Syria accused the West of trying to unleash “total chaos” that would lead to the break-up of the country, as rights groups said Syrian forces strafed political dissidents with machineguns on Tuesday. China meanwhile expressed its concern at the wider implications of the violence in Syria, even as the United States pressed Beijing, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, to back stronger UN action against Damascus. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, speaking at the annual UN General Assembly, said foreign governments sought to undermine the co-existence between Syria’s different religious groups.
“How can we otherwise explain media provocations, financing and arming religious extremism?” he asked. “What purpose could this serve other than total chaos that would dismember Syria — and consequently adversely affect its neighbours.” He said anti-regime protests in which at least 2,700 people have been killed have become a “pretext for foreign interventions.” Rejecting the accusations, Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called for UN Security Council action.
“The courageous men and women in Syria deserve a clear signal of our solidarity,” Westerwelle told the UN assembly, condemning the “brutal force” used by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. Damascus does not accept the existence of popular opposition to the authorities, instead blaming “armed gangs” and “terrorists” for trying to sow chaos. In the latest violence, a human rights group said Syrian forces raked the city of Rastan in central Homs province with machinegun fire from sunrise on Tuesday, wounding at least 20 people.
The city, about 180 kilometres (120 miles) from Damascus and a gateway to the country’s north, has been the focus of security force operations against anti-regime dissent in flashpoint Homs province for several days, according to activists. “At least 20 people were wounded, seven seriously, when soldiers using heavy machine guns on tanks began to open fire at sunrise in Rastan,” the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement.
“Loud explosions were also heard in the city,” it added. The Local Coordination Committees, which organises protests on the ground, for its part reported a “massive deployment” of security forces at Rastan. The Observatory, meanwhile, also reported witnesses as saying that sustained automatic gunfire was heard on Tuesday morning at Talbisseh, 10 kilometres south of Rastan. And at Tir Maala, also in Homs province, intense firing was heard late in the morning, it said. The Observatory had on Monday reported that four soldiers were shot dead trying to desert.
“Four soldiers in Maar Shamsa in (northwestern) Idlib city were shot dead while trying to flee the Wadi Deif military camp,” it said. The group also reported gunfire, arrests and killings. In New York, China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi expressed Beijing’s concern over the protracted crisis. The international community, he said, should “handle the Syrian issue in a prudent way so as to prevent further turbulence in Syria and its repercussions on regional peace”.
