Syrian journalists speak out as killings intensify

[Turborama]

Source: Reuters

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN | Mon Apr 25, 2011 4:18am BST

- Syrian writers issued a declaration Monday denouncing a bloody crackdown on protests, a sign of outrage surging through the intellectual elite after days of the deadliest violence in five weeks of demonstrations.

Rights groups say security forces have killed more than 350 civilians since unrest began last month. A third of the victims were killed in the past three days as the scale and breadth of a popular revolt against President Bashar al-Assad intensified.

Foreign journalists have mostly been expelled from the country, making it impossible to verify the situation on the ground. Grisly footage posted on the Internet by demonstrators in recent days appears to show troops firing on unarmed crowds.

=snip=

Monday's declaration was signed by 102 writers and journalists, in Syria and in exile, representing all the country's main sects, a sign that shock at the violence is crossing Syria's lines of sectarian division.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/04/25/uk-syria-idUKTRE73E33220110425?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&ca=moto

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More on what the declaration said & who signed it at the link.

[No Elephants]

1. K & R

[al bupp]

2. This deserves a kick /nt

[Rage for Order]

3. And the UN once again shows that it is irrelevant

Isn't this the kind of situation for which the UN was tailor-made? If it won't intervene in a situation such as this one in Syria, what useful purpose does it serve?

[joshcryer]

5. UN Council Asked to Condemn Syria Attacks on Protesters

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-25/un-security-council-asked-to-condemn-syria-attacks-on-protesters.html">UN Council Asked to Condemn Syria Attacks on Protesters
The United Nations Security Council is being asked to condemn the Syrian government’s attacks on protesters against President Bashar al-Assad, Portugal’s ambassador said.

Britain, France, Germany and Portugal today circulated a draft statement that asks for restraint by all parties to the conflict and respect for human rights, and endorses Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon’s call for an investigation of the violence. It also notes Assad’s decision last week to lift the 48-year-old emergency law and abolish the Supreme State Security Court.

“The situation in Syria is extremely serious and it requires a very clear condemnation from the international community,” said Portugal’s ambassador to the UN, Jose Moraes Cabral. Noting that Ban and the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, have condemned the Syrian government’s actions, Cabral said it was “time the Security Council also said something.”

The first UN Security Council consideration of the situation in Syria follows the reported deaths today of at least 20 people when security forces stormed the city of Daraa in the south and opened fire from tanks and armored vehicles.

[Rage for Order]

6. Nothing will come of it

From the article in your post:

The ability of the Security Council to agree on a statement is in doubt following opposition last week to a council position on the violence in Yemen. Statements such as the one being proposed require the unanimous consent of the panel’s 15 member governments.

The UN is worthless

[Keith Bee]

4. Balls!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: for these courageous Syrians.