135 killed in Syria violence as government hails referendum

Feb 27, 2012, 22:21 GMT

Beirut - Violence across Syria killed 135 in rebel-held areas in the provinces of Homs and Idlib on Monday, as the government hailed the approval of a new constitution by almost 90 per cent of voters as a success of its democratic reforms.

The opposition Syrian Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a group of activists who document violence across Syria, said Late Monday, '64 people died while fleeing the neighborhood of Baba Amr, an embattled area in the central city of Homs.'

The activists said the people were 'slaughtered at an army checkpoint outside Baba Amr' but failed to say when.

Areas in central Homs, like Baba Amr, Al Khalidiyeh, Inshaat and al Bayada, have under been under siege by the Syrian government since February 4.

The dead bodies included women, children and defected soldiers, the groups said.

News coming out of Syria cannot be verified as the government is still banning independent journalists from covering news inside the restive areas.

Earlier, activists reported that the shelling by government forces on Baba Amr and Al Khalidiyeh killed 40 people.

In the province of Idlib near the Syrian-Turkish border, activists reported that the government shelling of areas where Syrian army defectors were hiding resulted in the killing of 31 people.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which is negotiating a safe passage into Homs to deliver food and medical supplies and evacuate the wounded, including two Western journalists, said earlier the humanitarian situation in the city was deteriorating.

'The negotiations are still continuing and we hope we will be able to enter Homs, evacuate the wounded and bring in food supplies, as the humanitarian situation is deteriorating by the hour inside Homs,' said Hisham Hassan, ICRC spokesman in Geneva.

The ICRC said it managed to deliver food aid in the central city of Hama, which is also besieged by government forces, for the first time in 10 days.

'I hope we're getting close to a solution,' French President Nicolas Sarkozy told RTL radio about efforts to get the ICRC to evacuate French reporter Edith Bouvier and British photojournalist Paul Conroy. 'It seems to be that things are starting to unblock.'

The surge in violence came as the Syrian interior ministry said voters turnout on the new draft constitution for the country, which was carried out on Sunday, reached more than 57 per cent.

'The referendum was marked by high turnout despite attempts to terrorize citizens,' state-run news agency SANA quoted Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar as saying. 'This democratic process took place in an atmosphere of freedom, transparency and impartiality.'

The opposition boycotted Sunday's referendum on the new constitution, which opens the door for political parties other than the ruling Baath, saying al-Assad would use its results to intensify a military offensive against rebels seeking his overthrow.

Western powers have also dismissed the vote as a farce.

'What (al-Assad) has done here is put a piece of paper that he controls to a vote that he controls so that he can try to maintain control,' said US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland.

European Union finance ministers approved new sanctions on Monday designed to increase the pressure on al-Assad by targeting the Syrian central bank and seven government ministers.

There is little hope that the new EU measures will bring an end to the bloodshed. Al-Assad has ignored a series of sanctions by the United States and its allies, as well as a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling on him to step down.

Western powers have ruled out military intervention in Syria, where the crisis, which started almost a year ago with peaceful mass protests, appears to be turning into a civil war.

Russia, a key ally of al-Assad, said during an Arab League-sponsored debate on the crisis at the United Nations Human Rights Council that it would not support a resolution condemning Syria. The Arab League called for the session to demand that Syria allow humanitarian aid into restive areas.

Russia and China this month vetoed a Western- and Arab-sponsored UN Security Council resolution calling on al-Assad to end the violence and step down. The Syrian opposition says it will accept nothing less than al-Assad's overthrow.

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