UN members denounce Syria's crackdown on protesters

By JT Nguyen dpa Apr 27, 2011, 21:49 GMT

New York - Some UN Security Council members on Wednesday denounced and condemned Syria's military crackdown on peaceful demonstrators, resulting in what a UN official said was up to 400 people killed to date.

In the open debate session, the United States and European members in the 15-nation council including France, Germany and Britain said measures under discussion to try to stop the killing in Syria include sanctions targeted at Syrian leaders.

France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in Paris Wednesday that Paris supports an unambiguous condemnation of Syria and the possibility of sanctions to be imposed by the EU.

But the envoys from Russia and China said the situation in Syria cannot be considered a threat to international peace and security and therefore not worthy of considerations of measures like sanctions.

They however encouraged the government of President Bashir al Assad to hold political dialogue to resolve the crisis.

The council received a fresh report from UN undersecretary general for political affairs, B Lynn Pascoe, about recent developments in Syria. Pascoe said the information available to the UN came from various sources, including the media, Syria's websites and those of human rights groups and opponents to the Syrian regime.

Pascoe said allegations had been made that Damascus engaged in detention and torture of protesters, arrests of journalists and use of heavy military armours like tanks and live ammunition against the demonstrators.

Citing information provided by those various sources, Pascoe said between 350 and 400 demonstrators were killed by Syrian security forces.

Pascoe reiterated UN demands that governments listen to the legitimate aspirations of their peoples for basic freedoms and engage in democratic reforms in order to meet those aspirations. The UN demands have been publicized since the first days of popular unrest that started in Tunisia in December and later in Egypt, Syria and Libya.

US Ambassador Susan Rice told the council that Washington 'strongly condemned' the crackdown by the Syrian regime against unarmed demonstrators. She said a range of sanctions were being discussed and Washington also supported actions being considered by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to investigate the killings in Syria.

'This is no way for the government (in Syria) to respond to the legitimate calls for reform,' Rice said, calling on Damascus to stop arbitrary arrests, detention and torture of the protesters.

Britain's UN Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant and Germany's UN Ambassador Peter Wittig said their countries will follow the collective decisions of the European Union to impose sanctions against Syria.

China's Ambassador Li Baodong, like his Russian counterpart, said Syria is an 'important' country in the Middle East that is trying to institute democratic reform to meet popular demands for freedoms.

'We hope the government in Syria will cope with the situation with appropriate measures,' Li said.

Contrary to the condemnation of Syria by Western governments, developing countries in the council like India, Brazil and Lebanon called for solving the crisis in Syria through dialogue and democratic reform.

The council also heard Syrian UN Ambassador Bashir Jaafari, who described the demonstrators as 'extremists whose goals are to overthrow the Syrian government.'

'Those armed elements continued to kill innocent citizens and many members of the Syrian armed forces and government,' Jaafari said.

Jaafari showed the council a piece of paper, which he said contained the names of 51 Syrian officers and soldiers killed by 'gangs.'

The Syrian government has rejected accusations that their security forces fired live ammunitions, killing the demonstrators.

'Some statements we heard today are encouragement for terrorists and extremists to fight Syria,' he said. 'The age of colonialism has passed.'

Jaafari also denounced the US for making an 'unfounded claim' that Iran was supporting the crackdown in Syria. Rice made the accusation on Tuesday and repeated on Wednesday that Damascus had outside help in its military repression.

The open council was held to hear council's and other UN members on the situation in Syria. Council members did not say what action they planned to take collectively and immediately.

French Ambassador Gerard Araud told reporters that the efforts to issue a statement on the situation in Syria cannot be done now because 'the positions are so far apart.'

'We had preferred an open meeting to deal with the situation in Syria for now,' Araud said.

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