A senior United Nations official called for "protective" international action against Syria yesterday as she warned the country was heading towards civil war.
Demonstrators protesting against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad march through the streets after Friday's prayers in Homs last week Photo: REUTERS
By Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent
4:47PM BST 14 Oct 2011
13 Comments
Navi Pillay, the UN Human Rights Commissioner, seemed to mirror language used over Libya seven months ago as she accused the Syrian government of failing to protect its own population. She said the number of dead since the uprising against the rule of President Bashir al-Assad began in March had now passed 3,000, including 187 children.
"The onus is on all members of the international community to take protective action in a collective manner, before the continual ruthless repression and killings drive the country into a full-blown civil war," she said.
She said there was growing evidence of members of the military defecting after refusing to fire on civilians. "The crisis is already showing worrying signs of descending into an armed struggle," she added.
The comments are a sign of how seriously the possibility of further western intervention in the Arab world is being taken, despite pledges to the contrary. Western leaders have insisted there are major differences between Syria now and Col Gaddafi's Libya earlier this year, but NATO's bombing campaign there was also justified by the need to take "protective action" on behalf of civilians.
In contrast to the quick ejection of Presidents Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali of Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt this year, and the almost immediate descent into civil war in Libya, Syria's long uprising has been a slow drift away from President Assad's brutally imposed, one-party stability.
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Friday's assessment of the latest killings by the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights and other activist groups based abroad gave startling evidence of the extent to which resistance to President Assad, which began with largely peaceful demonstrations, was becoming violent.
The Observatory said that 25 members of the security forces, including a number of army officers, were killed on Thursday in the provinces of Idlib in the north and Daraa in the south. Ten civilians also died.
Of the 25, the Observatory's Mousab Azzawi said 21 were soldiers still loyal to the regime, and four had defected. He said the crisis in the army was such that a large part of the feared 4th Division, controlled personally by President Assad's younger brother Maher, had been split up and sent to other army groups to police them and prevent defections by force.
In further killings of civilians on Friday, seven demonstrators died in the Daraa suburb of Dael, two in the suburbs of Damascus and one more in Syria's second city, Aleppo.
Arab League foreign ministers will meet in Cairo on Sunday to discuss the crisis, though the organisation has been much more hesitant to ask for intervention against Syria than it was in the case of Libya, where its support was crucial.
But Dr Azzawi said there was now growing support on the ground for western intervention, going as far as bombing military bases to catalyse a final breakdown in the Syrian security forces. "If planes started bombing the bases of the army, there would be chaos and everybody would be ready to defect."
Other activists group remain deeply opposed to western military intervention, instead urging governments to implement more forceful sanctions.
A spokeswoman for Ms Pillay said it was up to individual governments to decide what form "protective action" should take.
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Showing 13 comments
barry07
Yesterday 09:35 AM
The UN. Created and controlled by the financiers. When can we get rid of this non-democratic pack of thieves claiming to represent the mythical international community? Recommended by 2 people
BrianT777
Yesterday 08:53 AM
So syria, then pakistan, then venzuela, then trukey, then saudi arabia.
Look at any image of a town in Libya, was gaddafi dropping hundreds of bombs a day on schools and hospitals and power plants and water plants..... this is where your taxes go, to kill children in other countries so oil money can be spread around by the swine of the earth... killing in the name of peace..... makes sense?
italoveneto
10/15/2011 12:48 PM
notwithstanding the fears of minority security i am not so sure that there is such a confessional rivalry in syria. The continual slaughter of mainly sunni demonstrators may push syria towards such division.
What is clear is that the current regime is corrupt and brutal to a fault and one of the most cynical supporters of terrorism who often use the regimes secularism to impute the threat of Islam.while quite happily using Hizbollah and Hamas as a terroristic instrument of Syrian foreign policy.
A moderate multi confessional government may restore some form of normality to Syria's international relations which could enhance some form of ME peace settlement.
FirstAdvisor
10/15/2011 05:15 AM
Injecting a note of rationality into the discussion is very bad manners, clearly. Regrettable as it may be to say so, the fact remains that the major conflicts of Syria are ideological, not sectarian. Virtually all the wealthy families of Syria are centuries old, and they are huge clans. The majority of the urban population of the south are Conservatives, or Liberals, whatever their religious background. The majority of the north, rural people of Syria, of every religious group, are Socialists and Communists.
The greatest conflict in Syria, and on the Syrian National Council, is between the Conservatives and the Communists. Religion and sect have absolutely nothing to do with this conflict. The protesters in the streets are Communists and Socialists. Religion and sect have no relation whatsoever to their protests. The same is true of virtually all the ordinary soldiers of the armed forces. None of these people could care less what someone's religion or sect is. All they care about is what political beliefs a person holds.
The Socialists and Communists are probably a majority of the population. However, they have no weapons and no money, and usually no brains and no education. While the urban Liberals and Conservatives have a great deal of very potent weapons and a lot of money. They are very smart, and very well-educated, cultured and sophisticated in international affairs. Guess who will win?
______ Sam Chuckie
10/15/2011 08:53 AM
'The greatest conflict in Syria, and on the Syrian National Council, is between the Conservatives and the Communists. Religion and sect have absolutely nothing to do with this conflict.'
It would be hard to convey the extent of the madness contained within this comment. I actually laughed.
Virtually all the anti-assad rebels are Sunni Muslims, they are lead by Islamists.
Alawis who happen to be more secular support the Assad regime to a man as do most Christians.
The situation in Syria could hardly be more sectarian.
____________ FirstAdvisor
10/15/2011 09:14 AM
Ah. Clearly, an ignorant child primitive, who gets all his knowledge of the world from reading Western newspapers and watching Western TV talk shows. Now, that's hilariously funny.
(Edited by a moderator)
____________ Sam Chuckie
10/15/2011 10:14 AM
'The Socialists and Communists are probably a majority of the population.'
Hahaha I'm still laughing at you. If I tried my best to post a comment which ran comletely contrary to the reality I doubt I could do better than you just did.
I rarely watch TV and I don't glean my information from one source like you. It's certainly better than making everything up regardless of fact as you evidently do.
twiceasnice
10/14/2011 11:37 PM
Let the Arabs fight and kill themselves why must the West always wade in and commit itself? Arabs are swimming in oil, weapons and money they can help their own Muslim brothers the West will always be hated if it intervenes.
These throwbacks need to learn to act like human beings and we must stop spoon feeding them.
Sam Chuckie
10/14/2011 10:48 PM
Assad deserves praise for standing up to the Islamists. It's refreshing to see the Alawis giving Sunni Muslims a taste of their own medicine.
If it wasn't for Assad, Syria's Christians, Druze and Alawi would be facing genocide, rape and ethnic cleansing.
Navi Pillay is promoting Islamist supermacism and the slaughter of Syria's minorities.
Benedict100
10/14/2011 09:32 PM
There is no reason that Syria could not become a moderate Muslim democracy with a large Christian minority any more that it is inconceivable that Palestine might become a moderate Muslim country with a large Jewish minority and for that matter Israel a moderate Jewish country with a large Muslim minority. All this is possible.
______ twiceasnice
10/14/2011 11:38 PM
I have much less faith in Arabs I lived with them for years. They can't live with Jews they are brainwashed to kill and hate
chrysostomos
10/14/2011 07:02 PM
The Druze and the Christians (and likely other minority groups in Syria) support Assad. If Assad is ousted there will be yet another bloodbath of minorities in a Muslim country by faithful adherents of Islam; the UN is effectively calling for genocide.
Don't believe the hype, support Assad.
icarus2
10/14/2011 06:11 PM
Syria has a formidable air arm including Mig 29, and judging by Bashers ruthless use of force so far,I imagine a hot reception will be awaiting any military incursion to his air space.
Btitain must steer clear of any military adventures in Syria,primarily because even if successful the fall out of his removal may prove bloodier than anything we have seen so far.
_____________
What do you think ?
Các anh chị nghĩ thế nào, có ý kiến phê bình gì qua bài viết "UN calls for international action against Syria after warning country is heading for 'civil war'" và 13 Ý kiến phê bình từ "13 Comments" của độc giả ?
Các anh chị có quan tâm gì về thái độ của các cường quốc đối với Sự Nổi Dậy của người dân Syria và bị chính cầm quyền của họ GIẾT rất nhiều ???
Tại sao có sự khác biệt giữa Libya và Syria ???
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog"
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Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
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17102011
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