SYRIAN SECURITY forces and troops yesterday killed at least 20 during anti-regime protests following Muslim communal prayers just 48 hours after President Bashar al-Assad pledged to halt the military crackdown on unrest. Human rights groups reported that most of the fatalities were in the southern province of Deraa where unrest began in mid-March.
According to opposition activists, protests erupted across the country, boosted by calls by the US and European allies for Dr Assad to stand down. During the past five months as many as 1,700 civilians have died, thousands have been wounded, and 13,000 imprisoned.
However, it appears that numbers of protesters in the streets have fallen from high levels in July before the systematic city-by-city Ramadan military offensive designed to crush dissent.
In Homs, Syria’s third largest city, demonstrators chanted, “We want revenge against Bashar and Maher”, his brother who commands the fourth armoured division deployed in the campaign to halt protests. In the northern Idlib province people shouted: “The people want the execution of the president.”
UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay is set to send a team to Syria today to investigate shooting deaths, detentions and charges of torture and abuse of detainees. The team has been guaranteed freedom of movement and access.
On Thursday, a 22-page report, based on interviews with refugees who fled to Turkey and Lebanon, was presented to the Security Council. The conclusion reached by investigators was that the regime’s actions could amount to “crimes against humanity.”
Damascus has also agreed for the first time ever to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to detainees. ICRC delegation head Marianne Gasser said the agency was finalising arrangements so that visits could begin shortly.
The European Union has expanded economic sanctions against Syrian individuals and firms connected to the regime and is considering a boycott of Syrian oil and gas and a ban on selling refined petroleum products to Damascus. Syria exports about one-third of its daily ouput to Italy, France, Holland and Germany.
Russia and Turkey have resisted US pressure to call for Dr Assad to resign, arguing that he must be given time to implement reform decrees and legislation already adopted.
Russia, which has had close relations with Syria for decades, also intends to continue selling arms to Syria in spite of the US call for an embargo.
Turkey, Syria’s neighbour and recent ally, is seeking to position itself to broker a deal between regime and opposition that could halt both violence and unrest.
Syrian UN ambassador Bashar al-Jaafari has accused Washington of “instigating . . . violence in the country, and giving the wrong message to the armed terrorist groups [the regime says are behind the unrest] that they are under American and Western protection so that they can go ahead with their insurrection and destructive activities in the country”.
Dr Assad is reportedly preparing to deliver a televised address to the nation in coming days.
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