Syrian diplomats around the world expelled
Governments around the world expelled ambassadors and top Syrian diplomats Tuesday in an unusually coordinated blow to Syria's leaders, after a particularly gruesome massacre in which the United Nations says families, including children, were shot at close range in their homes.
The Telegraph
1:04PM BST 29 May 2012
Cranking up the pressure on increasingly isolated Syrian President Bashar Assad, France, Germany, Italy and Spain said they were kicking out Syria's ambassadors in their countries. Canada said it is expelling all Syrian diplomats, and Britain and Australia expelled senior Syrian diplomats.
The move came after killings Friday in Houla, a collection of farming villages in Syria's Homs province, one of the deadliest single events in the 15-month-old uprising against Assad's rule. The U.N. said 49 children and 34 women were among the 108 people killed.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said the expulsion of the top Syrian diplomat in London, charge d'affaires Ghassan Dalla, and two other envoys would send a "stark message" that time was running out for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The move was part of the increased pressure by the international community on senior figures in the regime to "get the message across to them that they have to choose, that time will run out for Assad," Hague said.
"As part of that pressure today we have again called the Syrian charge d'affaires in London here to the Foreign Office. He has been given seven days to leave the country," Hague said.
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"Our allies and partners around the world will be taking similar action and announcing it today - including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United States, Canada and Australia."
Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said in Canberra: "This is the most effective way we've got of sending a message of revulsion of what has happened in Syria." In a statement, he called the Houla killings a "hideous and brutal crime" and said Australia would not engage with the Syrian government unless it abides by a U.N. cease-fire plan.
Australia gave Syrian Charge d'Affaires Jawdat Ali, the most senior Syrian diplomat in Australia, and another diplomat from the Syrian Embassy, 72 hours to leave the country.
In France, Syria's former colonial ruler, President Francois Hollande told reporters Tuesday that Ambassador Lamia Shakkour will be notified "today or tomorrow" that she must leave.
Hollande said that after high-level discussions with British Prime Minister David Cameron and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, it had been decided to deploy "a certain number of ... pressure tactics," against Syria, including the expulsion of the ambassador. He said the move was coordinated "with our partners," but didn't elaborate on how or when exactly the decision was made.
Germany on Tuesday announced Syria's ambassador, Radwan Loutfi, had 72 hours to leave. Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Germany and its allies hope "that this unambiguous message does not fall on deaf ears in Damascus."
"The Syrian regime bears responsibility for the terrible events in Houla," Westerwelle said in a statement. "Those who, in defiance of Security Council resolutions, use heavy weapons against their own people there and elsewhere in Syria, must expect serious diplomatic and political consequences."
Westerwelle said Germany will push for the U.N. Security Council to consider the situation in Syria again.
"It has been clear not just since Houla that Syria has no future under Assad," Westerwelle said. "He must clear the way for peaceful change in Syria."
The Italian Foreign Ministry said Ambassador Khaddour Hassan was called to the ministry and informed that he must leave.
Spain said it was giving Syrian Ambassador Hussam Edin Aala and four other diplomats based in Madrid three days to leave the country.
In Canada, Foreign Minister John Baird said in a statement that the Syrian diplomats and their families have five days to leave Canada. Another Syrian diplomat expected in Canada will be refused entry.
Baird said these "Syrian representatives are not welcome in our countries while their masters in Damascus continue to perpetrate their heinous and murderous acts."
In Vienna, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nikolaus Lutterotti said the Syrian ambassador is being summoned to the ministry where officials will deliver a very hard protest about the massacre.
When asked if the expulsions were EU-wide, Lutterotti said this had not yet been decided. He said the ambassador to Austria would not be expelled as he holds an additional function as the representative to the UN organizations in Vienna.
The U.N. estimates 9,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March 2011.
Hollande said Tuesday that Paris will host a meeting in early July of the so-called Friends of Syria seeking a diplomatic solution to the conflict. The ambassador's expulsion came amid increasing diplomatic efforts to end the bloodshed in Syria and put pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The United States, Britain and France are among that have closed their embassies in Syria since the crackdown on protesters began last year.
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Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
WORLD_ Australia expels Syria's Charge D'Affairs Jawdat Ali
Australia expels Syria's Charge D'Affairs Jawdat Ali
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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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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WORLD_ Syrian diplomats to Aust, NZ expelled over massacre
Syrian diplomats to Aust, NZ expelled over massacre
By AFP and Herald Online staff
Updated 7:25 AM Wednesday May 30, 2012
At least nine countries around the world have moved to expel Syrian diplomats over the "hideous and brutal" massacre in Houla of more than 100 people.
The Syrian charge d'affairs in Australia Jawdat Ali - who is also accredited to New Zealand - was notified of the decision to expel him and one other diplomat a day after he was called in to meet with officials over the killings.
Many of the 108 people killed in the massacre were children.
Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr told journalists said the expulsion was "the most effective way we've got of sending a message of revulsion to the Syrian government".
He said Ali, Syria's highest ranked diplomat in Australia, and the other unnamed official had 72 hours to leave the country.
"This massacre of more than 100 men, women and children in Houla was a hideous and brutal crime,'' Carr said.
"The Syrian government can expect no further official engagement with Australia until it abides by the UN ceasefire and takes active steps to implement the peace plan agreed with Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan.''
The decision came as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received Annan for a meeting in Damascus, according to Syria's state news agency SANA.
Carr said Ali had been advised to convey a clear message to Damascus that Australians were appalled by the killings and Canberra would pursue a unified international response to hold those responsible to account.
"They're appalled at a regime that could connive in or organise the execution, the killing of men, women and children,'' he said.
"Australians want that conveyed. And the best way of conveying it right now, given the restraints of what we deal with in the UN in New York, is to expel Syrian diplomats from Australia.''
Carr added that Australia took the action "with other nations around the world'' and he expected similar announcements to be made in other capitals soon.
"We are moving more or less with our friends in the world - I expect other countries to be doing this overnight Australian time,'' Carr said.
Since his comments, the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands have also expelled their Syrian envoys.
Mr Carr said the international response could include referrals to the International Criminal Court and imposing UN sanctions such as an arms embargo as well as financial and travel restrictions on identified individuals.
UN-Arab envoy Annan, who will seek to salvage his battered Syrian peace plan during "frank'' talks with Assad, called the massacre in the central town "an appalling moment with profound consequences.''
The former UN chief said those responsible must be held to account, and urged "everyone with a gun'' to abide by his six-point blueprint to help end 15 months of bloodshed.
World leaders have voiced outrage over the deaths of at least 108 people in the central town of Houla on Friday and Saturday, among them 49 children and 34 women, many blown to bits or shot dead at point blank range.
More than 13,000 people have been killed, most of them civilians, since the uprising against Assad's regime erupted in March last year, according to figures from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
- AFP and Herald Online staff
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By AFP and Herald Online staff
Updated 7:25 AM Wednesday May 30, 2012
At least nine countries around the world have moved to expel Syrian diplomats over the "hideous and brutal" massacre in Houla of more than 100 people.
The Syrian charge d'affairs in Australia Jawdat Ali - who is also accredited to New Zealand - was notified of the decision to expel him and one other diplomat a day after he was called in to meet with officials over the killings.
Many of the 108 people killed in the massacre were children.
Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr told journalists said the expulsion was "the most effective way we've got of sending a message of revulsion to the Syrian government".
He said Ali, Syria's highest ranked diplomat in Australia, and the other unnamed official had 72 hours to leave the country.
"This massacre of more than 100 men, women and children in Houla was a hideous and brutal crime,'' Carr said.
"The Syrian government can expect no further official engagement with Australia until it abides by the UN ceasefire and takes active steps to implement the peace plan agreed with Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan.''
The decision came as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received Annan for a meeting in Damascus, according to Syria's state news agency SANA.
Carr said Ali had been advised to convey a clear message to Damascus that Australians were appalled by the killings and Canberra would pursue a unified international response to hold those responsible to account.
"They're appalled at a regime that could connive in or organise the execution, the killing of men, women and children,'' he said.
"Australians want that conveyed. And the best way of conveying it right now, given the restraints of what we deal with in the UN in New York, is to expel Syrian diplomats from Australia.''
Carr added that Australia took the action "with other nations around the world'' and he expected similar announcements to be made in other capitals soon.
"We are moving more or less with our friends in the world - I expect other countries to be doing this overnight Australian time,'' Carr said.
Since his comments, the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands have also expelled their Syrian envoys.
Mr Carr said the international response could include referrals to the International Criminal Court and imposing UN sanctions such as an arms embargo as well as financial and travel restrictions on identified individuals.
UN-Arab envoy Annan, who will seek to salvage his battered Syrian peace plan during "frank'' talks with Assad, called the massacre in the central town "an appalling moment with profound consequences.''
The former UN chief said those responsible must be held to account, and urged "everyone with a gun'' to abide by his six-point blueprint to help end 15 months of bloodshed.
World leaders have voiced outrage over the deaths of at least 108 people in the central town of Houla on Friday and Saturday, among them 49 children and 34 women, many blown to bits or shot dead at point blank range.
More than 13,000 people have been killed, most of them civilians, since the uprising against Assad's regime erupted in March last year, according to figures from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
- AFP and Herald Online staff
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
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WORLD_ Syrian diplomats expelled across world as outrage over Houla massacre grows
Syrian diplomats expelled across world as outrage over Houla massacre grows
Envoy in US among those order to leave on day UN reports many of people killed in Syrian village were shot at close range
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Ian Black, Middle East editor, and Chris McGreal in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 May 2012 20.04 BST
Article history
The Syrian embassy in Washington has been told that its charge d'affaires Zuheir Jabbour has 72 hours to leave the US. Photograph: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images
The US has joined Britain, France, a host of other EU countries, Australia and Canada in expelling Syrian diplomats in a chorus of global outrage at the massacre of more than 100 people, including scores of children, in Houla.
On a day when the UN reported that many of those killed at the weekend had been shot at close range, France's foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, described the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, as "the murderer of his people". Bob Carr, his Australian counterpart, condemned "a hideous and brutal crime". Syria has denied responsibility for the atrocity, calling it a "terrorist massacre".
The Syrian National Council, the main exiled opposition group, welcomed the diplomatic expulsions as an "essential part of the response to the horrific massacres the regime is carrying out". But it also called for a UN security council resolution authorising the "use of force" under chapter VII of the UN charter – the kind that paved the way for the Nato-led intervention in Libya last year.
There is no evidence that that is likely to be agreed. "The Syrian army is powerful. No state is ready to consider ground intervention at the current time," said Fabius. France is one of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the security council.
The White House added that it did not believe military intervention in Syria was the right course of action as it would "lead to more carnage".
But it was far from certain that angry words from across the world and Syria's growing international isolation would have any effect on a regime that is fighting for its survival and is still supported by its principal ally, Russia.
The swiftly but clumsily co-ordinated diplomatic action came as Kofi Annan, representing the UN and the Arab League, met a defiant Assad in the Syrian capital, Damascus, "to convey the grave concern of the international community about the violence in Syria". Yet there was no sign of improved prospects for the implementation of Annan's apparently failing six-point peace plan.
Assad complained to Annan about escalating attacks by "armed terrorist groups" and urged unnamed countries to stop "financing, arming and harbouring them," Syria's Sana news agency reported. It did not report on the latest orchestrated moves against Damascus. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the US have all been accused by Syria of backing the rebels.
The prime minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani said in Doha that the Annan plan had already failed since none of its six points had been implemented.
Germany, Spain, Italy and Bulgaria also announced they were expelling Syria's ambassadors. The Netherlands declared the Syrian envoy "persona non grata" but said he would not be expelled because he is also Syria's ambassador to Belgium. It was not immediately clear why other members of the 27-member EU had not joined in.
The Syrian charge d'affaires in the US, Zuheir Jabbour, has been given three days to leave the country. "We hold the Syrian government responsible for this slaughter of innocent lives," said the state department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland. "This massacre is the most unambiguous indictment to date of the Syrian government's flagrant violations of its UN security council obligations."
Syria withdrew its ambassador from Washington in December after the US closed its embassy in Damascus, along with Britain and France, over the violent crackdown against opponents of the Assad regime, which has cost an estimated 15,000 lives over the last 15 months.
William Hague, Britain's foreign secretary, said the expulsions aimed to tell Assad and those around him that time was running out for them to comply with Annan's plan. "The world, the international community, is appalled by the violence that has continued, by the behaviour of the regime, by the murder of so many innocent people, including in the terrible massacre at Houla," he said.
The UN said that most of the 108 victims of the Houla massacre were shot at close range, some of them women, children and entire families gunned down in their homes. Survivors and witnesses cited by the UN blamed the house-to-house killings on pro-government thugs known as shabiha. "What is very clear is this was an absolutely abominable event that took place in Houla, and at least a substantial part of it was summary executions of civilians, women and children," said Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN high commissioner for human rights. "At this point, it looks like entire families were shot in their houses."
France's president, François Hollande, was the first European leader to announce the expulsion of a Syrian ambassador, describing it as "not a unilateral decision but in consultation with our partners". But there was irritation in London that Paris made the announcement ahead of other countries. The US announcement came later because protocol required that the US state department first call in Jabbour before making the move public.
Britain withdrew its ambassador and in effect closed its embassy in Damascus on security grounds earlier this year. That meant there was little to lose by taking this punitive step. But its effect is largely symbolic as Syria's ambassador, Sami Khiyami, left London some months ago. The charge d'affaires, Ghassan Dalla, was given the news when he was called into the Foreign Office. Two other Syrian diplomats have also been told to leave the UK.
Anti-Assad Syrians were sceptical about the move. "Don't jump to conclusions about expulsions of Syrian ambassadors," tweeted the commentator Rime Allaf. "It's symbolic; doesn't mean intervention at all!" Ausama Monajed, a member of the SNC, said: "The expulsion of the Syrian ambassadors is proof that members of the international community know who is the butcher and killer in Syria, and who is responsible for inciting violence and pushing the country into a civil war. This is a proof that Annan plan will never work in this conflict. Mediation, negotiation and political solutions are alien to Assad."
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
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Envoy in US among those order to leave on day UN reports many of people killed in Syrian village were shot at close range
Share 9
Ian Black, Middle East editor, and Chris McGreal in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 May 2012 20.04 BST
Article history
The Syrian embassy in Washington has been told that its charge d'affaires Zuheir Jabbour has 72 hours to leave the US. Photograph: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images
The US has joined Britain, France, a host of other EU countries, Australia and Canada in expelling Syrian diplomats in a chorus of global outrage at the massacre of more than 100 people, including scores of children, in Houla.
On a day when the UN reported that many of those killed at the weekend had been shot at close range, France's foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, described the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, as "the murderer of his people". Bob Carr, his Australian counterpart, condemned "a hideous and brutal crime". Syria has denied responsibility for the atrocity, calling it a "terrorist massacre".
The Syrian National Council, the main exiled opposition group, welcomed the diplomatic expulsions as an "essential part of the response to the horrific massacres the regime is carrying out". But it also called for a UN security council resolution authorising the "use of force" under chapter VII of the UN charter – the kind that paved the way for the Nato-led intervention in Libya last year.
There is no evidence that that is likely to be agreed. "The Syrian army is powerful. No state is ready to consider ground intervention at the current time," said Fabius. France is one of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the security council.
The White House added that it did not believe military intervention in Syria was the right course of action as it would "lead to more carnage".
But it was far from certain that angry words from across the world and Syria's growing international isolation would have any effect on a regime that is fighting for its survival and is still supported by its principal ally, Russia.
The swiftly but clumsily co-ordinated diplomatic action came as Kofi Annan, representing the UN and the Arab League, met a defiant Assad in the Syrian capital, Damascus, "to convey the grave concern of the international community about the violence in Syria". Yet there was no sign of improved prospects for the implementation of Annan's apparently failing six-point peace plan.
Assad complained to Annan about escalating attacks by "armed terrorist groups" and urged unnamed countries to stop "financing, arming and harbouring them," Syria's Sana news agency reported. It did not report on the latest orchestrated moves against Damascus. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the US have all been accused by Syria of backing the rebels.
The prime minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani said in Doha that the Annan plan had already failed since none of its six points had been implemented.
Germany, Spain, Italy and Bulgaria also announced they were expelling Syria's ambassadors. The Netherlands declared the Syrian envoy "persona non grata" but said he would not be expelled because he is also Syria's ambassador to Belgium. It was not immediately clear why other members of the 27-member EU had not joined in.
The Syrian charge d'affaires in the US, Zuheir Jabbour, has been given three days to leave the country. "We hold the Syrian government responsible for this slaughter of innocent lives," said the state department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland. "This massacre is the most unambiguous indictment to date of the Syrian government's flagrant violations of its UN security council obligations."
Syria withdrew its ambassador from Washington in December after the US closed its embassy in Damascus, along with Britain and France, over the violent crackdown against opponents of the Assad regime, which has cost an estimated 15,000 lives over the last 15 months.
William Hague, Britain's foreign secretary, said the expulsions aimed to tell Assad and those around him that time was running out for them to comply with Annan's plan. "The world, the international community, is appalled by the violence that has continued, by the behaviour of the regime, by the murder of so many innocent people, including in the terrible massacre at Houla," he said.
The UN said that most of the 108 victims of the Houla massacre were shot at close range, some of them women, children and entire families gunned down in their homes. Survivors and witnesses cited by the UN blamed the house-to-house killings on pro-government thugs known as shabiha. "What is very clear is this was an absolutely abominable event that took place in Houla, and at least a substantial part of it was summary executions of civilians, women and children," said Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN high commissioner for human rights. "At this point, it looks like entire families were shot in their houses."
France's president, François Hollande, was the first European leader to announce the expulsion of a Syrian ambassador, describing it as "not a unilateral decision but in consultation with our partners". But there was irritation in London that Paris made the announcement ahead of other countries. The US announcement came later because protocol required that the US state department first call in Jabbour before making the move public.
Britain withdrew its ambassador and in effect closed its embassy in Damascus on security grounds earlier this year. That meant there was little to lose by taking this punitive step. But its effect is largely symbolic as Syria's ambassador, Sami Khiyami, left London some months ago. The charge d'affaires, Ghassan Dalla, was given the news when he was called into the Foreign Office. Two other Syrian diplomats have also been told to leave the UK.
Anti-Assad Syrians were sceptical about the move. "Don't jump to conclusions about expulsions of Syrian ambassadors," tweeted the commentator Rime Allaf. "It's symbolic; doesn't mean intervention at all!" Ausama Monajed, a member of the SNC, said: "The expulsion of the Syrian ambassadors is proof that members of the international community know who is the butcher and killer in Syria, and who is responsible for inciting violence and pushing the country into a civil war. This is a proof that Annan plan will never work in this conflict. Mediation, negotiation and political solutions are alien to Assad."
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WORLD_ Syrian opposition makes plans for hours following Assad departure
Syrian opposition makes plans for hours following Assad departure
The Syrian opposition has planned the hours after the fall of the Assad regime, placing an urgent priority on security the government's arsenal of chemical weapons.
An anti-regime demonstration in Binnish in the restive northern region of Idlib, Syria Photo: AFP
By Phoebe Greenwood in Tel Aviv
10:48AM BST 29 May 2012
A senior officer in the Syrian opposition claims a committee has been established to prepare for the inevitable chaos that will follow the collapse the Assad regime after more than 40 years.
One of the militia's first actions will be to seize control of the country's chemical warfare stockpile, which is thought to be one of the largest in the world and contain deadly chemical agents such as Sarin and the nerve agent VX.
"We have divided the aftermath into four periods with different priorities for each day. The first period is the first day, the first hours after Assad's control breaks down, and one of the priorities during those hours is taking control of the chemical weapons so they won't fall into the hands of terrorists," the Syrian opposition source told Haaretz.
"We know the locations of the chemical weapon stores and we will be ready to move and secure them quickly. I can't promise that nothing will be removed but we have our information and it is not so simple to move around chemical weapons."
The opposition leader, a defector from the Syrian Army, justified his decision speak to the Israeli publication anonymously because the "countries are still officially at war".
Related Articles
_ Syria: most Houla dead executed says UN - 29 May 2012
_ Syria: Annan to hold 'frank' talks with Assad - 29 May 2012
_ Syria plunges towards civil war after Houla massacre - 28 May 2012
_ Rape used as weapon against women and men in Syria - 29 May 2012
_ Russia refuses to change its stance on Syria - 28 May 2012
_ Massacred Syrian children were 'bound before being shot' - 28 May 2012
According to Dr Ephraim Asculai, an expert on nuclear weapons at Tel Aviv University, Bashar al-Assad has invested substantial resources in a costly chemical weapons programme, producing home-grown chemical and biological agents in several manufacturing sites across the country.
"[This stockpile] is perhaps the main reason the Israeli government is equipping every Israeli citizen with gas masks and atropine injections," Dr Asculai said.
Israel has expressed deep concern over the fate of the Assad regime's massive stock pile of conventional and non-conventional weapons, which includes surface-to-air missiles, high-trajectory long-range rockets and missiles, biological and chemical weapons since the uprising began in January 2011.
Yigal Palmor, spokesperson for Israel's ministry of foreign affairs, revealed on Tuesday that a pressing concern for the Israeli government is that the Syrian regime "may want to save their unconventional weapons by sending them to custody with Hizbollah".
The Israel defence establishment has previously threatened military action against the Lebanese government if it receives weapons from Syria, which the Jewish state fear will be transferred to arm Hizbollah militants, Assad allies.
It is unlikely to be consoled by the assurances of one anonymous opposition officer, government sources said on Tuesday.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
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The Syrian opposition has planned the hours after the fall of the Assad regime, placing an urgent priority on security the government's arsenal of chemical weapons.
An anti-regime demonstration in Binnish in the restive northern region of Idlib, Syria Photo: AFP
By Phoebe Greenwood in Tel Aviv
10:48AM BST 29 May 2012
A senior officer in the Syrian opposition claims a committee has been established to prepare for the inevitable chaos that will follow the collapse the Assad regime after more than 40 years.
One of the militia's first actions will be to seize control of the country's chemical warfare stockpile, which is thought to be one of the largest in the world and contain deadly chemical agents such as Sarin and the nerve agent VX.
"We have divided the aftermath into four periods with different priorities for each day. The first period is the first day, the first hours after Assad's control breaks down, and one of the priorities during those hours is taking control of the chemical weapons so they won't fall into the hands of terrorists," the Syrian opposition source told Haaretz.
"We know the locations of the chemical weapon stores and we will be ready to move and secure them quickly. I can't promise that nothing will be removed but we have our information and it is not so simple to move around chemical weapons."
The opposition leader, a defector from the Syrian Army, justified his decision speak to the Israeli publication anonymously because the "countries are still officially at war".
Related Articles
_ Syria: most Houla dead executed says UN - 29 May 2012
_ Syria: Annan to hold 'frank' talks with Assad - 29 May 2012
_ Syria plunges towards civil war after Houla massacre - 28 May 2012
_ Rape used as weapon against women and men in Syria - 29 May 2012
_ Russia refuses to change its stance on Syria - 28 May 2012
_ Massacred Syrian children were 'bound before being shot' - 28 May 2012
According to Dr Ephraim Asculai, an expert on nuclear weapons at Tel Aviv University, Bashar al-Assad has invested substantial resources in a costly chemical weapons programme, producing home-grown chemical and biological agents in several manufacturing sites across the country.
"[This stockpile] is perhaps the main reason the Israeli government is equipping every Israeli citizen with gas masks and atropine injections," Dr Asculai said.
Israel has expressed deep concern over the fate of the Assad regime's massive stock pile of conventional and non-conventional weapons, which includes surface-to-air missiles, high-trajectory long-range rockets and missiles, biological and chemical weapons since the uprising began in January 2011.
Yigal Palmor, spokesperson for Israel's ministry of foreign affairs, revealed on Tuesday that a pressing concern for the Israeli government is that the Syrian regime "may want to save their unconventional weapons by sending them to custody with Hizbollah".
The Israel defence establishment has previously threatened military action against the Lebanese government if it receives weapons from Syria, which the Jewish state fear will be transferred to arm Hizbollah militants, Assad allies.
It is unlikely to be consoled by the assurances of one anonymous opposition officer, government sources said on Tuesday.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
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Monday, May 28, 2012
WORLD_ Massacred Syrian children were 'bound before being shot'
Massacred Syrian children were 'bound before being shot'
Some of the children killed in the Syrian town of Houla at the weekend were tied up before being shot, activists claim.
A mass burial for the victims took place in Houla Photo: REUTERS
By Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent and Ruth Sherlock in Beirut
3:02PM BST 28 May 2012
Video of one group of the 49 children posted online showed some of them had their wrists bound with blue ties, a common substitute for handcuffs in the Arab world.
Though it was not possible to verify whether this had been done before or after death, one activist group cited a witness saying the Alawite "Shabiha" or militia accused of the massacre did it to punish the children's father.
"One eye witness, who is a lady in her late 50s from Houla, confirmed that the Shabiha handcuffed the children of Abbara Family, and told the father to look at their children, how they will be killed in front of his eyes, before they killed him," a spokesman for the Syrian Network of Human Rights told The Daily Telegraph.
Activists recording the deaths say that the majority of the 108 people who died lived in a string of eight houses belonging to an extended family called Abdulrazzaq, of which the Abbaras are thought to be part.
Human Rights Watch, which called on Monday for the establishment of a United Nations commission of inquiry to investigate the killings, said it had interviewed one ten-year-old boy from the Abdulrazzaq family who survived by hiding in a barn.
Related Articles
_ Russia refuses to change its stance on Syria - 28 May 2012
_ Syria plunges towards civil war after Houla massacre - 28 May 2012
_ Hague: Kofi Annan's plan is still 'only hope' for Syria - May 2012
_ Syria hits out at Houla 'tsunami of lies' - 28 May 2012
_ Russia told to intervene in Syria before it is too late - 27 May 2012
_ Syrians protest against Houla killings - 27 May 2012
"Across the street I saw my friend Shafiq, 13 years old, outside standing alone," it quoted him as saying. "An armed man in military uniform grabbed him and put him at the corner of a house. He took his own weapon and shot him in the head.
"His mother and big sister – I think she was 14 years old – went outside and started shouting and crying. The same man shot at both of them more than once."
Meanwhile government forces shelled the city of Hama, north of Houla, until 5am on Monday morning after the Free Syrian Army there launched a series of raids on army checkpoints.
It was one of the heaviest barrages against the city since the start of the uprising.
Artillery smashed civilian neighborhoods where armed opposition groups had been hiding. Snipers infiltrated peripheral buildings using vantage points on rooftops.
"The army has surrounded the districts. Families tried to flee but no one is allowed to leave. They are killing anyone that is moving on the street," said Samer al-Hussain from the Hama News Agency.
An activist who called himself Abu Adnan al-Hamwi, speaking from one of the besieged areas, said: "The sounds of explosions did not stop all day, and as a result of the violent and arbitrary shelling, several houses were destroyed with residents still inside."
Dozens of civilians were rushed to makeshift field clinics, but with few doctors and almost no medicine there was little that could be done. Video footage posted online by activists showed rooms filled with casualties.
The mutilated bodies of men, women and children lay on bloodstained floors, some dead, some still alive as doctors looked on helplessly.
"They can only do basic first aid and try to stop the bleeding," 'Abu Adnan' said. "There is almost no equipment, or medicines. There are no painkillers."
Government hospitals in Hama remained open, but residents refused to take their wounded there for fear they would be deemed rebels and killed.
"The regime is not distinguishing between Free Syrian Army and civilians.
All of Hama has protested against the government, so now we are all enemies," said Mousab al Hamadee from Hama Local Coordinating Committee, By early morning on Monday the guns had fallen silent and the shelling stopped. Smoke rose over the smashed districts and troops stormed the neighborhood of al-Arbeen, setting alight to homes and arresting the remaining residents, activists said.
In other areas, where guerrilla groups affiliated with the Free Syrian Army are still hiding, residents dug holes in the ground to bury their dead, and prepared for the next onslaught.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
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Nguyễn Hoài Trang
29052012
___________
CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Some of the children killed in the Syrian town of Houla at the weekend were tied up before being shot, activists claim.
A mass burial for the victims took place in Houla Photo: REUTERS
By Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent and Ruth Sherlock in Beirut
3:02PM BST 28 May 2012
Video of one group of the 49 children posted online showed some of them had their wrists bound with blue ties, a common substitute for handcuffs in the Arab world.
Though it was not possible to verify whether this had been done before or after death, one activist group cited a witness saying the Alawite "Shabiha" or militia accused of the massacre did it to punish the children's father.
"One eye witness, who is a lady in her late 50s from Houla, confirmed that the Shabiha handcuffed the children of Abbara Family, and told the father to look at their children, how they will be killed in front of his eyes, before they killed him," a spokesman for the Syrian Network of Human Rights told The Daily Telegraph.
Activists recording the deaths say that the majority of the 108 people who died lived in a string of eight houses belonging to an extended family called Abdulrazzaq, of which the Abbaras are thought to be part.
Human Rights Watch, which called on Monday for the establishment of a United Nations commission of inquiry to investigate the killings, said it had interviewed one ten-year-old boy from the Abdulrazzaq family who survived by hiding in a barn.
Related Articles
_ Russia refuses to change its stance on Syria - 28 May 2012
_ Syria plunges towards civil war after Houla massacre - 28 May 2012
_ Hague: Kofi Annan's plan is still 'only hope' for Syria - May 2012
_ Syria hits out at Houla 'tsunami of lies' - 28 May 2012
_ Russia told to intervene in Syria before it is too late - 27 May 2012
_ Syrians protest against Houla killings - 27 May 2012
"Across the street I saw my friend Shafiq, 13 years old, outside standing alone," it quoted him as saying. "An armed man in military uniform grabbed him and put him at the corner of a house. He took his own weapon and shot him in the head.
"His mother and big sister – I think she was 14 years old – went outside and started shouting and crying. The same man shot at both of them more than once."
Meanwhile government forces shelled the city of Hama, north of Houla, until 5am on Monday morning after the Free Syrian Army there launched a series of raids on army checkpoints.
It was one of the heaviest barrages against the city since the start of the uprising.
Artillery smashed civilian neighborhoods where armed opposition groups had been hiding. Snipers infiltrated peripheral buildings using vantage points on rooftops.
"The army has surrounded the districts. Families tried to flee but no one is allowed to leave. They are killing anyone that is moving on the street," said Samer al-Hussain from the Hama News Agency.
An activist who called himself Abu Adnan al-Hamwi, speaking from one of the besieged areas, said: "The sounds of explosions did not stop all day, and as a result of the violent and arbitrary shelling, several houses were destroyed with residents still inside."
Dozens of civilians were rushed to makeshift field clinics, but with few doctors and almost no medicine there was little that could be done. Video footage posted online by activists showed rooms filled with casualties.
The mutilated bodies of men, women and children lay on bloodstained floors, some dead, some still alive as doctors looked on helplessly.
"They can only do basic first aid and try to stop the bleeding," 'Abu Adnan' said. "There is almost no equipment, or medicines. There are no painkillers."
Government hospitals in Hama remained open, but residents refused to take their wounded there for fear they would be deemed rebels and killed.
"The regime is not distinguishing between Free Syrian Army and civilians.
All of Hama has protested against the government, so now we are all enemies," said Mousab al Hamadee from Hama Local Coordinating Committee, By early morning on Monday the guns had fallen silent and the shelling stopped. Smoke rose over the smashed districts and troops stormed the neighborhood of al-Arbeen, setting alight to homes and arresting the remaining residents, activists said.
In other areas, where guerrilla groups affiliated with the Free Syrian Army are still hiding, residents dug holes in the ground to bury their dead, and prepared for the next onslaught.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
29052012
___________
CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
WORLD_ Syria faces mounting condemnation after Houla massacre - live updates
Syria faces mounting condemnation after Houla massacre - live updates
• UNSC condemns 'outrageous use of force' in Houla
• Activists claim dozens killed in a fresh atrocity in Hama
• Kofi Annan due in Damascus
• Hague calls on Russia to punish the Assad regime
UN observers at a morgue holding victims of the Houla massacre. Photograph: Shaam News/AFP/Getty Images
9.49am: Hague and Lavrov were asked whether Assad should stand aside in a Yemen-style agreement, as the Obama administration is pushing for.
Hague stressed the importance of Annan's plan.
Lavrov said the priority was stopping violence. "Everything else is secondary," he said. He said the need for political dialogue in Syria was non-negotiable.
Kofi Annan's plan has to be supported, he said. He suggested that talk of political transition in Syria was undermining the plan. "We sincerely want to implement Kofi Annan's plan," he said.
9.40am: The foreign ministers of Russia and the UK have reiterated their commitment to the Annan plan in Syria, but admitted their differences on the crisis.
Speaking at a joint news conference in Moscow, after holding talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, William Hague said the two men agreed that the the Annan plan is the "best and only hope" for a solution.
Hague said the discussions were frank and honesty, and that he Lavrov did not agree on everything.
Lavrov said "both sides" were to blame for the deaths of innocent civilians in Houla. He talked of the need for "mechanisms" to implement Annan's plan.
Hague said the Assad regime was primarily responsible for the violence in Syria, but not all it.
9.15am: China has condemned the "cruel killings" in Houla but has said nothing yet about who was to blame.
Reuters quoted foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin as saying:
8.57am: Syrian activists are reporting a fresh atrocity, according to Reuters:
unverified images purporting to show the bodies of men, women and children killed in the bombardment of Hama have been circulated by activists. [Warning: extremely disturbing images].
8.51am: Kofi Annan is due to meet Bashar al-Assad tomorrow, a Syrian official told AFP.
Britain's former ambassador to the UN, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, is pessimistic about Annan's chances of success, according to an interview on the BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
BBC Radio 4 Today @BBCr4today “I don’t think he [Kofi Annan] can stop either the regime or the opposition from using arms” - Sir Jeremy Greenstock #Syria 28 May 12
BBC Radio 4 Today @BBCr4today Most likely scenario in #Syria “is the increase of the use of arms on either side and descent into further violence” - Sir Jeremy Greenstock 28 May 12
8.11am: (all times BST) Welcome to Middle East Live.
Will the Houla massacre become a turning point in the crisis in Syria, or just another bloody episode in the 14-month uprising?
Here's a roundup of the latest developments:
Syria
• The United Nations security council, including Russia and China, has condemned the "outrageous use of force" by the Syrian government following the massacre of more than 100 civilians, including dozens of children, in Houla. But Russia said it is unlikely government forces would have killed civilians at point-blank range and suggested there was a third force – terrorists or external agents – seeking to trigger outside intervention. After an emergency meeting of the council it issued a non-binding statement, which said:
The security council condemned in the strongest possible terms the killings, confirmed by United Nations observers, of dozens of men, women and children and the wounding of hundreds more … in attacks that involved a series of government artillery and tank shellings on a residential neighbourhood
.International envoy Kofi Annan is to visit Damascus today in an attempt to salvage his failed peace plan, the BBC reports. On Sunday, Syria refused permission for Annan's deputy to travel to Damascus with him, a senior Arab League official told AFP. Meanwhile, Syria's ambassador to the UN, Bashar al-Jafa'ari has rejected what he called a "tsunami of lies" from some security council members over the Houla massacre.
• Barack Obama is preparing to push Russia to back the departure of Assad under a scheme modelled on the transition of power in Yemen, according to the New York Times. Under the plan the international community would broker a settlement in which Bashar al-Assad would leave, but remnants of the political structure would remain intact.
• Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, criticised Obama for backing the Annan plan, Talking Points Memo reports.
• The Guardian's Martin Chulov, who is just back from an under cover visit to Syria, pieces together how the massacre in Houla unfolded based on testimony from residents.
• Both sides share responsibility for the bloodshed in Houla, according to Patrick Seale, the biographer of Bashar al-Assad's father Hafez.
• Members of Assad's family and inner circle are directly ordering the commission of crimes against humanity in Syria, according to new evidence to be broadcast by Channel 4's Dispatches. The programme's reporter, Jonathan Miller, writes:
• The foreign secretary, William Hague, is expected to press his Russian counterpart on the spiralling crisis in Syria during his visit to Moscow. In a Twitter message sent before his arrival Hague said:
William Hague @WilliamJHague
In Moscow tomorrow. Will call on Russia to support rapid & unequivocal pressure on #Assad regime and accountability for crimes. #Syria
27 May 12
• The Houla massacre could represent a turning point, according to Middle East analyst Juan Cole. Writing on his blog Informed Comment, Cole says
Egypt
• Hamdeen Sabahy, the leftist candidate who looks set to fail to make the runoff ballot, has demanded a recount, citing many "violations", the BBC reports. Next month's runoff is expected to between the Muslim Brotherhood Mohammed Morsi and Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq. Sabahy who came third claimed conscripts had voted illegally.
***
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Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
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Nguyễn Hoài Trang
28052012
___________
CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
• UNSC condemns 'outrageous use of force' in Houla
• Activists claim dozens killed in a fresh atrocity in Hama
• Kofi Annan due in Damascus
• Hague calls on Russia to punish the Assad regime
UN observers at a morgue holding victims of the Houla massacre. Photograph: Shaam News/AFP/Getty Images
9.49am: Hague and Lavrov were asked whether Assad should stand aside in a Yemen-style agreement, as the Obama administration is pushing for.
Hague stressed the importance of Annan's plan.
Lavrov said the priority was stopping violence. "Everything else is secondary," he said. He said the need for political dialogue in Syria was non-negotiable.
Kofi Annan's plan has to be supported, he said. He suggested that talk of political transition in Syria was undermining the plan. "We sincerely want to implement Kofi Annan's plan," he said.
9.40am: The foreign ministers of Russia and the UK have reiterated their commitment to the Annan plan in Syria, but admitted their differences on the crisis.
Speaking at a joint news conference in Moscow, after holding talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, William Hague said the two men agreed that the the Annan plan is the "best and only hope" for a solution.
Hague said the discussions were frank and honesty, and that he Lavrov did not agree on everything.
Lavrov said "both sides" were to blame for the deaths of innocent civilians in Houla. He talked of the need for "mechanisms" to implement Annan's plan.
Hague said the Assad regime was primarily responsible for the violence in Syria, but not all it.
9.15am: China has condemned the "cruel killings" in Houla but has said nothing yet about who was to blame.
Reuters quoted foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin as saying:
China feels deeply shocked by the large number of civilian casualties in Houla, and condemns in the strongest terms the cruel killings of ordinary citizens, especially woman and children.
8.57am: Syrian activists are reporting a fresh atrocity, according to Reuters:
The Syrian army's bombardment of the city of Hama has killed at least 41 people in the past 24 hours, an opposition group in the city said on Monday.
Syrian tanks and infantry fighting vehicles opened fire on several neighbourhoods of Hama on Sunday after a series of attacks by rebel Free Syrian Army fighters on roadblocks and other positions manned by President Bashar al-Assad's forces, opposition sources said.
The dead included five women and eight children, the Hama Revolution Leadership Council said in a statement.
"Tank shelling brought down several buildings. Their inhabitants were pulled out from the rubble and many are in a critical condition," the statement said.
unverified images purporting to show the bodies of men, women and children killed in the bombardment of Hama have been circulated by activists. [Warning: extremely disturbing images].
8.51am: Kofi Annan is due to meet Bashar al-Assad tomorrow, a Syrian official told AFP.
Britain's former ambassador to the UN, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, is pessimistic about Annan's chances of success, according to an interview on the BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
BBC Radio 4 Today @BBCr4today “I don’t think he [Kofi Annan] can stop either the regime or the opposition from using arms” - Sir Jeremy Greenstock #Syria 28 May 12
BBC Radio 4 Today @BBCr4today Most likely scenario in #Syria “is the increase of the use of arms on either side and descent into further violence” - Sir Jeremy Greenstock 28 May 12
8.11am: (all times BST) Welcome to Middle East Live.
Will the Houla massacre become a turning point in the crisis in Syria, or just another bloody episode in the 14-month uprising?
Here's a roundup of the latest developments:
Syria
• The United Nations security council, including Russia and China, has condemned the "outrageous use of force" by the Syrian government following the massacre of more than 100 civilians, including dozens of children, in Houla. But Russia said it is unlikely government forces would have killed civilians at point-blank range and suggested there was a third force – terrorists or external agents – seeking to trigger outside intervention. After an emergency meeting of the council it issued a non-binding statement, which said:
The security council condemned in the strongest possible terms the killings, confirmed by United Nations observers, of dozens of men, women and children and the wounding of hundreds more … in attacks that involved a series of government artillery and tank shellings on a residential neighbourhood
.International envoy Kofi Annan is to visit Damascus today in an attempt to salvage his failed peace plan, the BBC reports. On Sunday, Syria refused permission for Annan's deputy to travel to Damascus with him, a senior Arab League official told AFP. Meanwhile, Syria's ambassador to the UN, Bashar al-Jafa'ari has rejected what he called a "tsunami of lies" from some security council members over the Houla massacre.
• Barack Obama is preparing to push Russia to back the departure of Assad under a scheme modelled on the transition of power in Yemen, according to the New York Times. Under the plan the international community would broker a settlement in which Bashar al-Assad would leave, but remnants of the political structure would remain intact.
• Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, criticised Obama for backing the Annan plan, Talking Points Memo reports.
The Annan 'peace' plan — which President Obama still supports — has merely granted the Assad regime more time to execute its military onslaught ...The United States should work with partners to organise and arm Syrian opposition groups so they can defend themselves.
• The Guardian's Martin Chulov, who is just back from an under cover visit to Syria, pieces together how the massacre in Houla unfolded based on testimony from residents.
In a few short hours, the town of Houla joined the sorry list of localities whose names have become synonymous with the merciless slaughter of civilians. Srebrenica. Nyarubuye. My Lai. Up to now, the Syrian conflict has killed 13,000 people. But until this weekend, it had yet to include the mass slaughter of nursery-age infants.
"The shelling started around 3pm," said Abu Jaffour. "I was in the fields at the time and we tried to reach the area being bombed. It took us three hours to get there. When I reached the houses it was dreadful. I was carrying babies' bodies that had parts of their heads hanging out."
• Both sides share responsibility for the bloodshed in Houla, according to Patrick Seale, the biographer of Bashar al-Assad's father Hafez.
The regime's strategy is to prevent – at all costs – its armed opponents from seizing and holding territory inside the country, as this might give foreign powers a base from which to operate. As soon as it identifies pockets of armed opponents, it sends in its troops to crush them. That it often uses disproportionate force is not in doubt: this is all too predictable when a conventional army faces hit-and-run opponents. Trapped between opposing forces, civilians inevitably pay the price.
• Members of Assad's family and inner circle are directly ordering the commission of crimes against humanity in Syria, according to new evidence to be broadcast by Channel 4's Dispatches. The programme's reporter, Jonathan Miller, writes:
Defectors from Syrian intelligence and security agencies, used by the regime to crush the revolt, claim that Assad's cousin issued shoot-to-kill orders against civilian protesters in Dera'a, the cradle of the insurrection. Kill quotas were reportedly issued to snipers tasked with assassinating pro-democracy activists.
They allege that Assad's brother Maher, a senior army commander, was among senior figures operating out of a secret command centre in Dera'a when orders were issued to contain a protest march by all means necessary.
• The foreign secretary, William Hague, is expected to press his Russian counterpart on the spiralling crisis in Syria during his visit to Moscow. In a Twitter message sent before his arrival Hague said:
William Hague @WilliamJHague
In Moscow tomorrow. Will call on Russia to support rapid & unequivocal pressure on #Assad regime and accountability for crimes. #Syria
27 May 12
• The Houla massacre could represent a turning point, according to Middle East analyst Juan Cole. Writing on his blog Informed Comment, Cole says
The outcome in Houla is so horrific that it may turn the stomachs of the remaining Syrians who are on the fence, and produce a new backlash against the regime. The revolution in Syria is a contest of wills between the regime on the one hand, and on the other the revolutionaries (who have a civil and a military wing that seldom agree). The revolutionaries have remained steadfast in the face of massive brutality, for over a year. Their will seems strong. The regime seems to be popular in fewer and fewer places. The will of all but its devoted cadres is being shaken.
Egypt
• Hamdeen Sabahy, the leftist candidate who looks set to fail to make the runoff ballot, has demanded a recount, citing many "violations", the BBC reports. Next month's runoff is expected to between the Muslim Brotherhood Mohammed Morsi and Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq. Sabahy who came third claimed conscripts had voted illegally.
***
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Sunday, May 27, 2012
WORLD_ Syria Houla massacre: they moved from family to family, killing them one by one
Syria Houla massacre: they moved from family to family, killing them one by one
The flat, once peaceful town of Houla is an unforgiving place in which to try and investigate what could well be a major war crime and is certainly a significant massacre of civilians.
Shrouded dead bodies after a Syrian government assault on Houla, Syria Photo: AP
By Alex Thomson,
Houla 10:26PM BST 27 May 2012
Martin Griffiths, the deputy commander of the UN’s observer mission to Syria, on Sunday attempted to lead a small team of peace monitors and aid workers into the area where at least 90 people died on Friday, despite the firefights that continued to rage all the time they were there.
“It is difficult, very difficult,” Mr Griffiths said. “We found one family – a mother and her four children – all of them were dead, the bodies still left there.”
As his UN team went about the business of monitoring a ceasefire, which in Houla does not really exist, the continuing violence hampered their work and clearly put them in danger,
“The Syrian army sent up an armoured personnel carrier. It was armed with a large cannon and it passed our vehicles and fired off two rounds,” Mr Griffiths said.
“That of course caused another firefight which obviously delayed our work and held us up a bit.”
Related Articles
_ Syrians protest against Houla killings - 27 May 2012
_ Syrian government denies troops were behind Houla massacre - 27 May 2012
_ Syria: Ceasefire in tatters as children killed - 26 May 2012
_ UK condemns 'naked savagery' of Houla - 27 May 2012
_ London 2012: Race to stop human rights abusers attending games - 27 May 2012
_ Mutilated bodies of mother and four children found - 25 May 2012
Something of a typical understatement from this quiet but determined Englishman, but the UN team did manage enough time in Houla to assess just what happened during Friday’s atrocity.
Mr Griffiths said both the Free Syrian Army (FSA) command in Rastan and civilian eyewitnesses in Houla itself had said the same thing.
Shelling of the town began at about 12.30pm after prayers and lasted about two hours.
Then, from around 3pm, groups of armed civilian militias — known as the Shabiha — began moving house to house and the killings, using knives and firearms, began.
According to both sources speaking independently, it went on for hours, family by family. Both groups say the killings continued until about 2am on Saturday.
The Syrian army on the ground in Houla and their political masters in Damascus say it was the work of “terrorists”, by which they mean the FSA. Soldier after soldier insisted to us that the FSA was a mixture of Afghan, Libyan, Iraq and Moroccan mercenaries. They offered no evidence to support this.
Yet all around you in Houla, there is compelling evidence to suggest it is Syria’s government and Syria’s army who are telling the lies about the massacre on Friday.
The evidence is simply this: the fact that in Houla right now you still find civilians where the FSA control the ground. Yet there are none (except corpses) where the Syrian army is in control.
So you ask yourself this: why do people remain in one area and not the other? Why do civilians apparently feel safe with the rebels? Why have they fled the area controlled by their own government’s army?
We cannot be sure as yet. But since civilians do not feel safe under the protection of their own army it suggests they perceive a link between that army’s shelling and the murderous Shabiha who came afterwards on Friday in Houla and will surely come again.
*Alex Thomson is Chief Correspondent for Channel 4 News. He is the first British journalist to enter Houla since Friday's massacre.
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The flat, once peaceful town of Houla is an unforgiving place in which to try and investigate what could well be a major war crime and is certainly a significant massacre of civilians.
Shrouded dead bodies after a Syrian government assault on Houla, Syria Photo: AP
By Alex Thomson,
Houla 10:26PM BST 27 May 2012
Martin Griffiths, the deputy commander of the UN’s observer mission to Syria, on Sunday attempted to lead a small team of peace monitors and aid workers into the area where at least 90 people died on Friday, despite the firefights that continued to rage all the time they were there.
“It is difficult, very difficult,” Mr Griffiths said. “We found one family – a mother and her four children – all of them were dead, the bodies still left there.”
As his UN team went about the business of monitoring a ceasefire, which in Houla does not really exist, the continuing violence hampered their work and clearly put them in danger,
“The Syrian army sent up an armoured personnel carrier. It was armed with a large cannon and it passed our vehicles and fired off two rounds,” Mr Griffiths said.
“That of course caused another firefight which obviously delayed our work and held us up a bit.”
Related Articles
_ Syrians protest against Houla killings - 27 May 2012
_ Syrian government denies troops were behind Houla massacre - 27 May 2012
_ Syria: Ceasefire in tatters as children killed - 26 May 2012
_ UK condemns 'naked savagery' of Houla - 27 May 2012
_ London 2012: Race to stop human rights abusers attending games - 27 May 2012
_ Mutilated bodies of mother and four children found - 25 May 2012
Something of a typical understatement from this quiet but determined Englishman, but the UN team did manage enough time in Houla to assess just what happened during Friday’s atrocity.
Mr Griffiths said both the Free Syrian Army (FSA) command in Rastan and civilian eyewitnesses in Houla itself had said the same thing.
Shelling of the town began at about 12.30pm after prayers and lasted about two hours.
Then, from around 3pm, groups of armed civilian militias — known as the Shabiha — began moving house to house and the killings, using knives and firearms, began.
According to both sources speaking independently, it went on for hours, family by family. Both groups say the killings continued until about 2am on Saturday.
The Syrian army on the ground in Houla and their political masters in Damascus say it was the work of “terrorists”, by which they mean the FSA. Soldier after soldier insisted to us that the FSA was a mixture of Afghan, Libyan, Iraq and Moroccan mercenaries. They offered no evidence to support this.
Yet all around you in Houla, there is compelling evidence to suggest it is Syria’s government and Syria’s army who are telling the lies about the massacre on Friday.
The evidence is simply this: the fact that in Houla right now you still find civilians where the FSA control the ground. Yet there are none (except corpses) where the Syrian army is in control.
So you ask yourself this: why do people remain in one area and not the other? Why do civilians apparently feel safe with the rebels? Why have they fled the area controlled by their own government’s army?
We cannot be sure as yet. But since civilians do not feel safe under the protection of their own army it suggests they perceive a link between that army’s shelling and the murderous Shabiha who came afterwards on Friday in Houla and will surely come again.
*Alex Thomson is Chief Correspondent for Channel 4 News. He is the first British journalist to enter Houla since Friday's massacre.
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Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
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WORLD_ Outrage grows over Syria killings
Outrage grows over Syria killings
UN monitors shown bodies after dozens slain in Houla
The Associated Press
Posted: May 27, 2012 5:57 AM ET
Last Updated: May 27, 2012 6:01 AM ET
The deaths in Syria of over 90 people, including at least 32 children, has sparked international outrage and raised fears that the international peace plan is in tatters.
More than a dozen amateur videos posted online on Saturday gave glimpses of the carnage in the Houla area of central Syria.
One video is said to show UN monitors being shown the shrouded corpses of those killed, laid out in rows inside what appeared to be a mosque.
Members of the Syrian Free Army speak to a person believed to be a member of the United Nations observer mission in Syria, near bodies in Houla on Saturday. (Houla News Network/Reuters)
The assault on Houla, northwest of the central city of Homs, was one of the bloodiest single events in Syria's 14-month-old uprising.
British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, in an interview broadcast Sunday,said the "scenes of savagery" are "just revolting, stomach-churning."
Clegg told the BBC's Andrew Marr those responsible for human rights crimes will be barred from entering Britain.
Activists said Syria's regime forces peppered residential areas of Houla with mortars after large demonstrations on Friday.
That evening, they said, pro-regime fighters known as shabiha stormed villages, gunning down men in the streets and stabbing women and children in their homes.
UN observers, among more than 250 who were dispatched in recent weeks to salvage the ceasefire plan, found spent artillery tank shells at the site Saturday.
UN officials confirmed the shells were fired at residential neighbourhoods.
The Syrian government blamed the attack on "armed terrorist groups" but provided no details or death toll.
The Houla villages are Sunni Muslim.
The forces came from an arc of nearby villages populated by Alawites, members of the offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Assad belongs, the activists said.
The activists said the killings appeared to be sectarian between the two groups, raising fears that Syria's uprising, which started in March 2011, is edging closer to the type of war that tore apart the country's eastern neighbour, Iraq.
The bloodshed is yet another blow to the international peace plan brokered by envoy Kofi Annan and cast a pall over his coming visit to check on its progress.
The ceasefire between forces loyal to the regime of President Bashar Assad and rebels seeking to topple it was supposed to start on 12 April but has never really taken hold, with new killings every day. The UN put the death toll weeks ago at more than nine-thousand. Hundreds have been killed since then.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
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UN monitors shown bodies after dozens slain in Houla
The Associated Press
Posted: May 27, 2012 5:57 AM ET
Last Updated: May 27, 2012 6:01 AM ET
The deaths in Syria of over 90 people, including at least 32 children, has sparked international outrage and raised fears that the international peace plan is in tatters.
More than a dozen amateur videos posted online on Saturday gave glimpses of the carnage in the Houla area of central Syria.
One video is said to show UN monitors being shown the shrouded corpses of those killed, laid out in rows inside what appeared to be a mosque.
Members of the Syrian Free Army speak to a person believed to be a member of the United Nations observer mission in Syria, near bodies in Houla on Saturday. (Houla News Network/Reuters)
The assault on Houla, northwest of the central city of Homs, was one of the bloodiest single events in Syria's 14-month-old uprising.
British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, in an interview broadcast Sunday,said the "scenes of savagery" are "just revolting, stomach-churning."
Clegg told the BBC's Andrew Marr those responsible for human rights crimes will be barred from entering Britain.
Activists said Syria's regime forces peppered residential areas of Houla with mortars after large demonstrations on Friday.
That evening, they said, pro-regime fighters known as shabiha stormed villages, gunning down men in the streets and stabbing women and children in their homes.
UN observers, among more than 250 who were dispatched in recent weeks to salvage the ceasefire plan, found spent artillery tank shells at the site Saturday.
UN officials confirmed the shells were fired at residential neighbourhoods.
The Syrian government blamed the attack on "armed terrorist groups" but provided no details or death toll.
The Houla villages are Sunni Muslim.
The forces came from an arc of nearby villages populated by Alawites, members of the offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Assad belongs, the activists said.
The activists said the killings appeared to be sectarian between the two groups, raising fears that Syria's uprising, which started in March 2011, is edging closer to the type of war that tore apart the country's eastern neighbour, Iraq.
The bloodshed is yet another blow to the international peace plan brokered by envoy Kofi Annan and cast a pall over his coming visit to check on its progress.
The ceasefire between forces loyal to the regime of President Bashar Assad and rebels seeking to topple it was supposed to start on 12 April but has never really taken hold, with new killings every day. The UN put the death toll weeks ago at more than nine-thousand. Hundreds have been killed since then.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
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___________
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WORLD_ London 2012 Olympics: Race to stop human rights abusers attending games
London 2012 Olympics: Race to stop human rights abusers attending games
Ministers are under pressure to stop human rights abusers from coming to the Olympics after a Syrian general boasted he would attend.
A London 2012 spokesman said: 'All National Olympic Committees submit names of athletes, support staff, officials, media and guests to us. These then go through Home Office checks' Photo: EPA
By Patrick Sawer, and Tom Parfitt, in Moscow
8:00AM BST 27 May 2012
Comment
General Mofwaq Jouma’s threat came as reports that more than 90 people, including several young children, had been massacred by Syrian troops in the town of Houla, in Homs province, in the past two days.
He boasted that he was determined to attend the games and lead his country’s 31-strong delegation at the opening ceremony in his role as chairman of Syria’s national Olympic committee.
At the same time a leading Russian dissident has called for Britain to prevent senior members of the Russian government suspected of human rights abuses and corruption from attending the Olympics.
In a letter passed to The Sunday Telegraph from his prison cell, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed oil tycoon, urged a ban on 308 officials, including high-profile figures such as Russian deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov, youth leader Vasily Yakemenko and controversial elections chief Vladimir Churov.
His intervention and the general’s boast put pressure on ministers to avoid regimes which abuse human rights embarrassing Britain by sending their associates to the games as members of the “Olympic family”.
Related Articles
_ General linked to Assad regime 'will come to Olympics' - 26 May 2012
_ 90 dead including 32 children in one of Syria's bloodiest days - 25 May 2012
_ Olympic tickets left unsold - 25 May 2012
General Joumaa insisted his country should be allowed to compete in the games and that he should be allowed to lead its national delegation.
He said: “The British people should not be worried about Syrians coming to the UK. What happened in some cities like Homs is that people broke the law.”
Home and Foreign Office officials and the London 2012 organisers are now trying to avoid a shadow being cast over the games by the presence of individuals linked to repressive regimes.
The FCO would not comment on individual cases, but Whitehall sources have indicated that General Joumaa can expected to be barred from the UK as he is closely identified with troops loyal to President Assad who are estimated to have killed 10,000 people since the start of the 15-month insurgency.
Syria’s athletes could still be allowed to compete, as they were exempted from serving in the armed forces.
Locog, the games’ organisers, are in the process of receiving the names of all athletes, officials, guests and delegates being sent to London by each of the countries taking part.
The names are being passed on to the Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office for checking against lists of individuals whose presence in this country is deemed undesirable, or who appear on the records of international bodies such the EU and International Criminal Court as being suspected of human rights abuses.
A London 2012 spokesman said: “All National Olympic Committees submit names of athletes, support staff, officials, media and guests to us. These then go through Home Office checks. This process has started but we do not comment on individual applications.”
However, the process faces the difficulty that the names of the “Olympic family members” are continuing to arrive and may not be finalised until just before the opening ceremony at the end of July.
Jeremy Browne, the Foreign Office minister, said in a letter to Denis MacShane, the Labour MP and former Europe minister, last week: “Where there is independent, reliable and credible evidence that an individual has committed human rights abuses the individual will not normally be permitted to enter the UK.”
That was interpreted as strong signal to a number of countries with a poor human rights records that Britain would not tolerate the inclusion in National Olympic Committee delegations of individuals linked to repressive measures against their own people.
It could also mean the banning of high-profile political leaders from the opening and closing ceremonies of the games, such as Islon Karimov, the Uzbekistan president, and Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the Turkmen president.
Human Rights Watch has declared both regimes to be “in the category of the worst dictatorships in the world and the worst abusers of human rights”.
Other leaders, such as President Assad and Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe are already banned from travelling to the EU.
However, with thousands of names to vet the possibility remains that a number of delegation members with close ties to their ruling regimes – often the very reason they are chosen to serve on National Olympic Committees – could still slip through the net.
There also appears to be no prospect at this stage of leaders such as Russia’s President Putin and the King of Bahrain being banned from the games, despite accusations that their treatment of political opponents and democracy activists breaches international standards.
Another leader who would cause embarrassment with his presence is Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Although he is not officially barred from the UK, President Ahmadinejad said he expected to be blocked from entering if he tries.
However, he could send an official from his regime to capitalise on the potential to cause embarrasment.
Mr Khodorkovsky, jailed on allegedly trumped up charges of fraud in 2003, stopped short of requesting an entry ban on Vladimir Putin, but urged Prime Minister David Cameron to tackle the Russian president over his autocratic leadership if he travels to London for the Games.
He said: “I understand it would be very difficult for the British government to ban any head of state from the Olympics, especially from a member-state of the G8 and Council of Europe.
“I also, however, understand that the values of the Olympics are about respect, excellence and friendship and it would do Putin no harm to be exposed to these ideals and think of applying them at home.”
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Ministers are under pressure to stop human rights abusers from coming to the Olympics after a Syrian general boasted he would attend.
A London 2012 spokesman said: 'All National Olympic Committees submit names of athletes, support staff, officials, media and guests to us. These then go through Home Office checks' Photo: EPA
By Patrick Sawer, and Tom Parfitt, in Moscow
8:00AM BST 27 May 2012
Comment
General Mofwaq Jouma’s threat came as reports that more than 90 people, including several young children, had been massacred by Syrian troops in the town of Houla, in Homs province, in the past two days.
He boasted that he was determined to attend the games and lead his country’s 31-strong delegation at the opening ceremony in his role as chairman of Syria’s national Olympic committee.
At the same time a leading Russian dissident has called for Britain to prevent senior members of the Russian government suspected of human rights abuses and corruption from attending the Olympics.
In a letter passed to The Sunday Telegraph from his prison cell, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed oil tycoon, urged a ban on 308 officials, including high-profile figures such as Russian deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov, youth leader Vasily Yakemenko and controversial elections chief Vladimir Churov.
His intervention and the general’s boast put pressure on ministers to avoid regimes which abuse human rights embarrassing Britain by sending their associates to the games as members of the “Olympic family”.
Related Articles
_ General linked to Assad regime 'will come to Olympics' - 26 May 2012
_ 90 dead including 32 children in one of Syria's bloodiest days - 25 May 2012
_ Olympic tickets left unsold - 25 May 2012
General Joumaa insisted his country should be allowed to compete in the games and that he should be allowed to lead its national delegation.
He said: “The British people should not be worried about Syrians coming to the UK. What happened in some cities like Homs is that people broke the law.”
Home and Foreign Office officials and the London 2012 organisers are now trying to avoid a shadow being cast over the games by the presence of individuals linked to repressive regimes.
The FCO would not comment on individual cases, but Whitehall sources have indicated that General Joumaa can expected to be barred from the UK as he is closely identified with troops loyal to President Assad who are estimated to have killed 10,000 people since the start of the 15-month insurgency.
Syria’s athletes could still be allowed to compete, as they were exempted from serving in the armed forces.
Locog, the games’ organisers, are in the process of receiving the names of all athletes, officials, guests and delegates being sent to London by each of the countries taking part.
The names are being passed on to the Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office for checking against lists of individuals whose presence in this country is deemed undesirable, or who appear on the records of international bodies such the EU and International Criminal Court as being suspected of human rights abuses.
A London 2012 spokesman said: “All National Olympic Committees submit names of athletes, support staff, officials, media and guests to us. These then go through Home Office checks. This process has started but we do not comment on individual applications.”
However, the process faces the difficulty that the names of the “Olympic family members” are continuing to arrive and may not be finalised until just before the opening ceremony at the end of July.
Jeremy Browne, the Foreign Office minister, said in a letter to Denis MacShane, the Labour MP and former Europe minister, last week: “Where there is independent, reliable and credible evidence that an individual has committed human rights abuses the individual will not normally be permitted to enter the UK.”
That was interpreted as strong signal to a number of countries with a poor human rights records that Britain would not tolerate the inclusion in National Olympic Committee delegations of individuals linked to repressive measures against their own people.
It could also mean the banning of high-profile political leaders from the opening and closing ceremonies of the games, such as Islon Karimov, the Uzbekistan president, and Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the Turkmen president.
Human Rights Watch has declared both regimes to be “in the category of the worst dictatorships in the world and the worst abusers of human rights”.
Other leaders, such as President Assad and Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe are already banned from travelling to the EU.
However, with thousands of names to vet the possibility remains that a number of delegation members with close ties to their ruling regimes – often the very reason they are chosen to serve on National Olympic Committees – could still slip through the net.
There also appears to be no prospect at this stage of leaders such as Russia’s President Putin and the King of Bahrain being banned from the games, despite accusations that their treatment of political opponents and democracy activists breaches international standards.
Another leader who would cause embarrassment with his presence is Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Although he is not officially barred from the UK, President Ahmadinejad said he expected to be blocked from entering if he tries.
However, he could send an official from his regime to capitalise on the potential to cause embarrasment.
Mr Khodorkovsky, jailed on allegedly trumped up charges of fraud in 2003, stopped short of requesting an entry ban on Vladimir Putin, but urged Prime Minister David Cameron to tackle the Russian president over his autocratic leadership if he travels to London for the Games.
He said: “I understand it would be very difficult for the British government to ban any head of state from the Olympics, especially from a member-state of the G8 and Council of Europe.
“I also, however, understand that the values of the Olympics are about respect, excellence and friendship and it would do Putin no harm to be exposed to these ideals and think of applying them at home.”
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
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