Equipo Nizkor - S/2017/24 - Letter from Syria regarding the discovery of 60 bodies near the headquarters of the Levant Front in Aleppo.

United Nations
Security Council

S/2017/24

Distr.: General
11 January 2017
English
Original: Arabic

Identical letters dated 9 January 2017 from the Chargé d'affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council

On instructions from my Government, and further to our previous letters, the most recent of which was dated 14 December (S/2016/1058), regarding the crimes being committed by armed terrorist groups with the support of Governments that are known to all, I should like to inform you that after liberating the eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo, the Syrian authorities discovered 23 bodies in the Muhaddathah school in the Sukkari neighbourhood of the city of Aleppo. That school had been the headquarters of the terrorist group Levant Front – Dawn of Islam Brigade, which the Governments of certain States regard as part of the "moderate armed opposition" and continue to provide with arms, funds and logistical support.

The Syrian authorities have identified 20 of the bodies. They were those of Syrian Arab Army personnel. The Syrian authorities have also discovered 37 other bodies in the Sukkari neighbourhood of the city of Aleppo, and are conducting the necessary procedures to identify them. The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic would like to point out that most of the bodies had their throats slit. Others were shot in the head and had their faces mutilated, and still others show signs of having been tortured.

The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic draws this gravely disturbing information to your attention, and reiterates that the Security Council should take immediate measures against States supporting armed terrorist groups in Syria, in accordance with Security Council counter-terrorism resolutions, including resolutions 1267 (1999), 1373 (2001), 2170 (2014), 2178 (2014), 2199 (2015) and 2253 (2015), which oblige Member States to refrain from providing any form of support to terrorist groups or their members.

I should be grateful if the present letter could be issued as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Mounzer Mounzer
Minister Counsellor
Chargé d'affaires a.i

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11Jan17

Letter from Syria regarding the discovery of 60 bodies near the headquarters of the Levant Front in Aleppo