The death toll in Syria's bloody crackdown on opponents of President Bashar al-Assad in the city of Hama and elsewhere climbed on Tuesday and Russia said it would not oppose a UN resolution to condemn the violence. Russia, an old ally of Syria, had long resisted any such measure by the UN Security Council, where it holds a veto. The Foreign Ministry in Moscow cautioned that any resolution should refrain from sanctions and other unspecified "pressures".
Three more civilians were killed in Hama, including two brothers, Khaled and Fateh Kanil, who died when pro-Assad "shabbiha" militiamen fired at their food-laden car, two residents, one of them a doctor, told Reuters by telephone. They said a brief riot appeared to have broken out late on Monday at Hama's main prison. Two shabbiha militia buses were seen heading there at night and smoke rose from the compound as the militiamen shouted "God, Syria, Bashar, only" from inside.
"There is damage to the northern section of the jail and some say burned bodies of prisoners were taken out of the complex," one of the residents said. Tanks pounded residential neighbourhoods across Hama, the scene of a 1982 massacre, after evening prayers on Monday, the first day of Ramazan, witnesses said. State news agency SANA said "hundreds of masked gunmen on motorbikes" had set fire to the main law court in Hama on Monday afternoon and had also vandalised much of the building.
Human rights campaigners said assaults by Assad's forces across Syria on Monday and Tuesday had killed at least 27 civilians, including 13 in Hama, where troops and tanks began a violent operation to regain control on Sunday. That brought the total to about 137 dead throughout Syria in the past three days, 93 of them in Hama, according to witnesses, residents and rights campaigners.
Syria's state news agency said "armed terrorist groups" had killed eight policemen in Hama. The government blames such groups for most killings in the five-month-old revolt, saying more than 500 soldiers and security personnel have died. The top US military officer called for a swift end to violence in Syria, but only diplomatic pressure was in view. "There's no indication whatsoever that...we would get involved directly with respect to this," Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Baghdad.
Consultations at the Security Council on Monday failed to produce agreement on adopting a Western-backed draft resolution condemning Syria or settling for a less binding statement. The Russian Foreign Ministry's Middle East and North Africa Department Chief, Sergei Vershinin, said his country was not "categorically" against adopting a UN resolution on Syria. "If there are some unbalanced items, sanctions, pressure, I think that kind of pressure is bad because we want less bloodshed and more democracy," he added.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned Syrian authorities that the world was watching the violence and said those who had violated human rights must be brought to account. "There is a need for an international, transparent, independent and prompt investigation into the violence, the killings, the excessive use of force, the arbitrary arrests, ill-treatment and torture that the people of Syria have been subjected to," Navi Pillay said in a statement.
Italy recalled its ambassador from Syria in protest at the "horrible repression of the civilian population" and urged other European Union members to do the same. The EU formally added five more Syrian officials to an existing list of 29 individuals headed by Assad, whom the 27-nation bloc has targeted with asset freezes and travel bans.
"Today further EU targeted sanctions on Syria come into force. The message is clear and unambiguous: those responsible for the repression will be singled out and held accountable," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said. YouTube footage, purportedly from Hama, showed tanks and smoke, with the sound of explosions and shouts of "Allahu Akbar (God is great)...We are witnessing the reforms of Bashar". Another video shows a man lying on a street with his head sliced off by shrapnel. With most foreign reporters barred from Syria, it was impossible to verify the content of the clips.
Comments
Comments are closed.