Syrian activists denounce Russia as it resists Syria sanctions amid mounting death toll
Syrian activists denounce Russia as it resists Syria sanctions amid mounting death toll.
Al Arabiya
The United Nations on Monday named a three-member panel of international experts to investigate human rights violations including possible crimes against humanity since the protests began.
Sergio Pinheiro of Brazil will lead the commission of inquiry, which the U.N. Human Rights Council agreed to set up last month to probe arbitrary executions, excessive use of force and killings and report back by the end of November.
France, Britain, the United States, Germany and Portugal have circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that called for sanctions against Assad, influential relatives and close associates, but it met resistance from Russia and China.
“I think it’s a scandal not to have a clear position of the U.N. in such a terrible crisis,” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Sunday.
“We think that the regime has lost its legitimacy. We think that it’s too late to implement a level of reform. We should adopt in New York a very clear resolution condemning the violence.”
Medvedev said on Monday Russia believed any resolution must be “tough but balanced, and addressed to both sides in Syria,” and that it must not automatically lead to further sanctions because “there is already a large number of sanctions against Syria.”
Later Monday, the United States made it clear it wanted tougher U.N. action against Syria, according to AFP.
“We believe that it’s time for the UN Security Council to take stronger action,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.
“We continue to consult in New York. We want a resolution that has sanctions (with) teeth,” she said.
The U.S. “strongly disagreed” with Medvedev’s comments Monday, she added.
International protection
Syrian demonstrators have demanded international protection to stop civilian killings, but there has been no hint in the West of any appetite for military action along the lines of the NATO bombing that helped topple Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi.
Intervention would be a daunting prospect in a country in the heart of the volatile Middle East. Syria has three times Libya’s population, supports Palestinian and Lebanese militant groups and has a strong alliance with Iran. It remains formally at war with Israel, retains influence in Lebanon and has a sizeable Kurdish minority in its east.
Assad has announced some reforms such as ending emergency law and launching a “national dialogue.” Opponents say these have made little difference.
Among hundreds of Syrians arrested in recent days was leading psychoanalyst Rafah Nashed, 66, who has been treating people traumatized by the mounting repression, her friends said.
Three lecturers at Aleppo University were also arrested on Monday in the northern city, activists said, as the authorities stepped up arrests against members of the professional class critical of the crackdown.
Security police also arrested overnight Ahmad al-Zu’bi, professor of medicine at Damascus University, who has been helping set up makeshift clinics to treat demonstrators attacked by security forces, with hospitals becoming off-limits for many of the wounded because of raids on medical facilities to arrest injured protesters, rights campaigners said.
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