UN: Most of 108 killed in Syria were executed

BEN HUBBARD

Asso­ci­ated Press

BEIRUT — The U.N.’s human rights office said Tues­day that most of the 108 vic­tims of a mas­sacre in Syria last week were shot at close range, some of them women, chil­dren and entire fam­i­lies gunned down in their own homes.

The mas­sacre on Fri­day in Houla drew new inter­na­tional out­rage, with more than half a dozen coun­tries includ­ing France and Britain expelling Syr­ian diplo­mats in protest.

The U.N. report indi­cated that most of the dead were killed execution-style, with fewer than 20 peo­ple cut down by regime shelling. The U.N. cited sur­vivors and wit­nesses blam­ing the house-to-house killings on pro-government thugs known as shabiha, who often oper­ate as hired mus­cle for the regime.

“What is very clear is this was an absolutely abom­inable event that took place in Houla, and at least a sub­stan­tial part of it was sum­mary exe­cu­tions of civil­ians, women and chil­dren,” said Rupert Colville, spokesman for the U.N. High com­mis­sioner for Human Rights. “At this point, it looks like entire fam­i­lies were shot in their houses.”

Houla activists reached by Skype said gov­ern­ment troops shelled the area after anti-government protests on Fri­day and clashed with local rebels. Later, shabiha from nearby vil­lages swept through the area, stab­bing res­i­dents and shoot­ing them at close range.

Videos posted online by anti-regime activists show explo­sions in Houla, dis­mem­bered bod­ies lying in the streets, then row upon row of the dead laid out before being buried in a mass grave. Some of the videos showed dozens of dead chil­dren, some with gap­ing wounds.

The Syr­ian regime has denied any role in the mas­sacre, blam­ing the killings on “armed ter­ror­ists” who attacked army posi­tions in the area and slaugh­tered inno­cent civil­ians. But it has pro­vided no evi­dence to sup­port its nar­ra­tive nor has it given a death toll.

U.N. inves­ti­ga­tors have said they found tank and artillery shells in Houla after the attack, but stopped short of blam­ing regime forces for the killings.

The U.N. said that at least 108 peo­ple, includ­ing 34 women and 49 chil­dren, were killed in the attack that began on Fri­day and con­tin­ued through the night on a group of poor farm­ing vil­lages north­west of the cen­tral city of Homs.

Speak­ing to reporters in Geneva, Colville said U.N. mon­i­tors who vis­ited the area found that fewer than 20 of the dead were killed by artillery fire. The rest appeared to have been shot at close range.

He said infor­ma­tion from U.N. inves­ti­ga­tors and other sources indi­cated that many of the vic­tims were killed in the Houla vil­lage of Tal­daw in two sep­a­rate inci­dents. Local res­i­dents blamed the killings on pro-regime mili­tias known as shabiha, which some­times act “in con­cert” with gov­ern­ment forces, he said.

He said a fuller inves­ti­ga­tion was needed before he could com­ment on that, and called on Syria to allow free access to U.N. investigators.

The bru­tal­ity of the killings and the high death toll raised new ques­tions about the abil­ity of a U.N.-brokered plan to end 15-months of vio­lence in Syria.

In Dam­as­cus, inter­na­tional envoy Kofi Annan met with Assad on Tues­day to express “grave con­cern” about the Houla killings and other vio­lence, said Annan’s spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi. Annan said his plan can­not work with­out “bold steps” to stop the vio­lence and release detainees.

Accord­ing to the state-run news agency, SANA, Assad blamed ter­ror­ists and weapons smug­glers for scut­tling the peace plan. The regime denies there is any pop­u­lar will behind the country’s upris­ing, say­ing for­eign extrem­ists and ter­ror­ists are dri­ving the unrest.

The new infor­ma­tion pro­vided by the U.N. draws atten­tion to the role of the shabiha in 15 months of vio­lence in Syria. Assad’s gov­ern­ment often deploys pro-regime thugs or armed mili­tias to repress protests or carry out more military-style attacks on oppo­si­tion areas.

They fre­quently work closely with sol­diers and secu­rity forces, but the regime never acknowl­edges their exis­tence, allow­ing it to deny respon­si­bil­ity for their actions.

A Syr­ian offi­cial denied again on Tues­day any involvement.

“It is irra­tional that any party who wants to make Annan’s mis­sion a suc­cess would ever com­mit such a mas­sacre,” Deputy For­eign Min­is­ter Faisal Mek­dad told reporters. He said Syria remained com­mit­ted to Annan’s plan and “had not com­mit­ted a sin­gle violation.”

Activists have posted videos of tanks and armored vehi­cles in the mid­dle of cities, a vio­la­tion of the plan, and U.N. observers said they found spent tank and artillery shells in Houla after the mas­sacre there. Funeral videos also showed local rebels among the mourn­ers — mak­ing it unlikely they car­ried out the killings.

Anti-regime rebels around the coun­try reg­u­larly attack mil­i­tary con­voys and check­points, killing soldiers.

Syria’s inter­na­tional iso­la­tion deep­ened in response to the killings. Gov­ern­ments around the world expelled Syr­ian ambas­sadors and diplo­mats Tues­day, an unusual, coor­di­nated blow to Assad’s regime.

The United States, Britain, Canada, Aus­tralia, France, Ger­many, Italy, Spain and the Nether­lands took action Tues­day against Syr­ian diplo­mats. Britain’s for­eign sec­re­tary said the coun­tries involved in Tuesday’s expul­sions would also push for tougher sanc­tions against Syria.

Long­time Syr­ian ally Rus­sia has largely stood by Dam­as­cus, although Moscow is grow­ing increas­ingly crit­i­cal — par­tic­u­larly over the Houla mas­sacre. On Tues­day, how­ever, Russ­ian For­eign Min­is­ter Sergey Lavrov accused unnamed coun­tries of try­ing to use the Houla killings “as a pre­text for tak­ing mil­i­tary measures.”

He said such nations sought to impede Annan’s plan because it seeks dia­logue between Syr­i­ans, not regime change.

Syria’s unrest began in March 2011, with protests call­ing for polit­i­cal change. Gov­ern­ment troops swiftly cracked down at the upris­ing spread, and many in the oppo­si­tion have taken up arms to defend their towns and attack gov­ern­ment troops.

Posted by AP News on May 29 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.