02/10/12

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is telling the United Nations to stop its navel-gazing discussions about reforms to its rules, and focus instead on results in places like Syria.

“The United Nations must spend less time looking at itself, and more time focused on the problems that demand its attention,” Mr. Baird said.

But one week after Prime Minister Stephen Harper snubbed the United Nations by travelling to New York to accept a “World Statesman” award from a group there while skipping the opportunity to address the UN General Assembly, Mr. Baird insisted Canada’s commitment to the international body is clear. That’s why Ottawa dislikes the bickering over reforms, he said.

“Our commitment to the United Nations has been tested and it is proven,” Mr. Baird said. “Canada’s commitment to the United Nations is important. And not in spite of our commitment, but because of our commitment to this body, we cannot and will not participate in endless, fruitless inward-looking exercises.”

In Canada, Stephen Harper has been no fan of the working with the UN, but Mr. Baird suggested that the constant obsession with UN reform is part of the dysfunction.

Every year, the opening of the UN General Assembly brings calls for reforms from many world leaders – but their ideas of reform are often different, and competing.

Many contest the power of the five permanent members of the Security Council – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. But several, like Germany, Japan, Brazil, and India, see themselves as unfairly denied a place in the group. Smaller countries often argue too much power is invested in the 15-nation security council.

Mr. Baird’s argued that what counts is results, and in cases like Syria’s civil war, the UN has delivered an impasse that has baffled people around the world. Though he did mention them by name, he said countries like Russia and China, who have blocked action against Syria at the Security Council, will bear the burden of history.

“While the brutal and repressive regime of Bashar al-Assad continues the slaughter of its own people, the United Nations has failed to impose binding sanctions that would stem the crimson tide of this bloody assault,” he said in the draft. “Until the last syllable of recorded time, the world will remember and history will judge member states that are allowing these atrocities to continue.”

“Many people of the planet, including many of the citizens whom we represent, cannot understand why this organization – despite the sound and fury of debate in this great Assembly – has been unable to take concrete steps.”

Mr. Baird’s speech, however, was less gloomy about the state of the world than the address Mr. Harper delivered to a New York audience last Thursday. He argued engagement with the world is important for Canada and for all, and sang the praises of trade, openness and diplomacy as the paths to prosperity, freedom and international understanding.

But he did offer justification for Canada’s September move to cut off diplomatic ties with Iran, insisting it was not only because Tehran’s unwillingness to protect foreign diplomats put the safety of Canadian envoys at risk.

“While Canada prizes engagement and open relations, there can be no open engagement with a regime that dishonours its word, repudiates its commitments, and threatens to perpetrate crimes against humanity,” Mr. Baird said.

01/10/12

At U.N., #Syrian foreign minister

expected to defend government role

in civil war

(CNN) — Syria’s foreign minister is expected Monday to defend his country’s handling of the 18-month civil war before the U.N. General Assembly, just as newly released casualty figures put the conflict’s human toll at nearly 28,000.

At least 95 people were killed Monday, including 12 children, according to the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria.

The government, on state-run media, said its forces carried out operations against gatherings of “terrorists” in Aleppo and elsewhere, inflicting “heavy losses.” Seventeen citizens were “martyred in terrorists’ shelling” on a village in Homs Sunday, the government said.

Here is the latest in the Syrian uprising:

Syria to face a hostile audience at the United Nations

Foreign Minister Walid Moallem is scheduled to speak to the U.N. General Assembly just days after world leaders painted a grim picture of the conflict.

Syria has dominated much of the General Assembly discussion — on stage and on the sidelines — as world leaders struggle to find a way to resolve the war that has left the Security Council hopelessly deadlocked.

Moallem is heading up the Syrian delegation at the United Nations, where he has been meeting with foreign ministers to drum up support for President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

But Moallem’s anticipated defense of the conflict before the general assembly is unlikely to be well received.

“What has the international community done to stop this carnage?” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said last week. “Literally nothing. We have yet to see a single effective action to save innocent lives.”

Germany also slammed the U.N. Security Council for failure to act, and the United States, Britain and France announced they are backing increased support of non-lethal aid to the Syrian opposition.

The Security Council has been paralyzed by a division over how to halt the killing in Syria. Russia and China have blocked resolutions calling for al-Assad to transfer power and step down, saying the issue should be settled by Syrians.

Iraq will conduct random searches of Iranian planes bound for Syria to check for arms shipments, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said in an interview published Sunday in the al-Hayat newspaper.

Zebari said Iraq will not act as a passageway or a channel for arms to make their way into Syria. “We are not with the militarization of the conflict. We are against the arming the regime or the opposition,” he said.

The foreign minister told the newspaper that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others raised concerns about arms shipments. The United States believes Iran, one of al-Assad’s strongest supporters, is arming government forces.

Clinton has called on Syria’s neighbors to take steps to prevent Iran from using its land and airspace to deliver shipments to Syria.

Iraq faces a difficult task in enforcing the inspections, Zebari said.

“We explained to the U.S. side that Iraq’s air defense capabilities are limited, and we are in the stage of building our air force,” he said.

More: Syrian rebels claim knowledge of chemical weapons site

Iranian flights over Iraq to Syria began in March but were stopped shortly after at the request of Iraq, Zebari said. The flights resumed in July.

“They said these flights contain no weapons or hardware, and that they transport pilgrims, visitors and so on. But to verify their shipments, we will ask these planes to land,” Zebari said.

Last week, Baghdad rejected a request from North Korea to fly through its airspace to Syria because of a suspicion the flight was carrying arms.

Hama Massacre recalled as troops move into city

Syrian security forces are overseeing the systematic displacement of thousands and then demolishing their neighborhood in the western flashpoint city of Hama, residents told CNN.

As security forces surround the Mesha Alarbeen district in Hama and bulldozers tear down homes inside, the Hama Massacre is still fresh in the minds of many who live there.

Between 3,000 and 40,000 people were believed to have died when the military acting under orders from Hafez al-Assad — the father of the current Syrian president — brutally cracked down on a revolt in 1982. A1983 Amnesty International report put the toll on both sides between 10,000 and 25,000.

Hama is once again an epicenter of the anti-government movement that has roiled the country.

“So far they have razed 120 buildings,” Osamah, a Hama resident who visited the neighborhood on Sunday, told CNN.

The Syria toll, so far

The Syrian conflict broke out in March 2011 after unarmed protesters, inspired by the success of popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, took to the streets demanding political reform.

The movement devolved into an armed conflict after a brutal crackdown by government forces.

Newly released casualty figures form the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria put the number of civilians and opposition fighters killed in the unrest at 27,954 people.

Of those casualties, the LCC claims more than 24,000 were civilians.

Thousands of Syrian troops also have been reportedly killed.

CNN is unable to independently confirm casualty reports as the Syrian government has severely limited the access of international journalists.

The new casualty figures revealed August was the deadliest month in the conflict, with 5,091 killed. In September, 4,071 people were killed, according to the LCC.

Background: The toll of Syria’s civil war — so far

The Syrian conflict broke out in March 2011 after unarmed protesters, inspired by the success of popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, took to the streets demanding political reform.

The movement devolved into an armed conflict after a brutal and continuing crackdown by government forces.

Since the unrest began, more than 30,000 people have died, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

30/09/12

By Hana Garrett-Walker

Free Syrian Army soldiers help a severely wounded colleague after being shot by a Syrian srmy sniper in Izaa district, earlier this month. Photo / AP

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully says the United Nations risks losing its credibility because of its inability to act over Syria.

Speaking to the General Assembly in the annual round of the nation speeches to the United Nations in New York overnight, Mr McCully said it was difficult to overstate the level of frustration “of the people I represent” with the complete inability of the United Nations Security Council to act in relation to Syria.

He questioned what it took for the Security Council to act when 25,000 deaths, countless thousands injured and many more thousands displaced and homeless did not prompt the Security Council to act.

“In the absence of leadership from the Security Council, I suggest that this [General] Assembly will need to find ways to play a more activist role.”

The case for reform of the Security Council had become “utterly compelling”, he said.

“Indeed, increasingly, the future credibility of the United Nations may depend upon it.”

He called for the P5 - the five permanent members of the Security Council; America, Russia, China, France and United Kingdom - to voluntarily accept restrictions of the use of veto.

“To ask the P5 to acknowledge and respect the genuine concerns of the wider membership by voluntarily accepting a curb on the exercise of the veto, is an entirely reasonable and achievable objective,” he said.

Routinely the veto was used in circumstances which had little to do with national interests, but Mr McCully said the Security Council should consider a process which restricted the veto use to issues which clearly and directly affected national interests.

“A real sense of frustration”

Mr McCully told TVNZ’s Q+A that when he delivered his speech and spoke about restricting the use of veto some of those listening broke into sporadic applause.

“It’s clear that the amount of people who came to raise matters with me subsequently that it’s something that tapped into a bit of a nerve here, I think there’s a real sense of frustration.”

However, he was not particularly optimistic that the Security Council would budge about Syria.

Both China and Russia have used their vetoing powers in relation to Syria.

His speech comes as New Zealand campaigns to get a seat on the Security Council in 2015/16, and Mr McCully said New Zealand had paid its dues.

“We’ve got a campaign that’s been underway for quite a long time …our level of support’s good, but of course we’ll come under a lot of pressure coming into the next two years.”

New Zealand had some great “friends” internationally, he said.

“I simply say that we’re right in this contest …it’s not going to happen without a lot of hard work.”

He would not be drawn on how confident he was that New Zealand would get a seat.

09/09/12

(Reuters) - Syrian warplanes bombed a residential district of Aleppo on Sunday after rebels overran army barracks there, killing and wounding dozens of people and exacerbating a water shortage in Syria’s biggest city after a pipeline burst, activists said.

President Bashar al-Assad has resorted increasingly to devastating aerial bombardment to keep rebels fighting to overthrow him in check after they took control of residential neighborhoods and made forays into the center of Aleppo, Syria’s commercial and industrial capital.

The almost 18-month-old uprising has polarized global powers, preventing effective international intervention, and is turning increasingly sectarian with the risk of spillover into adjacent Arab states with similar communal divisions.

Insurgent advances have forced Assad to deploy warplanes, major armored forces and thousands of troops to prevent the fall of Aleppo, which would free up supply lines to the interior of Syria from Turkey where rebels have sheltered.

Decisive victory has eluded both sides, with rebels lacking heavy weapons needed to down aircraft and knock out artillery and Assad loath to send conscript troops of questionable loyalty into cities to re-establish dominance on the ground.

Instead, government forces have been bombarding population centers to try to turn residents against rebels dug in there, according to diplomats following the revolt.

Sunday’s air raid destroyed a residential complex in the Hananu neighborhood, one of several in eastern Aleppo under rebel control, opposition activists told Reuters by phone.

The death toll was not immediately clear but dozens of bodies and wounded people were being dug out from the rubble. Video footage from the area showed scores of people searching and digging in the debris of a flattened building.

On-scene details could not be independently verified due to Syria’s severe restrictions on international media access.

WATER CRISIS IN ALEPPO

Aerial bombardment had also wrecked a main water pipeline, causing serious shortages of water in Aleppo, activists added.

“A water pumping station in al-Mayadeen was hit. There were rebels in the area, but this is not a justification to bomb civilian infrastructure,” activist Ahmad Saeed said.

A businessman who went from the northwest of the city to Hananu to bury his grandmother - Aleppo’s main cemetery is situated in the district - said the ground was shaking with artillery explosions.

“I passed by several (rebel) Free Syrian Army checkpoints. The fighters looked quite relaxed. The army was nowhere to be seen but it was bombing heavily,” he said.

The eastern sector of Aleppo has drawn air strikes since rebels attacked the Hananu barracks and freed scores of army deserters, opposition campaigners said.

In the capital Damascus, the army continued to shell Sunni Muslim neighborhoods supportive of the revolt against Assad, whose minority Alawite sect has dominated Syria’s power structure for decades.

Shelling again struck the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in south Damascus and the adjacent impoverished neighborhood of Hajar al-Aswad, home to thousands of refugees from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Rebels have launched guerrilla attacks on loyalist forces from Sunni neighborhoods and suburbs that surround Damascus, while Assad has been increasingly relied on elite divisions comprised of Alawites to keep overall control of the capital.

BUS AMBUSHED

Syrian state media said four people were killed in a “terrorist attack” that targeted a bus in the province of Homs. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said civilians and soldiers were in the bus.

Assad, whose family has rule Syria for 42 years, has repeatedly said the revolt is the handiwork of Islamist “terrorists” and not a popular movement for democratic change.

The revolt began with peaceful street protests that prompted a bloody security crackdown, leading to an armed insurgency.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday she was pessimistic about closing the gap with Russia on how to defuse the Syrian conflict before world leaders gather for the U.N. General Assembly later this month.

Clinton said she made the case for increasing pressure on Assad in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a summit of Pacific Rim states in Vladivostok, Russia over the weekend.

“If we can make progress in New York in the run-up to the U.N. General Assembly, we can certainly try,” Clinton told reporters. “But we have to be realistic. We haven’t seen eye-to-eye on Syria. That may continue. And if it does continue then we will work with like-minded states to support the Syrian opposition to hasten the day when Assad falls.”

Chinese and Russian leaders restated their firm opposition to what they see as U.S. meddling in Syria, a reference to calls for harsh U.N. sanctions to isolate Assad, for whom Moscow is Syria’s most important ally and arms supplier.

“Our U.S. partners prefer measures like threats, increased pressure and new sanctions against both Syria and Iran. We do not agree with this in principle,” Lavrov said.

Clinton said she would continue to work with Lavrov to see if the U.N. Security Council could formally endorse an agreement brokered by former U.N. Syria envoy Kofi Annan which envisages a transitional governing authority for Syria.

But she added that such a step would only be effective if it carried specific penalties if Assad fails to comply - something Russia has repeatedly resisted.

Turkey, Saudi Arabia and most Arab nations have sided with their Syrian Sunni co-religionists at the forefront of the revolt.

07/08/12

Editor’s note: Amitai Etzioni is professor of international relations at George Washington University and author of “Hot Spots: American Foreign Policy in a Post-Human-Rights World,” to be published this fall by Transaction.

(CNN) — The Syrian Army assaulted the city of Houla on May 25, murdering 90 people, 30 of them children younger than 10. Amateur video reveals rows of bodies, adults and children, riddled with bullet holes and filling makeshift morgues. Earlier, reports from Homs described people tortured, doused in gasoline and set on fire, with the death toll including men, women and children.

The Red Cross announced it is withdrawing its workers in Damascus, leaving only 50 core workers, and the Arab Red Crescent has suspended its first aid efforts in Aleppo after repeated attacks on its vehicles and facilities by the Syrian army.

Civilian residences are shelled with artillery and tanks and bombed from planes, day after day. What else would it take for the civilized world to conclude that the line has been crossed and decent people can no longer stand by?

True, the atrocities in Syria do not compare in scope to those of the Holocaust; however, they have one major common element: They are not the work of some gangs, like those in Mexico; terrorists, like al Qaeda in Iraq; or foreign intruders, like the Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan. They are the acts of a national government, a government that is systematically using its military to hammer its own people. Here, there are no difficulties in determining who is involved, and above all, who is in charge.

The media sticks punctiliously to professional standards and keeps reminding us that this or that report about the last outrage is “unconfirmed.” The New York Times notes that reports on summary executions by Syrian security forces in Baba Amr remain “unconfirmed.” Although this or that detail may not be verifiable, the Syrian authorities do not deny that most of the reported barbaric acts have taken place. They merely claim that they are dealing with foreign terrorists and are entitled to a free hand.

Q&A: What options are left in Syria?

The United States and other democracies claim that they are stymied by the U.N. Security Council’s refusal to authorize the use “of all means necessary” to stop the carnage, leaving the blood of Syrian civilians on the hands of Russia and China, who threaten to veto the kind of resolution that legalized the intervention in Libya.

But when the West faced atrocities on a smaller scale in Kosovo and could not gain the U.N.’s blessing, it acted decisively and effectively. The bloodshed was stopped.

If the West were to proceed in Syria, countries could point to a unanimous U.N. General Assembly resolution known as R2P, which states that all governments have a responsibility to protect their own people. The resolution warns governments that if they do not discharge this responsibility, they forfeit their right to sovereignty and the international community has not only a right to interfere, but a duty.

We are told that the rebels include extreme Islamists, even al Qaeda elements, who are hostile to the West and may commit atrocities of their own. Indeed, the rebels lined up against the wall and shot dead several Bashar al-Assad loyalists in Aleppo on August 1. There is also the fear that rebels might incite a civil war among Syria’s various ethnic groups, a result that would cost many additional lives.

Our goal should be limited: Pressure al-Assad’s regime to negotiate with the rebels on major reforms but not to hand them victory. We surely do not want to repeat the mistake we made in Iraq, in which the army and most civil servants were fired and the country plunged into anarchy and lawlessness. Above all, we must warn the rebels that we shall cease all support for them if they commit atrocities, a step we did not undertake in Libya, resulting in some very distressing consequences.

Finally, we are cautioned that the Syrian military is mightier, better equipped and more able to fight than the Libyan one was. Well, it is a year and half since the Syrian conflict began, and the army so far has been unable to gain an upper hand against disorganized, poorly equipped, untrained rebels. It seems obvious that al-Assad’s troops are hardly a match for the American military machine.

No one in his right mind suggests that the U.S. should invade Syria. But the U.S. could bomb the command and control centers of the Syrian army and, above all, the compound of those who are responsible for the brutal slaughtering of civilians — al-Assad and his inner circle.

The goal would be to punish the leaders of this campaign, to stop the slaughtering of civilians, to force those in charge to negotiate a settlement with the rebels and to warn other tyrants who watch Syria from the sidelines that they should not believe that they could act with impunity if they were to follow a similar course.

Frankly, it may be too late.

The rebels might not be ready to deal with the Syrian regime, even if those who head it are replaced. And the regime might collapse and the country plunge into chaos and increased bloodshed at any moment. However, if America and its allies act, it will be clear that there is a limit to our tolerance — that we will not hide behind the veto of Russia and China and refuse to move when large-scale crimes are committed by a government against its own people.

Some 60 Syrian army defectors were shot dead as they tried to flee their base Monday while 40 other people were killed during clashes, as Bashar Al Assad regime’s agreed to allow an observer mission to monitor the country.

REUTERS - More than 100 people have been killed in Syria, rights activists said, as the Arab League announced an advance party would be sent to the country this week to pave the way for monitors who will try to help end nine months of violence.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that more than 60 army deserters had been shot dead by machinegun fire as they tried to flee their base, citing accounts from wounded survivors. It also counted 40 civilians shot dead across Syria in the crackdown on protests.

The British-based observatory said three soldiers had died in fighting with armed rebels backing the opposition in Idlib province. The state news agency SANA said security forces there had killed at least one “terrorist” and wounded several.

The bloodshed occurred the same day Syria agreed to let Arab states monitor its compliance with an Arab League peace agreement aimed at stopping violence against anti-government protesters.

The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have died since the protests began. Syria says more than 1,100 security personnel have been killed by foreign-backed “armed terrorist gangs”.

The Arab League, which has imposed economic sanctions on Syria, had threatened to take the issue to the United Nations Security Council.

However, the executive head of the League said after the signing of a protocol on foreign observers that there was no immediate plan to lift sanctions that were imposed when Damascus at first refused outside monitors. Nabil Elaraby said observers would now determine whether Syria’s government was complying.

The League would prepare a mission to monitor compliance with an agreement that calls for troops to withdraw from cities where protests have been held, for political prisoners to be freed, and for a dialogue with opposition groups, most of whom are set on following the example of Egypt and others in ending decades of one-man rule.

Syrian opposition leaders dismissed the agreement as a new stalling tactic by President Bashar al-Assad’s government and called instead for foreign military intervention to stop Syria’s crackdown on a nine-month-old pro-democracy protest movement.

Damascus said it had been urged to sign by Russia, its long-time ally and arms supplier, which has shown signs of losing patience. Moscow praised the deal as a chance for stability.

In a further sign of international pressure, the U.N. General Assembly voted to condemn Syria’s use of force to quell protests, with Russia and China abstaining instead of voting against.

Insisting that Syria had not been forced into submission, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said he had won several unspecified modifications before signing the deal, which initially allows in observers for one month.

“The Arab League delegation’s reports will be sent to me and the League’s secretary-general at the same time, and he and I will discuss them before any other action is taken,” Moualem said. “That is the text after Syria’s modifications.”

The remarks were broadcast on Syrian television. Most foreign media have been barred from Syria this year.

‘Point of no return’

While many Arab League rulers scarcely take more heed of public opinion than Assad, they are anxious to calm the situation and avoid a civil war that could shake a region already driven by rivalries between non-Arab Shi’ite power Iran and Sunni Arab heavyweights such as Saudi Arabia.

Iran, Syria’s key backer, said the agreement to let in observers from the Arab League was “acceptable”, if not ideal.

The U.S. State Department said it was sceptical much would change.

“We are really less interested in a signed piece of paper than we are in actions to implement commitments made,” spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington.

With rebel fighting against the army overshadowing peaceful protests, analysts said the Arab deal would do little to change Syria’s spiralling bloodshed but indicated that Damascus was feeling the international pressure.

“The international and regional isolation is beginning to have an impact on their thinking,” said Julien Barnes-Dacey, of Control Risks in London.

“But a point of no return has been passed by both protesters and authorities. They are not going to withdraw (from protest centres) and we are not going to see the end of deaths.”