Arab League monitors overseeing compliance with a peace plan for Syria have been visiting the capital, Damascus, and other cities but killings show no sign of abating.
Activists say at least 29 people were killed by security forces on Thursday, mostly in areas where monitors are visiting, including a Damascus suburb.
The activists have called for massive street protests on Friday.
The UN says more than 5,000 civilians have died in 10 months of unrest.
The Arab League peace plan calls for a complete halt to the violence, the withdrawal of all armed forces and the release of all detainees.
However, after two days of monitoring, more questions were being asked about the head of the Arab League mission, Sudan's Gen Mustafa al-Dabi, who Amnesty International said was responsible for "torture" and "disappearances" in 1990s Sudan.
'Only God can help us'After starting in the flashpoint city of Homs on Tuesday, the Arab League monitors have moved to Idlib in the north, Deraa in the south, and Damascus.
Activists have reported violence and killings in all those areas.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least three people were killed when security forces opened fire outside a mosque in Douma, a suburb of the capital.
Monitors were arriving at the city hall there when security forces fired on "tens of thousands" of protesters outside the Grand Mosque, the UK-based group said.
It reported more deaths in other suburbs of the capital, Aarbin and Kiswah, as well as in Idlib and the central city of Hama.
Casualty figures and other information are hard to verify as most foreign media are barred from Syria.
The BBC's Jim Muir, in neighbouring Lebanon, says that far from diminishing the violence, it seems the presence of the observers may actually be causing it to increase, because of the large number of people they are attracting who are desperate to vent their grievances.
One activist in Hama told Reuters: "People really hope to get to reach them. We do not have much access to the team. The people stopped believing anything or anyone now. Only God can help us now."
Our correspondent says virtually none of the peace plan's objectives have yet been met, although Syria on Wednesday did release 755 of the 14,000 people the UN says have been detained during the uprising.
Activists have been using social media to call for massive protests on Friday - the traditional day of demonstration.
The Syria Revolution 2011 group said: "We will march as we did in Homs and Hama where we carried olive branches only to be confronted by Bashar's gangs who struck us with artillery and machinegun fire."
Meanwhile, more questions were being asked of Gen Dabi, after his initial comments on the mission were criticised as favouring the Syrian government.
Gen Dabi was the head of military intelligence for Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his actions over Darfur.
Amnesty International said that under Gen Dabi, the military intelligence in the early 1990s "was responsible for the arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearance and torture or other ill-treatment of numerous people in Sudan".
Gen Dabi's first comments in Syria were that he had seen "nothing frightening", though he later said he needed more time to make an assessment.
Damascus has pledged to allow the monitors full freedom of movement.
President Bashar al-Assad says government forces are fighting armed gangs and that more than 2,000 security personnel have been killed.
No comments:
Post a Comment