UN calls for civilian protection in Syria
Syrian pro-regime supporters take part in a rally in Damascus on December 2, 2011. Europe and the United States tightened economic sanctions on Syria, ramping up international pressure as the UN said more than 4,000 people had died in a crackdown on dissidents.
The United Nations human rights chief said on Friday that the international community must quickly take steps to protect civillians in Syria to prevent more bloodshed in what she describes as a civil war.
"In light of the manifest failure of the Syrian authorities to protect their citizens, the international community needs to take urgent and effective measures to protect the Syrian people," Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said during an emergency meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
November's 950 death-toll marks the deadliest month in Syria's 8-month-old revolt against President Bashir al-Assad, the Associated Press reported. Assad’s violent crackdown against the eight-month uprising has killed more than 4,000 people, according to the UN.
As the mounting pressure from the international community continues against Assad, the country’s main opposition group and the Free Syrian Army rebels have brokered a deal to coordinate efforts against the authoritarian leader, according to media reports on Thursday.
The first meeting between the Syrian National Council and FSA this week in Turkey led to an agreement to establish a coordinated response. “The council recognised the Free Syrian Army as a reality, while the army recognized the council as the political representative" of the opposition, SNC’s Khaled Khoja told the AFP.
The FSA has posed a dilemma to the Syria’s main opposition bloc, which urges non-violent tactics. Born out of Syrian army defectors, the FSA told GlobalPost in an exclusive interview it is their right to defend the Syrian people and that they will continue to attack the regime.
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UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, while reporting the figure at a news conference in Geneva on Thursday, said she now considers Syria in a state of civil war.
"I have said that as soon as there were more and more defectors threatening to take up arms, I said this in August before the Security Council, there was going to be a civil war. At the moment that's how I am characterizing this.”
Despite demands from Syria’s Arab neighbors and the rest of world to stop the violent crackdowns against protesters, Assad has showed no signs of relent.
As the European Union imposed new sanctions on Thursday against Damascus, Syrian troops attacked a village in the central city of Hama that killed six people. The sanctions come behind a recent string of economic sanctions from the EU, the Arab League and Turkey.
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NATO intervention in Syria is all but out of the question, according to media reports but the joint economic effects of the recent sanctions from the Arab League, European Union and Turkey have reportedly gripped the country. Trade and investment are already down 50 pecent, GDP declined 12 to 20 percent and unemployment has risen to 22 percent, according to the NY Times.