May 24, 2012 (TSR/SANA/Xinhua) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stressed Thursday that his country is able to get out of the current crisis, as a UN-appointed human rights panel accused the Syrian government and the armed opposition of committing violations of human rights.
The Syrian president made the remarks during his meeting with the Iranian minister of communication, who handed him an invitation from his Iranian counterpart to attend the coming summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Iran.
“Syria has succeeded to overcome the pressures and challenges that faced it since years and is able to get out of this crisis thanks to its people’s steadfastness and adherence to its unity and independence,” Assad was quoted by the state media as saying.
Meanwhile, a report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria said on Thursday that gross violations continue unabated in an increasingly militarized context despite various parties in the conflict having reached an agreement.
In its periodic update to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the inquiry commission said unlawful killing, torture and ill-treatment and violation of children’s rights continue at the hands of the Syrian government and armed opposition groups. The commission has also taken note of an increased use of improvised explosive devices by anti-government groups.
The commission said a total of 478 police officers and 2,091 individuals from the military and security forces were killed in a year since March 2011.
The commission noted a series of large explosions in which scores of civilians were killed and pointed out the explosions appear to be by suicide bombers or by explosives hidden in vehicles and detonated remotely. However, “the commission was not able to ascertain those responsible for these criminal acts,” the report said.
The report is a new precedent as the international community now seems compelled to admit the existence of armed groups that have become one of the main players in the Syrian conflict with the daily reports of assassinations, bombings and burglaries.
Observers and experts believe that a third party is now involved in the 15-month unrest in Syria and that it’s not operating on the behest of neither the government nor the opposition. They say the third player consists of armed extremists who are believed to be affiliated with al-Qaida.
What has strengthened the recent claim is the style of the assassinations, which have a sectarian nature as most of the killed army officers in Syria are from the Alawite minority, to which the Syrian president and the ruling elites belong.
On the other hand, the opposition claims that the Assad regime is the one who is playing on the sectarian nerve to emerge as the only protector for the minorities in Syria.
They contend that the current chaos in the country plays in the hands of the regime that is painstakingly trying to tarnish the opposition and their dream of true democracy and freedom.
Despite the opposition’s clear vision about their aim, which is toppling Assad, differences and division have always prevailed and prevented them from truly forging a united front in the face of the regime.
Earlier in the day, Syria’s main opposition coalition, the Turkey-based Syrian National Council, said it has accepted the resignation of its Paris-based chief Burhan Ghalioun, who has recently offered to leave his post after increasing criticism to his leadership from other opponents in the council.
Observers believed that the reason behind the fissure in the council is the lack of commutability and consensus among the council’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood and other political rivals that represent the secular side. Ghalioun is known of his secularism.
Other reasons were highlighted by some parties in the council such as the Local Coordination Committees, which has recently stated that it would pull out from the broad-based council to protest against the “marginalization of decision making.”
As complicated as it seems, the UN observers are carrying out with their mission to monitor the smoldering situation in Syria, in hopes they can bring a political end to the ongoing violence. The observers’ mission has done little to stem the violence in Syria.
On Thursday, armed groups assassinated a lieutenant colonel and his son at a suburban district of the Syrian capital of Damascus, according to state-run SANA news agency.
The gunmen headed off the car of Lt-Col Wafiq Deib at Jdaidet al-Fadel district outside Damascus, while he was driving his 13- year-old son to school, and showered it with bullets, killing the officer and his young son instantly.
Also, SANA said the bodies of a woman and her four children were found dumped at countryside of central Hama province a day after being kidnapped by armed groups.
Meanwhile, the oppositional Local Coordination Committees said that 38 people were killed Thursday across Syria, blaming the regime for the deadly incidents.
However, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it has documented the names of 29 casualties that were killed Thursday. The opposition account couldn’t be independently checked.
The UN says the Syrian unrest has claimed the lives of 10,000 people.
