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May 2nd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
According to the UN, more than 9,000 people have been killed in Syria since an
anti-regime uprising broke out in March last year, while the Observatory
puts the figure at more than 11,100.
UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said Syrian troops have kept heavy weapons
in cities, and that both the government and rebels have violated the truce.
He also said UN members had so far only offered only 150 military observers
for the 300-strong planned force and that Syria had refused visas for three
proposed monitors.
But Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdisi denied visa requests had
been turned down and said the two sides had agreed on the nationalities that
could operate in the country.
“We agreed with the UN negotiating team that nationalities of observers
to be mutually agreed upon … So there is no refusal per se … There are
far more than 110 nationalities that can easily work in Syria,” he told
AFP.
Ladsous said 24 monitors were currently in place.
“Regarding the heavy weapons, yes, our military observers do see a number
of APCs (armoured personnel carriers), for instance; they see a number of
Howitzers and other military equipment in most places where they are,”
he said.
Syria had told the monitors the armoured carriers had been disarmed, but this
had not been verified, added Ladsous.
“The important fact is that violations do come from both sides,” he
said while refusing to say whether one side had committed more breaches.
“All the parties need to take further steps to ensure a cessation of
violence in all its forms,” he said.
Human Rights Watch accused the regime of committing atrocities in the eastern
province of Idlib shortly before the truce took effect.
“Syrian tanks and helicopters attacked one town in Idlib after another,”
Anna Neistat, associate director for programmes and emergencies at HRW, said
in a statement.
“It was as if the Syrian government forces used every minute before the
ceasefire to cause harm,” she added.
The New York-based watchdog accused regime forces of summary executions,
arbitrary detentions and burning and destruction of civilian property.
In some of the incidents recorded by the global rights watchdog, children were
executed by regime forces.
“The security forces also arbitrarily detained dozens of people, holding
them without any legal basis,” HRW said.
According to one eyewitness account published by HRW, the mother of Mohammed
Saleh Shamrukh, an anti-regime protester from Saraqeb, in Idlib, had to
watch regime forces take him away.
“I didn’t say goodbye so as to not make him sad. He didn’t say anything
either. When they left, the soldiers said I should forget him,” she
said.
Shamrukh was executed on March 25.
Another woman recounted how regime forces entered her home in the town of
Taftanaz searching for her husband.
“They put a Kalashnikov to my head and threatened to kill us all if my
husband did not come home,” she said.
“Then an officer told a soldier to get petrol and told the children that
he would burn them like he would burn their father because he is a terrorist.”
She said she was finally allowed to leave the house before it was burned down
on April 4 along with the houses of her five brothers-in-law.
HRW said that during the April 3-4 attack on Taftanaz, northeast of Idlib
city, 19 members of the Ghazal family, including two under the age of 18,
were executed by regime forces. Nine males were shot in the head or back.
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund said Syria’s economy was likely to
contract significantly in 2012 due the violence and international sanctions
against the Assad regime.
burs/dv/bpz
AFP 021232 UTC MAI 12
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