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UN Rights Council Condemns Syrian Crackdown as Death Toll Mounts
The United Nations Human Rights Council met on Friday, noting the the situation in Syria warrants “urgent attention” and called for an investigation into alleged acts of violence committed by security forces on demonstrations during the past two months.
The Human Rights commission said they would send a mission to the locked down country to investigate the suspected violations on human rights. The council voted 26-9 to pass a resolution condemning the alleged rights abuses.
The HRC said that the Syrian government needs to “cooperate fully with and grant access to personnel from the mission.”
Syrian demonstrators on Friday came out for another round of mass protests and security forces shot and killed dozens of people, media reports say.
At least 50 people were killed in the demonstrations as tens of thousands marched throughout the country, reported Al Jazeera. The “day of rage” protests usually take place on Friday, the weekend in most of the Arab world. Last week’s major protest resulted in over 100 deaths at the hands of security forces.
The protests began last month, following a wave of demonstrations and uprisings that hit the Middle East and North Africa. Rights groups say that more than 500 people have been killed since the demonstrations started, although getting information out of Syria is extremely difficult, especially from Deraa where the crackdown has been most intense.
State-run media claims that the protesters are “extremist terrorist groups” who “martyred” police and security forces.
The Obama administration approved sanctions on Friday against Syria and its President, Bashar al-Assad, as well as three other top officials in the regime, reported the BBC. Those sanctions include an assets freeze on the top officials. A travel ban was also set in motion.
The decision comes a few days after foreign ministry officials in the U.K., France, Italy, and Portugal condemned Syria’s use of deadly force on protesters and said they would come up with sanctions of their own.
In the past several days, dozens of people have been shot in the southern city of Daraa, considered Syria’s hub for protest activity, as the humanitarian situation becomes gradually worse.
{etRelated 55505}Rights activist Ammar Abdulhamid, author of the Syrian Revolutionary Digest blog, said that food, water, and medical supplies have become more scarce in Daraa.
“House to house searches were conducted in certain neighborhoods, and dozens of arrests were made. Some were shot on the spot by some eyewitness reports. Even doctors and patients at the National Hospital were put under arrest,” he wrote.
