THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: President Bashar al-Assad faces indictment by the International Criminal Court as Western leaders were told on Sunday that the Syrian leader could be held to account for the deaths of 120 anti-government protesters.An influential body of international judges and lawyers called for Mr Assad and his lieutenants to be held to account for Easter weekend attacks in which troops and militamen fire on civilians.
"Those ordering and carrying out these attacks, including those firing live rounds into crowds, must be held criminally accountable," the International Committee of Jurists (ICJ) said in a statement.
As opposition supporters continued to bury dead comrades on Sunday, four more were reported to have been killed.
William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, warned all Britons in Syria that the scale of violence was so grave they should leave immediately or risk not being able to leave "at all" as the turmoil worsened.
Western governments were coming under growing scrutiny for their divergent policies towards Libya and Syria, where more than 300 people have been shot dead since unrest began five weeks ago.
Critics complained that while the West has been comparatively quick to go to the aid of the Libyan people, Syrians struggling against one of the Middle East's most repressive regimes had largely been abandoned to their fate. "The international community has failed so far to protect the people of Syria from wide-scale human rights violations," Wilder Taylor, the ICJ's secretary-general, said.
Syria has deployed many of the same tactics used by Col Gaddafi in Libya, with unarmed protesters facing live fire by both the security forces and loyalist militiamen and snipers.
But many Western officials have been reluctant to criticise Mr Assad too harshly, even though his regime has long been treated as a near pariah. » | Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent | Sunday, April 24, 2011
Bashar al-Assad is a brutal dictator who should be brought to justice. He is a man with a smiling face but an iron fist. Pursue him for the brutality he has visited upon his own innoocent people.
It is high time that the USA, UK, and the rest of the West stopped pursuing hypocritical foreign policies all for the sake of oil. It is high time that we in the West had more ethical foreign policies, and paid the ultimate price if that indeed need be. Westerners will never be liked in the Arab, oil-producing world whilst we pursue these nonsensical, hypocritical policies for our own ends. Little wonder the Arabs in the street despise Americans in particular, and Westerners in general! What use is it to try and “win hearts and minds” with initiatives whilst innocent people are dying in their hundreds, nay thousands?
Innocent Muslims have suffered enough! Never will there be peace in the world whilst hypocrisy rules supreme. Never!
How can it make sense to talk the talk, but not walk the walk? How can it make sense to talk up democracy for one oppressed people, but at the same time ignore repression and brutality in countries like Bahrain and Syria? We fight on the side of rebels in Libya, yet ignore the plight of Bahrainis and Syrians. Go figure! Talk about inconsistency! There you have it! – © Mark
