SYRIAN VIOLENCE:RIYADH – Syrian security forces killed at least five people yesterday during rallies, an activist said, as protesters emboldened by rebel advances in Libya called for President Bashar al-Assad to heed international calls to resign.
The deaths took place across Hama province, Mahmoud Merhi, head of the Arab Organisation for Human Rights, said by phone.
Yesterday, 10 protesters died in Hama, Homs, Aleppo and the southern area of Daraa, where rallies against Dr Assad’s rule began, he said. There were nationwide arrests, with about 300 detained in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, he said.
Dr Assad has used tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery and helicopters to crush the most serious threat to his family’s 40- year rule.
The uprisings began in mid-March after revolts ousted the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and sparked a conflict in Libya.
The United Nations Human Rights Council yesterday ordered a probe into Syria’s crackdown on anti-government protesters, including possible crimes against humanity.
The council condemned what it called “continued grave and systematic human rights violations by Syrian authorities, such as arbitrary executions, excessive use of force and the killing and persecution of protesters and human-rights defenders”.
The resolution to “urgently dispatch an independent international commission of inquiry to investigate violations of international human-rights law in Syria since July 2011” passed in Geneva by a 33-4 vote, with nine abstentions, on the second day of a special session on Syria.
The European Union, the US and Arab countries including Saudi Arabia sponsored the resolution.
China, Russia, Cuba and Ecuador voted against the resolution while India, Mauritania, Angola, the Philippines, Cameroon, Uganda, Bangladesh, Djibouti and Malaysia abstained. Assad told UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon on August 18th that security operations had stopped.
A day later 40 protesters were killed in Homs, Daraa and a suburb of Damascus, according to Merhi and Qurabi.
“It’s troubling that he has not kept his word,” Mr Ban told reporters yesterday in New York. – (Bloomberg)