UN H.R Council to pressure Syria on brutal crackdown

Bashar Al-Assad The UN Human Rights Council will pressure the Syrian regime Monday to halt attacks and allow an independent probe into alleged violations during its brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.
The council, which meets in an emergency session, will consider a draft resolution that "deplores the continued indiscriminate attacks on its population" and seek an immediate stop to "all acts of violence."
The resolution also highlights the need to "urgently dispatch an independent international commission of inquiry... to investigate violations of international human rights law in Syria since July 2011."
Investigators would be asked "to establish the facts and circumstances which may amount to such violations and where possible, to identify those responsible, with a view of ensuring that perpetrators of violations are held accountable."
Twenty-four members of the council, including EU states, the United States and all four Arab countries -- Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, had requested the special session on Syria.
It would be the second such meeting. A previous session in April had ordered a mission to investigate claims of violations but President Bashar al-Assad's regime has so far defied calls to allow investigators in.
Though blocked from accessing the country, the mission nevertheless spoke to witnesses and reported on Thursday that it found "a pattern of human rights violations that constitutes widespread or systematic attacks against the civilian population, which may amount to crimes against humanity."
US embassy spokesman David Kennedy said Monday's council session "comes as part of a much broader effort to use every available tool to confront the Assad regime and empower the Syrian public.
"We hope the special session will further demonstrate the regime?s increasing isolation, strengthen the mandate of the council to report on violations of the human rights of the Syrian people, and help advance a peaceful democratic transition in Syria," said Kennedy.
When Bashar Assad inherited power in Syria in 2000, many saw him as a youthful new president in a region of ageing dictators - a fresh face who could transform his father's stagnant dictatorship into a modern state ready to engage with the world. Now, the bloody government backlash has extinguished the once-popular image of Assad as a reformer struggling against members of his late father's old guard. With calls for his resignation last week from Washington to Tokyo, the Arab Spring has forced Assad to face the most severe isolation of his family's four-decade rule. And the events of the past five months have dashed any lingering hopes that he would change one of the most repressive states in the world.
In an interview broadcast live on Sunday, President Bashar al-Assad has warned against foreign military intervention in his country, in an appearance on state television. Assad said: "Any action against Syria will have greater consequences [on those who carry it out], greater than they can tolerate".
"First, because of Syria's geopolitical location and second [because of] Syrian capabilities. They know part of it but they do not know the other parts and they will not be able to afford the results," he said.
No country has yet proposed military action against Syria, but the US and EU last week called on Assad to step down.
Assad said those calls were not even worthy of a response, adding that he was appointed by the Syrian people, not by the West.
Assad also spoke about political reforms, saying local elections were to be held within months, to be followed by parliamentary polls.
"The expected time for having the parliamentary election is February 2012," he said.
Activists dismiss his promised political reforms and many opposition figures have rejected his call for a national dialogue, saying there can be no discussion while security forces continue to kill protesters.
Commenting on the deteriorating security situation in his country, the president said the unrest had become more "militant" in recent weeks, but that he was confident it could be controlled.
"We are capable of dealing with it.. [I] am not worried," he said.
The government has repeatedly blamed the unrest in the country on "armed terrorist groups" and defended the military operations.
In the interview, Assad returned to the "terrorist" rhetoric, saying "we need to be tough", and vowing that anyone found guilty of involvement in "crime" was to be punished.
Assad scoffed at Western calls for his ouster, rejecting them as "worthless."
"While withholding comment, we tell them that their words are worthless," Assad said.
"Such remarks should not be made about a president who was chosen by the Syrian people and who was not put in office by the West, a president who was not made in the United States," he said.
Meanwhile, a UN humanitarian mission began its first full day in Damascus on Sunday, arriving the previous evening to assess aid needs in the wake of the crackdown. “We welcome the fact that the government has approved the humanitarian mission,” said the official.
The team will “assess the humanitarian situation and condition of basic social services and identify initial assistance needs that could be addressed through a rapid response,” she added. She did not say which parts of the country the team would visit, but said the mission would continue until Thursday. More than 2,000 civilians have been killed in Damascus’ crackdown since the popular uprising began in mid-March.