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Obama calls on Assad to step down
18 August 2011 Last updated at 09:41 ET
UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville: “Crimes against humanity may have been committed”
US President Barack Obama is to call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, White House sources say.
The call marks a significant ratcheting up of international pressure against Mr Assad after a months-long crackdown on anti-government protests.
UN investigators say the Syrian security forces’ use of violence “may amount to crimes against humanity”.
The investigators said the UN Security Council should refer the issue to the International Criminal Court.
US officials in Washington said Mr Obama would issue a written statement making his first explicit call for President Assad to step down over the violence, and announce tough new sanctions against his government.
The US has already tightened its sanctions against members of Syria’s government but has stopped short of demanding Mr Assad step down.
‘Systematic attacks’
Meanwhile, UN investigators released a 22-page report saying that security forces, including snipers, have used deadly force against civilians in attempts to quell months of anti-government protests.
About 2,000 people are believed to have been killed in Syria since March.
The UN’s investigators were not allowed in Syria. They interviewed victims and witnesses of the violence, some in Syria, and others in the region.
“The mission found a pattern of human rights violations that constitutes widespread or systematic attacks against the civilian population, which may amount to crimes against humanity,” the UN investigators said.
The report, released in Geneva, urged the UN Security Council to “consider referring the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court”.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, is to brief the Security Council on the report later on Thursday in a special session.
The BBC’s Jim Muir in Beirut says activists continue to report deaths and “the repression goes on”
An emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council will be held on Monday following a request from all 24 members – including Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The unrest in Syria began in March following the toppling of Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule have broken out in a succession of cities and the government has responded with force, sending in troops and tanks.
The assaults have escalated since the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan earlier in August.
Troop withdrawals
President Assad has told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that military operations against protesters have “stopped”, a UN spokesman said.
He was responding to a demand from Mr Ban during a phone call that “all military operations and mass arrests must cease immediately,” the UN’s Farhan Haq said in a statement.
But reports from inside Syria indicate the violence has continued, despite the highly-publicised troop withdrawal from three trouble-spots in the past couple of weeks – first the central city of Hama, then Deir al-Zour in the east, and now the Ramel district of Latakia on the western coast.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday was mostly quiet in the country except for shooting in Ramel.
Activists said at least 20 people were killed in various parts of the country on Wednesday, including the city of Homs.
An activist there told the Associated Press news agency that there had been heavy shooting all night until sunrise on Thursday.
- Syria’s anti-government protests, inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt, first erupted in mid-March after the arrest of a group of teenagers who spray-painted a revolutionary slogan on a wall. The protests soon spread, and human rights activists and opposition groups say 1,700 people have died in the turmoil, while thousands more have been injured.
- Although the arrest of the teenagers in the southern city of Deraa first prompted people to take to the streets, unrest has since spread to other areas, including Hama, Homs, Latakia, Jisr al-Shughour and Baniyas. Demonstrators are demanding greater freedom, an end to corruption, and, increasingly, the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad.
- President Assad’s government has responded to the protests with overwhelming military force, sending tanks and troops into at least nine towns and cities. In Deraa and Homs – where protests have persisted ? amateur video footage shows tanks firing on unarmed protesters, while snipers have been seen shooting at residents venturing outside their homes.
- Some of the bloodiest events have taken place in the northern town of Jisr al-Shughour. In early June, officials claimed 120 security personnel were killed by armed gangs, however protesters said the dead were shot by troops for refusing to kill demonstrators. As the military moved to take control of the town, thousands fled to neighbouring Turkey, taking refuge in camps.
- Although the major cities of Damascus and Aleppo have seen pockets of unrest and some protests, it has not been widespread – due partly to a heavy security presence. There have been rallies in the capital – one with an enormous Syrian flag – in support of President Assad, who still receives the backing of many in Syria’s middle class, business elite and minority groups.
- The Assad family has been in power for 40 years, with Bashar al-Assad inheriting office in 2000. The president has opened up the economy, but has continued to jail critics and control the media. He is from the minority Alawite sect – an offshoot of Shia Islam ? but the country’s 20 million people are mainly Sunni. The biggest protests have been in Sunni-majority areas.
- Although the US and EU have condemned the violence and imposed sanctions, the UN Security Council has been unable to agree on a response. Some fear the country could descend into civil war if the government collapsed, while others believe chaos in Syria ? with its strategic location and its web of regional alliances – could destabilise the entire Middle East.
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