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Former US ambassador: There won't be peace in Syria without prosecution of Assad

In Stephen Rapp's first interview since leaving office, the recently resigned US ambassador-at-large and chief of the State Department’s Office of Global Criminal Justice says progress is being made on amassing documentation of the "hell" in Syria.
Stephen Rapp, U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, addresses a news conference in Kenya's capital Nairobi, November 16, 2009. The United States will attend an International Criminal Court (ICC) meeting this week as an observer for the first time since the Hague court was set up in 2002, President Barack Obama's war crimes envoy said on Monday. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya (KENYA POLITICS CRIME LAW CONFLICT) - RTXQSWO

The expression “no justice, no peace” is usually associated these days with US demonstrations against police killings of African-Americans. But it also applies to Syria, according to Stephen Rapp, who has just stepped down as US ambassador-at-large and chief of the State Department’s Office of Global Criminal Justice.

In his first interview since leaving office Aug. 7, Rapp told Al-Monitor that any diplomatic effort to end the civil war in Syria would fail unless accompanied by a process of transitional justice that targets the worst offenders, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

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