A growing body of evidence collected by U.N. investigators points to the involvement of senior Syrian officials, including President Bashar Assad, in crimes against humanity and war crimes, the U.N.'s top human rights official said Monday.
Navi Pillay, who heads the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the scale and viciousness of the abuses being perpetrated by both sides almost defies belief, and is being well documented by an expert U.N. panel of investigators.
"They've produced massive evidence," she told a news conference. "They point to the fact that the evidence indicates responsibility at the highest level of government, including the head of state."
But Pillay said the lists of suspected criminals are handed to her on a confidential basis and will remain sealed until requested by international or national authorities for a "credible investigation," and then possibly used for prosecution.
Pillay said she worries about striking the right balance in determining how long to keep the information secret. The lists "rightly belongs to the people who suffered violations," she said, but they also must be kept sealed "to preserve the presumption of innocence" until proper judicial probes can be done that could lead to trial.
In other words, the movement for Syrian regime change is about to get a major shot int he arm, and this time the world's not going to be able to look away. With a formal declaration of war crimes against the Assad regime, somebody's going to have to go in there and get the guy out.
Well, unless Russia wants to play chicken with the UN some more, which would actually keep troops out of there. Considering there's a very likely possibility those troops will be American, I'm thinking that some sort of deal for Assad's departure will be worked out.
Hopefully.
If not, well, it's going to get ugly.
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