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GENEVA / SYRIA COMMISSION OF INQUIRY WRAP

A new report issued by the Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry onSyriasaid that the Middle East is “closer than ever” to a regional war, while influential states are fueling a proxy war inSyriaby arming the Syrian government as well as opposition forces. UNTV CH
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00:03:46
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Description

STORY: GENEVA / SYRIA COMMISSION OF INQUIRY WRAP
TRT: 3.46
SOURCE: CH-UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /ARABIC /NATS
DATELINE: 17 JUNE 2014, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

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Shotlist

1. Wide shot, exterior of Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, meeting room
3. SOUNDBITE (English), Paolo Sergio Pinheiro, Chairman of the Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry:
“People are tortured to death inside detention centres in Damascus, men are beheaded in public squares in Al Raqqah, women live with the scars of sexual abuse, and children are recruited and used as members of fighting forces. Syrians live in a world where decisions about whether to go to the mosque for prayers, to the market for food and to send their children to school have become decisions about life and death.”
4. Cutaway, Syrian delegation
5. SOUNDBITE (English), Paolo Sergio Pinheiro, Chairman of the Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry:
“People continue to be killed while held in Government detention centres, where torture remains in widespread and systematic use. We recently received and have begun to investigate thousands of photographs of bodies, many of them emaciated.”
6. Cutaway, Iraq delegation
7. SOUNDBITE (English), Paolo Sergio Pinheiro, Chairman of the Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry:
“Armed groups have shelled Government-controlled areas of Aleppo and Damascus cities as well as towns in Latakia. In Homs city, more than a dozen car bombs have exploded in Shia and Armenian neighbourhoods since March. In many instances, these bombings appear to target civilians, an act designed to spread terror.”
8. Cutaway, US delegation
9. SOUNDBITE (English), Paolo Sergio Pinheiro, Chairman of the Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry:
“Influential states have turned away from the hard work that is required for a political solution. Some states and individuals continue to deliver mass shipments of arms, artillery and aircraft to the Syrian Government, or contribute with logistical and strategic assistance. Other states support armed groups with weapons and financial support.”
10. Cutaway, delegates
11. SOUNDBITE (English), Paolo Sergio Pinheiro, Chairman of the Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry:
“The weapons they transfer to the warring parties in Syria are used in the perpetration of the war crimes and violations of human rights. States cannot claim they prioritized political settlement while their actins demonstrate that their priorities lie in shear military escalation. We are now close than ever to the regional war in the Middle East. Events in neighbouring Iraq will have grave and terrible and violent repercussions for Syria.”
12 Cutaway Russian delegation
13 SOUNDBITE (Arabic), Muhammad Muhammad, delegate of Syria:
“As usual, the committee has placed itself in the pitfall of bias and this affects the credibility of the report. For example, there were affirmations that the armed groups attacked the town of Cassaba, but it overlooked that those terrorists that have stormed the town have come from northern borders with obvious and overt support from government of Turkey which has become the greatest field support to the armed terrorists groups active in the northern Syria and particularly Nusra front, the Islamic front and ISIS.”
14 Wide shot, meeting room

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Storyline

The Human Rights Council's Commission of Inquiry on Syria said influential states supplying the Syrian government and opposition forces know their weapons are being used to carry out war crimes and human rights violations.

Presenting the Commission's latest report today (17 June) to the Human Rights Council,commission chairman Paolo Sergio Pinheiro said those countries cannot claim ignorance about how their support will be used, adding that violence had escalated to an unprecedented level.

He spoke of people being tortured to death in government detention centres, men beheaded in public squares, women living with the scars of sexual abuse and children recruited into fighting forces.

The Commission was investigating thousands of photographs of emaciated bodies, most bearing marks of abuse including strangulation, open wounds, burns and bruising.

Pinheiro also said shelling and car bomb explosions carried out by armed groups in government controlled areas that appeared to target civilians and spread terror.

The Commission blamed "influential states" for arming both sides, and charged that “they have turned away from the hard work that is required for a political solution.”

Pinheiro said that weapons different states transfer to the warring parties in Syria are used in the perpetration of the “war crimes and violations of human rights” and warned of the possibility of broad regional war due to the situation in neighbouring Iraq.

Syrian delegate Muhammad Muhammad said the report was biased. He said it overlooked the link between terrorist crimes and the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the country.

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