UNITED NATIONS - One of three investigators on a UN panel documenting crimes against humanity in Syria, including executions and torture, has resigned in protest at the Syrian government's refusal to allow them into the country, the investigator said on Monday.
Yakin Ertuk of Turkey told Reuters that she felt there was no point in continuing on the panel, whose mandate the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council decided on Friday to extend through the 47-nation body's September session."The commission cannot do comprehensive work and investigate (certain) areas because of no access, so I decided not to continue," Ertuk said in a telephone interview.
She made clear her resignation was not a criticism of the work of the panel, which she said had done everything possible under the circumstances to establish the kinds of crimes that the Syrian government has committed over the last year.
