{"id":326,"date":"2011-08-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T00:00:00","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=326","title":{"rendered":"EU: Freeze Assets of Syrian Oil and Gas Companies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nFor Immediate Release<\/p>\n

EU: Freeze Assets of Syrian Oil and Gas Companies<\/p>\n

<\/strong>(Brussels, August 16, 2011) – The European Union (EU) should freeze the
\nassets of the Syrian National Oil Company, Syrian National Gas Company, and the
\nCentral Bank of Syria until the Syrian government ends gross human rights
\nabuses against its citizens, Human Rights Watch said today. On August 12, 2011,
\nHuman Rights Watch sent a letter to the EU High Representative and foreign
\nministers of the 27 member states urging them to swiftly impose such sanctions.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Since August 1 Syrian security forces have killed at least 231
\nantigovernment protesters and other civilians in attacks on Latakia, Deir
\nal-Zor, Homs, and small towns across Syria<\/a>,
\naccording to local human rights activists. Over the last four days, security
\nforces have attacked and carried out large-scale arrests in the Latakia
\nneighborhoods of Slaybeh, Skantouri, Raml al-`Ali, and Sheikh Daher. Security
\nservices have also detained prominent political and human rights activists such
\nas Abdel Karim Rihawi.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>“Syria’s authorities are still killing their own people despite multiple
\nefforts by other countries, including former allies, to make them stop,” said Lotte Leicht<\/a>,
\nEU director at Human Rights Watch. “It’s time to show the government that
\nEuropeans won’t help to fund its repression.”<\/p>\n

Under Syrian law the government is the major shareholder in the oil and gas
\nsector through its ownership of the Syrian National Gas and Syrian National Oil
\ncompanies. These two companies have a 50 percent share in every oil and gas
\nproject in Syria. In a March 2010 report, the International Monetary Fund
\nestimated that the Syrian government earns approximately €2.1 billion from oil
\nand gas revenues per year. Most of Syria’s oil and gas is used domestically,
\nbut it exports about 150,000 barrels per day, and around 95 percent of that
\ngoes to Europe, primarily to Italy, the Netherlands, France, and Germany.<\/p>\n

The EU has already frozen the assets of 35 Syrian officials and four entities
\nin response to Syria’s widespread human rights abuses. The EU imposed similar
\nassets freezes against the Libyan oil sector and central bank in March.<\/p>\n

In its letter Human Rights Watch urged the EU to conduct regular reviews of the
\nimpact of sanctions to assess any potential humanitarian impact, and to tie the
\nlifting of the sanctions to measures that demonstrate a change of policy by the
\ngovernment, such as an end to the use of excessive and lethal force against
\npeaceful demonstrators, releasing all detainees held merely for participating
\nin peaceful protests or for criticizing the Syrian authorities, and full
\ncooperation with the fact-finding mission mandated by the United Nations Human
\nRights Council or other international mechanisms tasked with investigating
\nalleged human rights violations.<\/p>\n

“The aim is to harm the government’s ability to fund its repression and not to
\nhurt the Syrian people who are courageously demanding their basic rights,”
\nLeicht said.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Since the beginning of antigovernment protests in mid-March Human Rights
\nWatch has documented a systematic pattern of widespread and serious human
\nrights violations<\/a> committed by Syria‘s authorities. According to local
\nhuman rights groups, security forces have so far shot and killed around 2,000
\ncivilians, and have detained more than 10,000 activists, protesters, and even
\nbystanders, regularly subjecting them to torture and ill-treatment.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Despite presidential amnesties and promises of reform, thousands of
\nactivists and protesters remain in detention with no confirmation of their
\nwhereabouts or the legal grounds for their detention. Evidence of systematic
\nkillings, enforced disappearances, and torture by Syrian security forces in
\nsome of Syria’s cities, such as that committed in Daraa<\/a>, strongly suggest that
\nthese acts rise to the level of crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

Syria’s authorities have sought to hide their violations by preventing access
\nto protest areas for journalists and independent observers, including the Human
\nRights Council’s fact-finding team, and by limiting and sometimes shutting down
\ninternet and telephone communications inside the country.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>“Maybe the Syrian regime will treat its people better when it realizes that
\nit risks being unable to pay its security forces,” Leicht said. “EU member
\nstates should send a clear and united message to the Assad government that
\ncontinuing these abuses will bring consequences.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Brussels, August 16, 2011) – The European Union (EU) should freeze the
\nassets of the Syrian National Oil Company, Syrian National Gas Company, and the
\nCentral Bank of Syria until the Syrian government ends gross human rights
\nabuses against its citizens, Human Rights Watch said today. On August 12, 2011,
\nHuman Rights Watch sent a letter to the EU High Representative and foreign
\nministers of the 27 member states urging them to swiftly impose such sanctions.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}