MEETING IN DAMASCUS: Annan (fourth right) meeting with al-Assad (third right), in the presence of UN chief observer General Mood (left) and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in Damascus. — AFP photo
DAMASCUS: Kofi Annan met yesterday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for crunch talks in which he is expected to convey international outrage over the Houla massacre of more than 100 people.
On his arrival in Damascus on Monday, the UN and Arab League peace envoy called the “tragic” massacre in the central region “an appalling moment with profound consequences.”
“I intend to have serious and frank discussions with President Bashar Al-Assad. I also look forward to speaking with a range of other people while I am here,” he told reporters on Monday.
The former UN chief did not elaborate, but his comments before a meeting with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem reflected intensifying pressure on his mission aimed at ending almost 15 months of bloodshed in Syria.
The United Nations said he was also set to hold discussions with civil society and opposition representatives.
The Assad government has been using brutal force to crush an Arab Spring-inspired uprising, triggering a low-level insurgency by some regime opponents who have taken up arms.
The violence has killed more than 13,000 people, most of them civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based watchdog.
And it has persisted despite the presence on the ground of more than 280 UN military observers as part of Annan’s six-point blueprint aimed at ending the conflict.
At least six civilians were killed so far on Tuesday as fierce fighting was reported across Syria, including three in central Homs province where last week’s massacre occurred, said the Observatory.
The violence also spilled over the border, with a security official in Lebanon reporting Syrian troops shot dead a Lebanese man and wounded three others, amid claims they were gunned down while hunting for rabbits.
The international community has reacted with horror over deaths of at least 108 people at the village of Taldu near Houla on Friday and Saturday, among them 49 children and 34 women, many shot dead at point blank range.
On Tuesday, Australia expelled Syria’s top diplomat over the “hideous and brutal” Houla massacre, with Foreign Minister Bob Carr saying he expected other countries to follow suit.
“This is the most effective way we’ve got of sending a message of revulsion to the Syrian government,” Carr said, adding Syrian charge d’affaires Jawdat Ali and the other unnamed official had 72 hours to leave the country.
French President Francois Hollande said Syria’s leaders would have to answer for their “murderous folly,” and Pope Benedict XVI called on Syria’s religious communities to cooperate to bring peace to the country. — AFP
Canada called on the UN Security Council to take “stronger diplomatic action,” including economic sanctions against the regime over its “senseless slaughter of its own people.”
The UN Security Council — where Syrian allies Russia and China wield veto powers — had on Sunday condemned the Damascus government’s use of heavy artillery in the assault on Houla.
Annan told reporters in Damascus that he was “personally shocked and horrified by the tragic incident in Houla,” saying the UN body was right to condemn it.
He urged Damascus to take “bold steps” to signal it is serious in its intention to resolve the crisis peacefully.
“And this message of peace is not only for the government, but for everyone with a gun.”
However, the Security Council’s condemnation of the Syrian government’s role in the massacre has done little to bring the international powers together to end the crisis.
Britain and France had proposed a text making an even stronger condemnation of the Assad government, but Russia defended its key Middle East ally at the Security Council and said both sides bore responsibility.
“Here we have a situation where both sides clearly had a hand in the fact that peaceful citizens were killed,” said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Assad’s opponents renewed their call to the international community to help Syrians defend themselves.
“The Syrian National Council calls (on) brothers and friends of the Syrian people to help before it’s too late,” the exiled group said in a statement.
The Free Syrian Army has warned that unless the international community takes concrete action it will no longer be bound by Annan’s plan. — AFP