Navi Pillay warns Bashar al-Assad and his supporters: 'You cannot have amnesty for very serious crimes'

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

The United Nations commissioner for human rights has warned Bashar al-Assad and his supporters that there can be no amnesty for crimes committed under their regime as reports of more violence emerged from Syria.

Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said peace negotiators seeking to offer amnesties in return for regime change would be acting beyond their powers. "You cannot have amnesty for very serious crimes," she told the Associated Press, "so my message is very clear – there has to be accountability."

Pillay's statement may convince Assad and his supporters that their only option is to crush their opponents as any attempt at compromise or negotiation will ultimately lead to their indictment.

Syrian forces have remained active throughout the country, according to monitoring groups. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the recent death toll included 14 soldiers: six in Deraa and eight in confrontations with the Free Syrian Army, which did not report any casualties.

The London-based Syrian Observatory also reported the killing of 54 people including 17 soldiers on Friday. None of the reports could be independently verified.

The violence continues to drive people from their homes and cause international tension. Turkish officials reported that 400 Syrian refugees had arrived in Turkey from Syria's Idlib province. There are now 24,500 Syrian refugees in Turkey and around 73,000 in all neighbouring countries.

A French poll on Saturday showed a strengthening of support for a military intervention in Syria. The Ifop poll – the first since last week's mass killings in the town of Houla – revealed 58% now backed a military intervention, up from 51% in February, and support for French involvement had surged to 50% from 38%.

Ifop said the increase was "undoubtedly linked to the multiplication of war crimes blamed on Bashar al-Assad's regime and their recent media coverage".

Outrage at the Houla killings prompted France to join several western nations in stepping up pressure on Syria by expelling senior diplomats and calling on Russia to allow tougher action by the UN security council.

France's new president, François Hollande, said on Tuesday that military intervention could not be ruled out as long as it was carried out under the auspices of a UN security council resolution.

In Lebanon, one person was killed and nine wounded in gun battles between pro- and anti-Syrian groups. The clashes in the Lebanese port city of Tripoli started shortly before midnight on Friday and continued on Saturday.

At a meeting of the Arab League in Doha, Qatar, international peace envoy Kofi Annan warned that Syria was slipping into sectarian all-out war.

"The spectre of an all-out war, with an alarming sectarian dimension, grows by the day," he told a meeting of members of the Arab League, co-sponsor with the United Nations of a peace plan aimed at ending violence in Syria.