Nobel Peace laureate condemns China, Russia veto of UN Syria vote

Feb 5, 2012, 11:07 GMT

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Munich (dpa) - Yemeni activist and Nobel Peace laureate Tawakkul Karman on Sunday condemned China and Russia for their decision to veto a United Nations resolution to end the violence in Syria.

The UN vote Saturday coincided with reports of some 260 people killed by security forces in the central city of Homs, in an escalating crackdown by the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

'In the name of this brave Arab youth, I declare the compete condemnation of this regime,' Karman said at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

'The war al-Assad is leading is a war on humanity.'

Moscow and Beijing would have to 'bear the moral and human responsibility for these massacres,' she said.

'The human conscious cannot rest when you see the patient and peaceful people, their blood is shed on the streets. We are looking forward to the victory of the Syrian people,' Karman said.

Discussion on Syria, which many experts say is slipping into civil war, and the impact of the wider Arab Spring, is a key topic at the annual conference.

Karman, founder of the group Women Journalists Without Chains and a key figure in the opposition movement in Yemen and the wider Arab Spring, was awarded the Nobel last year for her work in promoting women's rights.