Germany to Support Investigation of War Crimes in Syria
Berlin is set to provide a short-term allocation of one million euros for the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM), the Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday. The IIIM, a United Nations mechanism, has been collecting, documenting, and preparing evidence of crimes in Syria since 2016 for use in court proceedings.
“I recently saw with the Foreign Minister the Sednaya prison in Damascus, where countless people were held, tortured, and murdered by the Assad regime with my own eyes” said State Minister Tobias Lindner (Greens). The IIIM collects evidence so that those responsible for these crimes can be held accountable for the countless Syrians affected. “It’s clear that the process of coming to terms with and punishing these heinous crimes must be led by the Syrian side” Lindner said.
The Syria Coordinator at the Foreign Ministry met with IIIM head Robert Petit on Tuesday to discuss this issue, and the Syrian transitional government has reportedly signaled its openness to cooperation with the IIIM, according to the Foreign Ministry.