SYRIAN TROOPS closed public squares in Hama yesterday after residents poured red paint symbolising blood on the ground to mark the 30th anniversary of the massacre that President Bashar al-Assad’s father carried out to crush an uprising.
Dr Assad has been locked in struggle with a revolt against his own rule for the past 11 months – with at least 5,000 killed, by a United Nations count – stirring Arab and western calls for international action to stop the bloodshed.
But Russia has warned it would veto any UN resolution on Syria that it deemed “unacceptable”, making clear it aimed to prevent a Libyan-style intervention over Dr Assad’s violent crackdown on mass protests that have turned to armed insurgency in some regions.
Opposition activists say Dr Assad’s forces have stepped up operations around the country after appearing to crush rebels who brought the fight to the outskirts of the capital, Damascus, earlier this week.
Activists in Hama said fire trucks were used to wash away dye and paint poured on the ground overnight to commemorate the loss of more than 10,000 lives in the 1982 assault on the city by Dr Assad’s father, Hafez al-Assad. Hama was the centre of an Islamist revolt against him.
“They want to kill the memory and they do not want us to remember,” said an activist in the city, where residents said tanks blocked main squares to prevent demonstrations. “But we will not accept it.”
Hama marked the anniversary of the massacre as Russia fended off attempts to mobilise the United Nations against Syria.
Moscow, which has been a key strategic ally of Syria during its 49 years under Assad dynastic rule and a major arms supplier to Damascus, is demanding that any UN resolution explicitly rule out foreign intervention or it would be “unacceptable”.
A draft UN Security Council resolution backed by western powers and based on an Arab League peace plan for Syria calls on Dr Assad to transfer powers to a deputy, but this has been rebuffed by Damascus as interference in its sovereignty and is also opposed by Moscow as a recipe for regime change.
There was a general feeling among members of the UN Security Council yesterday that they would arrive at a consensus on a Syria resolution soon, Togo’s ambassador to the body said yesterday.
Kodyo Menan, president of the council this month, said: “We don’t have a deadline for adopting a resolution.”