Syria Opposition Demands 'Urgent' Military Intervention after Homs Massacre
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
The bodies of 47 women and children, some with their throats slit, were found in the flashpoint Syrian city of Homs prompting the opposition to call Monday for foreign military intervention.
The Syrian authorities accused "terrorist gangs" of carrying out the killings in a bid to intensify pressure on President Bashar al-Assad's regime at a meeting at the United Nations on Monday of foreign ministers of the major powers.
At the meeting Western governments stepped up their pleas to Russia and China to end their blockage of action by the U.N. Security Council action over the Syrian government's deadly assault on protest cities.
But Russia showed little sign that it would change its stance, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov slamming "risky recipes" which he said risked increasing conflict in the Middle East.
International peace envoy Kofi Annan, in Ankara after a weekend mission to Damascus, acknowledged that a settlement in Syria would "not be easy" but renewed his demand for an immediate halt to the "unacceptable" killings of civilians.
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon called on Damascus to respond "within the next few days" to the set of concrete proposals which his predecessor handed to Assad in their talks on Saturday and Sunday.
The grisly murders in Syria's third-largest city Homs came less than two weeks after regime troops stormed its rebellious Baba Amr neighborhood, following a month-long bombardment in which activists say 700 people were killed.
Activist Hadi Abdallah told Agence France Presse the bodies of 26 children and 21 women, some with their throats slit and others bearing stab wounds, were found after a "massacre" in the Karm el-Zaytoun and al-Adawiyeh neighborhoods of the besieged central city.
"Some of the children had been hit with blunt objects on their heads, one little girl was mutilated and some women were raped before being killed," he said.
Activists posted videos online that showed graphic images of charred bodies and children with mutilated and bloodied faces.
The Local Coordination Committees, which organize protests on the ground, called for a day of nationwide strikes on Tuesday in mourning for the dead.
Syrian state television also aired gruesome footage showing homes with white walls splattered with blood, bodies of women and children piled on top of each other, and several men, with bullet wounds to the head, lying facing down in a disused building, their hands tied behind their backs.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said news of the killings in Homs had prompted hundreds of families to flee the city.
Syrian state TV said the weekend killings were a clear ploy by "armed terrorist gangs" to grab the spotlight ahead of the meeting of major powers in New York.
"We are used to them committing more crimes before meetings of the U.N. Security Council," it said.
But at a meeting in Istanbul, the opposition Syrian National Council called for "urgent Arab and international military intervention."
Reading from a prepared text, senior SNC official Georges Sabra called for the creation of a "no-fly zone" over all of Syria and "strikes" against the Syrian armed forces.
At the U.N. Security Council meeting in New York, there was no sign of any narrowing of the rift between Western governments and Beijing and Moscow on how to respond to the crisis.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said: "It is unacceptable that our council be stopped from assuming its responsibilities.
"After months of blocking, I appeal to China and Russia to hear the voices of the Arabs and the world conscience and join us."
But Lavrov maintained his argument against "unilateral" U.N. action, and repeated Russia's condemnation of NATO's air strikes in Libya to justify its opposition to the West's campaign on Syria.
Change in the Arab world "must not be achieved by misleading the international community or manipulating the Security Council," Lavrov said.
"There is no doubt whatsoever that the Syrian authorities bear a huge share of responsibility for the situation," Lavrov said, but he added that the government was now fighting armed groups, not just unarmed protesters.
The U.N. chief called for the major powers to unite behind Annan's peace mission as joint envoy of the world body and the Arab League.
"I appeal to the Security Council to unite strongly behind ending the violence and supporting Mr. Annan's mission to help Syria pull back from the brink of a deeper catastrophe," Ban said.
In Ankara, Annan acknowledged that the situation in Syria was "complex" but he was confident that talks for a settlement of the year-old crisis, which human rights monitors say has claimed more 8,500 lives, would eventually succeed.
"We will launch a political process and we will reach a settlement," Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying.
As the Britain-based Observatory reported 22 dead in new violence on Monday, the head of a U.N. human rights probe said that civilians trapped by the fighting in besieged protest cities were facing a "desperate situation."
"The intensification of armed confrontations has widened the trail of suffering," the president of the U.N. Human Rights Council inquiry Paulo Pinheiro said.
"Unimpeded humanitarian access should be granted as a rule, rather than an exception."
12 March 2012, 11:44
72
Focus on your own problems and how to get out of the mess that the real animals put you in instead of blaming those who have nothing to do with your problem for your misery. Your problem is not here, my friend. It is partly in your head and partly in the illusion that the animals made you live in and now are looking at an acceptable face-saving deal with the regime.
12 March 2012, 12:04
26
@Syrian,patience is the essence of all maturity.Time is on the opposition side,what the opposition need to do is unite and negotiate with the countries that support them ie America,Saudi Arabia ect.They need to formulate a strategy post Assad, that everyone agrees on.And god willing the opposition will prevail.Every dog has his day, Assad days are near.
12 March 2012, 14:04
102
You are right by saying every dog has his day. You will just get another dog. Tell me about the arab springs, and what have they accomplish. Definitely not Democracy, most likely theocracy.
12 March 2012, 14:05
17
The Assad regime killing women and children who are no doubt all foreign terrorists...
12 March 2012, 14:12
110
Assad'd day is coming...No one can deal with a killer family like Assad's...and still Hizb and M8 followers defend such a regime!!? How much lower can they get???
12 March 2012, 17:08
53
To Syrian
No one should say that these killings should be justified in the name of keeping the status quo.
But there is great fear that if the Regime collapse and the opposition takes over, then the world will witness a massive reprisal genocide by the opposition against all those who currently support Assad. They learned it from Irak & from Libya.
In Libya the Anti-gadafi forces committed heinous crimes against their opponents even though they were sunni muslims like themself. Imagince what the Sunni Extermists in Syria will do to the Alawite/Christians&Druze once they gain the upper hand. The SNC has not - and cannot - give any assurance that such a thing will not happen. All reports point to the fact that SNC does not control the oppostion forces on the ground - composed partly of deserters, of Sunni fanatics fighters, and of local inhabitants, they follow their own local agenda, not SNC orders.
12 March 2012, 17:24
23
C'est quand même bizarre, je ne vois aucun de ces "sans principe" commenter sur cet article. Vous ne voulez pas regarder la réalité en face non? ou peut être ce sont des mensonges inventés par les sionistes ou les salafistes ou je ne sais pas quel autre complots non? Et puis s'il vous plait ne me dites pas de regarder les pays du Golfs, parce qu'une personne intègre condamne l'atrocité et le barbarisme quelque soit le lieu d'autant plus ce se sont nos voisins!
A bas le barbarisme, le despotisme, la tyrannie et bien "partout" dans le monde!
12 March 2012, 18:59
14
Let's be frank, Neither the USA nor the EU wants to send troops to Syria.
If Russia & China did not block the Security Council, then the West would have already initiated a Sweeping Air Campaign to destroy Bashar's forces from the air, while training & helping FSA forces to gain the upper hand on the ground.
But now without the Air campaign, they don't see how they can overthrow Bashar regime quickly. In the meantime, Secterian strife is now enflamed, and it reached a point that the west cannot trust that the weapons that they are being asked to send, will not be used to commit mass reprisals against the minorities. And that the West does not want to be held responsible for.
So what remains is trying to either get the SNC better organized, united and better control on the ground forces, and get satisfying re-assurances from them that Reprisals will not happen.
And at the same time try to broker a peaceful solution with the regime.
12 March 2012, 21:45
12
yeah agree with you syrian, it's not a question of shi3a. It's not a question of religion. IT's a question of human bieng. It's a question of principles.
This tyrannical regime do not protect minorities. That's completely wrong. Only Liberty, Freedom and justice protect minorities.
12 March 2012, 21:53
21
Syrian
Ask yourself - after China & Russia blocked the security council from taking action, making sure that Assad forces will remain strong, while no help will be provided to the opposition. In that context, fighting against the regime is suicidal, therefore in order for the oppostion to cut their losses and stop the bloodshed, they could easely have brokered a deal with Assad - who despite all his might - is probably scared that he might be dethroned - and will accept any deal to save his neck. But someone is still wispering in the Syrian Oppostion ears Not to compromise at all and to keep fighting till the end, they could probably be promising them that rescue is on its way (yet that hadn't materialized). So there are a lot of peaceful solutions that could be found. But someone is pushing both sides not to go that path.
13 March 2012, 05:43
00
There are many good comments about this artical.
The bottom line is that change is inevitable and there is no real roadmap to the future. No one can guarantee what comes next, but 40 years of the Assads is more then enough.
Iraq is a good example for concern, but the Iraqis are better off with out Saddam Hussein and the rest of his clan, no matter what. The longer that they would have stayed in power, the worse it would have been for the people when the regime finally fell.
Like all dictators, Assad will never willingly give up his power.
13 March 2012, 09:36
00
I heard some Jazeera reporters are resigning, because the network is being biased in reporting one sided news.
08 August 2012, 16:55
00
in syria the law and order situation , responsible to govt and other parties , it will be sloution to intupt all muslim coutry to peace in syria joining the meeting in muslims countries , head to head idea to make to muslim countries , do some thing for syria ,
