'Time is running out,' warns Robert Petit, adding: 'There is a small window of opportunity to secure these sites and the material they hold'
The head of the UN's International, Impartial, and Independent Mechanism for Syria on Monday underlined the urgent need to preserve evidence in Syria before it is lost forever.
Robert Petit's remarks came after wrapping up a historic visit to Damascus, marking the first time the mechanism was authorized to enter Syria to discuss justice and accountability with Syrian officials.
"Time is running out," Petit said in a statement. "There is a small window of opportunity to secure these sites and the material they hold. Each day we fail to do so, we risk losing the chance for comprehensive accountability."
Calling the Dec. 8 fall of the Assad regime a "significant opportunity" for the mechanism to fulfill its mandate on the ground, Petit said he met representatives of the caretaker authorities and accessed a site of "significant interest."
"Even at one facility, the mountains of government documentation reveal the chilling efficiency of systemizing the regime's atrocity crimes," he said.
He emphasized that achieving accountability will require cooperation and coordination among a wide range of actors.
"No single entity can address this challenge on its own," he noted. "It will take a collective and concerted effort. Syrians, civil society organizations, and international partners leveraging their complementary mandates. As a priority all of us must work to preserve evidence of the crimes committed, avoid duplication, and ensure that all victims are inclusively represented in the pursuit of justice."
He said the mechanism is ready to play its part in full and added: "The time to act is now.”
Bashar al-Assad, Syria's leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia after anti-regime groups took control of Damascus on Dec. 8, ending the Baath Party regime, which had been in power since 1963.
The takeover came after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters captured key cities in a lightning offensive that lasted less than two weeks
