Friday, April 29, 2011

Syria: the Security Council fails to agree on a condemnation of violence

While two hundred members of the Baath party have resigned in the province of Deraa and surrounding areas to denounce the suppression of antigovernment demonstrations, the fifteen members of the Security Council of the UN have failed to agree , Wednesday, April 27 evening, on a statement condemning the repression in Syria.

A draft declaration presented by Britain, France, Germany and Portugal had been circulating for Council on Monday. The four countries condemned the violence of the regime of Bashar al-Assad against the demonstrators and urged restraint. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General Kofi Annan, for his part hoped the weekend to open an independent investigation.

After the resolution authorizing the use of force to protect civilians from Libya, China and Russia are opposed to what the Security Council to seize another internal conflict that is their view of the country's internal affairs . The deputy ambassador of Russia to the UN, Alexander Pankin, warned against "foreign interference" that would cause "civil war".

The diplomat added that he wanted "a real investigation" and that "the culprits are brought to justice" in Syria. Referring to Moscow and Beijing, a UN official commented: "Their tolerance of European and U.S. to protect civilians in the Middle East seems exhausted." Lebanon, the only Arab state member of the Security Council, which has long-standing complicated relations with Damascus, has also been hostile to the adoption of a declaration.

The Syrian ambassador to the UN, Bashar Jaafari, has rejected any idea of international investigation. "We regret what is happening, but you must agree that these disturbances and riots in some aspects, mask a hidden agenda," he said. Representatives of 27 countries of the European Union will meet them on Friday in Brussels to discuss possible sanctions and the Council for Human Rights UN held that day a special session on Syria, the initiative of the United States.

Several European countries including France, Great Britain, Italy and Germany, have also convened on Wednesday, ambassadors from Syria to serve their sentences in their repression. The United States, speaking through their ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, were summoned Bashar Al-Assad to "change course now" and "listen to the calls of his own people" for change.

For its part, the French ambassador, Gerard Araud, said: "If nothing positive happens, France, with others, will study a range of options to increase pressure on the Syrian regime so to put an end to repression and is committed to the path of reform. " Since Wednesday, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is facing an early movement of dissent within his own party with the resignation of two hundred of its members and a feeling of discontent within the army after the violent repression of democracy demonstrations.

The members of the Baath party to power in Syria, resigned in Deraa province and surrounding areas on Wednesday, after the deployment of tanks to quell the protest in the town of Dera, cradle of events, located in the South at the border with Jordan. At least thirty-five people were killed during the assault, according to human rights organizations of human rights.

Diplomats report that signs of discontent are emerging within the army, where most soldiers are Sunni, and most commanders are from the minority Alawite, an offshoot of Shi'ism, to which Assad belongs. The head of state, who succeeded his father in 2000, Hafez, in power for thirty years, sent Monday at Deraa, the Fourth Mechanized Division, a unit commanded by his brother ultraloyale Maher.

According to opposition figures and people of the city, several soldiers from another unit refused to open fire on civilians, information that could not be independently confirmed.

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