By Phillip Hudson From: Herald Sun
May 30, 2012 4:59AM
SYRIA'S top diplomat in Australia, Jawdat Ali, was expelled by the Gillard Government in protest about the massacre of an estimated 100 people in his country, many of them children.
Jawdat Ali, the Senior Syrian diplomat in Canberra leaving the Department of Foreign Affairs Building in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith Source: The Sunday Telegraph
Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr said the Syrian Charge D'Affairs and another diplomat had 72 hours to leave the country.
Senator Carr said Australia condemned the atrocities perpetrated against civilians in the village of Haoula. Mr Ali was summoned to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra yesterday and told he was being expelled.
France, UK, others expel Syrian diplomats
"This massacre of more than 100 men, women and children in Houla was a hideous and brutal crime," he said.
"The Syrian charge has again been advised to convey a clear message to Damascus that Australians are appalled by this massacre and we will pursue a unified international response to hold those responsible to account."
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade boss Dennis Richardson delivered the expulsion message about 4.30pm (AEST), meaning the diplomats must leave the country by Friday afternoon.
Mr Ali is Syria's most senior diplomat in Canberra. His expulsion comes in the wake of the artillery attack on Houla, which is believed to have killed 108 people and injured 300 more.
The US today expelled Syria's top diplomat as part of a global response to the massacre of civilians in the town of Houla last week.
Syria's charge d'affaires Zouheir Jabbour was given 72 hours to leave the country, the US State Department said. Sources told FOX News Channel that Jabbour has already left the US.
The US action was part of a coordinated response of partner countries including Australia, Canada, Spain, Britain, Italy, France and Germany to the killings, which the UN said may have included summary executions.
"We hold the Syrian government responsible for this slaughter of innocent lives," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.
Nuland described the massacre as "the most unambiguous indictment yet" of the Syrian government's flagrant violations of its UN Security Council obligations.
The move came as UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan met Syrian President Bashar al Assad in Damascus.
In the meeting, Assad blamed terrorists for the atrocities in Houla and warned that Western support for rebels threatened Annan's peace plan.
Assad "pointed out that the armed terrorist groups escalated their terrorist acts noticeably as of late in various areas across Syria," the official SANA news agency reported.
He also "stressed the need for the countries who are financing, arming and harbouring the terrorist groups to commit to Annan's plan and that these countries' political will to participate in stopping terrorism must be put to the test," the report said.
The deaths of 108 people, mostly women and children, in Houla on Friday shattered a month-long cease-fire that had barely held.
The incident drew a sweeping condemnation of the Syrian government, including from its ally Russia, for violating the peace plan.
The UN rights body accused the Assad regime of "summarily executing" more than 80 people in Houla.
"It's believed that under 20 of the 108 killings can be attributed to artillery and tank fire," Rupert Colville, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said at a news briefing. "Most of the rest of the victims in Taldo, one of the areas of Houla, were summarily executed in two separate incidents."
The spokesman said the information, which he described as "very preliminary," was based on reports from survivors to UN investigators.
The visit of Annan did little to stem the violence, with observers reporting the deaths of 19 people overnight Monday and early Tuesday.
Among those killed was Bassel Shehade, a Syrian Fulbright scholar who cut short his studies in the US to return home Syria to film and photograph the conflict, a tribute page on Facebook said.
UN officials say 49 children and 34 women were among those killed.
The UN Security Council has condemned the killings, which it says were the result of government artillery fire on a residential neighbourhood.
President Bashar al-Assad's regime has denied responsibility for the massacre, which has prompted thousands of Syrians to flood into the streets in protest.
Senator Carr says Syria can expect no further official contact with Australia until it abides by a UN ceasefire and a peace plan brokered by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Coalition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop threw her support behind the move, calling the Houla massacre "an affront to humanity".
"It is clear that the Assad regime has abandoned any pretence at honouring its commitments to a halt in military action," she said.
Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne also welcomed the decision. The Syrian embassy could not be contacted for comment.
Senator Carr has also foreshadowed stronger sanctions against the regime.
Between 10,000 and 13,000 Syrians have been killed since an anti-Assad uprising erupted last year.
Australia, the European Union and the United States have imposed sanctions on Syria. Australia has put travel and financial restrictions on 106 individuals and 28 entities and imposed an arms embargo.
- with AAP, Newscore
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