By John Irish

PARIS, Oct 9 (Reuters) - U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi will go to Syria this week to try to persuade Bashar al-Assad’s government to call an immediate ceasefire in an 18-month-old conflict with rebels, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday.

Efforts by Brahimi’s predecessor, Kofi Annan, to engineer a ceasefire collapsed within days, with neither the Damascus government nor opposition forces willing to abide by conditions for an effective cessation of hostilities.

Brahimi is to meet Assad as fighting rages in Syria’s biggest city Aleppo and government forces pursue offensives to dislodge rebels from provincial bastions elsewhere, causing increasing spillover into neighbouring countries especially Turkey, prompting Ban to warn against the danger of escalation.

“Brahimi is now going to the region again and he will visit several countries and after that he will visit Syria,” Ban told a news conference along with French President Francois Hollande after the two met in Paris.

Ban said Brahimi aimed to curb the bloodshed and negotiate a deal to allow more humanitarian aid into Syria, where a civilian protest movement has evolved into an armed insurgency and one million people have been driven from their homes.

“First and foremost, the violence must be stopped as soon as possible,” Ban said. Diplomats said Brahimi would first visit Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt, all regional diplomatic heavyweights, for consultations before heading to Damascus.

In September, his first month on the job, Brahimi met Assad in Damascus and visited Syrian refugee camps in Turkey and Jordan. The U.N. envoy said afterwards that he had a “few ideas” but no full plan on how to defuse the conflict, which he described as “extremely bad and getting worse”.

On Monday, Turkish President Abdullah Gul warned that “worst case scenarios” were playing out in Syria as Turkey’s army fired shells over the border for the sixth day running in response to shelling from the Syrian side. Northern Syria near the Turkish border has seen heavy fighting in the civil war.

LEERY OF UNILATERAL CEASEFIRE

Asked how Assad reacted to calls for a ceasefire, Ban said he had conveyed a “strong message” for a unilateral truce.

“Of course, their reaction was what will happen if they do it and the opposition forces continue (to fight)?” he said.

Ban said he was discussing how to provide assurances to both rebels and the government in talks with the U.N. Security Council and countries in the region. “I am getting positive support from the key countries,” he said.

He repeated a call for those countries providing weapons to both sides to stop. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey have backed the rebels, while Assad’s main allies are Iran and Russia.

Turkey has bolstered its military presence along the 900-km (560-mile) border with Syria and responded in kind to gunfire and shelling coming from the south, where Assad’s forces have been battling insurgents holding swathes of territory.

Hollande, among the most outspoken Western critics of Assad, said he would push for more punitive sanctions against Damascus in hope of forcing the Syrian leader to the negotiating table.

“The difficulty we are facing is not linked to the U.S. election, but to the division at the U.N. Security Council to take immediate decisions that would be useful to the Syrian people,” he said.

Russia and China have vetoed Western-backed attempts to have the Council pass harsh U.N. sanctions aimed at isolating Assad.

Activists say more than 30,000 people have been killed in the uprising against Assad.

22/08/12

Iran appears to be supplying arms to Syria - U.N.

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Iran appears to be supplying Syria with weapons, the United Nations said on Wednesday, as the 17-month conflict that began as a popular uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad slides deeper into civil war.

The U.N. accusation backs charges by Western officials that Iran is providing funds, weapons and intelligence support to Assad in his bid to crush the opposition. Syrian rebels also say Tehran has sent Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah fighters.

“The Secretary-General has repeatedly expressed his concern about the arms flows to the two parties in Syria, which in some cases appear to violate resolution 1747 passed by this council banning arms exports under Chapter 7 authority,” U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman told the U.N. Security Council.

In a prepared copy of his speech, Feltman noted that the ban was on Iranian arms exports. Resolution 1747 bans arms exports by Iran under Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter, which allows the Security Council to authorize actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention.

The resolution was passed in response to Iran’s defiance of U.N. demands that it halt its nuclear enrichment program. Iran rejects allegations by Western nations and their allies that it is developing nuclear weapons.

Next week, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend a summit meeting of leaders of non-aligned developing nations in Iran. He will also meet with senior Iranian officials to discuss “Iran’s nuclear program, terrorism, human rights and the crisis in Syria,” his spokesman said.

Feltman also reiterated U.N. concerns at weapons being smuggled between Lebanon and Syria.

“Both the government and the opposition are focusing on military operations and the use of force, with government forces using heavy weapons on population centers,” Feltman told the Security Council during a regular briefing on the Middle East.

“The Syrian people are suffering grievously from the appalling further militarization of this conflict,” he said.

A U.N. Security Council panel of independent experts that monitors sanctions against Iran has uncovered several examples of Iran transferring arms to Syria’s government. Damascus has accused Qatar and Saudi Arabia of arming rebels determined to topple Assad’s government.

The United Nations has said more than 18,000 people have died and some 170,000 people have fled the country as a result of the fighting in Syria. U.N. aid chief Valerie Amos has said that up to 2.5 million people in Syria needed aid.

“This conflict has taken on a particularly brutal and violent character,” Amos told a news conference in New York on Wednesday after visiting Syria and Lebanon last week.

“We face problems with access to people in need, particularly where there is intense and ongoing fighting, but funding is also holding us back. If we had more resources, we could reach more people,” she said.

‘There will be no winner in #Syria,’ UN chief warns, as refugee crisis grows

After months of protests and violent crackdowns, a look back at the violence that has overtaken the country.

10/08/2012

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned Friday “there will be no winner in Syria,” as the world body said nearly 150,000 refugees fleeing the 17-month-old conflict had registered in neighboring countries.

In Aleppo, rebels fighting in the Salaheddine district, a southern gateway to the commercial hub, said they had been forced to fall back from frontline positions on Thursday by a fierce bombardment which had reduced buildings to rubble.

“There have been some withdrawals of Free Syrian Army fighters from Salaheddine,” rebel commander Abu Ali told Reuters. Others said the main frontlines in the area, which had been held by rebels for more than a week, were now deserted.

The center of the district, near Salaheddine mosque, was abandoned when Reuters journalists visited on Thursday. The only sound was the constant echo of artillery shelling. There were no rebels, no security forces, and only a few residents darting in and out to pick up belongings — while evading army snipers.

All-consumed fighting
President Bashar Assad, engaged in an all-consuming fight with his mostly Sunni opponents, appointed a Sunni as his new prime minister on Thursday after his predecessor fled Monday in the highest-level defection so far in an uprising that has killed around 20,000 people.

Wael Nader al-Halqi, from the southern province of Daraa where the revolt began, replaces Riyad Hijab, who had spent only two months in the job before making a dramatic escape across the border to Jordan.

Assad’s authority was shaken by the assassination last month of four of his top security officials and by rebel gains in Damascus, Aleppo and swathes of rural Syria.
But he has persevered with a crackdown on opponents seeking to end half a century of Baathist rule and topple a system dominated by members of the president’s minority Alawite sect.

Video (top): Rebels say minority Shiite and Alawite Muslims, the groups that have ruled Syria for decades, are being left alone in the carnage inflicted by Syrian troops. NBC’s Richard Engel reports.

As the battle for Aleppo raged, Iran, Assad’s closest foreign backer, called for “serious and inclusive” negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition.

Assad replaces fugitive PM, deals blow to rebels in key Aleppo district

Assad has repeatedly said he is ready for dialogue, but he has vowed to crush the armed rebels he says are terrorists. His opponents say he must step aside before any talks, arguing negotiations would be meaningless while the bloodshed persists.

Machine guns operated by motorcycle brakes? Get a glimpse at the rebels fighting against Assad’s forces in Syria’s mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya area.

Iran made the call after gathering diplomats from like-minded states in Tehran for talks on the conflict not attended by Western and most Middle Eastern states, which have demanded Assad end his family’s 40-year rule.

‘Long-term civil war’
The violence has already shown elements of a proxy war between Sunni and Shiite Islam.

“There will be no winner in Syria,” Ban said in a statement read by a U.N. representative to the conference in Tehran.

“Now, we face the grim possibility of long-term civil war destroying Syria’s rich tapestry of interwoven communities,” it said.

Refugees pour across borders
In Geneva, Adrian Edwards, spokesman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, told a news briefing that the number of registered Syrian refugees in four neighboring countries continued to grow.

‘Situation is desperate’ at makeshift hospitals on Syrian-Turkish border

The total includes 50,227 recorded in Turkey, where more than 6,000 Syrians arrived this week alone, the United Nations said.

“There certainly in the past week has been a sharp increase in the numbers arriving in Turkey, and there many of the people are coming from Aleppo and surrounding villages,” Edwards said.

People resisting the army of President Bashar al-Assad in northern Syria cope with loss and prepare for fighting.

“Now if you look at other areas, I think that the situation is more of a steady and continued increase, but where fighting happens we tend to see the consequences,” he said.

As of Thursday night, there were 45,869 Syrian refugees registered in Jordan, 36,841 in Lebanon and 13,587 in Iraq — which has also seen the return of 23,228 Iraqis from Syria since July 18, according to the agency.

Complete international coverage on NBCNews.com

“In several countries we know there to be substantial refugee numbers who have not yet registered,” Edwards said.

Some Syrian refugees have also turned up in other countries including Algeria, Egypt and Morocco, and Evros, the Greek region that borders Turkey, he said, adding that the numbers were “really tiny” compared to the flows to Syria’s neighbors.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Lakhdar Brahimi has served as a UN special envoy in Iraq after the US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein [Reuters]

10/08/2012

Diplomats have said  Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign affairs minister, is a strong candidate to replace Kofi Annan as the United Nations’ peace envoy to Syria.

Brahimi’s possible appointment could be announced as early as next week, but the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said late on Thursday that there could be last-minute changes if a key government has concerns about the choice.

The former Algerian foreign affairs minister has a long history as a diplomatic troubleshooter, and will if appointed face tough challenges in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is using his security forces to try to crush a 17-month-old uprising.

Brahimi, 78, has served as a UN special envoy in a series of challenging circumstances, including in Iraq after the US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, and in Afghanistan both before and after the end of Taliban rule. He was posted in South Africa as it emerged from the apartheid era.

Syria, however, may present an unusually vexing assignment, in part because international action to try to end the violence has been stymied by the disagreements between the five veto-holding permanent members of the UN Security Council.

While the security council united in April to approve the deployment of 300 monitors to Syria to observe a failed ceasefire as part of Annan’s peace plan, Russia and China vetoed three other resolutions that criticized Syria and threatened sanctions against Damascus.

‘Finger-pointing’ 

Annan, a former UN secretary-general and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said last week he would step down as the special envoy because he was unable to do his job with the UN Security Council hopelessly deadlocked over Syria.

In announcing his resignation, Annan explicitly blamed “finger-pointing and name-calling” at the Security Council for his decision to quit, but suggested his successor may have better luck.

In accepting Annan’s resignation, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon thanked him for having taken on “this most difficult and potentially thankless of assignments”.

A spokesman for Ban, who is expected to formally name Annan’s successor, was not immediately available for comment.

Human rights organisations must start coping with reality: The victors write the laws and hold the trials.

Human rights organisations should not be so quick to put rebel militias to the same standard as a standing army [AFP]

08/08/2012

Cambridge, UK - Human rights organisations pride themselves on being impartial, on not taking sides in the conflicts they report on.

On July 31 in Aleppo, when Syrian rebels summarily executed the head of a pro-regime Shabiha militia, Ali Zeineddin al-Berri - and some of his men - there was a chorus of condemnation from Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International and the UN.

“What it looks like is execution of detainees and if that is the case, that would be a war crime,” said a senior legal advisor for HRW.

To be sure, these same organisations have assiduously investigated the atrocities of the Assad regime.

But what are we to make of the idea that the violence of the regime and that of the rebels should be measured against the same standard? Does it make sense to be impartial about a war?

Al-Berri was a regime thug who allegedly killed 15 Syrian rebels during a recent truce. Some of the worst massacres of the conflict have been carried out by Shabiha militia. Killing al-Berri may have been simple revenge; or it may have been a calculated message to encourage militiamen to stay home.

Maybe the killing was a mistake. It might convince regime dead-enders that they have no choice but to go down fighting. It certainly generated negative media coverage among the rebels’ supporters in the West.

But for the human rights community, assessing al-Berri’s killing is a legal not a strategic matter. Note the language used by HRW’s lawyer: the Syrian rebels had unlawfully killed a “detainee”.

The Syrian rebels are a collection of different groups, with no clear political direction or command structure. They are fighting a desperate war against a regime that will bomb and massacre its own people to stay in power, and which would prefer to see Syria destroyed than surrender.

The Syrian rebels actually doing the fighting mostly lack training, organisation, and leadership. Needless to say, they have not prioritised hiring lawyers, writing legal codes, and setting up a judiciary. It is unlikely the Syrian opposition has a consistent or enforceable “policy” on “detainees”, whatever statements its campaign spokesmen outside Syria may make.

Yet HRW talks as if the rebels were just like a state. It seeks to hold them to the same standards with respect to discriminating between combatants and civilians, treatment of prisoners and so on.

What bias in human rights talk is revealed in this attempt at impartiality?

Firstly, the laws of war were written by states. There is a systematic bias favouring the official, uniformed armed forces of states. From the point of view of the state, a rebel is at best an “unlawful combatant” or a criminal, at worst a traitor or even a barbarian.

According to the Geneva Conventions, the definition of a legal combatant is one who carries weapons openly and ideally wears a uniform or distinguishing mark.

When rebels are strong and in control of territory, they can carry weapons openly. To do so in other situations is to surrender one of their few advantages. Had the Free Syrian Army carried weapons openly and worn uniforms when they infiltrated into Damascus and Aleppo, the regime would already be victorious.

From the point of view of these great standards of civilisation - the Geneva Conventions - a Syrian soldier fighting rebels bearing arms is perfectly legal. But the rebels who kill regime officials in their homes are war criminals.

How far would the rebellion against Assad have gotten if every rebel had to identify himself by openly carrying arms, engaging only in “fair fights” with the Syrian Armed Forces?

The problems with human rights talk go deeper.

NATO deploys lawyers en masse and its air forces are meticulous and expert in their targeting. But it could not satisfy HRW in the Libyan campaign. In May, HRW released a report asking NATO to account for 72 “civilian” casualties caused by air strikes. (Even if HRW is entirely correct, 72 dead civilians is a remarkably low price to pay for NATO’s contribution to unseating Gaddafi.)

The definition of a civilian may seem straightforward. In fact, it is a very difficult matter, even in wars between states. Are arms workers civilians? Are soldiers not on duty civilians? Are unwilling conscripts civilians or soldiers? The Geneva Conventions evade the matter. They essentially say that a civilian is anyone who is not a legal combatant, that is, someone who is not carrying arms openly.

In war, the question of carrying weapons openly is a tactical issue and camouflage is a principal military art. Under sustained air attack, Gaddafi’s military did not seek to advertise its “distinguishing marks” as the uniformed armed force of a sovereign state. After the first few days, for example, Libyan commanders did not use military radios or military vehicles. To do so was to invite death from the air from their enemies. After the war, HRW investigators found no evidence of military equipment at bombed out buildings that NATO said were Libyan command and control facilities. They naively assumed in such cases that civilians had been killed.

HRW now demand NATO investigate and account for these deaths. The idea here is that, ideally speaking, every death in war can be clearly adjudicated in legal terms. But given the ambiguity in the core distinction between civilian and combatant how could this ever be so?

The fantasy that matters of right and wrong in war are subject to legal determination creates a bogus position of moral superiority. It is a position occupied by those who believe human rights talk elevates them above the politics of war. They presume an imaginary world in which all war crimes will be investigated and punished, irrespective of who committed them.

Consider in this vein UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remark that “Aleppo… is the epicentre of a vicious battle between the Syrian government and those who wish to replace it. The acts of brutality that are being reported may constitute crimes against humanity or war crimes. Such acts must be investigated and the perpetrators held to account.”

By reference to the notion of war crimes, Ban Ki-moon creates a moral equivalence between the murderous regime of Assad and those who are fighting against the odds to defeat him. Whatever the failings of the rebels, and they are many, there is no such equivalence for any right thinking person.

Ban Ki-moon’s comment also implies there will be some grand trial where good and bad, right and wrong, legal and illegal all will be decided.

In the real world, we know that the powerful write the laws and the victors hold the trials.

While HRW and Amnesty issue reports, and UN officials make grand statements, no US or UK official will ever be tried for war crimes in Iraq or for the on-going torture and imprisonment of terrorist suspects.

Human rights talk is a way of evading having to take sides in war and of pretending to be above war. But the only reason we have the UN and the human rights community is because of the victory of the Allies in World War II and of the West in the Cold War.

Perhaps it is time for human rights organisations to dispense with the lawyers and start studying politics and the paradoxes of war.

Tarak Barkawi is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics, New School for Social Research.

Reuters/Mohamed Azakir

08/08/2012

Syrian rebels are readying themselves to battle government forces for control of Aleppo

27/07/2012

Syrian forces have renewed their assault on the northern city of Aleppo, firing from helicopter gunships on rebel-held areas.

The US state department has said it fears Syrian government forces are preparing to carry out a massacre.

The pro-government al-Watan newspaper has warned that the mother of all battles is about to start.

Rebels in Aleppo, Syria’s most populous city, have been stockpiling ammunition and medical supplies in preparation.

Syrian troops fired from helicopter gunships on south-western neighbourhoods of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told the AFP news agency.

A convoy of tanks from Idlib province, near the border with Turkey, arrived in Aleppo overnight and was attacked by rebels, the Observatory said.

At least 34 people were killed in the city on Thursday, activists said, as artillery and helicopter gunships attacked rebel targets.

Residents flee

The US state department said the deployment of tanks, helicopter gunships and fixed-winged aircraft around Aleppo suggested an attack was imminent.

But the US would not intervene, said state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, except by continuing to channel non-lethal assistance such as communications equipment and medical supplies to the rebels.

The BBC’s Ian Pannell, near Aleppo, says thousands of people have already left as fears grow that an intense battle looms.

Talal al-Mayhani, an activist with connections to the rebel movement in Aleppo, said the battle for the city was likely to play out in a similar way to an earlier battle in the capital Damascus.

There, rebels took control of large parts of the city before being forced to withdraw in the face of a government offensive.

Foreign journalists operate under heavy restrictions in Syria so claims made by either side are difficult to verify.

Continue reading the main story‘Lessons from Balkans conflict’

A Syrian MP from Aleppo has fled to Turkey, Turkey’s state-run Anatolia news agency says.

Ikhlas Badawi, a mother of six, said she was defecting in protest at the “violence against the people”.

Meanwhile, another defector, Gen Manaf Tlas, has put himself forward as a possible figure to unite the fractious opposition.

In an interview with a Saudi newspaper, Asharq al-Awsat, he said: “I am discussing with… people outside Syria to reach a consensus with those inside.”

However, some in the opposition regard Gen Tlas - who fled earlier this month - as a compromised figure too close to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said the world must apply the lessons learned from the Bosnian conflict in the 1990s.

He was speaking in Srebrenica, where a UN peacekeeping force failed to stop the killing of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in 1995.

“I do not want to see any of my successors, after 20 years, visiting Syria, apologising for what we could have done now to protect the civilians in Syria - which we are not doing now,” Mr Ban said.

The head of UN peacekeeping operations, Herve Ladsous, defended the decision to reduce the number of observers in Syria.

“We found ourselves with too many people and not enough to do,” he said.

Speaking in Damascus, he said there was “no plan B” beyond Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan.

Repeated diplomatic attempts to stop the violence have foundered, with the UN Security Council bitterly divided.

The Syrian government has said its forces are trying to dislodge the “remnants of mercenary terrorist groups”.

More than 16,000 people have been killed in Syria since the start of anti-regime protests in March 2011, activists say.

Beirut— Syria threatened Monday to unleash its chemical and biological weapons if the country faces a foreign attack, a desperate warning from a regime that has failed to crush a powerful and strengthening rebellion.

The statement — Syria’s first-ever acknowledgement that the country possesses weapons of mass destruction — suggests President Bashar Assad will continue the fight to stay in power, regardless of the cost.

“It would be reprehensible if anybody in Syria is contemplating use of such weapons of mass destruction like chemical weapons,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said during a trip to Belgrade, Serbia. “I sincerely hope the international community will keep an eye on this so that there will be no such things happening.”

Syria is believed to have nerve agents as well as mustard gas, Scud missiles capable of delivering these lethal chemicals and a variety of advanced conventional arms.

During a televised news conference Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi stressed that the weapons are secure and would only be used in the case of an external attack.

“No chemical or biological weapons will ever be used, and I repeat, will never be used, during the crisis in Syria no matter what the developments inside Syria,” he said. “All of these types of weapons are in storage and under security and the direct supervision of the Syrian armed forces and will never be used unless Syria is exposed to external aggression.”

The Syrian government later tried to back off from the announcement, issuing an amendment to the prepared statement read by Makdissi.

In his comments to reporters, Makdissi also repeated the regime’s assertion that the country’s 17-month-old conflict is the work of foreign extremists looking to destroy the nation.

Israel and the U.S. are concerned that Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Islamist militants should the regime collapse. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Sunday that his country would “have to act” if necessary to safeguard the arsenal from rogue elements.

BEIJING (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon held talks Wednesday with Chinese President Hu Jintao as he seeks to press Beijing to back tougher action to stop violence in Syria hours ahead of a key Security Council vote.

Ban has already urged China to use its influence to back a peace plan by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, who is calling on the Security Council to order “consequences” for any failure to carry out his six-point plan.

But it will be a difficult task for the UN secretary general to persuade Beijing to back a Western resolution renewing the UN mission in the country that calls for sanctions if the regime does not pull back heavy weapons.

China, one of five veto-wielding members of the Security Council, has twice joined with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s main ally Russia in blocking resolutions critical of Damascus and has repeatedly warned against outside intervention in Syria.

“The life of Syria’s current political leadership can only be determined by the Syrian people,” said the People’s Daily, mouthpiece of the Communist Party, in an editorial on Tuesday.

“This is an internal matter and the international community should respect that.”

Russia has branded as “blackmail” the bid to link renewal of the UN mission to the threat of sanctions, and has pledged to veto the resolution calling for sanctions.

It proposed a new draft on Tuesday which was rejected by Britain, France, the United States, Germany and Portugal, diplomats said. The Russian draft would renew the mission for three months, but would not back it up with international action.

“Barring a last minute surprise, we should now go for a vote on Wednesday and we expect a veto by Russia and China,” said the UN envoy of a Western nation.

The current 90-day UN mission in Syria ends on Friday and if no resolution is passed by then, it would have to shut down this weekend, according to diplomats.

Following talks with Hu, Ban will also meet Vice President Xi Jinping — set to become China’s president next year — as well as top foreign policy advisor Dai Bingguo and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, diplomats said.

Ban, who is officially in Beijing for a China-Africa summit, has said that international inaction on Syria would be giving “a licence for further massacres”.

In Syria on Tuesday, troops blasted Damascus neighbourhoods with helicopter gunships and tank fire, witnesses said, after rebels announced an escalation of their battle for control of the capital.

Fighting between Assad’s forces and rebels of the Free Syrian Army has raged in Damascus since Sunday, with some activists saying it marked a “turning point” in the 16-month revolt against the regime.

Annan and Ban have both called for the Security Council to impose “consequences” if Assad and the Syrian opposition fail to carry out Annan’s peace plan.

Russia insists that diplomatic pressure is enough. According to diplomats, President Vladimir Putin spoke with China’s Hu at the weekend and the two agreed to oppose sanctions.

DAMASCUS (AFP) - The Syrian village of Treimsa, where monitors say more than 150 people were slaughtered, bears signs of having been pounded with heavy weapons, the UN mission said on Saturday.

The homes of rebels and activists had borne the brunt, a statement added, referring to “pools and pools of blood spatters”.

Sausan Ghosheh, spokeswoman for the UN Supervision Mission in Syria, said a team of observers had visited the village in central Syria on Saturday.

“On the basis of this preliminary mission, UNSMIS can confirm that an attack, using a variety of weapons, took place in Treimsa on July 12,” she said in a statement, without specifying who may have carried out the attack.

Activists say more than 150 people were killed in Thursday’s attack, which they allege was carried out by the army, backed by pro-regime militiamen known as shabiha (“ghosts” in Arabic).

Syria’s military however said the army had killed “many terrorists” in Treimsa, but no civilians, in a “special operation… targeting armed terrorist groups and their leadership hide-outs.”

Ghosheh said a “wide range of weapons were used, including artillery, mortars and small arms.”

“The attack on Treimsa appeared targeted at specific groups and houses, mainly of army defectors and activists. There were pools of blood and blood spatters in rooms of several homes together with bullet cases.

“The UN team also observed a burned school and damaged houses with signs of internal burning in five of them.”

The number of casualties was still unclear, she added.

The Treimsa killings have triggered a global outcry against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon calling for urgent action to stop the bloodshed.

The head of Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP it “might be the biggest massacre committed in Syria since the start of the revolution” against Assad in March 2011.

If confirmed, the 150-plus toll would exceed that of a massacre at Houla on May 25, when a pro-Assad militia and government forces were accused of killing at least 108 people.

Ghosheh said the observers planned to return to Treimsa on Sunday for further investigations.

“UNSMIS is deeply concerned about the escalating level of violence in Syria and calls on the government to cease the use of heavy weapons on population centres and on the parties to put down their weapons and choose the path of non-violence for the welfare of the Syrian people who have suffered enough,” she said.

The Observatory said earlier that Syrian troops and pro-regime militias had stormed and torched a town in southern Syria on Saturday.

Hundreds of soldiers backed by helicopter gunships attacked Khirbet Ghazaleh in the province of Daraa — the cradle of a 16-month uprising — amid heavy gunfire, the watchdog said.

An activist on the ground who identified himself as Bayan Ahmad gave a similar account, saying pro-regime militias has set alight houses in the town.

“The army entered without resistance as the rebel Free Syrian Army left town. The shelling has wounded dozens of people but we don’t have medical resources to treat them,” he added.

Elsewhere, a pregnant woman was among 72 people killed across the country on Saturday, the Observatory said, a day after 118 people died including dozens of civilians gunned down by troops at anti-regime protests.

Those killed were 34 civilians — including nine women and seven children — 17 rebels and at least 21 soldiers, it said.

An AFP journalist said fighting Saturday near the Turkish border between government troops and rebel fighters had left at least 10 rebels dead and 15 wounded.

Treimsa is near Al-Kubeir, where at least 55 people were killed on July 6, according to the Observatory. Like Al-Kubeir, Treimsa is a majority Sunni village situated near Alawite hamlets.

Assad belongs to the Alawite community — an offshoot of Shiite Islam — although most Syrians are Sunni.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon lashed out at the Syrian regime and called for the UN Security Council to urgently act to stop the bloodshed, as failing to do so would give “a licence for further massacres.”

The Treimsa killings have added urgency to deadlocked Security Council negotiations on a Syria resolution.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said on Twitter that the killings “dramatically illustrate the need for binding measures on Syria” by the council.

Western nations have proposed a resolution that would impose sanctions on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the conflict, which rights activists say has cost more than 17,000 lives.

Britain, France, the United States, Germany and Portugal have proposed a resolution that would give Assad 10 days to stop the use of heavy weapons, in line with the Annan plan, or face sanctions.

They also want to give the UN observer mission a new mandate, but for only 45 days. Their mandate ends on July 20.

Russia has rejected as unacceptable any use of sanctions. It is proposing a rival resolution that renews the mandate of UNSMIS for 90 days.

Divided Security Council must send a strong message to all, he says

• AFP
• Published: 09:04 July 14, 2012

Russia has circulated among UN Security Council members a draft resolution to extend its mission in Syria for three months so it can shift focus from monitoring a non-existent truce to securing a political solution to the conflict.

The deeply divided council must decide the future of the mission, known as UNSMIS, before July 20 when its initial 90-day mandate expires.

International envoy Kofi Annan is due to brief the council on Wednesday on his bid to broker peace in Syria.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have killed more than 15,000 people since a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters began in March 2011, some Western leaders say.

Damascus says rebels have killed several thousand of its security forces.

The Russian draft resolution is unlikely to satisfy the United States and European council members, who have called for a resolution under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which allows the council to authorise actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention.

US officials have said they are talking about sanctions on Syria, not military intervention.

Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador, Alexander Pankin, said a resolution under Chapter 7 would be “counterproductive” in what he described as a “delicate situation”.

Russia and China have previously vetoed U.N. resolutions designed to pressure Assad.

“There is no mention of Chapter 7 (in the Russian draft) and that’s a matter of principle for us because we believe the special envoy is doing a commendable job,” Pankin told Reuters.

“(The draft) is a continuation of the mission bearing in mind the recommendations of the Secretary-General.”

MORE PRESSURE

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has recommended the emphasis of UNSMIS’ work shift from military observers - who suspended most of their monitoring activities on June 16 because of increased risk amid rising violence - to the roughly 100 civilian staff focusing on a political solution and issues like human rights.

The mission would keep its current mandate for up to 300 unarmed observers under this option, but significantly fewer likely would be needed to support the new focus.

The Russian draft resolution, obtained by Reuters, does not specify a number, but “stresses the need for UNSMIS to have a military observer capability to conduct effective verification and fact-finding tasks”.

It also “calls upon all Syrian parties to guarantee the safety of UNSMIS personnel without prejudice to its freedom of movement and access, and stresses that the primary responsibility in this regard lies with the Syrian authorities”.

The resolution also strongly urges all parties to cease all violence and stressed “that it is for the Syrian people to find a political solution and that the Syrian parties must be prepared to put forward effective and mutually acceptable interlocutors” to work with Annan toward an agreement.

One Security Council diplomat, who did not want to be named, described the Russian draft as “basically a rollover”.

“At the very least it needs to be combined with some real pressure on the parties,” he said.

Annan met with Assad in Damascus on Monday before travelling to Iran and Iraq for talks on the conflict.”The council will need to address the Syria situation in a more comprehensive way.”

Annan said Assad had suggested easing the conflict on a step-by-step basis, starting with districts that have suffered the worst violence.

- Reuters

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

Published: July 9, 2012

A member of the Free Syria Army walks past a destroyed Syrian forces tank in the town Atareb in northern Aleppo province

(CNN) — Despite the escalating violence in Syria that led to the suspension of monitoring activities, the United Nations can continue to play a crucial role in the embattled country, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a report to be presented to the Security Council.

An advance copy of the report, which is circulating among Security Council members, was obtained by CNN ahead of a Wednesday briefing on Syria to the council by Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan.

The document outlines the efforts to implement a six-point plan that would impose a cease-fire and take measures to protect human rights, and admits that it has not worked.

In some places, the levels of violence are even higher today than they were before an initial cease-fire attempt, the report says.

The 300-strong U.N. team in Syria, whose mission is to observe and help implement the plan, has been unable to do its work as envisioned because of present conditions, the document states.

Last month, the United Nations announced that it was pulling back its unarmed monitors because of escalating violence. Opposition groups slammed the international body for the suspension of its work.

The U.N. mission’s role in Syria was based on the premise that there would be a cessation to the violence, and failing that, “a calibration of effort in response to the situation on the ground would be appropriate,” Ban writes.

Basically, the three options Ban puts on the table are: withdrawing the U.N. team, increasing its size or adding armed protection for them; or retooling the mission of the current team.

Ban elaborates the most on the idea to shift the strategy of the current U.N. team.

The team could retain its military observer capability and continue its fact-finding work, but with a limited scope in light of the violence in Syria, the report says.

In this scenario, the U.N. mission would move its personnel from the field back to Damascus, where it would focus on pushing forward the six-point plan to the Syrian government and the opposition.

“From a central hub in Damascus, the civilian component would continue liaison and dialogue with opposition and Government representatives in the provinces as security conditions allow,” Ban writes.

The other options — withdrawal or augmentation of the force — could have more negative consequences than good, the report concludes.

Withdrawing from Syria would ensure the safety of the team, but it could signal a loss of confidence in the hopes of a cease-fire and leave the U.N. without a way to monitor progress, the report says.

“(Withdrawing) would likely precipitate a further blow to efforts to stabilize the situation on the ground, and render the prospect of a negotiated Syrian-led transition, as laid out by the Action Group, more difficult,” Ban writes.

Expanding the size of the mission, with or without armed protection, poses an “unacceptably high” security risk, given that there are no signs of the violence receding immediately, the report says.

These options must be considered, Ban writes, because “in spite of the best efforts of (the mission) to support the parties in the effort to de-escalate the crisis, there is not a cessation of violence, and the basic human rights whose protection is at the core of the (six-point) plan continue to be violated,” the report says.

According to the opposition Local Coordination Committees in Syria, 71 people, including 10 defectors, were killed across the country.

In fighting in Aleppo Province since Friday, four Syrian troops and one opposition fighter were killed, another group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Heavy fighting was reported in Idlib, where the town of Al-Tamani’a was shelled by forces who tried to raid it, the group said.

Shelling was reported in several suburbs of Damascus.

The state-run SANA news agency reported at least four different incidents where “terrorist” attacks were foiled by security forces throughout the country. According to the agency, more than 11 fighters it identified as “terrorists” were killed by security forces, and at least 10 vehicles, some with weapons inside, were destroyed.

CNN cannot independently verify government and opposition claims of casualties because access to Syria by international journalists has been severely curtailed.