Former war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, who is currently probing rights abuses in Syria, on Monday backed Russia's air strikes on "terrorist groups" in the war-torn country.| This is not a surprise: now if she were asked about U.S. bombing of the same bad guys, her answer would be different. Of course it would. |
But Del Ponte, a member of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, quickly added that the Russians apparently "are not distinguishing enough between the terrorists and others, and that is not as good."
| Our guys work much harder to do that. Notice she didn't give us any credit... |
Moscow launched a bombing campaign in Syria last year at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying it was targeting the Islamic State group and other Islamist militant organizations. The West has accused Russia of targeting more moderate factions that oppose Assad's regime, and Syrian activists say the strikes have killed civilians, allegations Moscow dismisses as "absurd".
| The Rooshun spokes-thug is just being a Rooshun... |
One day after the talks broke down, Russia's defence ministry said that air strikes had hit 875 "terrorist targets" in Syria since the start of the month.
Del Ponte, a 68-year-old Swiss national who came to prominence investigating war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, also touched on another sensitive subject Monday, saying she thought Assad should be included in peace negotiations.
"If you want a ceasefire, if you want peace, you first have to negotiate with the government," she said, pointing out that the late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic was already under investigation when the US negotiated the 1995 Dayton accord with him that ended Yugoslavia's bloody war.
| Look what happened to him, too: died of old age in a |