| CNN | - |
(CNN)
-- Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution Thursday
that would have asked the International Criminal Court to investigate
war crimes in Syria. They were the only two of 15 countries to vote against the resolution. The move came ...
Russia, China block Syria from facing International Criminal Court
updated 8:10 AM EDT, Fri May 23, 2014
Russia, China veto Syrian war crime probe
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Head of chemical weapons watchdog urges swift removal of final Syrian stockpile
- Russia's U.N. ambassador says the resolution was an attempt to inflame the crisis
- Action would have referred war crimes in Syria to the International Criminal Court
- Russia backs Syria "no matter what it does," U.S. ambassador to United Nations says
They were the only two of 15 countries to vote against the resolution.
The move came as no
surprise. Throughout the conflict in Syria, Russia and China -- both
permanent council members -- have repeatedly used their veto power to
block resolutions tough on the Syrian regime.
The United States and other countries slammed the action Thursday.
"Because of the decision
of the Russian Federation to back the Syrian regime no matter what it
does, the Syrian people will not see justice today. They will see crime
but not punishment," Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations, told the council after the vote.
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"The vetoes today have
prevented the victims of atrocities from testifying at the Hague for
now, but nonetheless it is important for us here today to hear the kind
of testimony we might have heard if Russia and China not raised their
hands to oppose accountability for war crimes and crimes against
humanity," Power said.
She then pointed to
someone in the audience, Qusay Zakarya, whom she identified as a victim
of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. She told his stories of nearly
dying in violence by the Syrian regime.
Mark Lyall Grant, the UK
ambassador to the United Nations, said it was "to Russia and China's
shame that they have chosen to block efforts to achieve justice for the
Syrian people."
The resolution, which was
also backed by scores of co-sponsors and nongovernmental organizations,
could have offered the Syrian people an end to impunity and been "a
vital element of a sustainable peace," he said.
However, Russia's U.N.
envoy, Vitaly Churkin, defended his country's move, saying that the
timing was wrong and that international efforts should focus on finding a
political solution to the crisis, not stirring it up.
"What justice can one
talk about when the overriding policy aims at escalating the conflict?"
he said in his remarks to the council. "The draft resolution rejected
today reveals an attempt to use the ICC to further inflame the political
passions and lay the groundwork for eventual outside military
intervention."
Churkin cited a previous
Security Council resolution on the destruction of the Syrian chemical
stockpile as a positive example of what could be done by council
members, and said the latest step had dealt a blow to that unity.
Chemical weapons mission
The head of the
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is working
with the United Nations to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons program,
called Thursday for the country's remaining declared chemicals to be
removed without delay.
About 100 metric tons of
chemicals, or nearly 8% of Syria's declared stockpile, remain at a
single site, said the group's director-general, Ahmet Uzumcu, but the
Syrian government said these cannot be moved because of the security
situation.
An OPCW mission is also
preparing to investigate allegations that chlorine gas has been used in
attacks in Syria, Uzumcu said, according to an OPCW statement.
The Syrian government
has said it will provide security in areas under its control, he said,
but some sites are not controlled by the government, adding to the
dangers of the mission.
"The alleged use of
chlorine in Syria is of grave concern to the OPCW and the international
community," he said. "All efforts should be made, by all parties to the
conflict, to enable safe access for our team enabling it to conduct its
important work."
French Foreign Minister
Laurent Fabius has said that France has seen indications the Syrian
regime used chlorine gas some 14 times in recent months.
But Syrian Deputy
Foreign Minister Faisal al Mekdad denied any use of chlorine gas by the
government in a CNN interview last week in Damascus.
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 203 people were killed in violence in Syria on Wednesday.
They included 72 from
government forces and militias aligned with them, and 95 people from the
ranks of the Syrian rebels and Islamist groups, the opposition group
said.
Most of the deaths resulted from ongoing clashes near the central prison in Aleppo.
CNN's Richard Roth and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.
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