WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement in response to the release of the United Nations Human Rights Council Report on the killing of detainees in Syria: “Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Deaths in Detention in the Syrian Arab Republic” on February 3, 2016.
“The February 3 UN Human Rights Council’s report confirms what we all already know, in stark detail: the Assad regime is guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.” said Senator Cardin. “This report meticulously documents how Assad regime detention centers are slaughterhouses where detainees are subjected to ‘massive and systematized violence’ that ‘amount to extermination.’
“It is imperative that the perpetrators of these heinous acts be held accountable for their crimes. That is why I introduced the Syrian War Crimes Accountability Act. If it was not already clear, this report once again provides damning evidence that there can be no peaceful resolution to the civil war in Syria if Assad remains in power. I call on all stakeholders to this conflict to commit to negotiations and a political process that will enable all Syrians to live in peace and dignity.”
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