Children, women, among those summarily executed at Houla, UN report says
The Associated Press
Posted: May 29, 2012 5:48 AM ET
Last Updated: May 29, 2012 12:09 PM ET
Most of the 108 victims of a chilling massacre in Syria last week were shot at close range, some of them women and children who were killed in their homes, the UN's human rights office said Tuesday.
The report offered grim new details of an event that could prove to be a turning point in Syria's 15 months of violence, but did not decisively say who carried out most of the killings. It did, however, cite survivors and witnesses who blamed the house-to-house killings on pro-government militias known as shabiha, who often operate as hired muscle for the regime....
These were assassinations. The soldier knew exactly who they were shooting. There is only one reason why children are assassinated and that is to stop the growth of their ethnic base. Al-Assad is destroying the very genetic future of the Syrian people.
Ten thousand dead is not one hundred thousand or the numbers of dead history has witnessed in genocidal killing, but, with this evidence the global community has to take this seriously and bring a resolve to Syria's struggle. This only speaks to the dead, but, there is also a growing humanitarian crisis in neighboring countries.
Democratic governments should never speculate regarding any military movement to another country (ie: Iraq), but, I sincerely believe the evidence has become overwhelmingly obvious to the outcomes of the al-Assad government. It is a minority government seeking to end any opposition to its methods of control in the country. If eliminating children is a resolve by the al-Assad government, the purpose of minority control is more than obvious.
Ten thousand dead is not one hundred thousand or the numbers of dead history has witnessed in genocidal killing, but, with this evidence the global community has to take this seriously and bring a resolve to Syria's struggle. This only speaks to the dead, but, there is also a growing humanitarian crisis in neighboring countries.
Democratic governments should never speculate regarding any military movement to another country (ie: Iraq), but, I sincerely believe the evidence has become overwhelmingly obvious to the outcomes of the al-Assad government. It is a minority government seeking to end any opposition to its methods of control in the country. If eliminating children is a resolve by the al-Assad government, the purpose of minority control is more than obvious.
Syrian diplomats around the world expelled (click here)
AP | May 29,2012 | 16:48
PARIS — Governments around the world expelled ambassadors and top Syrian diplomats Tuesday in an unusually coordinated blow to Syria's leaders, after a particularly gruesome massacre in which the UN says families, including children, were shot at close range in their homes.
Cranking up the pressure on increasingly isolated Syrian President Bashar Assad, France, Germany, Italy and Spain said they were kicking out Syria's ambassadors in their countries. Canada said it is expelling all Syrian diplomats, and Britain and Australia expelled senior Syrian diplomats.
The move came after killings Friday in Houla, a collection of farming villages in Syria's Homs province, one of the deadliest single events in the 15-month-old uprising against Assad's rule. The UN said 49 children and 34 women were among the 108 people killed....
