By Verona Roddick
Following Saturday's talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, a senior envoy from Beijing called for all sides in Syria to end the ongoing bloodshed, and for elections to be peacefully held, according to state media reports.
The meeting followed a day of violence where according to human rights groups, at least 30 people were killed as demonstrations spread to several prosperous neighborhoods of Damascus for the first time. Security forces, as a result, responded with the most violent momentum in the central city of Homs. In lieu of the same, activists have urged for a "day of disobedience" in Sunday to garner support for the protest.
After the talks with Assad, Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun said, "The position of China is to call on the government, the opposition and the rebels to halt acts of violence immediately."
China and Russia have twice joined hands to block UN Security Council condemning Syria's deadly crackdown on an 11-month uprising. Zhai said that it was essential that "calm be restored as quickly as possibly as that serves the interests of the Syrian people. We hope that the referendum on a new constitution as well as the forthcoming parliamentary elections pass off calmly," he was quoted as saying by the state television.
Opposition groups in Syria rejected a newly drafted constitution on Thursday, which could bring an end to almost fifty years of a single-party rule. They also called up on voters to boycott a referendum on the charter scheduled for February, 26. According to human rights groups, more than 6,000 people have been killed in the uprising which began in March, 2011.
Late yesterday, Zhai's meeting with Assad followed talks with his counterpart, Faisal Meqdad, after which he made the statement that the international community must respect Syria's sovereignty.
He was quoted by the official Syrian Arab News Agency as saying, "We exchanged views on ways to strengthen our cooperation in the face of this difficult period in Syria. The sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity of Syria must be respected by all sides and by the international community. China hopes that national dialogue and reforms will move forward in Syria."
Before Zhai moved on to Damascus on Thursday, he said that Beijing was against armed intervention as well as forced "regime change" in Syria. Both Beijing and Moscow have received wide criticism for blocking action by the UN Security Council, including from Arab nations with whom China generally has good relations.
"We urge the Syrian government and all of its political parties to immediately and fully end all acts of violence and quickly restore stability and normal social order. China condemns all acts of violence against innocent civilians," said Zhai and that it "does not approve of armed intervention or forcing so-called 'regime change'," the official Xinhua news agency reported him as saying.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, on Friday, four people- two of them teenagers- were killed when security forces opened fire at "unprecedented" protests in Damascus.
Moaz Shami of the Local Coordination Committees- which organize ground demonstrations- said, "It's the first time that the protests have spread to well-to-do neighborhoods," adding that a total of 49 were counted on Friday in Damascus. As a result, activists sent out a message to Damascus residents on their 'Syrian Revolution 2011' Facebook page, saying, "The blood of the martyrs exhorts you to disobedience."
Meanwhile in Hims, rockets crashed into strong areas of resistance at the rate of four a minute on Friday, according to Hadi Abdullah of the General Commission of the Syrian Revolution. He further warned that Homs, the third largest city in Syria, was faced with a humanitarian crisis.
Thirteen of them died in the Homs district of Baba Amr. Abdullah said, "It's the most violent in 14 days. It's unbelievable- extreme violence the like of which we have never seen before."
