UN Chief Warns Syria After Houla Shelled Again
The AP reported that the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees activists groups said government troops used machine guns and mortars in Thursday’s attack. Houla is comprised of poor farming villages.
Both activists groups reported that a young man was killed by sniper fire.
The Syrian government denied its troops involvement in the killings and blamed “armed terrorists,” the AP reported.
From the AP:
Activists from Houla said government forces last Friday first shelled the area after large demonstrations against the regime earlier in the day. That evening, they said, pro-regime fighters known as shabiha stormed the villages, gunning down men in the streets and stabbing women and children in their homes.
The Houla massacre was one of the deadliest incidents since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime started in March last year. The U.N. said several weeks ago that more than 9,000 people have been killed in the past 15 months while activists put the number at about 13,000.
Ban spoke in Istanbul at a summit of the Alliance of Civilizations, a forum promoting understanding between the Western and Islamic Worlds, the AP reported.
“The massacre of civilians of the sort seen last weekend could plunge Syria into a catastrophic civil war - a civil war from which the country would never recover,” Ban said. “We are there to record violations and to speak out so that the perpetrators of crimes may be held to account.”
The violence in Syria continues even with a cease fire peace plan that went into effect on April 12, negotiated by international envoy Kofi Annan. Almost 300 U.N. observers are in Syria.
Friday’s massacre of men, women and children has elicited the United States, Western and Asian nations to expel Syrian diplomats.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton argued Thursday against intervening in Syria. Clinton said Russia and China have opposed any such international support at the U.N. Security Council, Reuters reported, where the countries have twice vetoed resolutions on Syria.
At a news conference, Clinton said she would try to change Russia’s stance of attempting to avoid a civil war.
“They often…liken it to the equivalent of a very large Lebanese civil war and they are just vociferous in their claim that they are providing a stabilizing influence,” Clinton said. “I reject that. I think they are in effect propping up the regime at a time when we should be working on a political transition.”
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, said Wednesday that Assad appears unlikely to comply with the cease fire. She told The New York Times that the U.S. and its allies still support Annan’s plan which would require Assad to immediately adhere or be swayed by additional pressure, including Security Council sanctions.
Rice told the newspaper after a Security Council briefing by Annan’s deputy, “There seems to me to be only one other alternative, and that is indeed the worst case, which seems unfortunately at the present to be the most probable.
“And that is that the violence escalates, the conflict spreads and intensifies, it reaches a higher degree of severity, it involves countries in the region, and it takes on increasingly sectarian forms, and we have a major crisis not only in Syria but in the region.”
If that were to happen, Rice said, “The Council’s unity is exploded, the Annan plan is dead and this becomes a proxy conflict with arms flowing in from all sides.”
Read more:
China, Russia Renew Support For Syrian Regime After Bloody Massacre
Syrian Authorities Deny Responsibility For Houla Massacre
At Least 90 Killed In Syria Due To Shelling Friday
Syrian Unrest Moves Into Lebanon As EU Applies More Sanctions
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Reach executive producer Agnus Dei Farrant here.