Syria: ITUC Condemns Barbaric Nerve Gas Attack

photo: Photo: ICRC

The ITUC has condemned the Assad regime’s nerve gas attack on innocent civilians on Tuesday, which has killed scores of people including many children, and left hundreds of others fighting for their lives.

Following the attack in the province of Idlib, hospitals treating the wounded were bombed in further government air raids.

Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary, said “The Assad regime’s reign of terror against its own people is pure barbarism, and this latest use of nerve gas is but one of a growing list of atrocities. The international community must make it clear to Bashar al-Assad and his cronies that their crimes will never be forgotten and that they will be brought to justice. This must include the members of his entourage overseas, whose financial support using money stolen from the Syrian people is helping to keep the regime in power.”

Spanish police have today raided properties held by the Syrian dictator’s uncle Rifaat al-Assad, who is at the centre of a network of family accomplices that holds hundreds of millions of dollars of assets, including in France, Spain and the UK. The Spanish raids stem from a French investigation, instigated by human rights ngo SHERPA, which is also tracking the involvement of multinational companies in the financing of so-called Islamic State. In other developments, a Spanish judge has agreed to hear criminal charges against several high-ranking regime figures and German prosecutors will hear testimony on allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity concerning six senior regime figures.

“The fight against fundamentalist terrorism cannot be used as an excuse to justify Assad’s dictatorship, and the recent easing of international pressure on Assad seems to have allowed him to think that he can escape the rule of law forever. Right now, governments in countries where his family has stashed vast wealth can move to bring the regime’s money-laundering to an end and prosecute those responsible. The banks and tax havens that are complicit in oiling the wheels of Assad’s overseas finance scams must also be held to account,” said Burrow.