Saturday 30 June 2012

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Urgent appeal to save those in the devastated city of Douma

The city of Douma is still suffering from the military operations that began on the 21st of this month, the bombardment by regime forces is considered the most violent Douma has seen since the start of the uprising. Tens of civilians have been killed, hundreds injured. This is accompanied by a choking blockade on the city, implemented on all neighbourhoods and streets in the city. The residents of Douma are suffering from an extreme humanitarian crisis, they lack the basic necessities of existence, there is an acute shortage of bread, gas and medical equipment. Water and electricity have been cut off. It is also near impossible to travel to procure these needs. Residents in the shelters have been unable to cook food since the beginning of the military campaign.

More than 100 families in the city have been forced to seek refuge in shelters. the families comprise mainly of women, children, the elderly and those that are physically and mentally handicapped. The majority of men in the city have either fled, those that remained have been detained by the Syrian forces, some have been summarily executed if they were suspected of being political activists or wanted by the authorities. The families are living in fear amid the conflict in the city, they lack the basic necessities of existence

The medical situation in the city is very tragic. Medical care has become non-existent after Syrian forces took over the main hospital in the city, which was used to medicate the injured, they destroyed the hospitals contents. There are no alternative field hospitals in the area. The doctors, medical staff and first-aid activists have either been detained or have fled the city, in fear of detention or being summarily executed because of their activities.

There are dozens of injured in the shelters, they need urgent medical attention. Many of those injured have died due to the negligence. There are some wounded on the streets that people have been unable to reach because of the spread of snipers around the city.

We urgently call on all humanitarian and relief organisations, the Red Cross and Red Crescent, to send medical staff and equipment to the city of Douma to assist and transfer those wounded by the constant bombardment of the city. We demand that all humanitarian organisations put pressure to stop this brutal assault on civilians in the city of Douma, which can turn into a humanitarian catastrophe if the situation continues as it is.

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UN-backed Action Group agrees on measures for peaceful transition in Syria 30 June 2012 –

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[local time]  21:07 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday said any power transition in Syria would be decided by Syrians and that no party should be excluded from the process.
 20:57 China said on Saturday that the transition plan agreed on in Geneva must be accepted by Syrians, and not imposed by others, AFP reported.
 20:43 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday made it clear Washington did not see any role for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a Syrian transitional regime following a deal reached in Geneva by world powers.
 20:04 World powers agreed to a Syria transition plan Saturday with a unity government to include members of the present administration, although envoy Kofi Annan said he doubted Syrians would “select people with blood on their hands.”
 19:54 Syrian forces killed 93 people on Saturday, mostly in the Damascus district, Al-Jazeera quoted activists as saying.
 19:49 At least 53 people were killed, mostly civilians, in violence across Syria on Saturday, and hundreds more were trapped in Douma as regime forces stormed the town in Damascus province, monitors said.
 19:03 Russia will offer to host the next round of international talks on the Syria crisis if some progress is made in Geneva on Saturday, Russian news agencies reported.
 17:29 Syrian forces heavily shelled Daraa’s Daael, Al-Arabiya quoted activists as saying on Saturday.
 16:24 Syrian security forces enter Douma in the Damascus district following weeks of shelling, Al-Jazeera reported on Saturday.
 16:02 Saturday’s death toll in Syria rose to 53 people, Al-Jazeera quoted activists as saying.
 15:44 Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi said on Saturday afternoon during his inauguration that Egypt back the Syrian people and that bloodshed there must stop, AFP reported.
 14:54 International envoy Kofi Annan warned world powers Saturday they would be partly responsible for more Syrian deaths if they fail to agree on how to end the violence there.
 14:52 Talks between world powers gathered in Geneva to find a political end to the war in Syria “remain challenging” and a deal could well prove elusive, a senior US official said Saturday.
 12:14 Violence killed 11 people across Syria on Saturday, mostly civilians, and hundreds more were trapped in Douma in Damascus province north of the capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
 11:10 Several people were injured by the Syrian army’s shelling of the Latakia area of Jabal al-Akrad, Al-Jazeera reported.
 11:04 The Syrian army is shelling the towns of Douma and Harasta, Al-Jazeera quoted activists as saying.
 7:47 Russia said it was optimistic about Saturday’s Syria meet in Geneva after being told by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that outside powers could only advise rather than dictate a power transition process.

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UN peace envoy Kofi Annan has said there is international agreement that a transitional government should be set up in Syria.

This could include both members of the government and opposition, he said after talks in Geneva.

But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could not remain in power.

Meanwhile, activists said a funeral procession in a suburb of Damascus came under mortar attack and 30 people died.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights released amateur video footage claiming to show the explosion in Zamalka, a town 10km (six miles) east of the Syrian capital.

There has been no independent confirmation of the incident.

‘Legitimate aspirations’In Geneva, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there were no preconditions to the proposed transition that dictated who should or should not be in the transitional government.

Saturday’s “action group” conference was attended by both Western powers and Russia and China.

Mr Annan also called for an immediate ceasefire and adherence to the UN’s six-point peace plan.

He said there should be access to Syria for humanitarian organisations and media.

“I hope all in Syria will embrace what has been laid out here and work with us to stop the killing and build a better future” Kofi AnnanUN and Arab League envoy

Mr Annan said the conference had agreed there should be a “transitional government body with full executive powers”.

“We are determined to work together urgently and intensively to bring about an end to the violence and human rights abuses, and the launch of a Syrian-led political process, leading to a transition that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people, and enables them independently and democratically to determine their own future,” he said.

He warned: “The action group has pledged action, and they are sending a message of determination and hope, but today’s words must not become tomorrow’s disappointments.

“The hard work starts now. We must work together to implement what has been agreed. We cannot do this alone. I hope all in Syria will embrace what has been laid out here and work with us to stop the killing and build a better future.”

Speaking on behalf of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the US, UK, France, Russia and China – British Foreign Secretary William Hague said all five were committed to supporting Mr Annan’s efforts.

Russia had blocked a provision in Mr Annan’s plan that would have called for Mr Assad to step down to make way for a unity government.

Mrs Clinton told reporters after Saturday’s talks: “Assad will still have to go… given the blood on his hands.”

Mr Assad has said he will not accept any solution to his country’s crisis imposed from outside.

He told Iranian television that it was an “internal issue” which had “nothing to do with foreign countries”, stressing that no amount of foreign pressure would make his government change its policy on internal security.

Some 15,800 people have died in the 16-month uprising against the rule of President Assad, activists say.

In the latest report, the observatory said a mortar bomb had gone off in Zamalka.

The first video the group released showed a crowd of chanting mourners bearing a shrouded body on a bier along a street. There is a sudden, blinding flash and a loud bang with the sound of breaking glass, at which point the recording stops.

In the second video, dazed people can be seen staggering or running through a cloud of smoke or dust.

When the cloud clears, bodies, some of them mutilated, can be seen strewn along the street. A shrouded corpse on a bier similar to that from the first video can be seen abandoned on the ground nearby.

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REUTERS: Assad’s fate unclear in world powers’ Syria plan

World powers agreed on Saturday that a transitional government should be set up in Syria to end the conflict there but they remained at odds over what part President Bashar al-Assad might play in the process.

Peace envoy Kofi Annan said after talks in Geneva the government should include members of Assad’s administration and the Syrian opposition and that it should arrange free elections.

“Time is running out. The conflict must be resolved through peaceful dialogue and negotiations,” Annan told reporters.

The talks had been billed as a last-ditch effort to halt the worsening violence in Syria but hit obstacles as Russia, Assad’s most powerful ally, opposed Western and Arab insistence that he must quit the scene.

The final communiqué said the transitional government should be formed “on the basis of mutual consent”.

In a victory for Russia, it omitted text in a previous draft which explicitly said the plan would exclude from government anyone whose participation would undermine the transition’s credibility and jeopardize stability and reconciliation.

After the meeting, the United States and Russia contradicted each other over what that meant for Assad, who has ruled Syria for 11 years since succeeding his father Hafez and has been condemned internationally for the ferocity of his crackdown on the uprising against him.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he was “delighted” with the result. The key point was that the deal did not attempt to impose a process on Syria, he said

It did not imply at all that Assad should step down as there were no preconditions excluding any group from the proposed national unity government, Lavrov said.

But U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it sent a clear message to Assad that he must quit.

“Assad will still have to go,” Clinton told reporters. “What we have done here is to strip away the fiction that he and those with blood on their hands can stay in power.”

Annan convened the meeting at the United Nations complex on the shores of Lake Geneva to salvage a peace plan that has largely been ignored by the Assad government. He said at the opening that the conflict was in danger of growing into a regional and international crisis.

At its conclusion, the Nobel peace laureate fielded a question on whether people with blood on their hands could be part of a transitional government by saying:

“I would doubt that the Syrians who have fought so hard for their independence to be able to have a say in how they are governed and who governs them will select people with blood on their hands to lead them.

“I cannot say that I am really happy but I am content with the outcome today.”

Annan’s plan for a negotiated solution to the 16-month-old conflict is the only one on the table. More than 10,000 people have been killed since the anti-Assad uprising broke out and the past few weeks have been among the bloodiest.

Highlighting the deteriorating situation on the ground, Syrian government forces pushed their way into Douma on the outskirts of Damascus on Saturday after weeks of siege and shelling. Fleeing residents spoke of corpses in the streets.

Britain’s ITV showed footage of clouds of black smoke over houses and said warplanes had struck at targets there.

The army also attacked pro-opposition areas in Deir al-Zor, Homs, Idlib and the outskirts of Damascus, activists said.

BRAVE FACE

The foreign ministers of the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members – Russia, the United States, China, France and Britain – all attended along with Turkey, Kuwait, Qatar, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Notably absent from the guest list were Iran, Syria’s closest regional ally, and Saudi Arabia, a foe of both Damascus and Tehran and leading backer of the rebel forces. Nor was anyone from the Syrian government or opposition represented.

British Foreign Minister William Hague put a brave face on the Western compromise.

“These have been difficult talks as you can gather from the fact that we’ve spent more than nine hours discussing it. I think the result is a step forward, it is only a step forward but it is a step forward that is worth having,” he said.

He welcomed the fact that Russia and China had signed up to the idea for a transitional government. But he lamented that no agreement had been reached on the question of arms sales to Syria and any future action, including sanctions, at the Security Council.

The agreement also called for people to be free to demonstrate peacefully and the release of political detainees as well as an immediate halt to the violence.

Middle East analyst Hayat Alvi of the U.S. Naval War College said he doubted the Assad government would accept the plan and enforcement of it would be almost impossible.

“The U.S. and other Western powers will not find any flexibility on the part of the Syrian regime, and its allies, namely Russia,” he told Reuters from the United States.

“The proof is in the Assad regime’s continuous acts of violence against the Syrian people, even while the diplomatic wheels have been turning. The wheels clearly are going in circles without moving forward.”

That would likely be the scenario for months as long as Russia continued to support the Syrian government, Alvi said.

The conflict has evolved from peaceful protests against the Assad family’s four-decade rule to something akin to a civil war with a sectarian dimension.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 56 people were killed across Syria on Saturday.

Syria’s border with Turkey was also tense after a Turkish military build-up in response to Syria’s shooting down of a Turkish warplane last week.

A Syrian witness said Turkish forces stationed on the border opposite the Syrian town of Jandaris fired machineguns in the air in response to Syrian army bombardment of rebel areas.

After Syrian forces re-entered Douma, troops carried out searches in hospitals for dissidents and rebel fighters, activists said.

Abo Abdullah, 50, said he and his five children left Douma fearing attacks by government forces.

“I saw at least three bodies on a street corner, some houses were destroyed, others were on fire. Only a few people remained inside the city. Those who can, leave,” he said.

“I saw a body on the side of the street and dogs were gathering around it.”

State news agency SANA said security forces were raiding hideouts of “armed terrorist groups” in Douma and had killed, wounded or arrested scores.

(Reporting by Andrew Quinn, Tom Miles, Stepahnie Nebehay, Robert Evans and Emma Farge in Geneva, Oliver Holmes and Mariam Karouny in Beirut, Peter Apps in London; Writing by Angus MacSwan; Editing by Ralph Gowling)

• Syrian forces push into Douma, residents flee 12:16pm EDT
• Activists say Syrian troops fire on Damascus funeral, killing 30 4:30pm EDT
• Russia’s Lavrov delighted at Syria meeting outcome 2:57pm EDT
• Annan says he expects Assad to cooperate with Syria plan 2:00pm EDT
• Raised on power, Assad risks all 11:10am EDT
• Russia offers to host next Syria meeting: agency 12:27pm EDT