Strasbourg, 03/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) held an emergency debate on the situation in Syria in Strasbourg on Thursday 3 October, prior to the unanimous adoption by the 98 elected members of a recommendation to the Committee of Ministers of the 47 member states, and not just any recommendation because of the underlying frustration, according to Swedish Socialist Bjorn von Sydow. “Our governments did very little until the drama of the chemical weapons used in the attack on Ghouta near Damascus” (our translation), he continued, implying that the time for pious wishes has passed.
Returning to the issue of chemical weapons - those used in Ghouta on 21 August and those allegedly used previously - the recommendation adopted “insists that there can be no impunity for those who commit crimes against humanity, whoever and wherever they are”. It “welcomes” the fact that threats of Western airstrikes brought a framework agreement between the United States and Russia on the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons on the basis of a United Nations Security Council resolution. However, well aware of the “huge technical difficulties and legal obstacles on the way towards elimination of Syria's chemical weapons” against a backdrop of civil war, the parliamentarians call on the Committee of Ministers to “put pressure on all sides” so as to ensure respect for the ceasefires necessary for the implementation of the agreed plan, while providing additional resources to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to carry out its challenging task. At the same time, the recommendation “wholeheartedly” supports the organisation in Geneva of a second international peace conference on Syria (Geneva 2) and hopes that it may be convened before the end of 2013. The Assembly is concerned - and this came back time and again in the debate - over “the growing rifts within the Syrian opposition as well as between its political and military branches” and “the increasing presence of jihadists and other extremist groups, including terrorist groups” among those who are fighting the regime. A warning was also delivered against “external players, which, because of specific geopolitical interests or for sectarian reasons, are providing political, military and financial support to extremist groups”. The ethnic, cultural and religious mosaic that makes up the Syrian population must be preserved in post-conflict Syria, it is affirmed, but the Assembly believes that the emerging unity of the international community “should now focus on tackling the dramatic humanitarian consequences of the conflict”. PACE, then, calls on “Council of Europe member states to show solidarity and share responsibility” by taking the necessary measures to “cater for Syrian refugees as effectively as possible” and to “respond urgently to the calls for funds, including additional funds to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East”. Justice for crimes against humanity, implementation of measures and pressure to reach a political solution and silence the weapons, real solidarity towards the refugees - these, as Von Sydow said, are “the values of democracy and human rights” that PACE is demanding the Committee of Ministers “inject” into the Syrian conflict, in full awareness of the fact that plans to destroy the chemical weapons will not of themselves be enough to end the war. (VL/transl.fl)