By Charles Smith
Efforts to end the ongoing violence in Syria are being channeled through the United Nations General Assembly to mount pressure on the country's government to cease crackdown.
Saudi Arabia has started circulating a draft resolution seeking to end the violence from all sides, and for President Bashar al-Assad to step down. The draft is like the one which was vetoed by China and Russia in the Security Council, but it also adds a request to appoint a special United National envoy.
On Monday, the General Assembly is scheduled to discuss Syria in a session that will be addressed by the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, but no vote on the resolution is expected to take place then. While the General Assembly has no power of veto, but even its resolution have no legal binding, unlike the Security Council.
Saudi Arabia's draft resolution "fully supports" the Arab League peace plan that came out in January, where Assad was urged to hand over power to his vice-president, and clear the path for a speedup creation of a national unity government including the opposition. Besides calling for an end to the violence by all sides, the draft also condemns the Syrian authorities for "continued widespread and systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms."
The draft also seeks to hold accountable those guilty of human rights violations, although there's no mention of the International Criminal Court. It also requests the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to appoint a special envoy to promote a peaceful solution to the crisis, which was also proposed earlier this week by the Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi.
The move came as tanks and artillery continued to bomb parts of the central city of Homs, which has been the focus of anti-government protests. Following a week of shellfire and an unspoken state of seizure in the city, conditions in Homs are believed to be getting desperate, reports the BBC. More than 52 people were killed across the country by security forces on Friday, including 16 in Homs and 15 in suburbs of Damascus.
The BBC reports human rights groups as saying that over 7,000 people died since the uprising began last year in March. According to the Syrian government, at least 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed trying to fight "armed gangs and terrorists."
On Friday, the U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, posted satellite imagery on Facebook which showed heavy weaponry as being deployed outside urban areas, including Homs, Zabadani, Rankun and Halban.
"When we see disturbing photos offering proof that the regime is using mortars and artillery against residential neighborhoods, all of us become even more concerned about the tragic outcome for Syrian civilians," wrote Ford. "It is odd to me that anyone would try to equate the actions of the Syrian army and armed opposition groups since the Syrian government consistently initiates the attacks on civilian areas, and it is using its heaviest weapons," indicating towards Russia's point that the rebels are equally responsible.
The government and rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA)- a group of army defectors- continued to blame each other for two bomb blasts in the city of Aleppo where 28 people were killed, and over 200 others were injured.
The bombing was blamed by the state television on what it called "armed terrorist gangs," which it alleged had targeted a Military Intelligence complex and a riot police base but instead killed civilian bystanders, including children.
The BBC reported FSA's deputy leader as saying that fighters of the group had been attacking the bases at the time, but that they were not responsible for the blasts. Even the opposition activists in Aleppo blamed the government, saying that it was trying to discredit the uprising.
At least 13 people were reportedly killed later as security forces opened fire on a protest in the city's Marjeh district.
