Kofi Annan! UN! Useless! They Lie As Much As al-Assad

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International condemnation follows Syria massacre

By the CNN Wire Staff

updated 3:23 PM EDT, Sun May 27, 2012


(CNN) -- The killings of dozens of Syrian civilians, including more than 30 children, provoked outrage around Syria and worldwide Sunday as horrific images of the bodies in Houla spread across the internet.

Videos posted Sunday on YouTube show demonstrations in cities around the country, including Damascus, Daraa, Idlib, and the suburbs of Hama.

"Oh Houla, we are with you until death," protesters chanted in Daraa. And a demonstration in Idlib showed a U.N. vehicle among protesters. In the Hama suburbs, demonstrators called for President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

One protester appeared to be wounded in the Damascus neighborhood of Midan, with video showing him being carried out bleeding from his abdomen.

U.N. monitors say 85 people were killed in Houla on Friday, and 34 of them were children under the age of 10. The monitors visited the town over the weekend, releasing video Sunday that depicts bodies being loaded into a truck and others being prepared for funerals. One man tells the monitors the town was shelled until 2 a.m. Saturday.

The monitors said some of the victims were killed by artillery, while others died from gunshot wounds.And video posted over the weekend showed opposition activists displaying the bloodied remains of more than 10 children, including some with limbs blown off or skulls torn open. In another, medics treated a crying infant whose chest was covered in bandages.

But Syria's government sharply denied allegations that it was behind he massacre, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi blasting what he called "the tsunami of lies" on Sunday.

At the United Nations, Security Council members convened for Sunday afternoon talks on the Syrian crisis, said Eduardo del Buey, a spokesman for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's office. And British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Sunday he has summoned the Syrian Embassy's charge d'affairs in London to his office on Monday over the massacre in Houla.

"No words strong enough to condemn the massacre in Houla," Hague posted on Twitter on Sunday. "There must be a strong international response."

And the White House joined the condemnation Sunday afternoon, with National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor saying the United States was horrifed by "credible reports" of the massacre, "including stabbing and ax attacks on women and children."

"These acts serve as a vile testament to an illegitimate regime that responds to peaceful political protest with unspeakable and inhuman brutality," Vietor said in a written statement.

But Makdissi told reporters in Damascus, "We deny that the Syrian armed forces were responsible of what took place in Houla." And on state-run media, the Syrian regime said "al Qaeda-linked terrorist groups committed two horrible massacres against a number of families in the towns of al-Shumariyeh and Taldo in the countryside of Homs province."

The state report also showed gruesome images of children spattered with blood.

CNN can not independently confirm details from Syria nor the authenticity of videos, however, as the Syrian government strictly limits access by foreign journalists.

The crisis began in March 2011, when peaceful demonstrations modeled on the "Arab Spring" uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt sprang up across Syria. Al-Assad's government responded by turning police and troops on demonstrators -- but the protests spread across the country, with defecting soldiers taking up up arms on behalf of the opposition.

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A cease-fire agreement, brokered by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's office, has been in place since April 12 as part of a six-point peace plan. But Col. Qasim Saad Eddine, a spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army, said Saturday that it was "no longer possible to abide by the peace plan" after the Houla killings.

"This is a clear evidence that Kofi Annan's plan is dead and a clear indication that Bashar Assad and his criminal gang do not understand anything but the language of force and violence," Eddine said. He urged the U.N. Security Council to authorize airstrikes by member nations against government forces and strategic points.
A U.N. report issued Friday said Syrian forces are still using heavy weapons in many areas despite the April cease-fire, and "The overall level of violence in the country remains quite high" despite the presence of U.N. monitors. Monitors have heard the sound of shelling in cities and towns and seen the aftereffects, their report states, while Syrian authorities say they were coming under fire from rebel troops.

Meanwhile, opposition groups effectively control "significant parts of some cities" the monitors state. But the government's stepped-up security crackdown "has led to massive violations of human rights" by Syrian troops and pro-government militias, the report states.

Makdissi, in his remarks Sunday, accused some U.N. countries of "openly working against Syria" and rejected the notion of an armed opposition in the country.

"There is no armed opposition in Syria. There is either an intellectual opposition, and we welcome their participation in national dialogue, or there are armed terrorist gangs that refuse the political resolution," Makdissi said.

Sunday's closed Security Council sessions comes a day ahead of a scheduled meeting between Syrian officials and Annan, the joint U.N.-Arab League special envoy on the crisis. And Hague was on his way to Moscow for talks with one of Syria's leading allies. He said he will call on Russia to support rapid and unequivocal pressure on the Assad regime, as well as "accountability for crimes."

The Arab League will meet Saturday in Doha to discuss Syria, according to a senior Arab League official. Foreign ministers are expected to attend, the official sending, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media.

Since the Syrian regime and opposition members accepted the plan in March, at least 1,635 people have been killed, the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said Saturday.

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Lt. Bassim al-Khaled, a spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Movement, said more bloodshed is coming. The al-Assad government is using the cease-fire and peace plan "to kill more people and is trying to crush the uprising," al-Khaled said.

"So the only language this regime is going to understand is the language of the gun," al-Khaled said. "Wait and see, we will make them pay for each drop of blood which was shed."

U.N. officials say more than 9,000 people, mostly civilians, have died and tens of thousands have been uprooted since the uprising began in March 2011. Opposition groups report a death toll of more than 11,000 people.

CNN's Saad Abedine, Holly Yan, Mohammed Jamjoom, Omar Al Muqdad, Richard Roth and Yousuf Basil contributed to this report.