Al-Arabiya, Geneva, 8 Nov 2011 – The Syrian death toll has risen to over 3,500 since the government crackdown on anti-regime protesters erupted in mid-March, a United Nations organization estimates.
The U.N. human rights office said that the ongoing onslaught on civilians by Syrian security forces and loyalists to the regime of embattled president Bashar al-Assad is continuing to claim lives, despite a peace plan that had been agreed on recently by the Syrian government.
“The brutal crackdown on the dissent in Syria has so far claimed the lives of more than 3,500 Syrians,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, reported AFP.
“More than 60 people are reported to have been killed by military and security forces since Syria signed the peace plan sponsored by the league of Arab states, including at least 19 on Eid al-Adha on Sunday,” she added.
Meanwhile, the main opposition council, the Syrian National Council (SNC) launched a diplomatic offensive on Assad this week, placing pressure on the Arab League to take a tougher stance against the regime at its next meeting on November 11 and 12.
In a letter, the SNC urged the pan-Arab bloc “to take a strong and effective position against the Syrian regime commensurate with the dangerous development of the situation in Syria, especially in… Homs.”
The central city − Syria’s third-largest − has been at the forefront of the protest movement against Assad’s regime that erupted in mid-March and borne the brunt of a military crackdown on dissent and gunmen presumed to be defectors.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said five civilians were killed on Monday alone during clashes in Homs.
The Britain-based watchdog urged the Arab League to freeze Syria’s membership, impose economic and diplomatic sanctions, and seek the referral of allegations of genocide and other human rights violations by the regime to the International Criminal Court.
SNC diplomatic offensive
The SNC expressed hope that it would be recognized as the “legitimate representative of the Syrian revolution and people,” a move mimicking the strategy of Libya’s new rulers who gained international recognition before ousting the former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.
The League has called an emergency meeting in Cairo on Saturday to discuss Syria’s failure to implement its roadmap for ending the bloodshed, which calls on Assad to open talks with the opposition and withdraw tanks from the streets.
The SNC has said it plans “urgent visits” to Algeria, Sudan, Oman and Qatar, and to inform several Arab foreign ministers of the regime’s “horrific crimes” in Homs and other areas under “extensive military attacks.”
Meanwhile, Syria on Saturday said it had released more than 550 people who were arrested during anti-regime protests, to mark the Eid al-Adha Muslim feast and in what was seen as an effort to comply with the Arab League agreement.
However, the U.N. spokeswoman Shamdasani noted that despite the release, “thousands continue to remain in detention and dozens continue to be arbitrarily arrested every day.”
“Syrian troops continue to use tanks and heavy weaponry to attack residential areas in the city of Homs,” she said, referring to the flashpoint central city where protests against Assad’s rule were held in most districts despite a weeks-long military crackdown.
“This has been extraordinarily disappointing,” Shamdasani said.
“There was a peace plan by the league of Arab states that the Syrian government had engaged to, but since the peace plan was signed, there have been further killings, further sieges of towns and really shocking reports coming out from the ground,” she noted.