adminstopped immediately, the Russian Foreign Ministry said yesterday.
According to the media, more than 100 civilians were killed in Sunday’s protests in Syria in what human rights activists describe as one of the bloodiest days since the uprising began.
“We call upon the Syrian government and the opposition to show maximum restraint, to abandon acts of provocation and repressions, to observe legality and to respect international humanitarian law,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Al Jazeera reports that government forces launched fresh attacks on the town early yesterday morning.
“Military forces stormed the city from the west side and 25 people were killed and more than 65 injured,” Al Jazeera quoted a witness as saying.
“Protests have continued in the country since mid-March with calls for President Bashar Assad’s resignation and political reform.
“In a bid to ease tensions, the government has recently passed a law that allows the formation of political parties and effectively ends the almost 50-year de-facto monopoly rule of the Baath party.
“The violence was condemned by the United States, the United Kingdom, Turkey and The Netherlands. Early yesterday, Germany demanded the UN Security Council convene for an emergency session.
“More than 1 400 civilians have been killed since the start of the protests on March 15, Syrian human rights groups say. “The government says 350 members of the security forces were killed in violence which they blame on armed terrorist groups.”
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council scheduled closed door-consultations for later yesterday to discuss the worsening violence in Syria, diplomats said.
Germany requested the meeting after human rights groups said government troops had killed 80 people on Sunday when they stormed the Syrian city of Hama to crush protests amid a five-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
Diplomats said the council meeting would be held at 5pm (New York time). Due to the monthly change in the council presidency, Germany, which held the chair until Sunday midnight, had to ask India, president for the month of August, to arrange the consultations.
Practical council action on Syria has been paralysed for weeks by disagreements within the 15-nation body.
Western European countries circulated a draft resolution two months ago that would condemn the Syrian crackdown on protesters, but Russia and China, both allies of Damascus, have threatened to veto it.
Temporary council members Brazil, India, Lebanon and South Africa have also said they do not support the resolution.
Critics say they fear that even a simple condemnation could be the first step toward Western military intervention in Syria, as happened in Libya in March.
Western diplomats said they hoped to use yesterday’s meeting to try to revive the issue, even though the opponents of council action have so far given no sign of changing their view.
“I think the idea is to resuscitate the draft resolution,” one diplomat said. – RIA Novosti-Reuters.
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