Tánaiste criticises Assad regime over Syrian massacre

TÁNAISTE AND Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore yesterday described Friday’s massacre of more than 100 people in the Syrian town of Houla as “a crime against humanity”.

Mr Gilmore was speaking in Dublin as the UN Security Council met in New York in emergency session to discuss the worsening security situation in the country.

“What we’ve seen is a really shocking massacre, including the murder of young children, in Syria,” he said. “This is a crime against humanity and the people who are responsible for it will have to be held to account by the international community.”

At least 116 people, including many children, were killed in the Houla attack, the head of the UN observer mission in Syria, Gen Robert Mood, told the 15-nation council.

“The Assad regime is in breach of the UN-Annan peace plan,” Mr Gilmore said. “This was to ensure that there would not be attacks on urban areas, that there would not be shelling of urban areas, that the military would be withdrawn, and that an opportunity would be taken to move ahead with peace measures.”

Russian deputy UN ambassador Alexander Pankin said Moscow was sceptical about suggestions that the government was behind the massacre, saying it appeared that most of the victims had been killed with knives or shot at point-blank range. But other diplomats strongly disagreed and said the deaths were caused by artillery and tanks.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton demanded that “those who perpetrated this atrocity must be identified and held to account. The United States will work with the international community to intensify our pressure on Assad and his cronies, whose rule by murder and fear must come to an end.”

The UN council meeting was called after Russia rejected a French and British proposal for a statement condemning the massacre.

Last night the UN council condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the killings, though it did not directly hold Syrian armed forces responsible for them. The assault “involved a series of government artillery and tank shellings on a residential neighbourhood”, according to a statement.

Meanwhile, opposition activists said that at least 30 people were killed yesterday when Syrian army tanks shelled residential neighbourhoods in the city of Hama that had been serving as bases for rebel attacks, opposition activists said. – Additional reporting: agencies