(dailynewyorknews) – As the explosions and gunfire continued to drive in Syria, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Monday raised the death toll by the Damascus government repression of the anti-regime activists about 5,000 people.
“This situation is intolerable,” said Navi Pillay in a report to the Security Council of the UN.
The same day that Ms. Pillay spoke, the Observatory of the London-based Syrian Human Rights and a resident of Homs – an opposition incubator and place of frequent violence in recent months – said the pipeline exploded near the city , after shooting and moving military aircraft.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, or SANA, played until Monday the local elections as an expression of “democracy and free will.” However, Homs residents said there was no evidence to vote in this city. Instead, the witness said he did not stop shooting and bombing.
This violence is nothing new in Syria, Pillay reports of more than 200 people died in the last 10 days and “the Syrian population continues to live in fear of further violent repression.”
The Syrian government, meanwhile, has always blamed the violence on “armed terrorists” band members and denied any attempt to attack peaceful civilians.
CNN can not independently confirm the facts because the Syrian government restricted international media access in the country.
Ms. Pillay said on Monday that “the nature and extent of abuse,” said Syrian forces probably committed “crimes against humanity.” Citing reliable sources, said more than 300 deaths were of children “killed by government forces.”
Several deserters from the army and security forces said they were ordered to “shoot on unarmed without prior notice,” said Pillay.
“Accounts independent, credible and corroborated demonstrate that such abuses took place as part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilian population,” he said.
Homs was a normal flash point. As nightfall came on Monday, many residents of the city went to bed in constant fear of the waves of violence soon give way to a historic site.
Opposition figures said the Syrian government had warned people to Homs to stop anti-government demonstrations, hands on delivery of arms and military defections Monday night – or attacks on government forces.
Syrian forces gave a warning of 72 hours, said Lt. Col. Mohamed Hamdo Syrian army, free, an opposition group to the desertion of the Syrian military. Activists on the ground said that the ultimatum issued Friday by Homs.
The government admitted no deadline for Homs in state media.
Hamdan said there are concerns about a repeat of what happened in 1982 when Syrian military – under the command of then-President Hafez al-Assad, father of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – launched an assault on the city of Hama, killing the thousands.
“People are very afraid,” said Wissam Tarif, a human rights activist in Beirut, Lebanon, the organization Avaaz, which is in contact with people in Syria.
There are enough troops near Homs, “to use the city,” he said, and increased losses “very large” in the last two days. Hamdan said the army had dug trenches around Homs and especially the cut.
“There are no power lines, water and communications are much worse. The food supply is also declining, mainly because little food is happening,” he said.
The Syrian government has denied reports of water and electricity outside the city, according to a report by SANA.
In fact, apart from the story of the seven “martyrs of the army, police and security” to be buried Monday state media did not report many of these difficult conditions and violence.
By contrast, state television has painted a picture of normality, with reports of ongoing local elections throughout the country.
SANA said more than 3,000 candidates are running for seats in the Homs area alone. He accused the elections in the “process of institutional strengthening, promotion of democracy and the realization of the overall reform process led by President Bashar al-Assad.”
Activist groups, however, offers a different story.
The local coordination committees of Syria, a network of opposition activists in the country, announced Monday the Syrian army and security forces have killed 21 people, including four women and three children. Thirteen of the deaths occurred in Homs, Hama three, three in the suburbs of Damascus and Idlib two.
And the violent clashes between security forces and deserters in the cities of Dara and Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which collects information from individuals in different parts of the country.
Hamdo, the Syrian army, free, said, “We have carried out an operation last night against Syrian forces in Idlib and killed eight of them and wounding 22. Two of our men were seriously injured.”
He also said that Syrian forces were mass arrests of owners of shops that have closed their shops on Sunday as part of a national strike against the government.
The Syrian government, through SANA, quoting people on Sunday that there was no strike and no sign of a strike.
The last nine months have seen a steady stream of confrontations between the government reported back against militants demanding democratic elections and the end of the Assad regime. Al-Assad was in power since 2000, his father ruled Syria for three decades.
World leaders and diplomats have widely condemned the repression of Syria asked him to stop violence against the opposition.
The Arab League announced that it will meet emergency this week in Cairo. In a statement from the Egyptian state news agency MENA, an official of the Arab League, the leaders “to discuss the Arab response to a message from Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem to approve the signing of an agreement on a mission to the Arab League, Syria observer conditions. “
Pillay report is particularly drawn strong reactions from the ambassadors of the countries representing the United Nations.
The British ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant, has called “the most horrible that we had in the Security Council during the past two years,” citing the thousands of dead and “tens of thousands of detainees, rape, torture ( y) violations of human rights violations throughout the system by the Syrian regime.
The German ambassador Peter Wittig said his country was “shocked and dismayed” by the branch of the human rights situation of the UN, which he called “intolerable” that the Security Council is “doomed to remain silent about Syria.”
“We share the assessment that Syrian security forces have committed crimes against humanity of this year,” he said. “And we believe that the Syrian authorities have not fulfilled their obligations under international law of human rights.”
Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/12/world/meast/syria-unrest/index.html?hpt=imi_c1
