"LandepNews"
People Leaving Zone of Conflict in Homs
Shelling is said to have continued throughout the weekend in the province of Idlib, which prompted the activists to say that as much as 45 people died in the attacks. The Syrian official news agency said that “the group of terrorists” have kidnapped scores of people in the city of Homs, central Syria, and killed them and mutilated them and then filmed them to show them to the media outlets.
The reports converge on one thing, that is that there are civilians that were killed over the weekend. These casualties add to the ones already made during the yearlong conflict, which is said by the United Nations to have claimed the lives of 7,500 civilians killed by the security forces.
The Syrian regime is facing more and more pressure from the international community, although no real step is being taken to help the people in need in the Syrian cities that have been shelled by the artillery for over a month.
Last week the British prime minister David Cameron told a parliamentary commission that the president of Russia, newly elect Vladimir Putin, showed no sign of “shift” in the position of his country toward Syria.
Many had thought that the Russian president had had this stance on Syria to bolster his presidential campaign, and the British diplomacy was the first to try to change his opinion after he became the president again.
On that occasion, British PM called the regime in Damascus “illegitimate and criminal” and demanded of the president Assad to step down. The U.S. Republican Senator John McCain also said last week that only a no-fly zone and a bombing by the U.S. air forces of the positions of the Syrian army could release the pressure it is putting on civilians.
The president Obama said that a military intervention would only make things worse, as would do the arming of the rebels. Besides, the U.S. officers in the Middle East told the president that bombing Syria and imposing a no-fly zone could be more difficult in Syria than it was in Libya, given that Syria has acquired defensive technology from the Russians.
As the United Nations are attempting to draft a new resolution that would condemn the atrocities in Syria, many expressed their conviction that the crimes in this country will not remain unpunished.
Thus, the U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton said two weeks ago that what happened in Syria could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The European Union said that the events in Syria are being monitored to the purpose of having a court the same as the one for former Yugoslavia established there.
The prime minister of neighboring Turkey also said that what happened to Hafez al-Assad, who got away with killing scores in Homs, in the 1980s, would not happen to his son.
President Putin said last week that the asylum for Assad, of which the international media had spoken over the past weeks, was not a theme to be discussed by the Russian leadership, and that it was not a topic of interest any time soon.
Those who spoke of it were based on the developments in Yemen, where the violent situation was averted by an arrangement between the president and a group of countries from the Gulf. As a result, Ali Abdullah Saleh got away with the crimes committed in the country during his 33-year reign.
The United Nations, which have already voted a resolution on Syria in the General Assembly, and another one in the Human Rights Council, both with no legal bonding status, are making preparations to vote a third resolution in the Security Council.
The last one, which was demanding Assad to step down and to hand over power to a deputy and to call for elections, was vetoed by Russia on February 4. Russia complained that its amendments had not been considered.
This time, the draft of resolution is taking into account the Russian position to demand that both government and the rebels withdraw from their positions in the field. The European and American ambassadors to the U.N. hope that this time the resolution would pass, though chances are slim, as Russia said that no resolution condemning the regime in Damascus would pass, so that the situation in Libya may not be repeated.
In Syria both Assad and his opponents show little interest in a political settlement of the situation. The president Assad is said to have demanded as a precondition of the talks with the opposition the immediate stop of all activities of what he called “terrorist groups.”
A more successful dialogue seems to have had the Arab League with Russia, as an agreement was reached on Saturday on a five-point proposition, which entails the withdrawal of both governmental and rebel forces and the immediate beginning of negotiations with the opposition.
The Arab League had to drop the demand that Assad step down and hand over power to a deputy. The agreement on Saturday is expected to pave the way for a positive vote of Russia in the UNSC. The Arab League is scheduled to meet a Chinese delegation and is going to convey to it the same message. Chinese sent their own delegation in Syria, demanding that the violence be stopped and the talks with the opposition be engaged.
Thank's for link:
No comments:
Post a Comment