YPG describes UN report as "biased"

Media Center of the People's Protection Units published a statement by spokesperson, Nuri Mahmoud, regarding the report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamia, issued on May 6th, 2021.

Mahmoud refuted the large numbers of violations in the report, describing them as "irrational" and "biased", stressing that the YPG would investigate the charges against them.

The Statement included the following:

"We followed with great interest the report of the Under-Secretary-General, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, respected Ms. Virginia Gamba, on Children and Armed Conflict, issued on May 6th, 2021,  during the period from January to December 2020.

We affirm the commitment of the People's Protection Units YPG to the agreement signed between the United Nations and the Syrian Democratic Forces with their military components and to the action plan agreed by the Syrian Democratic Forces with the United Nations on June 29th, 2019.

At the same time, the People’s Protection Units YPG strongly refuted the gruesome and illogical numbers of violations in the report of the Secretary-General concerning recruitment operations (170 + 8 children) attributed to the People's Protection Units, " Our forces have strict, systematic and precise laws that in no way permit recruitment of those under 18. "

The People's Protection Units will also investigate the accusations against it of its military use of schools (5) attributed to our units.

We categorically deny the abduction referred to (8) by the People's Protection Units.

The People's Protection Units, YPG together with their commitments to international and humanitarian standards in accordance with United Nations agreements, at the same time strongly denounce the United Nations monitoring and reporting mechanism on the areas of the Autonomous Administration of North and East of Syria in Rojava and North eastern Syria, as being biased in their assessments. At the same time, the People's Protection Units are committed to and support the agreement signed between the Syrian Democratic Forces and the United Nations in the AANES and Rojava by providing access to all civilian and military detention centres by United Nations teams and partner organizations and by sharing all information with them in an unparalleled and transparent manner. Unfortunately, the report has shown that our forces have been blamed and have shown them to be unfairly and violating the rights of children, despite the fact that United Nations officials in Syria have not performed their duties in accordance with international standards towards the children of north-eastern Syria (Rojava), who make up 40% of the Syrian children of Kurds, Arabs and other components of Syria. The potential of the United Nations is exploited for the benefit of the Syrian and Turkish regimes, as they are recognized by the United Nations, and children in the Autonomous Administration areas, which constitute 32% of the geography of Syria, are deprived of those capabilities with illogical pretexts.

T/S

ANHA