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Saturday, July 14, 2012
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UN horror over Syria massacre
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By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Erika Solomon
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RAPHIC scenes of grief and death in a Syrian village bore witness yesterday to a massacre President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents say was the work of his troops and militia allies, drawing words of outrage from the outside world. But with much unclear about what happened at Tremseh - where opposition activists put the death toll at anywhere between over 100 and more than twice that number - and world powers divided as ever, there was little response beyond the rhetorical. UN special envoy Kofi Annan condemned “atrocities”, as unverifiable video evidence of casualties from Thursday’s attack on the village in rebellious Hama province emerged on the Web. The White House said such “atrocities” had cost Assad the legitimacy to remain as leader. Annan said he was “horrified, shocked and appalled” at “intense fighting, significant casualties, and the confirmed use of heavy weaponry such as artillery, tanks and helicopters” in the village. Calling it a “grim re-
minder” that UN resolutions calling for peace were being flouted, he wrote to the United Nations Security Council urging it to penalise Syria for failing to comply. But in the Council, Western powers still face objections from Russia and China to their efforts to push Assad from power. A local activist named Ahmed told Reuters there were 60 bodies at the mosque, of whom 20 were identified: “There are more bodies in the fields, bodies in the rivers and in houses.” There was no independent account of the battle, which the government described as a massacre by “terrorist groups”. Some opposition activists said over 220 people died when Tremseh was bombarded by helicopter gunships and tanks, then stormed by men from neighbouring villages in what they portrayed as a sectarian attack on Sunnis by Assad’s fellow Alawites. Others said the death toll in Thursday’s attack may have been less but was certainly over 100, which would make Tremseh one of the worst atrocities of the 17-month revolt against Assad and the 42-yearold family dynasty established by his father. TURN TO PAGE 9
Armenian soldiers of the self-proclaimed republic of Nagorno Karabakh work out close to the frontline on the border with Azerbaijan. EU president Herman Van Rompuy has urged enemies Armenia and Azerbai-
jan to end clashes that have raised fears of renewed war over the disputed region of Nagorno Karabakh. Armenia-backed separatists seized Karabakh from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s that left 30,000 dead