|
BEIRUT – U.N. observers came under fire Thursday as they tried to reach thesite of the latest reported mass killing in Syria — about 80people, including women and children who were shot or stabbed. Thedeaths added urgency to diplomatic efforts to end the escalatingbloodshed. As reports emerged of what would be the fourth such mass slaying ofcivilians in Syria in the last two weeks, the United Statescondemned President Bashar Assad, saying he has "doubled down onhis brutality and duplicity." International envoy Kofi Annan, whose peace plan brokered in Aprilhas not been implemented, warned against allowing "mass killings tobecome part of everyday reality in Syria." "If things do not change, the future is likely to be one of brutalrepression, massacres, sectarian violence, and even all-out civilwar," Annan told the U.N. General Assembly in New York. "AllSyrians will lose." U.N. diplomats said Annan is expected to propose that world powersand key regional players, including Iran, come up with a newstrategy to end the 15-month conflict at a closed meeting of theSecurity Council later Thursday. Annan will present a plan for creating a "contact group" whosefinal proposal must be acceptable to Russia and China, which haveprotected ally from past U.N. sanctions, as well as the U.S. andits European allies, they said, speaking on condition of anonymitybecause consultations have been private. The latest violence centered on Mazraat al-Qubair, a small farmingcommunity of 160 people, mostly Bedouins, in central Hama province.Activists said the Sunni village is surrounded by Alawite villages.Alawites are an offshoot of Shiite Islam and Assad is a member ofthe sect, while the opposition is dominated by Sunnis. A resident said troops shelled the area for five hours Wednesdaybefore government-aligned militiamen known as "shabiha" entered thearea that is known to shelter army defectors, "killing and hackingeveryone they could find." Leith Al-Hamwy told The Associated Press by telephone that hesurvived by hiding in an olive grove about 800 meters (yards) fromthe farms as the killings took place. But he said his mother andsix siblings, the youngest 10-year-old twins, did not. "When I came out of hiding and went inside the houses, I saw bodieseverywhere. Entire families either shot or killed with sharp sticksand knives," he said. Al-Hamwy would not give his exact location or real name, fearingfor his safety, but said he was waiting for U.N. observers to cometo the farm. Al-Hamwy's account could not be independentlyconfirmed or corroborated by other eyewitnesses. He said the gunmen set his family home on fire and his familyburned to death, huddled in a concrete attic above their bathroom,where they stored food provisions. Around 80 people in total died,he said, many of them children, and that most of the villages 20homes were either destroyed by the shelling or burned down. "There's flesh of animals and humans scattered, the smell of smokefrom burning houses and bodies," al-Hamwy said. Syria's main opposition group in exile, the Syrian NationalCouncil, also said 78 people were killed in Mazraat al-Qubair whengovernment-aligned militiamen converged on the village fromneighboring pro-regime villages. Some of the dead were shot in thehead, others were slain with knives, the SNC said. It said 35 ofthe dead were from the same family and more than half of them werewomen and children. "Women and children were burned inside their homes in al-Qubair,"said Mousab Alhamadee, an activist based in Hama. Syria denied the opposition claims as "absolutely baseless." Theexact death toll and circumstances of the killings reportedovernight in Mazraat al-Qubair were impossible to confirm. One YouTube video purported to show the bodies of babies, childrenand two women wrapped in blankets and lined with frozen bottles ofwater to slow decomposition. Another row of bodies lay elsewhere: a grandmother, a mother, andfive siblings and two cousins, according to the video narrator. Allthe corpses were neatly wrapped in white sheets, more frozen waterbottles tucked among them. One toddler's arm covered her face.Their names were scrawled on pieces of paper and tucked into theirshrouds. In another video were four blackened objects that the narrator saidwere the remains of a mother and two children who were shelled intheir home. The authenticity of the videos could not be independently verified.Attempts to reach more witnesses and residents of the area wasdifficult. The Syrian government keeps tight restrictions onjournalists. A government statement published on the state-run news agency SANAsaid "an armed terrorist group committed an appalling crime" inMazraat al-Qubair, killing nine women and children. It saidresidents appealed for protection from Hama authorities, who wentto the farm and stormed a hideout of the group and clashed withthem. The statement said all members of the armed group were killed inclashes, adding that the incident was meant to pressure the Syrianregime ahead of the U.N. meeting. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said U.N. observers wereinitially denied access to the scene in central Hama and "were shotat with small arms" while trying to get there. The observers were forced to turn back and were not injured,although one vehicle was hit and slightly damaged, said KieranDwyer, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping department. They werenot able to enter Mazraat al-Qubair, he added. It was not clear whowas behind the shooting. On May 25, more than 100 people were killed in one day in a clusterof villages known as Houla in central Homs province, many of themchildren and women gunned down in their homes. U.N. investigatorsblamed pro-government gunmen for at least some of the killings, butthe Syrian regime denied responsibility and blamed rebels for thedeaths. On May 30, 13 bound corpses in Deir el-Zour province, while on June1, 11 workers were found shot to death near the town of Qusair inHoms province. The Houla massacre brought international outrage and a coordinatedexpulsion of Syrian diplomats from world capitals. Ban called the latest reported mass killing "shocking andsickening," saying "each day seems to bring new additions to thegrim catalog of atrocities." He said it has been evident for months that Assad and hisgovernment "have lost all legitimacy," adding that "any regime orleader that tolerates such killing of innocents has lost itsfundamental humanity." The White House issued a strong condemnation. "Assad's continued abdication of responsibility for these horrificacts has no credibility and only further underscores theillegitimate and immoral nature of his rule," press secretary JayCarney said. Speaking in Turkey after meeting foreign ministers and envoys from16 European, Turkish and Arab partners, U.S. Secretary of StateHillary Rodham Clinton outlined principles that included Assad'seventual ouster and departure from Syria. "Assad has doubled down on his brutality and duplicity, and Syriawill not, cannot be peaceful, stable or certainly democratic untilAssad goes," she said. British Prime Minister David Cameron insisted more must be done toisolate Assad's regime and show that "the whole world" wants to seepolitical transition in Syria and condemns "absolutely" the Syrianregime. Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby, who also addressed the U.N.General Assembly, urged all Arab states to recall their ambassadorsand halt all diplomatic contact with the Syrian government. Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said an unjustifiablemassacre was taking place in his country, but the government is notresponsible. He also said "the government of Syria has spared noefforts to implement its part of the Kofi Annan plan." Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Security Councilwould not support a military intervention in Syria. "There will beno mandate for foreign intervention. I guarantee it," he was quotedby Russian news agencies as saying in Kazakhstan. In Paris, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero saidministers from the so-called "Friends of Syria" countries —many European and Arab nations — would meet in the Frenchcapital July 6 to help support the Annan plan. ___ Lederer reported from the United Nations. AP writer Diaa Hadid inBeirut, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Bradley Klapper in Istanbul,Turkey, and Frank Jordans in Geneva contributed to this report. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Cell Phone Ornaments , Samsung Silicone Cases Manufacturer, and more. For more , please visit iPhone4 Leather Cases today!
Related Articles -
Cell Phone Ornaments, Samsung Silicone Cases Manufacturer,
|
