Despite reports of bloody Syrian crackdown, no action by U.N. council
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Date: 6/14/2011 7:47:29 AM
Sender: CNN
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Despite reports of bloody Syrian crackdown, no action by U.N. council
(CNN) -- After more than a thousand reported deaths from a government crackdown on dissidents and chilling videos of violence on social media, the unrest in Syria has drawn international attention -- albeit no response from the United Nations Security Council.
"The Security Council has failed, so far, to react on Syria, which I think is extraordinary and disappointing," said Carne Ross, a former U.N. diplomat.
Amnesty International said last week it believes more than 1,100 people -- including 82 children -- have been killed in Syria since the crackdown started in mid-March.
The United States has imposed sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad and other senior Syrian officials, freezing any assets held in the country over human rights abuses.
Four European countries on the Security Council -- Britain, France, Germany and Portugal -- have said the council must act. But ambassadors from China and Russia disagree, stating publicly that U.N. action only risks destabilizing the key Middle Eastern nation.
"China and Russia are concerned that if the U.N. Security Council feels empowered to address the major human rights violations occurring around the world, eventually the Security Council will focus on issues within China and within and in the neighborhood of Russia," said Jamie Metlz, executive vice president of the Asia Society.
Some countries might be hesitant to act after the Security Council＇s resolution aimed at protecting civilians in Libya. Russia and others quickly signed off on the resolution, but efforts by NATO forces appear to be caught in a stalemate.
The northwest Syrian city of Jisr al-Shugur has been a focal point in the conflict, with reports of fighting, deaths -- and competing narratives about what has happened.
The Syrian military controlled Jisr al-Shugur after entering the city over the weekend, a network of human rights activists said Monday.
The Local Coordination Committees of Syria said Syrian soldiers were going house-to-house conducting searches.
The Syrian government gave a similar assessment. "Army units on Monday restored security and tranquility to the city of Jisr al-Shugur," state-run news agency SANA reported.
The Syrian government insists it is stopping "armed terrorist groups" who carried out a "massacre" in the city; opposition activists say the government＇s claims are a ruse to justify a crackdown on demonstrators demanding government reform, in keeping with the wave of political protests across the Middle East and North Africa this year.
CNN has been unable to independently confirm accounts of the unrest in Syria because the Syrian government has not granted the network access to the country.
Throughout Syria＇s uprising, its government has described activist leaders as terrorists looking to destabilize the country. This month, the government said 120 members of the security forces had been killed by "armed groups" in Jisr al-Shugur.
Syrian opposition members, including human rights activist Wissam Tarif, said the deaths likely stemmed from a rift within security forces.
Syrian refugees who have fled to Turkey said some Syrian soldiers rebelled after being ordered to fire on unarmed protesters and instead started fighting among themselves.
As of Monday, 6,817 Syrian refugees had crossed into Turkey, said Metin Corabatir of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Ankara. |
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