Chief UN observer 'deeply disturbed' after more bodies found in Syria

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Chief UN observer 'deeply disturbed' after more bodies found in Syria



Major-General Robert Mood (centre) in the town of Al-Rastan, Homs province, Syria. UN Photo/N. Singh

30 May 2012 ?

The head of the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) said today he was ?deeply disturbed? after the discovery of 13 bodies last night, just days after UN observers confirmed the killing of more than 100 men, women and children in the village of Houla.

UN observers reported that the 13 bodies were discovered in the area of Assukar, 50 kilometres east of the city of Deir Ez-Zor, in eastern Syria. All the bodies had their hands tied behind their backs and some appear to have been shot in the head from a short distance, according to UNSMIS.

Major-General Robert Mood is ?deeply disturbed by this appalling and inexcusable act,? said an UNSMIS statement, adding that ?he calls on all parties to exercise restraint and end the cycle violence for the sake of Syria and the Syrian people.?

The UN estimates that more than 9,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria and tens of thousands displaced since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began some 15 months ago.

The massacre in Houla last weekend, which was strongly condemned by the Security Council and a host of UN officials, will be the subject of a special session of the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council on Friday.

This will be the Council's fourth special session on Syria since the crisis in the Middle Eastern country began some 15 months ago.

Following a briefing by video-conference to the Security Council on the latest developments, the Deputy Joint Special Envoy of the UN and the Arab League for the Syrian Crisis, Jean-Marie Guehenno, today told reporters in Geneva that it is important that Member States and the Human Rights Council discuss the situation in Syria.

?Particularly on the Houla massacre, it's important that the truth, the facts be established in a way that nobody can challenge,? Mr. Guehenno said. ?That is essential.?

He said he told the Council that the parties need to re-commit to a full cessation of violence: ?The Government of Syria needs to take steps to convince, I would say, not only the international community but more importantly the Syrian people that it is ready for a new course.?

This needs to be demonstrated through ?concrete and significant? gestures on the cessation of violence, as well as on the issue of detainees and humanitarian access, he added.

?Most importantly, all Syrians must convince themselves that guns cannot be the solution,? Mr. Guehenno noted. ?Only political negotiations, as envisioned in the six-point plan, can restore genuine peace and stability to the country.? The six-point plan ? put forward by Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan in March this year ? calls for an end to violence, access for humanitarian agencies to provide relief to those in need, the release of detainees, the start of inclusive political dialogue that takes into account the aspirations of the Syrian people, and unrestricted access to the country for the international media.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=42118&Cr=Syria&Cr1=

 

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Re: Chief UN observer 'deeply disturbed' after more bodies found in Syria

Families herded "like sheep" to die in Houla massacre

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
AMMAN | Wed May 30, 2012 3:06pm EDT

(Reuters) - The gunmen arrived shortly before dusk, some in uniform and some in plain clothes, before herding whole families into rooms and killing them in cold blood, according to survivors.

"They entered our homes ... men wearing fatigues herding us like sheep in the room and started spraying bullets at us," said an apparently injured woman in a video released by activists.

"My father died and my brother, my mother's only son. Seven sisters were killed," the woman said, lying next to another injured woman and near a baby with a chest wound.

The United Nations says 108 people were killed in the May 25 massacre, nearly half of them children, outraging a world long numbed by 14 months of relentless bloodshed since the start of a popular uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The events are disputed. The West blames Assad's forces, while Syria accuses its opponents, whom it refers to as Islamist "terrorists".

But video footage and accounts of activists, survivors, rights groups and United Nations observers in Syria, provide a harrowing narrative of the violence in the Houla region, about 20 km (13 miles) northwest of the city of Homs.

Crucially, the U.N. monitors say the evidence appears to contradict the government's denial that its forces and allied militia were behind the slayings.

More...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/30/us-syria-crisis-houla-idUSBRE84T1BH20120530