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Friday, November 18, 2011

Arabs give Syria three days to halt 'bloody repression'



The Arab world called Wednesday for urgent action to protect Syrian civilians from an eight-month protest crackdown, giving President Bashar al-Assad three days to halt the "bloody repression." That came as a raid by army defectors on a military base highlighted the scale of the challenge to Assad at home, prompting the United States to warn that violence by the opposition is playing into his regime s hands. Despite Syrian promises to the contrary, the embassies of Morocco and the United Arab Emirates in Damascus were attacked by pro-Assad crowds on Wednesday. With the foreign ministers in Rabat saying their patience had run out, the Arab League gave the Assad regime three days to halt violence or face economic sanctions, Qatar s prime minister said. The 22-member League is "giving the Syrian government three days to stop the bloody repression" of its civilian population, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told a news conference after a meeting of member states in Rabat. "But if Damascus does not agree to cooperate with the League, sanctions will be adopted against Syria," he said, adding that the Arab states had "almost reached the end of the line" with Damascus. "I don t want to speak about last chances so (the regime) doesn t think it is being given an ultimatum but we are almost at the end of the line," he said. "The Syrian government must agree to Arab League decisions and stop the blood bath in Syria," he said. "We do not interfere in Syria s internal affairs... but the blood bath must be stopped." Syria was suspended by the League at the weekend, and refused to turn up at the meeting, which was also attended by Turkey, its northern neighbour. In a statement after what was labelled the Turkish-Arab cooperation forum, ministers declared they were "against all foreign intervention" but said it was time for urgent measures.

Groups say cluster bombs remain in 69 nations


The London-based Cluster Munition Coalition s tally of these destructive explosive weapons came as diplomats gathered in Geneva to debate plans for phasing them out. The coalition says 12 nations have destroyed part of their stockpiles, leaving at least 610,263 cluster bombs. Casualties involving their use have been reported in 29 countries. The weapons pose a particular risk to civilians because they indiscriminately scatter smaller "bomblets," some as small as flashlight batteries, packed tightly into hollowed out bombs, artillery shells or missiles that can be dropped from planes or launched from the ground. Some 61 nations so far have adopted the law, which took effect in August 2010. The law prohibits using, making or stockpiling most traditional cluster munitions, sets strict deadlines for destroying them and clearing contaminated land, and obliges nations to support survivors and affected communities. Certain types of the weapons are still permitted if their designs include fewer than 10 submunitions and the ability to self-destruct. But the majority of nations that haven t adopted it still possess the bulk of the cluster munitions. That includes the U.S., which insists the bombs are a valid weapon of war when used properly. China, Russia, India and Pakistan also reject the law. A single container targeting airfields or tanks typically scatters hundreds of the mini-explosives over an area the size of a football field. The U.S. has used the weapon in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soviet and Russian troops also used them in Angola, Afghanistan and Chechnya, where the leftover duds continue to inflict casualties, particularly on children. They most recently were used in April in Libya, when forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi fired MAT-120 mortar projectiles containing submunitions into the opposition-held city of Misrata, the coalition said in its annual report Wednesday. It said Spain in June confirmed providing Libya with 1,055 cluster munitions in 2006 and 2008, before Spain joined the convention banning them. The coalition said Thailand fired cluster munitions into Cambodia during border clashes in February, and both sides used them in the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia. The campaign against the weapons picked up steam after Israel s monthlong war against Hezbollah in 2006, when it scattered up to 4 million of the munitions across Lebanon. The U.S., meanwhile, is pushing for another cluster arms agreement. Harold Koh, a U.S. State Department legal adviser, said from Washington on Wednesday the U.S. proposal to outlaw cluster munitions produced before 1980 would entice the world s nations holding up to nine-tenths of all cluster munitions to join in the effort. He said it would immediately prohibit about a third of the U.S. stash of more than 6 million such weapons. "And we think that this is a very significant humanitarian impact and should be supported," Koh said. However, Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the U.S. plan could set "an unfortunate precedent in international humanitarian law" by allowing use of cluster munitions made since 1980, including those with no safety features, until 2026 or longer. Steve Goose of Human Rights Watch said the new agreement sought by the Obama administration amounted to backsliding. "We find this outrageous," he told reporters. The United States under the Bush administration had promised that by the end of 2018 it would no longer use cluster munitions that result in more than 1 percent unexploded ordnance a tougher measure than the current proposal. Usually 10 to 15 percent but in some cases up to 80 percent of the devices fail to explode immediately.