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GENEVA / ALEPPO COI
STORY: GENEVA / ALEPPO COI
TRT: 3:31
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 21 OCTOBER 2016 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior, Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, Human Rights Council
3. Various shots, delegates during moment of silence
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, Chair, Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic:
“All warring parties have refused to adopt measures to protect innocent lives. And they refuse to take responsibility for their actions – a responsibility and this we have repeated in almost every report that we presented here – a responsibility that belongs not only to the warring parties on the ground but also to those external actors who support them. Aleppo governorate has become a microcosm of the broader Syrian conflict with a multitude of actors with competing interests settling scores rather than negotiating a peaceful political settlement.”
5. Pan left, Council
6. Med shot, Turkish delegate
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Tobias Ellwood, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office:
“We all recognize the need to tackle terrorism, but the fight against terrorism needs to be carefully targeted and part of a wider initiative to counter their narrative. Yet, what we have seen in Syria has been hundreds of thousands of civilians killed under the pretext of tackling terrorism. Civilians killed, including children and the actions of Assad and Russia are driving radicalization and fueling terrorism and not tackling it. Russia, you are making the situation worse not solving it.”
8. Wide shot, panel
9. Wide shot, delegates in Council
10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hussam Edin Aala, Ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations:
“These countries, which promote anti-Syrian propaganda and fabricate baseless accusations about committing violations and war crimes, have been purchasing and sending thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition to the most terrorist and extremist organizations, first and foremost Daesh and Al-Nusra Front, attempting to replicate the Libyan and other disastrous examples which were the result of the interventionist policies of these countries. We reject these false accusations, and the manipulation practiced by Britain, its allies, and semi-regional allies as well its abuse of the human suffering of our people.”
11. Wide shot, Council
12. Wide shot, press briefing Palais des Nations
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, Spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Medical evacuations of sick and injured people could unfortunately not begin this morning in east Aleppo as planned. Because the necessary conditions were not in place to ensure safe, secure and voluntary evacuations of sick and critically wounded people and their families. The UN and our humanitarian partners are present and ready in west Aleppo to carry out the UN plan for medical evacuations as soon as conditions allow.”
14. Med shot, journalists
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, Spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“It is an astronomically difficult operation thereby we need the security assurances from all sides to be there and to be adhere to plus facilitation from all parties to this. That is currently not at a level where we can proceed, we continue of course speaking, talking, discussing, negotiating with everybody involved in order for this UN plan to proceed”.
16. Close up, hands typing
The United Nations (UN) Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Syria warned that the “Aleppo governorate has become a microcosm of the broader Syrian conflict with a multitude of actors with competing interests settling scores rather than negotiating a peaceful political settlement.”
Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of COI told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva today (21 Oct) that the panel would continue to document war crimes in Aleppo and appealed to the government of President Bashar al-Assad to provide information on violations.
Referring to the international legal standards which protect civilians during law, he said that “all warring parties have refused to adopt measures to protect innocent lives. And they refuse to take responsibility for their actions – a responsibility and this we have repeated in almost every report that we presented here – a responsibility that belongs not only to the warring parties on the ground but also to those external actors who support them.”
British Ambassador Tobias Ellwood whose country had requested the special session on behalf of a "core group" of ten states said that “we all recognize the need to tackle terrorism, but the fight against terrorism needs to be carefully targeted and part of a wider initiative to counter their narrative. Yet, what we have seen in Syria has been hundreds of thousands of civilians killed under the pretext of tackling terrorism. You are making the situation worse not solving it.”
Syrian Ambassador Hussam Edin Aala said, in reference to Western countries, that they "promote anti-Syrian propaganda and fabricate baseless accusations about committing violations and war crimes, have been purchasing and sending thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition to the most terrorist and extremist organizations, first and foremost Daesh and Al-Nusra Front.”
On the humanitarian front, Jens Laerke, Spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) informed the media that the medical evacuations of sick and injured people could unfortunately not begin this morning in east Aleppo, as had been hoped.
He said “the necessary conditions were not in place to ensure safe, secure and voluntary evacuations of sick and critically wounded people and their families. The UN and our humanitarian partners are present and ready in west Aleppo to carry out the UN plan for medical evacuations as soon as conditions allow.”
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, addressing the Council by video message, called for major powers to put aside their differences and refer the situation in Syria to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
He said the siege and bombardment of eastern Aleppo are not simply tragedies, but also constitute “crimes of historic proportions."
The Council held a moment of silence to commemorate the victims of the Syrian conflict.
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