Bloodshed Continues in Syria

<Photo=Al Jazeera Web site>

In spite of continuing violence between security forces and opposition forces, Syria held local elections on 12. Authorities said the vote had been freer compared to the past ones but turnout was expected to be very low. The opposition had called for a boycott and launched a general strike. Not many Syrian voters would risk going to the polls.

Syria is a country where election turnout is believed to be no higher than 10% even in peaceful years. A resident of the city of Homs, Syria’s third-largest city told Al Jazeera, “I didn’t even know an election was taking place.” We will never know how many Syrians could have voted this time since there were no independent monitors.

About 43,000 candidates competed for more than 17,000 seats in local councils across Syria. The Syrian state media reported groups of people flocking to polling stations and voting inside the stations. However protests continued in contested areas such as Homs, Hama, Deraa, Deir al-Zour, Idlib and even some neighbourhoods of Damascus and 13 people were reported killed in Homs on election day.

President Bashar al-Assad is under international pressure to end the continuing crackdown on anti-government protests. The Arab League suspended Syria’s membership and also imposed economic sanctions. The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said more than 5,000 people had been killed in Syria during the uprising. She told the Security Council at the briefing that the situation inside the country had become “intolerable”. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “This cannot go on. In the name of humanity, it is time for the international community to act.”

Russia has called for emergency UN Security Council talks and proposed a resolution strongly condemning violence by “all parties, including disproportionate use of force by Syrian authorities.” Hilary Clinton, the US Secretary of State said, “Washington hopes to work with Russia on the draft resolution despite differences with Moscow on the issue.” She also added that it was the first time Russia recognised the need to deal with violence in Syria at the Security Council level. Last month, Russia and China vetoed a western-backed UN Security Council resolution condemning the bloodshed in Syria.

Human Rights Watch, an international NGO headquartered in New York released a report on Thursday of more than 60 interviews with defectors from the Syrian military and intelligence agencies. The defectors provided detailed information about their units’ participation in attacks, abuses against Syrian citizens and the orders they received from commanders and officials at various levels.