Some 83 bodies in Deraa morgues, as UN rights body condemns killings by Syrian troops
Some 83 bodies in Deraa morgues, as UN rights body condemns killings by Syrian troops.
Al Arabiya
Friday, 29 April 2011
Thousands of protests have responded to calls for a “Friday of Anger” against the regime in Syria. (File photo)
At least 83 bodies of Syrian protesters, including those of women and children, were in makeshift morgues in the flashpoint southern city of Deraa on Friday as the Syrian military continued to besiege the city and fire at villagers heading to its center, human rights activists said.
“We counted 83 bodies so far, many stored in refrigerator trucks. Most of the bullets went through heads and chests, indicating that snipers most likely had done the shooting,” Tamer al-Jahamani, a prominent lawyer in Deraa, told Reuters.
The death doll does not include 15 villagers shot dead at the entrance of Deraa on Friday when a large crowd tried to enter the besieged city to support its residents.
“They shot at people at the western gate of Deraa in the Yadoda area, almost three kilometers way from the center of the city,” one witness said.
Mr. Jahamani said relatives were reporting scores missing since tank-backed army units stormed Deraa on Monday to crush an uprising for democracy that erupted in the city six weeks ago.
Friday’s violence came as 47 countries voted in the UN Human Rights Council for a revised US-led resolution on the crackdown in Syria that asked the UN rights chief to send an investigative mission to the country.
The resolution also “unequivocally condemns the use of lethal violence against peaceful protestors by the Syrian authorities… and urges the Syrian government to immediately put an end to all human rights violations.”
It also “requests the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to urgently dispatch a mission to the Syrian Arab Republic to investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law,” according to the text released by the United Nations.
Twenty-six countries, mainly Western, African and Latin American nations voted for the text, and nine voted against.
Seven countries abstained, while five were absent at the time of the vote, including Bahrain, Jordan and Qatar.
On Friday, thousands of Syrians took the streets in several cities across the country challenging the 48-year rule of the Baath Party and supporting Deraa where tanks and troops were deployed to quell demonstrations.
Protesters responded to calls for a “Friday of Anger” and rallied in the central cities of Homs and Hama, Banias on the Mediterranean coast, Qamishly in eastern Syria and Harashta, a Damascus suburb.
“The people want the overthrow of the regime!” demonstrators chanted in the Damascus suburb of Saqba, a witness told Reuters, defying violent repression in which 500 people have been killed since the nationwide protests broke out in Deraa last month.
Trucks loaded with the Republican Guard forces with machine guns were deployed in the ring road around Damascus, witnesses told Al Arabiya TV.
Syrian authorities have sought to justify military deployment in Deraa and other parts of the country by blaming the unrest sweeping the country on militant Islamist groups.
The official state news agency reported on Friday that an “armed terrorist group” attacked a checkpoint in Deraa, killing four soldiers and kidnapping two.
In New York on Wednesday, Russia warned the West that “outside interference” could spark civil war, maintaining its block on condemnation of the violence along with China.
“The international community has been shocked by the killing of hundreds of civilians in connection with peaceful political protests in the past week,” US ambassador Eileen Donahoe said after submitting the request for the meeting.
Rights activists hoped that Friday’s hearing in Geneva would be a blow to Syria’s candidacy for membership of the body from 2012 to 2014.
(Mustapha Ajbaili of Al Arabiya can be reached via email at:Mustapha.ajbaili@mbc.net)
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