From Ian Lee and Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, for CNN
updated 6:46 AM EST, Tue January 17, 2012
Cracks showing in Syrian regime
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Opposition activist groups report at least 14 deaths Tuesday
- A parliamentarian who defected says the regime has an open budget to crush the dissent
- He says Homs residents can't move across the city "because of snipers that kill people"
- The former official calls for Western powers to help stop the killing
Are you there? Share your story with CNN iReport
Cairo (CNN) -- While the Syrian government's fierce crackdown on dissidents shows no sign of letting up, cracks are emerging in the regime's armor.
Imad Ghalioun, a parliamentarian from the embattled city of Homs, is the highest-ranking Syrian official to defect.
Now in Egypt, Ghalioun said reports of bloodshed by pro-government forces are true.
"What is happening in Homs is a crisis, a ghost town full of horror -- no words to describe the situation," he said. "The humanitarian situation is dangerous ... no basic services, food supplies, or equipped hospitals. Residents can not move from (one) neighborhood to the other because of snipers that kill people."
Though the Syrian economy has collapsed, Ghalioun said President Bashar al-Assad's regime will fight at all costs to crush the revolt seeking al-Assad's ouster and democratic elections.
"There is an open budget allocated to the crackdown on the popular uprising and revolution," he said. "There is no budget for the country but only money to serve the regime's security forces and its 'ghost hit men.'"
Meanwhile, reports of carnage continue to mount from across Syria. At least 14 people were killed Tuesday, according to opposition activist groups.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least eight people were killed in Idlib, including an anti-government activist who was killed by a sniper.
And the Local Coordination Committees of Syria reported five deaths in Homs and one in the Damascus suburb of Qatana.
More than 5,000 people have died since mid-March, the United Nations has said. Opposition groups put the toll at more than 6,000.
Al-Assad, who has characterized the anti-government protesters as "armed gangs," has said his security forces are battling terrorists intent on targeting civilians and fomenting unrest.
But much of the international community holds al-Assad's regime responsible for killing dissidents.
"I say again to President Assad of Syria: Stop the violence. Stop killing your people," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said over the weekend. "The path of repression is a dead end."
CNN cannot verify many accounts of what is happening in Syria because the government restricts the activity of journalists, though a number of journalists have been allowed into the country in recent days to travel with Arab League monitors on a fact-finding mission in Syria.
The Arab League has asked the United Nations for assistance in training observers, said U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville.
U.N. staffers are on standby to fly to Cairo, but their departure was postponed at the request of the Arab League, pending the outcome of a meeting at the end of its mission in Syria, he said.
The Arab League mission began December 26 and is expected to end Thursday.
Ghalioun, the former Syrian official, said he wants Western powers to help. Give the regime's opponents tools, weapons and a no-fly zone, and they'll finish the job, he said.
"I tell them to go back to your humanitarian values," Ghalioun said. "Build on democracy. And I ask them to help us stop the killing and reach our own true democracy."
CNN's Nic Robertson, Hamdi Alkhshali and Mick Krever contributed to this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment