AFP, Berlin, 29 Feb 2012 – A troika of European foreign ministers meeting in Germany said Wednesday that those behind the bloodshed in Syria must be brought to justice for possible crimes against humanity.
‘We will spare no efforts to hold accountable those responsible for the widespread violations of human rights, which may amount to crimes against humanity,’ the ministers said in a statement.
‘We strongly urge the Syrian authorities to allow immediate and unhinderd humanitarian access to all populations in need of assistance,’ added the statement from German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, French counterpart Alain Juppe and Poland’s RadoslawSikorski.
They also called on the Syrian authorities to ‘create the conditions for a safe and rapid evacuation’ of foreign journalists in the besieged city of Homs.
‘We call for an interruption of the acts of violence in Homs in order to allow such an operation to take place.’
Syria said Wednesday it was committed to help evacuate the Western journalists trapped in Homs but accused rebels of refusing to cooperate with the Red Crescent.
US veteran war correspondent Marie Colvin and French photojournalist RemiOchlik were killed in an attack on Homs last week and two other journalists were wounded.
Efforts to bring out Le Figaro journalist Edith Bouvier, who is trapped with multiple fractures, intensified after British photographer Paul Conroy was successfully smuggled out to Lebanon.
Paris-based photographer William Daniels and Javier Espinosa of the Spanish newspaper El Mundo are also trapped in Homs but were unhurt in the attack.
The three European foreign ministers were meeting in Berlin in a forum known as the Weimar Triangle, which was created in 1991 to promote cooperation and common interests.
The United Nations said Tuesday that more than 7,600 people have been killed since the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched a crackdown on opposition demonstrators last March.