{"id":311,"date":"2011-08-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/?p=311","title":{"rendered":"UN Security Council must take action over Syria bloodshed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nUN Security Council must take action over Syria bloodshed
\n<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n1 August 2011\n<\/p>\n

\nThe UN Security Council must urgently respond to the ongoing
\ncrackdown in Syria by referring the situation to the International Criminal
\nCourt, Amnesty International said today, amid reports that security forces
\ncontinued to shell the city of Hama, where dozens of people have now been
\nkilled.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Security Council is expected to meet today to discuss
\nthe ongoing violence across Syria which saw two people reportedly killed in
\nfresh violence in Hama today, while at least 52 people, including four
\nchildren, were believed to have been killed there yesterday.\n<\/p>\n

\nElsewhere across Syria, people took to the streets today in
\nmassive protests against the latest killings.\n<\/p>\n

\n“The Syrian authorities have unleashed their deadliest
\nassault yet on mainly peaceful protesters calling for reform,” said Philip
\nLuther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North
\nAfrica.\n<\/p>\n

\n“It’s clear that President Bashar al-Assad is unwilling to
\nhalt his security forces, so the UN must take decisive action to stem this
\nviolent campaign of repression.”\n<\/p>\n

\n“This should at the very least include imposing an arms
\nembargo, freezing the assets of President al-Assad and other officials suspected
\nof responsibility for crimes against humanity, and referring the situation to
\nthe ICC Prosecutor.”\n<\/p>\n

\nSyrian troops had pulled out of the city of Hama – a focal
\npoint of pro-reform protests in recent months – a month ago, but returned in
\nforce in recent days.\n<\/p>\n

\nTroops and tanks reportedly attempted to re-enter the city
\nearly yesterday morning, attacking residential areas with shells and
\nmachine-gun fire. Dozens died as residents attempted to halt the troops’
\nadvance, and local people reported having to bury the dead in their
\nneighbourhoods.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn other parts of Syria, including the eastern city of Dayr
\nal-Zor where intense shooting was reported yesterday, clashes with security
\nforces left 11 people dead.\n<\/p>\n

\n \n<\/p>\n

\nA human rights activist told Amnesty International that some
\nsecurity personnel had also been killed or kidnapped in both Hama and Dayr
\nal-Zor.\n<\/p>\n

\nAn employee at one of Hama’s four hospitals informed Amnesty
\nInternational that the facility had received 19 corpses since yesterday,
\nincluding 18 civilian men and one policeman. All had been shot in the head and
\nthe chest.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe policeman, Mahmoud ‘Abboud, was reportedly mediating
\nbetween the protesters and the police station in the city when he was shot in
\nthe head and brought to the hospital by protesters.\n<\/p>\n

\nAccording to state news agency SANA, “armed groups” in Hama
\nand Dayr al-Zor shot dead six members of the army and security forces and
\nattacked public and private property. The news agency also reported that Syrian
\nPresident al-Assad praised troops for “foiling the enemies of Syria” in the
\nweekend’s operations, which coincided with the beginning of the Muslim holy
\nmonth of Ramadan.\n<\/p>\n

\nAmnesty International has received the names of more than
\n1,500 people believed to have been killed since pro-reform protests began in
\nmid-March. Many of them are reported to be protesters and local residents shot
\nby live ammunition from the security forces and the army.  <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nThousands of others have been arrested in the wake of
\nprotests, with many being held incommunicado and many reported to have been
\ntortured or otherwise ill-treated in custody, in some cases resulting in death.
\nBased on its research, Amnesty International has concluded that crimes
\ncommitted amount to crimes against humanity as they appear to be part of a widespread,
\nas well as systematic, attack against the civilian population.\n<\/p>\n

\nAmnesty International has repeatedly called on the UN
\nSecurity Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal
\nCourt, as it did with Libya’s government in June, following the violent
\nrepression of protests there.  <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n“It is long past time for the UN Security Council to take
\nconcrete steps to end the bloody crackdown in Syria that continues to claim
\ncountless lives amid peaceful protests,” said Philip Luther.\n<\/p>\n

\nhttp:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/news-and-updates\/un-security-council-must-take-action-over-syria-bloodshed-2011-08-01<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n \n<\/p>\n

\n \n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nThe UN Security Council must urgently respond to the ongoing
\ncrackdown in Syria by referring the situation to the International Criminal
\nCourt, Amnesty International said today, amid reports that security forces
\ncontinued to shell the city of Hama, where dozens of people have now been
\nkilled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}