New resolution on #Syria circulated now at UN emergency session


Following is the latest version of the proposed UN Human Rights Council resolution on the massacre in Syria, circulated just now at the emergency session underway.
Human Rights Council
Nineteenth special session

1 June 2012
Djibouti, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey*, United States of America: draft resolution
S-19/… The deteriorating situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic, and the recent killings in El-Houleh
The Human Rights Council,
Recalling General Assembly resolutions 66/176 of 19 December 2011 and 66/253 of 16 February 2012, Human Rights Council resolutions S-16/1 of 29 April 2011, S-17/1 of 22 August 2011, S-18/1 of 2 December 2011, 19/1 of 1 March 2012 and 19/22 of 23 March 2012, and Security Council resolutions 2042 (2012)  of 14 April 2012 and 2043 (2012) of 21 April 2012,
Condemning the killings, confirmed by United Nations observers, of dozens of men, women and children and the wounding of hundreds more in the village of El-Houleh, near Homs, in attacks that involved the wanton killing of civilians by shooting at close range and by severe physical abuse by pro-regime elements and a series of Government artillery and tank shellings of a residential neighbourhood, and reiterating that all violence in all its forms by all parties must cease,
Recalling that the statement made by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on 27 May 2012 that the atrocities in El-Houleh may amount to crimes against humanity and noting her repeated encouragement to the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court,
Reaffirming its strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic and to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations,
1. Condemns in the strongest possible terms such an outrageous use of force against the civilian population, which constitutes a violation of applicable international law and of the commitment of the Government  of the Syrian Arab Republic,  under Security
Council  resolutions 2042 (2012) and 2043 (2012), to cease violence in all its forms, including the cessation of the use of heavy weapons in population centres;
2. Condemns in the harshest terms the outrageous killing of forty-nine children, all under the age of 10;
3. Deplores that the recent killings in El-Houleh occurred in a context of continued human rights violations in the Syrian Arab Republic, including ongoing arbitrary detentions, hindered access for the media and restrictions of the right to peaceful assembly;
4. Emphasizes the continued failure  of the  Syrian authorities to protect and promote the rights of all Syrians, including through repeated and systematic violations of human rights;
5. Reiterates its urgent call upon the Syrian authorities to put an immediate end to all violence and all human rights violations, and to meet their responsibility to protect their populations;
6. Calls once again upon the  Syrian authorities to immediately allow  United Nations human rights mechanisms and missions full and unfettered access and freedom of movement within the Syrian Arab Republic;
7. Stresses the need to conduct an international, transparent, independent and prompt investigation into violations of international law with a view to hold to account those responsible for widespread, systematic and gross human rights violations, including those violations that may amount to crimes against humanity;
8. Requests the  commission of  inquiry to urgently conduct a  comprehensive, independent and unfettered special inquiry, consistent with international standards, into the events in El-Houleh, and if possible to publicly identify those who appear responsible for these atrocities, and to preserve the evidence of crimes for possible criminal prosecutions or a future justice process, with a view to hold to account those responsible; and also requests the commission to provide a full report of the findings of its special inquiry to the Human Rights Council at its twentieth session, and to coordinate as appropriate with relevant UN mechanisms;
9. Calls upon the Syrian authorities to cooperate fully with the  commission of inquiry and to accord it full and unfettered access to the Syrian Arab Republic to conduct its work;
10. Calls upon all States Members of the United Nations to assist the commission of inquiry in its mission by providing the support necessary for it to achieve its objectives, including, but not limited to, Member States calling upon the Syrian authorities to grant the commission the access required to conduct its work;
11. Calls upon the Syrian authorities to grant immediate, unimpeded and full access of humanitarian organizations to all areas of the Syrian Arab Republic in order to allow them to provide relief and humanitarian assistance, and calls on all sides to respect the safety of humanitarian workers;
12. Requests the cooperation, as appropriate,  of other relevant  United Nations bodies with the commission of inquiry to carry out its mission, and requests the assistance of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Secretary-General in this regard;
13. Calls for the urgent, comprehensive and immediate implementation of all elements of the Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the League of Arab States six-point proposal as annexed to Security Council resolution 2042 without any preconditi0ns;
14. Invites the Joint Special Envoy for  the  United Nations and the  League  of Arab States, Kofi Annan, to provide a briefing to the Human Rights Council at its twentieth session;
14. Decides to remain seized of the matter.

Source: blog.unwatch.org

#Syria What Bashar Assad Knows

By DOUGLAS MURRAY

British Foreign Secretary William Hague described the killing of at least 108 people last Friday in the Syrian town of Houla as “deeply disturbing.” The U.K. talked of summoning the Syrian chargés d’affaires to the Foreign Office. Meanwhile Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg used an interview over the weekend to escalate the rhetoric further: As Bashar Assad’s forces pushed on for another day, Mr. Clegg said that Britain may ban anybody involved in massacring Syrian civilians from attending the London Olympics this summer.

It is now more than a year since Assad—already an enemy and terror-sponsor—began using his security forces in a full-scale assault against the people of the country he treats as family property. And at the end of that year what do we do? Make it clear to any Syrian Baath Party general too busy at work lately to have kept up with the national lacrosse team that if he still thinks he’s going to cheer them on while sipping mint tea in London this summer, then he’s got another think coming. Damascus is quaking, no doubt.

The old saw in international affairs is that you should always carry a carrot and a stick. The problem for Mr. Clegg, the British government and the wider community of democratic nations is not just that they don’t have any sticks, but that they also no longer have any particularly large carrots. What is playing out from London is a farce. But it is emblematic of a wider one. As the tragedy escalates for the Syrian people, a new reality of power is emerging. It’s a reality in which the dictators have understood us better and more honestly than we are willing to understand ourselves.

For what Mr. Clegg may know but not want to admit—and what everybody else knows and does not want to admit—is that though we may talk somewhat tough, there is nothing at all that we are going to do. People will say, “But what about the operation in Libya? Didn’t London, Washington and Paris stop Moammar Gadhafi from massacring the people of Libya?” Yes they did, and mighty good fortune it was that the array of international powers managed to defeat Gadhafi’s scattergun forces before the mission drained us of the money, munitions and political will necessary to keep it going. But Libya, is it now very clear, will be it. The mission was a success. And we never want to have to do anything like that again.

Enlarge Image

murray
murray
Associated Press

Corpses in Houla, Syria, on May 26. And nobody is doing anything to stop it.

Firstly, for perfectly cynical electoral reasons. As Nicolas Sarkozy’s defeat this month in France demonstrated, absolutely no domestic political benefit was gained for any party involved in Libya—though there would have been plenty at stake if the mission had gone wrong. More importantly, the Western allies’ forces are still recovering from that engagement, despite it having been very low-level. Not only has the British government still not restocked its munitions to pre-Libya levels, it doesn’t seem likely to do so anytime in the foreseeable future. Hoping people will take us for a wasp that can sting many times, we turn out to more closely resemble one of those summer-drunk bees, lucky to manage a single random sting before falling into a slump.

At a moment like this, of course, the world—not least the people of Syria, minus the 33 more who were killed in Hama on Sunday, or the others who will be killed between the time of this writing and the time of publication—would normally look to America to sort out the situation.

But it is now 14 months since U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that while she “deplored the violence” in Syria, intervention would only become likely “if there were a coalition of the international community, if there was the passage of a Security Council resolution, if there were a call by the Arab League, if there was a condemnation that was universal.” But as she pointed out, “that is not going to happen because I don’t think it is yet clear what will occur, what will unfold.” Well now it is clear, and has been for some time, what would unfold: More than 10,000 Syrians have been killed since Mrs. Clinton uttered those words in March 2011. But Washington remains in its CBS interview phase, still reckoning that nothing can be done unless something can be arranged through the Security Council (which does not work) or the Arab League (which is even less effective).

What we are now see unfolding around Syria is the result of a gap between what our politicians pretend to be able to do and what they are actually able to do, in an era in which everything, from financial resources to political will, is in short supply.

The fact—unpalatable as it may be—is that the Syrian dictatorship can do what it likes. Even more worryingly, their backers in Iran know they can do what they like. As well as sending arms and troops to the Syrian government and boasting that it is lying about its nuclear program, Iran is also now also boasting of sending arms and troops to Syria. And nobody is going to do anything to stop them.

We are so used to the niceties of international convention that it is sometimes hard to notice the moment when the ground shifts. The exit from this period of suspended diplomatic reality will be harsh. In the last few decades, the deputy prime minister or foreign secretary of a country like Britain could talk a very good talk: “unacceptable,” “utterly condemn,” “strongly worded letters” and so on, and people listened with respect. Though British power was waning, these niceties were treated as a demonstration of real strength and not some form of play-acting. But all the time it happened in the knowledge that if things got really bad, Britain might send some troops or lend a base here or there, but only American heavy-lifting and political leadership would actually get anything done. And then, some years ago, the tide of American leadership started to go out.

That fact may be felt in America last, but it is being felt in Syria first. In the meantime, it has also left a lot of allies standing naked on the beach still pretending to do their thing. Among them are the British, holding no particular carrots, holding no sticks whatsoever, and hoping above hope that the threatened withdrawal of a relay baton might make a blood-stained dictator behave a little bit better. Too late for that game.

Mr. Murray is associate director of the Henry Jackson Society in London and author of “Bloody Sunday: Truths, Lies and the Saville Inquiry” (Biteback, November 2011).

Source: The Wall Street Journal

#Syria Pro-Assad militia likely responsible for Houla massacre-UN

Tue, 29 May 2012 16:46 GMT

Source: Reuters // Reuters

UNITED NATIONS, May 29 (Reuters) - U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said on Tuesday that militia supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were probably responsible for killing people with small arms and knives in the massacre of 108 civilians in Houla.

“Part of the victims had been killed by artillery shells, now that points ever so clearly to the responsibility of the government. Only the government has heavy weapons, has tanks, has howitzers,” Ladsous told reporters.

“But there are also victims from individual weapons, victims from knife wounds and that of course is less clear but probably points the way to the (pro-Assad) shabbihas, the local militia,” he said. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: trust.org

Annan warns #Syria of grave concern, West pulls envoys

U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan is seen as he makes his way to meet with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus May 29, 2012. Assad met peace envoy Annan on Tuesday, the state news agency SANA said, amid an outcry over a massacre of civilians that U.N. observers attributed at least partly to the army but the government blamed on Islamist militants. At right is Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad. REUTERS-Stringer
U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan returns to the hotel after meeting with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus May 29, 2012. Assad met peace envoy Annan on Tuesday, the state news agency SANA said, amid an outcry over a massacre of civilians that U.N. observers attributed at least partly to the army but the government blamed on Islamist militants. REUTERS-Khaled al-Hariri
U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan (2nd L) returns to the hotel after meeting with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus May 29, 2012. Assad met peace envoy Annan on Tuesday, the state news agency SANA said, amid an outcry over a massacre of civilians that U.N. observers attributed at least partly to the army but the government blamed on Islamist militants.REUTERS-Khaled al-Hariri

By Joseph Logan

BEIRUT | Tue May 29, 2012 9:11am EDT

(Reuters) - Peace envoy Kofi Annan expressed “grave concern” to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday and Western nations threw out its envoys to protest against a massacre of 108 civilians, many of them children, in the town of Houla.

France, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain and Australia said they were expelling the Syrian envoys from their capitals in a move that was coordinated with the United States and underlined Assad’s diplomatic isolation.

The killings in Houla drew a chorus of powerful condemnation from around the world, with the United Nations saying entire families had been shot dead in their homes.

“Bashar al-Assad is the murderer of his people,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told Le Monde. “He must relinquish power. The sooner the better.” His Australian counterpart Bob Carr said: “This massacre of more than 100 men, women and children in Houla was a hideous and brutal crime.”

Assad’s government late on Monday denied having anything to do with the deaths, or even having heavy weapons in the area.

Western countries that have called for Assad to step down were hoping that the Houla killings would tip global opinion, notably that of Syria’s main protector Russia, towards more effective action against Damascus.

Annan drew up a peace plan backed by the United Nations and the Arab League to steer a way out of the 14-month-old uprising against Assad. But six weeks after it was agreed by Damascus and the rebels, the bloodshed has barely slowed.

Annan told Assad of the “grave concern of the international community about the violence inSyria, including in particular the recent events in Houla”, his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said in a statement after two hours of talks in Damascus.

“He conveyed in frank terms his view to President Assad that the six-point plan cannot succeed without bold steps to stop the violence and release detainees, and stressed the importance of full implementation of the plan.”

“HIDEOUS CRIME”

Carr said Syria’s expelled charge d’affaires in Canberra was told to “convey a clear message to Damascus that Australians are appalled by this massacre and we will pursue a unified international response to hold those responsible to account”.

Germany Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle urged the U.N. Security Council to revisit the situation in Syria.

The U.N. human rights office in Geneva said fewer than 20 of the 108 dead in Houla were killed by artillery and tank fire - weaponry that lightly-armed rebels do not have in their arsenal.

Survivors told U.N. investigators that most of the others had been shot by pro-Assad shabbiha militia, who in the past have intimidated and assaulted hotbeds of opposition to Assad.

“Almost half of the ones we know of so far are children - that is totally unpardonable - and a very large number of women as well,” said spokesman Rupert Colville. “At this point, it looks like entire families were shot in their houses.”

The report contradicted an open letter sent by Syria to the U.N. Security Council on Monday saying: “Not a single tank entered the region and the Syrian army was in a state of self-defense …

“The terrorist armed groups … entered with the purpose of killing and the best proof of that is the killing by knives, which is the signature of terrorist groups who massacre according to the Islamist way.”

Gruesome video footage distributed by opposition activists has helped to shake world opinion out of growing indifference to a conflict in which more than 10,000 have been killed.

RUSSIA SAYS BLAME SHARED

But Russia, which with China has twice vetoed U.N. Security Council resolutions on Syria but on Sunday backed a non-binding Council text criticizing the use of artillery and tanks in Houla, insists that rebels share the blame for the massacre.

Russia long saw Assad’s late father as the best defender of its interests in the region, and leases a major naval base in Syria. It has suggested that foreign countries are undermining Annan’s plan by supporting the opposition.

“We are alarmed that some countries … are starting to use this event as an excuse to put forth demands of the need for military action in an attempt to put pressure on the U.N. Security Council,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists in Moscow.

“We are troubled by the ceaseless attempts to frustrate Kofi Annan’s peace plan.”

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told reporters in Damascus late on Monday: “Syria has not committed a single violation of Annan’s plan or the initial understanding between Syria and the United Nations.

“At the same time, the other party has not committed to a single point. This means that there is a decision by the armed groups and the opposition not to implement Annan’s plan and to make it fail.”

He said he expected Annan to pressure the foreign states backing what Syria describes as a “terrorist” conspiracy funded abroad.

Sunni Muslim Gulf powers Saudi Arabia and Qatar favor arming the mostly-Sunni rebels fighting Assad, whose ruling cadre are mostly Alawites, members of an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

(Writing by Kevin Liffey)

Source: reuters.com

US condemns #Syria massacre and looks for Russian help to oust Assad

A handout picture released by the Syrian
The UN team in Syria described the attack in Houla as ‘indiscriminate and unforgivable’ but declined to directly point the finger at Assad’s loyalists. Photograph: Shaam News/AFP/Getty Images

Secretary of state Hillary Clinton has said the perpetrators of the Houla massacre must be held to account, as she vowed greater international pressure to hound Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power.

In a strongly worded statement condemning the attack – which left more 90 dead including 32 children – Clinton accused Assad and his cronies of ruling by “murder and fear” adding that the regime must “come to an end”.

The comments came amid reports that President Barack Obama is preparing to push Russia to back the departure of Assad under a scheme modelled on the transition of power in Yemen.

According to an article in the New York Times, Obama hopes to enlist President Vladimir Putin’s support over a transition of power in Syriaduring a meeting next month – the first between the pair since Putin’s return to the Kremlin.

Under the reported plan, the international community would broker a settlement in which Assad would leave, but remnants of the political structure would remain intact.

It is seen as a variant of the scheme under which President Ali Abdullah Saleh handed over power in Yemen following widespread unrest last year.

White House officials have indicated that Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev was receptive to the scheme when he met Obama at Camp David on the sidelines of the G8 summit.

But for the plan to have a chance of succeeding it would need greater backing from Moscow, which to date has been strongly opposed to Assad’s removal.

Russia, as one of Assad’s few remaining allies, has long blocked tough sanctions against the regime proposed by the United Nations, claiming that it could lead to the bloody ouster of Assad.

But the breakdown of the already fragile Syrian peace process amid horrific scenes could push Moscow towards using its influence in the strife-torn country to assist a transition of power.

The atrocity in Houla, a rebel-controlled village near the city of Homs, has lead to widespread condemnation.

Video footage of the atrocity’s aftermath shows rows of dead and badly mutilated infants amongst the scores of victims. The violence began mid-day on Friday as soldiers and pro-government forces entered the village and killed residents in the homes, it has been reported.

The UN team in Syria described the attack as “indiscriminate and unforgivable” but declined to directly point the finger at Assad’s loyalists.

State-run television blamed “terrorist gangs” for the deaths, a claim that has been largely met by scepticism by the international onlookers.

Clinton said the US condemned the massacre “in the strongest possible terms”. She described Friday’s events as “a vicious assault that involved a regime artillery and tank barrage on a residential neighbourhood”.

Vowing to work with the international community to bring an end to Assad’s regime, Clinton added: “We stand in solidarity with the Syrian people and the peaceful marchers in cities across Syria who have taken to the streets to denounce the massacre in Houla.”

Source: Guardian

#Syria United Nations ceasefire in tatters after 92 killed in Syrian violence

United Nations ceasefire in tatters after 92 killed in Syrian violence
The bodies of people whom anti-government protesters say were killed by government security forces lie on the ground in Huola Photo: Reuters

By Colin Freeman, and Ruth Sherlock in Beirut

6:50PM BST 26 May 2012

In one of the bloodiest incidents to date in the 15-month long uprising, 92 people were killed after a 12-hour regime assault on Houla, in the central province of Homs.

Anti-government activists claimed that troops had first shelled several villages and then sent in gangs of pro-regime thugs to “massacre” local families in their houses.

Amateur videos released on YouTube showed footage of the mangled bodies of 14 child victims lying in rows in a makeshift morgue set up at a local mosque.

In one horrific scene, a man held up the limp corpse of a boy aged around seven years old, a gaping hole where the child’s nose and mouth should have been. “This child, what did he do to deserve this?” he screamed.

Unarmed UN monitors, who had reportedly been prevented from visiting the area on Friday because of the fighting, were reduced to documenting the attack’s horrific aftermath when they finally reached the scene on Saturday afternoon.

Major General Robert Mood, the UN mission chief in Syria, said that of the 92 bodies his staff had counted in Houla, at least 32 were “under the age of 10”. He described it as a “brutal tragedy”.

The bloodshed, which began on Friday and was reported to have continued into the small hours of Saturday morning, was amongst the worst single incidents since the popular uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 15 months ago. It was also a severe blow to the credibility of the UN-backed peace plan that was supposed to introduce a ceasefire in early April. Critics said it was clear that the plan, backed by 250 UN monitors on the ground, was already in tatters.

On Saturday the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, called for an urgent session of the UN Security Council to discuss the killings, placing the blame squarely on the Syrian government.

“There are credible and horrific reports that a large number of civilians have been massacred at the hands of Syrian forces in the town of Houla, including children,” he said.

“The Assad regime must ensure full and immediate access to Houla and other conflict areas in Syria for the UN monitoring team, and cease all military operations.”

However, the main Syrian rebel coalition, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), said it was time for the international community to overcome its reluctance to get directly involved in the conflict, and to carry out strikes on regime forces.

The Friends of Syria group, which includes the United States, France, Britain, Germany and Saudi Arabia, has previously ruled out such action because of the risk of getting embroiled in what many fear is already a low-level civil war.

But General Mustafa Ahmed al-Sheikh, head of the Turkey-based FSA military council, said regime opponents had lost all faith in the UN Security Council, on which Damascus has Russia as a powerful backer.

“We are calling urgently on the Friends of Syria to create a military alliance, outside of the UN Security Council, to carry out targeted strikes against Assad’s gangs and the symbols of his regime,” Mr Sheikh said.

Houla, a loose collection of villages with a population of about 40,000, lies on a plain around 25 miles north-west of the city of Homs, itself the subject of a brutal siege by President Assad’s forces in February.

The settlement is home mainly to members of Syria’s Sunni Islam majority, but borders areas dominated by President Assad’s minority Alawite sect.

While eyewitness reports of Friday’s violence were confused and often contradictory, it followed an anti-government demonstration in Houla after Friday’s midday prayers. Some claimed that rebel gunmen had earlier courted trouble by opening fire on checkpoints manned by government troops.

Whatever the spark, the scale of the ensuing attack appears to have been brutal even the standards of the Assad regime.

Mousab Azzawi, of the Syrian Network of Human Rights, told The Sunday Telegraph: “The operation started about midday, with the use of about 50 or 60 mortar shells. Then they started to use tanks and heavy artillery for two hours. After that they deployed about 13 or 14 cars with mounted guns, and raided houses at random. They took people out and started shooting indiscriminately.”

In one household, he claimed, the gunmen slaughtered two entire families, ranging from grandfathers to children.

“They did not kill them immediately by shooting. But they cut their throats with knives. That is a very worrying signal, that the regime is trying the maximum they can to push the people to a civil war.”

One local eyewitness, who gave his name only as Mohammed, added: “At about 7pm on Friday, a lot of Shabiha (pro-regime militiamen) came from three nearby Alawite villages. They killed some kids by knife, some by gun and some by suffocation. I saw with my eyes dozens of bodies of women and children.”

In video footage shot in the local mosque, a shaking camera panned over the children’s corpses, which were laid shoulder to shoulder and included some who looked under five years old.

In a corner, more corpses of men and women lay under patterned blankets, including what was said to be one entire family. “We’re being slaughtered like sheep here,” said one voice.

“Where are the UN observers?” pleaded another.

It was claimed that the majority of casualties had been inflicted at close quarters, rather than by shelling.

Chaotic scenes followed when the group of UN observers finally arrived in Houla on Saturday.

“The people begged the observers to come with them to evacuate the bodies,” said Maysara Al-Hennawi, another resident. “They refused to help us and they said that we should negotiate with the regime, and then they left.”

Thousands of locals took advantage of the presence of the observers to flee the area, he added, making their way through fields and rivers.

The Syrian government also broadcast footage of the casualties, blaming them instead on “armed terrorist” groups which it said had also killed several government troops. Damascus has long accused activist groups of exaggerating and falsifying accounts to draw international attention to their plight, a charge which independent observers say has sometimes been justified.

There seemed little doubt about the veracity of the video footage of the corpses in the latest incident, though, which surfaced amid reports that Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general, was to visit Damascus this week to try to patch up the ceasefire.

On Saturday, one demonstrator in Houla held up a sign reading: “Kofi Annan is single-handedly responsible for the Houla massacre.”

The scale of the task facing Mr Annan was spelt out in a report leaked on Friday from the current UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, which conceded that rebel groups now controlled “significant” parts of some Syrian cities and that there was “considerable physical destruction” across the country.

“There is a continuing crisis on the ground, characterised by regular violence, deteriorating humanitarian conditions, human rights violations and continued political confrontation,” said the report, which is to be debated by the Security Council this week.

More than 12,600 people are now estimated to have died in Syria in the revolt against Mr Assad’s rule, including nearly 1,500 since the UN-backed truce officially come into effect, according to the Observatory for Human Rights.

In a sign that the regime’s grip on the country was slipping further, tanks were deployed by the government for the first time this weekend in Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city. The city, a key commercial hub, had previously been considered a pro-regime bastion, but saw large street protests on Friday.

While neither side in the struggle is really seen to have properly observed the ceasefire, the Free Syrian Army on Saturday warned that unless there was an immediate halt to regime violence, it would abandon any commitment to it at all.

“We announce that unless the UN Security Council takes urgent steps for the protection of civilians, Annan’s plan is going to go to hell,” a statement read.

The group’s calls for foreign military intervention are currently opposed at the highest level. Only last week, however, the UN explicitly urged foreign states not to supply arms to either the government or rebel forces.

“Those who may contemplate supporting any side with weapons, military training or other military assistance, must reconsider such options to enable a sustained cessation of violence,” UN secretary-general Mr Ban told the Security Council in a letter on Friday.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

#Syria : children slaughtered as regime unleashes 18 hour attack on town


Two UN observers arrived in the central Syrian town of Houla early on Saturday to inspect the aftermath of an 18-hour regime assault, which activists claim has left close to 100 people dead.

Residents had sent a series of urgent pleas for assistance from midday on Friday as Syrian military positions which had encircled the town for months launched a full-scale assault using heavy weapons and tanks. Activists and rights groups inside Syria claimed that at least 33 of the dead are children.

Videos uploaded to the internet and purported to be from Houla show many dead and mangled infants. Residents say some victims were killed with knives, while many more died from relentless shelling at that left buildings splintered and homes destroyed in a large residential area near the centre of town.

In recent days, violence has spiked across restive parts of Syria to levels not seen in many weeks. Friday has repeatedly been marked by a rise in violence as demonstrators use the cover of prayer gatherings to launch large anti-regime protests. However, a mass killing of this scale has not been reported for several months. The toll, if accurate, is the biggest in a single event since UN monitors arrived in April on a much-maligned mission to supervise a peace plan.

The plan, sponsored by the UN special envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, has been in tatters since the outset, with violence showing no signs of abating and neither regime troops nor the opposition Free Syria Army abiding by its terms.

Annan is due back in Damascus imminently to discuss the crisis with key officials. UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has warned that there is no plan B for the situation, which poses an increasingly grave risk to regional security.

Despite the chaos, UN monitors have moved widely around the country and witnessed shootings or explosions almost everywhere they have visited. In some instances, UN convoys have been targeted.

The regime has touted such attacks as evidence of al-Qaida at work, while the Free Syria Army has vehemently insisted that the regime itself has been concocting the attacks in a bid to reinforce its narrative.

“Everywhere [the UN monitors] go,” something happens to them,” Moustafa Abdul Salam told the Observer the northern Syrian village of Sarji. “They want to terrorise them into submission and make them doubt their own instincts. Already you have the Americans saying that al-Qaida might be at work here, so that means the regime are winning. And when they feel that way they will behave even more like savages.”

Yesterday’s UN visit to Houla seemed to be going to script. Monitors, who arrived around midday, were slow to engage with locals angrily remonstrating at a distance. UN officials also tried to visit Qusair south of Homs. Residents angrily claimed they had turned back for Damascus after gunfire erupted.

“This is the third time they have come here and fled,” said one man contacted by Skype. “We know what happens to us if we can ever speak to one of them and they fear that the regime will attack them too.”

The uprising, now into its fifteenth month, has led to a steady unwinding of stability in the iron-clad police state coupled with a sharp rise in violence, especially since opposition groups took up arms in large numbers last August.

The Free Syria Army, the main opposition group, now controls pockets of the country and, though severely underequipped, has the capacity to launch hit and run attacks against regime forces.

Opposition fighters claimed to have launched reprisal attacks in four areas of the country in the wake of the Houla attack. However they complain that the severing of their supply lines to Lebanon will sharply limit their ability to hold on to the ground they now control.

Lebanon, which has been under the tutelage of Syria for much of the past 35 years, has seen an increase in sectarian tension in the past week, which is being directly linked to the crisis shaking its larger neighbour.

Last Sunday Sunni sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahid, a key supporter of the Syrian opposition, was killed by a Lebanese soldier at a checkpoint, leading to clashes in mixed areas of Beirut.

Events took a new twist on Wednesday when Lebanese soldiers in the heart of west Beirut were involved in a shoot-out with what officials described as a terrorist cell which it said had been trying to draw a pro-Syrian political headquarters located nearby into a firefight.

Two of the men killed in the seven-hour gun battle were identified as Islamic extremists who had been freed from a Lebanese jail in November. Syria also freed a large number of alleged militant Islamists from its key security prison around the same time.

“Things are never as they seem here,” said a senior Lebanese member of parliament. “Al-Qaida in Beirut very much fits the storyline for Syria itself and the pro-Syrian parties in Lebanon. If the Assad regime let these people out of prison, they must have had a use for them — even an unwitting one.

“I don’t doubt these were men who thought they were on a jihad. But the question is who sent them and did they really know who their masters were?”

Source: Guardian

Syrian forces kill 50 in Homs province: opposition group #Syria

(Reuters) - At least 50 people, including 13 children, were killed when Syrian forces attacked the town of Houla in Homs province on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and activists said.

Activists said clashes erupted in the town when Syrian forces opened fire on a protest against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad and killed one protester.

“The soldiers are shelling Houla right now, the casualties are huge,” said activist Ahmad Kassem. He said opposition fighters fired back, inflicting casualties on the soldiers and destroying five tanks.

Houla is a cluster of four villages and towns north of Homs.

Source: reuters.com