Brussels, 01/08/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 1 August, the European Union decided to step up its sanctions against the Damascus regime and asked the Security Council of the United Nations to act to put an end to the violence, after the intervention of the Syrian army in Hama, which left over one hundred dead.
On Sunday 31 July, in a major intervention in the rebel cities of the country, the Syrian army and security forces killed 139 people, including 100 in Hama, according to a report by AFP put together on the basis of the death tolls reported by a number of human rights defence organisations.
“It is time for the Security Council to take a clear stand on the need to end the violence”, said Catherine Ashton in a press release dated Monday 1 August. The UN Security Council was planning to hold an emergency meeting later that day. Ashton has also confirmed the decision of the EU to sanction five new close members of the entourage of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The tightening of sanctions is not a reaction to the events of the weekend, as the decision has been in place since last Thursday.
“Tday (Monday), the EU has decided to impose further restrictive measures, in the form of an assets freeze and travel ban on five Syrian individuals involved in or associated with the violent repression”, said the high representative of the EU for foreign affairs. The names of these five individuals will be published on Tuesday 2 August in the Official Journal of the EU. This is the fourth package of EU sanctions against the leaders of the Syrian regime. The Syrian President himself and companies with links to high levels of powers and the leaders of the Iranian Council of Guardians, which are accused of helping the Syrian regime to stamp out opposition, are already subject to EU sanctions.
Whilst calling on the Syrian authorities to “release all political prisoners without further delay and to institute a proper inclusive national dialogue”, the high representative took pains to warn that the EU would be keeping a very close eye on the situation and that it is prepared to take further restrictive measures “should the Syrian leadership persist in its current path”. “I wish to remind the Syrian authorities of their responsibility to protect the population”, Ashton added. “The brutal violence creates a serious risk of escalating tension and factional divisions and is not consistent with broad reforms”, she said.
The American President, Barack Obama, described himself as “horrified” by the events underway and pledged that Washington would seek to isolate Damascus further. Italy and Germany called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, whilst the British head of diplomacy, William Hague, called for “more international pressure” on Syria. The Belgian foreign minister, Steven Vanackere, stated that he supported “the German and French proposal for an in-depth debate at the Security Council of the United Nations” in order to send “a clear signal to the Syrian regime that this violence must cease immediately”. Since the start of the trouble, repression has left around 2,000 dead, including more than 1,600 civilians, human rights organisations have reported.
In a press release issued on Sunday, the head of European diplomacy, Catherine Ashton, said that she was left “shocked” at the “latest reports from Syria that large numbers of civilians have again been killed in a totally unjustified assault by Syrian security forces on the town of Hama”. Stressing that the violence occurred on the eve of Ramadan, Ashton goes on to state that “the Syrian army and security forces have the duty to protect citizens, not to massacre them indiscriminately”. She concludes: “These latest developments once again show the hollowness of the promises of reform made by the government. The only way out of this crisis is through a genuine inclusive national dialogue with the opposition”. The president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, denounced a “massacre” and called on the regime to start the transition of power. (L.C./transl.fl)