WarSclerotic

Syria Kills 10 as Demonstrators Cite Libya – Bloomberg.

Syrian security forces killed at least 10 people during demonstrations as the protesters, emboldened by rebel advances in Libya, called for President Bashar al-Assad to bow to international pressure to resign.

About 300 people were detained in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour and authorities also carried out many arrests in other cities, Mahmoud Merhi, head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, said today by phone. Security forces conducted raids in Hama, deployed tanks in Deir al-Zour and positioned forces around Damascus, Al Jazeera television reported.

Assad has used tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and helicopters to crush the most serious threat to his family’s 40- year rule. The uprisings began in mid-March after revolts ousted the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and sparked a conflict in Libya. In the Libyan capital, Tripoli, rebels were fighting Muammar Qaddafi’s loyalists today in an effort to consolidate their control over the city after declaring his regime over.

“Qaddafi is gone, gone and it’s now your turn, Bashar,” today’s London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper cited Syrians as chanting. At least 10 protesters died yesterday in the governorates of Hama, Homs, Aleppo and the southern area of Daraa, where rallies against Assad’s rule began, according to Merhi and Ammar Qurabi of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria.

The United Nations Human Rights Council today ordered a probe into Syria’s crackdown on anti-government protesters, including possible crimes against humanity.

Systematic Violations

The council condemned what it called “continued grave and systematic human-rights violations by Syrian authorities, such as arbitrary executions, excessive use of force and the killing and persecution of protesters and human-rights defenders.”

The resolution to “urgently dispatch an independent international commission of inquiry to investigate violations of international human-rights law in Syria since July 2011” passed in Geneva by a 33-4 vote, with nine abstentions, on the second day of a special session on Syria. The European Union, the U.S. and Arab countries including Saudi Arabia sponsored the resolution.

China, Russia, Cuba and Ecuador voted against the resolution while India, Mauritania, Angola, the Philippines, Cameroon, Uganda, Bangladesh, Djibouti and Malaysia abstained.

Assad told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Aug. 18 that security operations had stopped. A day later 40 protesters were killed in Homs, Daraa and a suburb of Damascus, according to Merhi and Qurabi.

“It’s troubling that he has not kept his word,” Ban told reporters yesterday in New York.

Russian Warning

In Russia, the foreign-affairs committee chief in the lower house of parliament warned yesterday that efforts by western nations to force regime change in Syria after intervening to oust Qaddafi risk triggering the country’s collapse. Russia this week rejected demands from the U.S. and the EU for Assad to step down.

“I would advise all countries thinking about Syria to keep in mind the negative example of Libya,”Konstantin Kosachyov said in telephone interview in Moscow yesterday. “The risk of civil war there is even greater than in Libya, which would lead to the collapse of the country.”

At least 2,400 people have been killed since the protests started, according to Merhi’s and Qurabi’s organizations. The UN puts the death toll at more than 2,200. At least 500 members of the security forces have died, the government has said.

“Colonialist” Powers

Assad, who succeeded his father as president after his death in 2000, said security has improved and that Syrian forces had foiled efforts to undermine the country. He has blamed the protests on foreign-inspired plots.

Assad, in an interview on state television from Damascus on Aug. 21, rejected U.S. and European demands to step down and pledged to schedule parliamentary elections by February and review the constitution. He called the U.S. and European nations “colonialist” powers that want to violate Syria’s sovereignty.

The U.S., Britain and France are preparing to ask the UN Security Council this week to freeze Assad’s foreign financial assets, a western diplomat said yesterday. The measure would also bar foreign travel by the Syrian leader and call for an arms embargo on Syria, the diplomat said.

The three nations are planning to introduce the draft resolution that targets Assad and about five other government and military leaders, according to the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the text hasn’t been made public.

U.S. President Barack Obama, in a coordinated move with U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, issued a statement on Aug. 18 saying Assad should leave and let Syrians chart their own political future.

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