Arab League observer quits, slams Syria war crimes

Doha, Jan 11: An Arab League observer in unrest-swept Syria said today he has quit the mission, accusing the regime of committing a series of war crimes against its people and of duping his colleagues.

"I withdrew from the Arab observers mission because I found myself serving the regime, and not part of an independent observer group," Anwar Malek told the Doha-based news channel Al-Jazeera.

The Syrian regime is playing "dirty," charged the Algerian observer. "It even began killing its supporters to convince the Arab observers that it is carrying out its duties and to gain their sympathy."

"The mission was a farce and the observers have been fooled. The regime orchestrated it and fabricated most of what we saw to stop the Arab League from taking action against the regime," Malek said.

"What I saw was a humanitarian disaster. The regime isn't committing one war crime but a series of crimes against its people," he said. "Children are killed and they are starved and terrorised."

But an official at the Cairo-based Arab League dismissed Malek's accusations, saying they were all unfounded because he was bedridden and was never in the field.

"He was ill and bedridden at his Syria hotel. So how could he make those claims?" said the unnamed official.

The observer who said he spent 15 days in the flashpoint central city of Homs said it must be declared a "disaster" zone. "I saw charred and skinned bodies that had been tortured," said Malek.

Soldiers "attempting to flee or defect were executed," said Malek. "I saw three bodies of executed soldiers. They were shot from the back."

PTI