also, yesterday .. GCC calls for urgent meeting of the Arab League on Syria ...
Friday, October 14, 2011
UN warns of civil war as Arab FMs to talk on Syria
DAMASCUS / BEIRUT
Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting Oct. 16 in Cairo to discuss the situation in Syria as the U.N.’s top human rights official urged the international community to take “immediate measures” to protect civilians in Syria, activist said. Gulf Arab states Oct. 13 had called for an immediate meeting of Arab League states to discuss the humanitarian situation in Syria and study ways “to stop the bloodshed and machine of violence”, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
said in a statement.
Continues ...read more ..
The U.N. top human rights official meanwhile called Oct. 14 for international action to protect Syria’s civilians, saying its “ruthless repression” of anti-government protesters could drive the country into full-blown civil war.
“The onus is on all members of the international community to take protective action in a collective manner, before the continual ruthless repression and killings drive the country into a full-blown civil war,” Pillay, a former U.N. war crimes judge, said in a statement, the Associated Press reported. “As more members of the military refuse to attack civilians and change sides, the crisis is already showing worrying signs of descending into an armed struggle,” she added.
German firm to help Assad
On the ground, thousands of Syrians poured into the streets Oct. 14 calling for the downfall of President Bashar al-Assad and expressing support for army defectors fighting the regime, as Syrian security forces killed 10 people on Friday when they opened fire on protesters in several cities. The protests were the most explicit show of support offered so far by the country’s protest movement to army defectors who have reportedly clashed with loyalists in northern and central Syria in an increasing militarization of the seven-month-old uprising.
Furthermore, Syria and German engineering giant Siemens meanwhile inked a $419 million contract Oct. 13 for the expansion of a power plant north of Damascus, Agence France-Presse reported. The deal comes after the European Union slapped an eighth round of sanctions on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over its brutal crackdown on protesters.
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