia and China have blocked any action against the Syrian government and are unlikely to change tack.

The current position of the US, UK and France also means that the war crimes accusations are unlikely to gain traction. Last August's agreement between the US and Russia over securing the disarmament of Syria's chemical weapons has made it a priority for the Geneva II peace conference to be held on schedule on 22 January. Assad, who has promised to send representatives, is unlikely to co-operate if he is facing war crimes charges.

Pillay warned that ongoing efforts to destroy Syria's chemical weapons should not distract from killings with conventional weapons, which have accounted for the vast majority of deaths in the Syrian war. "The scale of viciousness of the abuses being perpetrated by elements on both sides almost defies belief," she said.