Syria crisis: Kerry insists UN deal must include 'consequences' – live updates, Guardian.com, 12 Sept., 2013

UN chief slams Syrian president
Ban Ki-moon says Assad committed "crimes against humanity" while speaking at UN event in New York.
Al Jazeera, 13 Sept., 2013

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has heavily criticised Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during unguarded comments made during a UN event.  Speaking at the International Women's Forum on Friday, Ban said  Assad has "carried out many crimes against humanity" and that there must be "accountability" once war is over.

"I believe the report will be an overwhelming report that the chemical weapons was used," said Ban.

Al Jazeera's Diplomatic Editor James Bays, reporting from the UN in New York, said it appeared that Ban believed he was speaking off the record.

"The UN secretary-general was speaking at an event, the International Women's Forum, and the proceedings of that event were being broadcast around the UN on the internal television system," he said. "But, it seems Ban Ki-moon thought it was a private event."

Our correspondent said the remarks offered some insight into what the UN and its leader really thought about Syria and President Assad.

"He is normally very measured in expressing his views on Syria, because of his role in the UN," he said. "It seems from these unguarded comments that Ban believes he knows what he is going to hear."

Hospital attacks

The secretary-general's comments come as a separate UN report was released saying Syrian government forces are bombing and shelling hospitals in rebel-held areas to prevent sick and wounded from getting treatment, acts which constitute war crimes.

Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad purposefully denied people medical care as a "weapon of war", UN investigators added in a report released on Friday.

They also had details of a smaller number of incidents when rebel forces attacked hospitals.

According to the UN report on hospital attacks, they started as violence mounted in Syria's civil war in early 2012 and were continuing, it added.

Neither Assad's nor rebel forces immediately responded to the report's allegations, to be discussed on Monday in Geneva at a debate at the UN Human Rights Council.

The Syrian army has occupied hospitals, using them as bases for snipers, tanks and soldiers, according to the report.

Ambulance drivers, nurses and doctors have been attacked, arrested, tortured or disappeared in "insidious" violations of international law.

"Intentionally directing attacks against hospitals and places containing the sick and the wounded and against medical units using the Red Cross or Red Crescent emblem is a war crime in non-international armed conflict," the independent investigators said, referring to a legal term for civil war.

Patients beaten [....]