* UN says Syria Killings Rise after Monitors Arrive-US
An Arab League observer has left Syria, saying he had witnessed “scenes of horror’’ that he was powerless to prevent.
The observer also said that the Arab monitoring team sent to the country was not acting independently.
“I withdrew because I found myself serving the Syrian regime,’’ Anwar Malek told Al Jazeera television, still wearing the orange vest used by the Arab monitors.
“How was I serving the regime? I was giving the regime a greater chance to continue its killing and I could not prevent that,’’ the Algerian said in an interview at Al Jazeera’s headquarters in Qatar.
The Arab League monitoring mission, now about 165 strong, began work on Dec. 26.
Its task is to verify if Syria is complying with an agreement to halt a crackdown on 10 months of protests against President Bashar al-Assad in which the UN says more than 5,000 people have been killed.
Asked why he had quit, Malek said: “The most important thing is to have human feelings of humanity. I spent more than 15 days in Homs and I saw scenes of horror, burnt bodies. I cannot leave behind my humanity in this sort of situation.’’
Malek criticised the leader of the Arab League mission, Sudanese Gen. Mohammed al-Dabi, whose suitability for the role had been questioned by human rights groups concerned about his past role in the conflict in Darfur.
“The head of the mission wanted to steer a middle course in order not to anger the Syrian authorities or any other side,’’ said Malek, who had already drawn attention for critical comments he posted on Facebook while still in Syria.
A UN official told the Security Council on Tuesday that Syria had accelerated its killing of protesters after the Arab monitors arrived, the U.S. envoy to the UN said.
“The under-secretary-general noted that in the days since the Arab League monitoring mission has been on the ground, an estimated 400 additional people have been killed, an average of 40 a day, a rate much higher than was the case before their deployment,’’ ambassador Susan Rice told reporters in New York.
Rice was speaking after Lynn Pascoe, UN under-secretary-general for political affairs, briefed the 15-nation Security Council behind closed doors on Syria and other major
crises.
Rice said the figure did not include 26 people the authorities said were killed by a suicide bomber in Damascus last week.
Syria says it is facing a wave of “terrorism’’ by Islamists armed and manipulated from abroad who have killed 2,000 members of the security forces.
Assad said in a speech on Tuesday that his country was the target of a foreign conspiracy.
He derided the efforts of Arab League monitors to halt violence against anti-government activists, and a UN official said Syria had stepped up its killing of protesters.
“Syria stepped up killings after the monitors arrived,’’ the official added.
The president said in a speech on Tuesday, his first public address since June, that he was determined to strike the “terrorists’’ he blames for the 10-month revolt, inspired by other “Arab Spring’’ uprisings last year.
He made some promises of reform, but no sweeping concessions that might placate an opposition determined to end more than four decades of domination by the Assad family.
The UN has said more than 5,000 civilians have been killed in the largely peaceful protests against Assad, while he says Islamist militants have killed 2,000 members of his security forces.
A senior UN official told the Security Council on Tuesday that Syria had accelerated its killing of pro-democracy demonstrators after Arab League monitors arrived to check on implementation of an Arab peace plan, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said.
“The under-secretary-general noted that in the days since the Arab League monitoring mission has been on the ground, an estimated 400 additional people have been killed, an average of 40 a day, a rate much higher than was the case before their deployment,” Rice told reporters.
Rice was speaking after Lynn Pascoe, UN under-secretary-general for political affairs, briefed the 15-nation Security Council behind closed doors on Syria and other major crises.
She said the figure did not include more than two dozen people killed in a suicide bombing in Damascus last week.
“That is a clear indication that the government of Syria, rather than using the opportunity to end the violence and fulfill all of its commitments to the Arab League, is instead stepping up the violence,” she said.
Assad made scathing remarks about the Arab League, which suspended Syria in November and whose monitors are trying to check Syria’s compliance with an Arab peace plan.
“The Arab League has failed for six decades to take a position in the Arab interest,” he said.
The League condemned an attack on Monday in which 11 of its monitors were hurt by demonstrators in the port city of Latakia, saying Syria had breached its obligation to protect them.
Syria said it was continuing to provide security for the observers and condemned any act that obstructs their work.
In his speech Assad, 46, offered a referendum on a new constitution in March and a multi-party parliamentary election that has been much postponed.
The present charter designates Assad’s Baath party as “the leader of the state and society’’.
He gave no sign that he was willing to relinquish the power he inherited on his father’s death in 2000.
“I am not someone who abandons responsibility,” he declared.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Assad’s speech showed the Syrian government was trying to deflect attention from the crackdown and evade responsibility for the violence.
“He’s doing everything but what he needs to do,’’ Nuland said. “It confirms our view that it’s time for him to step aside.”
In the latest bloodshed, Syrian forces shot dead 10 people, most of them anti-Assad protesters, in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Authorities have barred most independent media from Syria, making it hard to verify accounts by activists or officials.
Until two big bomb blasts in Damascus in recent weeks, the Syrian capital had remained relatively peaceful.
But residents now speak of a wave of fear spreading through the city, emptying its normally bustling streets and crowded cafes and leaving a ghost town at night as residents hurry home, worried that more violence may erupt.