GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Thirteen people are reported to be dead from the most recent round of government forces bombarments of Syria’s third largest city, Homs, 9 February. City residents say the situation is “dire”, reports the BBC, with severe shortages of food and water. The UN’s Ban Ki-moon called anew on world leaders to come to an agreement on how to pressure Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to stop killing his own people. The UN is currently considering adopting an Arab League plan to send in observers.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Migration Office’s current backlog of some 3,000 applications must be completed and applications brought up to date by 2013, former Swiss Federal Judge Michel Féraud concluded as part of his final report on applications for asylum in Switzerland.
But the most damning part of his report covers applications from Iraqis at the Swiss embassies in Egypt and Syria, from 2006 to 2008: the judge writes that a Swiss Justice and Police Department decision in November 2006 to not handle the applications was not in line with procedures defined by law, and it violated constitutional guarantees.
Rigid system contributed to decision to ignore applications, backlog
His report implies that the blame lies with the rigidity of the legal situation, according to a Federal Council statement issued 11 January: all Swiss embassies are required to accept and handle asylum applications, although they are not equipped, in terms of staffing, to do so. The applicants, had they been turned down by Switzerland, would not have been obliged to return to Iraq, since they had been accepted by Egypt and Syria.
One of the debates that was taking place at the time was how to better distinguish between legitimate asylum seekers and migrants. The number of asylum seekers grew steadily from the 1970s, federal statistics show, and the resident asylum population peaked at some 105,000 in 1999. The number of applicants has been in the range of about 10-15,000 annually for the past decade just under 11,000 in 2007, with 15,567 applicants in 2011.
UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) figures published in November show that the decline in applications for asylum occurred worldwide, not just in Switzerland, from 2000 to 2010.
Judge not suggesting legal pursuit
Féraud notes that, given the lapse of time and the Federal Council’s stated desire in 2010 to make the regulations less rigid, thus giving embassies more discretion in handling cases, he is not recommending disciplinary action. His investigation did not turn up any acts of wrongdoing such as overstepping the bounds of their authority on the part of government employees.
Blocher headed department in 2005, successors unaware of decision
Christoph Blocher was the federal councilor with responsibility for the Justice and Police Department at the time; his right-wing UDC People’s Party came in for heavy criticism inside and outside Switzerland in 2006 for posters seen to be racist, as the party campaigned to reduce the number of immigrants.
Blocher was succeeded as head of the department by Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf after he lost his seat on the council in December 2007, but neither Widmer-Schlumpf nor her successor as minister with responsibility for the federal office, Simonetta Sommaruga, were informed of the Iraqi applications and the decision to ignore them.
The report was requested by the Federal Council in August 2011 when it was made aware that the applications had not been dealt with for a number of years.
Féraud filed it 22 December and the Federal Council 11 January acknowledged publicly that it had received and is considering the report.
Swiss photographer Michael Grob on his work with Cambodian landmine victims: "Unlike in Afghanistan which is still in a state of war, we had to learn to adjust to the reality of such an amount of mines still being in Cambodian soil so long after the fighting has stopped. It was at times very difficult for me to deal with the impression left by the very high number of mine inflicted casualties - especially those of injured children. The work of the UN in Cambodia is, in my eyes, of utmost importance. It is for some communities the only opportunity for some kind of future. The situation touched me deeply and profoundly...my work for the United Nations mine action - as insignificant as it might be in the bigger picture - shall go on as long as needed." (©2011 Michael Grob)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Efforts to get rid of landmines are making good progress in many countries and funding is being maintained despite government budget constraints, a key meeting in Cambodia that closed 2 December shows. But work remains, with 4,000 new victims of landmines each year: six people died in Pursat Province, Cambodia, which hosted the meeting, Thursday 1 December when their truck triggered a mine.
The 11th meeting of the States Parties, the 158 nations that are part of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention finished in Phnom Penh with several strong commitments.
The Netherlands stated that “despite cuts in other areas, the government remains convinced of this matter” and it will maintain its €15 million annual contribution to demining and victim assistance.
Austria is increasing its 2012 funding slightly, to €1.9 million.
Cambodia funding stepped up
Austria announced its first contributions to demining and victim assistance in Cambodia, totaling €400,000. New Zealand, too, will contribute to a demining project in northeastern Cambodia: more than US$ 1 million in 2012.
Burundi bright spot
Cheering news came from Burundi, which says it has completed demining, a full three years ahead of the deadline to which it was committed. It is the 19th country to be declared mine-free.
Myanmar told the landmine ban meeting in Cambodia at the end of November that it is carefully considering the matter (Photo, ©2011, AP Mine Ban Convention)
The meeting, with 1,000 delegates taking part, marked progress in a number of areas and made media headlines over the first-ever participation by Myanmar, as an observer.
The isolated nation has been making commitments to reform, and at the land-mine ban meeting it said that “thorough study of the treaty will be continued”.
Its actions will be watched closely; it is one of three countries, along with Qaddafi’s Libya and Israel, who have been accused of laying mines in 2011.
“Convincing evidence” Syria is using mines
There is also “convincing evidence”, the group says, that Syria has used mines this year.
Tuvalu and South Sudan took their seats as the Convention’s newest adherents. Finland announced that it is on the verge of becoming the 159th to join the Convention.
Fifteen States that have not yet joined the Convention attended as observers, “signaling their openness to engage in a discussion on the devastating impact of anti-personnel mines”, a meeting press release states. The US is one of these and it reported that it is continuing to review its landmine policy.
Other signs of progress reported by the meeting: “Turkey reported the destruction of all stockpiled anti-personnel mines: 3 million mines. Burundi and Nigeria declared completion of their mine clearance obligations. Guinea Bissau, Jordan and Uganda announced that they will complete their demining programmes in coming months.”
A major and often under-funded part of the States’ commitments is helping survivors. Meeting host Cambodia, one of the most affected countries, says it is “assessing its national action plan on disability with a view to preparing a revised plan in 2012.”
Britain, Germany fail to meet commitments to demine
Germany is one of four countries with new reports of mine contamination that are falling far behind on their commitments to demine.
The town of Koblenz, Germany is the site this weekend of a massive project to defuse a bomb with 3,000 tons of explosives left over from the second world war; 45,000 people are being evacuated from their homes to allow the army and experts to get rid of it. The bomb became apparent this year due to lower water levels in the Rhine, reports NPR.
Britain has failed to clear any mines in the Falklands for the second year in a row.
“The UK has consistently failed to meet their clearance obligations under the treaty, and now have to clear more than 110 mined areas across over 7km2 in less than seven years,” the group notes.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Nineteen of the 22 members of the Arab League voted Sunday 27 November for sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government, effective immediately. The sanctions include travel bans, freezing government assets and end to Arab investments and dealings with Syria’s central bank.
The sanctions come as the number of deaths in Syria is widely reported to have topped 3,500 during more than eight months of fighting. The US and the European Union (and Switzerland) already have sanctions in place.
Reuters notes that “the Arab League has for decades avoided imposing sanctions its members but has been spurred into action by the scale of bloodshed during Syria’s crackdown and by the failure by Damascus to implement an Arab peace plan. The Arab peace plan called for sending in Arab monitors, withdrawing Syrian troops from residential areas and starting talks between the government and opposition. Damascus ignored several Arab League deadlines.”
The League is calling on the United Nations to adopt similar sanctions.
But the New York Times reported Sunday that the impact of the sanctions could be limited: ”
“Analysts said they expected the impact of the sanctions to be limited, in large part because Syria’s largest trading partners will not participate. Economists estimate that about 50 percent of Syrian trade is with the Arab world, but the largest chunk of that is with its immediate neighbors, including Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan.
“Iraq abstained and Lebanon ‘disassociated’ itself from the vote, Mr. Jassem said. Both countries said they would not enforce the sanctions, and Jordan has issued mixed signals.”
China’s Xinhua news agency cites Syrian state news reports that Syrians took to the streets in protest after the news of the sanctions was announced.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, BBC, Ria Novosti, Xinhua
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Jordan’s King Abdullah, in a Monday interview with the BBC, became the first Arab leader to openly encourage President Bashar al-Assad to resign, in the wake of the Arab League’s decision to suspend Syria. Protesters in Syria reported up to 40 new deaths, mainly in the south of the country near the border with Jordan. But the Arab League decision was met with harsh words from Syria’s foreign minister, Washid Al Moallam: “Syria will remain – despite what some of the brothers throw at it – the heart of Arabism and its impenetrable bastion,” al-Moallem stated, adding that conspiring against Syria is doomed to fail.
Links to other sites: BBC, Guardian, Jordan Times, Sana (Syrian News Agency)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The number of deaths in Syria as a result of the crackdown on protests has reached 3,500, the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva says. Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a press briefing that 60 deaths have been recorded since the Syrian government reportedly said at the start of November
The OHCHR office headed by Navi Pillay has called on Syria a number of times to end the brutality and allow an independent commission to investigate the situation in the country.
Tuesday Shamdasani said
“Since Syria signed the peace plan sponsored by the League of Arab States last week, more than 60 people are reported to have been killed by military and security forces, including at least 19 on the Sunday that marked Eid al-Adha.
“While the Syrian government announced the release of 553 detainees on Saturday on the occasion of Eid, tens of thousands remain in detention and dozens continue to be arbitrarily arrested everyday. Syrian troops continue to use tanks and heavy weaponry to mount attacks on residential areas in the city of Homs. The situation in the neighbourhood of Baba Amr has been particularly appalling. According to information the UN human rights office has received, the neighbourhood has remained under siege for seven days, with residents deprived of food, water and medical supplies.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – World headlines include the following, over the weekend:
- Clocks go back in the US, a week after Europe moves from summer to winter time – NPR
- Chinese mine workers, some 200-strong, pulled out 45 miners Saturday who had been trapped for more than 48 hours after an explosion – CBS, Xinhua
- Pakistan charges 7 in Bhutto death in 2007 – Aljazeera, Reuters Canada
- Syria: 553 of some 15,000 prisoners released, but 20 killed Friday – Aljazeera, Xinhuanet
- Colombia: Farc leader Alfonso Cano killed, but now what? – CS Monitor, Guardian, Jakarta Post
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Syria has reportedly become the fourth nation to lay down new landmines in 2011, according to ICBL, the Nobel Peace Prize International Coalition to Ban Landmines, which has strongly condemned the development.
Reports have been surfacing, starting the last weekend in October, that Syria has put down antipersonnel land mines along its border with Lebanon, near the city of Hom, one of the sites of recent protests. A Syrian official was quoted, ICBL reports, as saying the mines were to deter arms smugglers, but there is suspicion they are being laid to discourage people from fleeing the fighting and heading over the border.
Syria is not one of the 157 countries that have joined the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.
The three other countries who have laid down mines this year are Burma/Myanmar, Israel and Libya under the Qaddafi regime.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Deaths of civilians in Syria, at the hands of their government, and deaths of soldiers continue unabated, even as the Arab League pushes President Bashar al-Assad to start a dialogue with the opposition. Aljazeera reports tha 24 people died Monday 17 October in Homs alone, a centre of the popular protests, with at least 8 more people dying in clashes in other towns. At least 11 soldiers are reported to have died in bombing incidents and fighting.
The Economist notes that the death 7 Occtober of Mashaal Tammo, a Kurdish activist in Qamishli, has sparked anger among Kurds, who have until now stayed on the fringes of the protests.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, speaking from Switzerland where he attended the opening of the Interparliamentary Union, the world’s parliaments, urged Bashar to allow a UN human rights team to enter the country and start an inquiry that was mandated in April. Syria has not allowed UN representatives to visit, nor are foreign journalists allowed to work in the country.
Links to other sites: CNN, Economist, Telegraph, UK
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The mystery and confusion surrounding 10,000 requests for asylum by Iraqi citizens in 2006 that were reportedly never treated by the Swiss government continues. TSR public television reporting 30 September that new information it obtained shows no one at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees told the Swiss representative to Syria at the time that he could ignore the requests, as he has claimed.
Federal Councillor Simonetta Somaruga brought the case to light in August, demanding an investigation. The report is expected by the end of the year.
Jacques de Watteville, the Swiss representative in Syria in 2006, was under instructions from the Federal Office for Migration, according to TSR, to handle the overwhelming number of asylum requests from Iraq, but he had no budget for this and he appears to have taken his concerns to the UNHCR. He replied to the IOM that the UN refugee organization said the letters did not need to be dealt with, but it remains unclear if this referred to all asylum requests. There appears to have been confusion about the role the UNHCR would play in accepting refugees in a camp in Syria, which did not exist at the time of the correspondence.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Syrian troops have killed 2,600 people since President Bashar al-Assad began putting down unrest in the country, Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Monday in Geneva. Only one week earlier she said a fact-finding commission had put the number of killings at 2,200.
Syria will be on the agenda during the three week session of the Human Rights Council, which opened Monday morning 12 September in Geneva.
Reuters and Le Temps (Fre) report that the figure is about twice the number released early Monday by the Syrian government. “Bouthaina Shaaban, one of Assad’s advisors, earlier on Monday said about 1,400 people had died — half of them police officers and half opposition activists. Syria blames armed groups and “terrorists” for the violence and argues the security forces are defending public order,” writes Reuters.
Navi Pillay’s opening remarks 12 September at the 18th session of the Human Rights Council
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – US Ambassador to the UN Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe was quick to praise a resolution condemning Syria, taken by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council Tuesday 23 August. The council also agreed to set up a commission of inquiry to further investigate the human rights situation in Syria.
The vote was 33 in favour, 4 against and 9 abstentions. Russia called the draft resolution one-sided and politicized, saying it was essentially aimed at removing a legitimate government. China said that the correct way to protect human rights was not through accusations and that a response to the crisis should respect Syria’s sovereignty and the promotion of dialogue.
The council stated at the close of the meeting, the second special session on Syria called this year:
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in a Sunday night television address to the country’s citizens that he has no intention of stepping aside under pressure from Western nations and the UN, but he promised reforms, including elections in February.
Reuters reports that the reluctance of the Gaza Strip’s Hamas organization, based in Damascus, Syria, to publicly show support for the Syrian government, has led to Iran pulling out its funding, leaving Hamas with a cash shortage. Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel, counts on a mix of foreign aid and taxes collected in the Gaza Strip, but revenues from taxes have been “inconsistent” according to the news agency.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss government has recalled its ambassador to Syria for consultations, to send a strong signal to Damascus that Bern cannot accept the Syrian government’s violence against its citizens and the fact it has ignored international appeals to stop.
The recall falls short of a rupture in international relations, Bern noted in a statement issued Thursday 18 August:
“Due to the fact that the numerous calls from the international community to end the violence have been ignored, the FDFA has decided to recall the Swiss Ambassador in Syria to Bern for consultations. This decision was made because Switzerland cannot tolerate the systematic human rights violations perpetrated by the Syrian security forces against the civilian population. In view of its humanitarian tradition, Switzerland wishes to send a strong signal to Damascus. The recall of the Swiss Ambassador in Damascus is not, however, equivalent to a rupture of diplomatic relations. The Swiss Embassy in Damascus remains open and fully operational.”
The Federal Council approved sanctions against Syria 18 May, in line with those of the European Union, and it extended these 24 May and again this week, 17 August. These include freezing assets of government officials and their entourages, travel bans and restrictions on arms exports. Bern is also demanding that Syria give foreign journalists access to the country, to report on events there.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Syria significantly stepped up its fight against protesters over the weekend, drawing sharp rebukes from Saudi Arabia and more criticism from neighbouring countries. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia called the lastest round “unacceptable” to his country and recalled his ambassador to Syria, “breaking Arab silence”, as Reuters puts it. The king insisted that Syria’s leaders “enact reforms that are not merely promises but actual reforms”.
Tanks were striking the city of Deir al-Zor in an oil-producing region near the border with Iraq early Monday for the second day in a row, with western news agencies reporting up to 65 people killed (unconfirmed figures). A week earlier government forces hit the city of Hamas with gunfire, killing an unknown number.
The African Alliance in Capetown is calling on South Africa to support a UN Resolution condemning Syrian government violence. Sunday, Arab League Chief Nabil Elaraby, also condemned the violence publicly and a Turkish minister says his country’s patience is thinning.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The US will not intervene militarily and Europe is pushing for a UN condemnation of the Syrian government’s crackdown on its citizens, now in its third day, which included the deaths of a reported 100 people in the city of Hama Sunday 31 July alone. Chinese news agency Xinhua quotes Syrian state media as saying the army has not entered Hama while negotiations continue, and that state media show gunmen killing Syrian security forces.
A late-night session of the UN Security Council in New York Monday 1 August failed to bring about an agreement on condemning the violence, but some diplomats say progress is being made, although China and Russia still fear that a condemnation could lead to military intervention.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The US Monday 11 July condemned a Syrian crowd’s attack on its embassy and the ambassador’s residence in Damascus Monday, breaking windows and prompting Washington to summon the Syrian ambassador. France’s embassy was also attacked and reports conflict over whether or not there were any injuries but France appears to be considering telling its staff to leave.
The Financial Times reports that US Ambassador Robert Ford, who angered the Syrian government by visiting the restive city of Hama last Thursday, published an unusually blunt message on the US State Department’s Facebook page before the US embassy was attacked. The Guardian notes that hundreds of Syrian protesters attended the funeral today of Khaled Afnan in the central Syrian city of Homs, reportedly killed by government forces over teh weekend.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs confirmed to ATS and AP news agencies Sunday that the government has blocked more than CHF27 million in Syrian assets, although it has not confirmed if they belong to Bachar al-Assad, president. He and his brother are on a list of 23 persons whose assets were blocked earlier this year, with Swiss financial institutions required to report any assets to Bern.
The new figure, published by Zentralschweiz am Sonntag, brings to CHF1.2 billion the assets belonging to dictators and their entourages which have been frozen by Switzerland since January.
An ailing 85-year-old surrounded by her family in a camp for people displaced by floods in Balochistan, Pakistan. The elderly are especially vulnerable to water-borne diseases associated with flooding (photo, ©2011 UNHCR / D Khan, September 2010)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The numbers alone are daunting: 43.7 million displaced persons worldwide, of which 15.4m are refugees, 27.5m are internally displaced refugees and nearly 850,000 are asylum seekers, with one-fifth of asylum seekers in South Africa alone.
The world’s 49 least developed countries hosted some 2 million refugees last year.
Just under 100,000 refugees were admitted for resettlement in 2010, by 22 countries. The United States accounted for 71,000 of these.
The figures are part of the “UNHCR Global Trends 2010″ (2.7 MB pdf) published 20 June to mark World Refugees Day.
The numbers don’t yet include refugees from 2011 conflicts in Cote d’Ivoire, Syria and Libya, among others.
The imbalance in how the world supports refugees, or people who are forcibly displaced, is equally stark and marks this year’s report, says the UN High Commissioner for Refugees agency, based in Geneva: “Pakistan, Iran, and Syria have the largest refugee populations at 1.9 million, 1.1 million, and 1 million respectively. Pakistan also has the biggest economic impact with 710 refugees for each dollar of its per capita GDP (PPP) followed by Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya with 475 and 247 refugees respectively. By comparison Germany, the industrialized country with the largest refugee population (594,000 people), has 17 refugees for each dollar of per capita GDP.”
Click on charts to view larger
Drawn-out wars taking their toll
Roughly one-quarter of the 15.4m refugees are registered with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. The UNHCR says that of those under its care, 7.2m or about one-third, have been stuck in a refugee situation for more than five years, mainly due to drawn-out wars.
Within view of the Itombwe Massif, a convoy of UNHCR trucks carries Burundian refugees home after years of exile in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (photo, ©2011 UNHCR / M Hofer, December 2010)
The figure is the highest since 2001 and at the same time the lowest number since 1990 have been able to return home, fewer than 200,000.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, comments bluntly that “Fears about supposed floods of refugees in industrialized countries are being vastly overblown or mistakenly conflated with issues of migration. Meanwhile it’s poorer countries that are left having to pick up the burden.”
Some people have been refugees for up to 30 years, with Afghanistan a notable case in point. Afghans were one-third of the world’s refugees in 2001, as they were a decade later, at the start of 2011.
60th anniversary for UNHCR shows dramatic changes
A woman returns to the ruins of her home after violence strikes southern Kyrgyzstan (photo, ©2011 UNHCR / S Schulman, June 2010)
The UNHCR will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its founding in July 2011 and the report notes that the picture today is “of a dratically changed protection environment”. The organization’s early “caseload was 2.1 million Europeans, uprooted by World War Two. Today, UNHCR’s work extends to more than 120 countries and encompasses people forced to flee across borders as well as those in flight within their own countries.”
Two relatively recent developments have been the huge growth in numbers of internally displaced persons and the growing number of stateless persons, or “people lacking the basic safety-net of a nationality”, says the Geneva group, which plans to highlight this group during 2011.
“The number of countries reporting stateless populations has increased steadily since 2004, but differences in definitions and methodologies still prevent reliable measurement of the problem. In 2010, the reported number of stateless people (3.5 million) was nearly half of that in 2009, but mainly due to methodological changes in some countries that supply data. Unofficial estimates put the global number closer to 12 million.”
Actress Angelina Jolie to help tell individual stories for 60th anniversary
The UNHCR’s Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie is helping draw attention to refugees’ stories in a series of videos, including one released 18 June of her visit to Syrian refugees in Turkey. The videos are part of the organization’s efforts to draw attention to refugees by recounting individuals’ stories.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The United Nations Security Council Wednesday debated a draft resolution that France and the UK presented condemning Syria’s actions against protesters, but the resolution does not appear to have Chinese and Russian support. It stops short of sanctions and military action, but the two have said they fear destabilizing a key Middle Eastern country. The resolution comes on the heels of a bloody weekend, where 120 police and army troops were killed.
Turkey has opened its arms to Syrian refugees fleeing the northern town of Jisr al-Shughur, where the killings took place, as residents fear government reprisals. Xinhua news agency carries a story picked up from Syrian agency Sana that says the Syrian government has begun a “delicate” operation designed to avoid casualties, in the city, following the deaths.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland’s extended list of individuals from Syria, including President Bashar Al-Assad, whose assets are being blocked, is effective today, Wednesday 25 May. The government yesterday said it was expanding its 18 May list of people whose assets are frozen and who cannot travel to or through Switzerland, from 13 to 18.
The president is now listed, along with Mahir (or Maher) Al-Assad, as the mastermind of the repression against Syrian protesters, but he is also named as the organizer.
The four others added to the sanctions list are all accused of aiding repression:
Munzir Al-Assad, born 1961 (correction to earlier spelling)
Asif Shawkat, born 1950
Hisham Ikhtiyar, born 1941
Faruq Al Shar’, born 1938
Muhammad Nasif Khayrbik, born 1937
European Union reacts to news of 11 more civilian deaths by Syrian forces
Protesters across Syria took to the streets, calling for President Bashar al-Assad’s resignation Friday, after prayers, and security forces reacted with force, killing 11 more people, according to human rights activists. The European Union, which has been threatening financial sanctions, “agreed today to impose asset freezes and travel restrictions against Syrian officials responsible for the violent repression, which rights campaigners say has killed more than 560 people,” reports the Irish Times.
Details of who is affected by the sanctions and what assets are being blocked were not announced immediately by the EU but news agency AFP says it was told 13 officials are affected, but not the Syrian president, and that the freeze will be reviewed Monday.
Links to other sites: BBC, Guardian, Le Monde (Fr)
Troops in Syria reportedly gained control of the city of Banias, on the coast, Tuesday 3 May, as the Syrian government clampdown on protesters continues. The National Organization of Human Rights in Syria says a new wave of arrests has involved 1,000 people, with Banias mostly sealed off by the army and security forces. Government troops last week took over Deraa, in the south, where the uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad began in mid-March. The Assad family has ruled in Syria for 41 years.
European leaders Tuesday and Wednesday morning began stepping up calls to for sanctions against Libya, while a US State Department spokesperson called the actions of the Syrian government “barbaric”.
Links to other sites: Guardian, newsfromsyria, Radio Free Europe
Escalating violence by Syrian government against its citizens drawing sharp rebukes
(video) Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The United States Wednesday 27 April in Geneva initiated a special session of the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Syria. France announced that it has called in the Syrian ambassador for an explanation of his government’s attacks on its own citizens, along with four other European governments: Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Late Wednesday news agencies received a statement that 30 members of the ruling Baath party in the city of Banias, scene of protests, have resigned over deaths this week and the violence used on protesters.
Syria was accused by US ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, representative to the UNHRC in Geneva, of “the killing of hundreds of civilians in connection with peaceful political protests last week.” Donahoe stated, in initiating the special session, that “we strongly condemn the killing, arrest and torture of hundreds of Syrians by the Syrian authorities. It is entirely appropriate that the Human Rights Council condemn willful government violence against peaceful political protestors. At the Special Session we expect Human Rights Council members to call on the government of Syria to meet its responsibility to protect its population and stop these attacks.”
The United Nations agency for children affairs, Unicef, appealed for a ceasefire in Lybia saying at least 20 children had been killed in attacks by government forces.
Anthony Lake, Unicef’s Executive Director said at least 20 children have been killed and countless others have been injured in the city of Misrata in Libya.
“Reports of the use of cluster munitions are particularly alarming,” saysLake.
According to Unicef, the situation is also critical in Yemen, where at least 26 children have been killed and more than 800 have been injured since early February.
In Syria, Unicef reports,nine children were killed and many injured over the last few weeks.
Links: Unicef, GenevaLunch
Protests that the Syrian government has vowed to put down turned violent late Monday when government forces reportedly opened fire on a crowd in a square in Homs, the country’s third largest city. Thousands of protesters have occupied the square, saying they will not leave until President Assad’s regime is brought down.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reportedly accepted the resignation of his government Tuesday as new waves of protests rocked the country. At least 37 people have died in protests in the past week, according to the UN in Geneva. The president’s office says he will make what it calls “an important speech” Wednesday 30 March.
Accurate numbers are hard to come by Thursday evening, but it appears that scores of people have died in Syria in the latest outbreak of protests in a Middle Eastern country. Thousands are reported by the Guardian to have taken to the streets in Daraa where the funerals were held of nine people killed by the military. Human rights activists say up to 100 people may have been killed when government troops fired on a mosque, but the figures have not been confirmed independently.
President Bashar al-Assad has offered concessions to protesters, who have been sporadically organizing protests in recent weeks. But the initial response has been to reject them as not meeting the demands of people for greater freedom of expression and for emergency laws to be scrapped, according to Reuters.
Background, Al Jazeera
Violent winds and freezing rain wreaked havoc in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Egypt 11 and 12 December, as fishing boats were smashed by 10m waves along the Lebanese coast, small planes were tossed about at area airports, and sandstorms blew over Egypt. A Moldovan freighter sank off the coast of Israel but all 11 crew members were rescued. In northern Lebanon a woman was crushed in her car by a falling tree and Egyptian authorities blamed the storm on the collapse of a factory, which killed three workers.
The heavy rains turned to snow in the mountains along the coast, trapping drivers in their cars, and shipping through the Suez Canal was disrupted as most Egyptian ports were closed due to the heavy winds.
Links to other sites: Al-Jazeera, NPR
India, Algeria, China, Venezuela, Malaysia and Syria are the main customers for the Russian arms industry, which expects to see a 12 percent increase in international sales in 2010, to $9.5 billion. Vietnam also recently became a client, ordering submarines, aircraft and “other military hardware”, reports Russian news agency Ria Novosti. Russia’s main competitors are China, Germany and the US.
