Rights watchdog warns of civil war after nine killed in Syria

SYRIAN FORCES yesterday fired on demonstrators, killing nine around the country, activists said.

UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay warned that the country could face civil conflict if the government crackdown continued. Ms Pillay deplored the “devastatingly remorseless toll of human lives” and urged the international community “to take immediate measures to protect civilians”. “The onus is on all members . . . to take protective action in a collective and decisive manner,” she said, accusing the government of “consistently [using] excessive force to crush peaceful protests”.

She said that thousands had been arrested, disappeared or tortured while families of activists had been “targeted for harassment [and] intimidation”. Commenting on the Free Syrian Army, founded by deserters who have repeatedly attacked loyalist troops, she said: “As more members of the military refuse to attack civilians and change sides, the crisis [shows] worrying signs of descending into an armed struggle.”

Ms Pillay said 100 people had died over the past 10 days, boosting the UN estimate of fatalities during seven months of unrest to more than 3,000.

The six-member Gulf Co-operation Council urged the Arab League to convene a meeting to discuss the crisis.

Meanwhile in Cairo, demonstrators taking part in a march from the city’s ancient Azhar mosque to the Coptic cathedral at Abbasayia were pelted with stones by members of the congregation emerging from communal prayers.

The violence began when demonstrators called for the resignation of Field Marshal Muhammad Hussein Tantawi, head of the military council, which is blamed for last Sunday’s fatal clashes between troops and Coptic Christians protesting at the destruction by extremist Salafi Muslims of a church in Aswan province. After reaching the cathedral the march ended at Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.

The military, facing sharp criticism over the rioting that erupted on “Bloody Sunday”, accused the Copts of attacking troops and denied that they had fired on protesters or intentionally run them down with armoured vehicles. Egypt’s military prosecutor, Muhammad El-Morsy, said his office would take over the investigation of the events from its civilian counterpart.

Muhammad Zaree of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights said: “The military . . . does not do transparent investigations. It is simply run by orders.”

The generals were contradicted by witnesses at a press conference held by the democracy movement. A statement read by rights lawyer Rajia Omram, 17 parties and 12 public figures accused the military of treating protesters with greater brutality than the Mubarak regime and charged soldiers with throwing bodies into the Nile to “cover up their crimes”. Medical personnel who oversaw autopsies on eight bodies said six had been crushed by heavy vehicles and two had received massive internal bullet wounds.

More than a dozen political parties and groups have demanded that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which wields executive power, hand over to a civilian council to complete the transition to democratic rule.