THE
SECRETARY-GENERAL
ORAL
REPORT TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
ON
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF RESOLUTION 66/253
ADOPTED
ON 16 FEBRUARY 2012
New
York, 2 March 2012
Mr.
President,
Excellencies,
Ladies
and Gentlemen,
I
am making this report as requested by the General Assembly resolution
A/Res/66/263 of 16 February. Given the gravity of the situation,
please be assured that we will keep you regularly informed. We
have all watched the events in Syria this week with growing alarm.
We
have seen heavy artillery shelling and tank fire in densely populated
neighborhoods across the country. A major assault on Homs took place
yesterday. Civilian losses have clearly been heavy. We continue
to receive grisly reports of summary executions, arbitrary detentions
and torture.
In
Homs, Hama and elsewhere, the brutal fighting has trapped civilians
in their homes, without food, heat or electricity or medical care;
without any chance of evacuating the wounded or burying the dead.
People have been reduced to melting snow for drinking water.
This
atrocious assault is all the more appalling for having been waged by
the government itself, systematically attacking its own people. All
agree we must act in the face of this escalating crisis.
Yesterday,
the Security Council deplored the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian
situation and demanded access for relief workers. I welcome the
Council’s clear and strong statement. The Human Rights
Council, meeting in Geneva, condemned the “widespread and
systematic” violations of human rights and demanded an immediate
end to the violence.
I
am extremely disappointed that the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator,
Ms. Valerie Amos, has not been able to travel to Syria despite
repeated assurances. I once again urge the authorities to allow her
to visit, as soon as possible, so that humanitarian relief workers
can reach the many thousands of people who desperately need
assistance.
Today,
teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the
Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society have been permitted to enter Homs,
but they are waiting to get access to Bab Amr. It is essential that
aid workers be allowed to help civilians in the most devastated areas
of the city; as of this moment, assistance can still not get
through.
As
you know, the joint UN-Arab League Special Envoy, the Honorable Kofi
Annan, will depart from New York this evening. During the past
two days he has been consulting intensively with Member States,
including members of the Security Council and the Arab Group as well
as the Syrian mission and other concerned stakeholders. He plans to
travel next week to Cairo for consultations with the
Secretary-General of the League of Arab States and to a number of
other regional capitals, including Damascus.
My
predecessor has taken on a difficult mission with immense challenges;
he needs the full and undivided support of the international
community, speaking in one voice.
Excellencies,
Let
me turn now to the particulars of the situation: the deepening
humanitarian crisis, the increasingly worrying human rights picture,
and the political process that we hope will chart a way ahead. The
Secretariat has sent a Note Verbale to the Permanent Mission of Syria
requesting its response to the clear demands set forth in General
Assembly resolution 66/253, dated 16 February. We received a reply
yesterday.
The
Secretariat has also requested information from the League of Arab
States on what Member States are doing to support the Arab League
initiative. In the past two weeks, I have remained in close contact
with the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States. I met him
last week in London and spoke with him as recently as yesterday.
Ladies
and Gentlemen:
The
Syrian Government has failed to deliver on its responsibility to
protect its people. Civilian populations are under military assault
in several cities. The disproportionate use of force by Syrian
authorities has driven, what had been largely peaceful opposition
forces, to resort to take up arms in some cases. But let us be
clear: the opposition’s firepower appears to be minimal, compared
to the heavy weapons being used by the Syrian army.
Armed
extremist groups have also opportunistically used the situation to
carry out terrorist acts, in particular in Damascus and Aleppo. While
the continuing lack of access makes it impossible to verify specific
casualty figures, credible reports suggest that the total number of
people killed since March last year is well above 7,500, including
many women and children. On several occasions, the daily death
toll has exceeded one hundred.
Approximately
25,000 refugees are now registered with UNHCR in neighbouring
countries; between 100,000 and 200,000 people are internally
displaced.
The
Syrian Government has also resisted the General Assembly’s demand
for full and unhindered access for international media. Journalists,
too, have been killed or injured alongside the people whose plight
they were there to report.
Let
me turn now to the human rights situation.
This
Assembly called upon the Syrian Government to immediately put an end
to all human rights violations and attacks against civilians, protect
its population and fully comply with its obligations under applicable
international law.
The
Syrian authorities clearly have not done so. The International
Commission of Inquiry for Syria, in a report issued on 22nd February,
concluded that the Syrian Government forces have committed
widespread, systematic and gross human rights violations, amounting
to crimes against humanity, with the apparent knowledge and consent
of the highest levels of the State. The Commission’s report
also concluded that anti-Government groups have committed abuses,
although not comparable in scale and organization to those carried
out by the State. The Commission also found that the security
forces and Shabiha militias have continued to use
live ammunition against peaceful protesters throughout the country,
and that the Government has carried out reprisals in response to
opposition calls for strikes.
Freedom
of expression continues to be severely restricted, and many human
rights defenders, activists, protesters and journalists across the
country are being arrested or detained. We are receiving widespread
reports of torture under detention, even of children.
In
response to the worsening human rights situation, the Human Rights
Council yesterday adopted a resolution that strongly condemns the use
of force against civilians, summary executions, the killing and
persecution of protesters, human rights defenders and journalists,
arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, interference with
access to medical treatment, torture, sexual violence and
ill-treatment, including against children.
The
resolution also calls on the Government to allow free and unimpeded
access by the United Nations and humanitarian agencies to carry out a
full assessment of needs in Homs and other areas, and to permit
humanitarian agencies to deliver vital relief goods and services,
especially in Homs, Dar’a, Zabadani and other areas under siege.
Excellencies,
Ladies
and Gentlemen,
We
must do everything in our power to end the crisis. We must help move
towards a Syrian-led political transition to a democratic,
pluralistic political system, as supported by this Assembly. Yet
to date, the international community has failed in its duty.
In
fact, the actions – indeed, the inaction — of the international
community seems to have encouraged the Syrian authorities in their
brutal suppression of its citizens.
Further
militarization of the Syrian opposition is not the answer.
The
international community must urgently find unity in pressing the
Syrian authorities and all other parties to stop the violence. It
must insist, with one voice, that the Syrian authorities give access
to international humanitarian workers as an essential first step
towards a peaceful solution to the crisis. It is with this aim
that, together with Secretary-General Nabil El-Araby of the Arab
League, we announced the appointment of Kofi Annan as our Joint
Special Envoy for Syria. Mr. Annan will work to end the violence and
human rights violations, and promote a peaceful solution to the
Syrian crisis.
It
is important to ensure that there is only one track in the mediation
process being undertaken by the international community.
Efforts
to support the Arab League’s initiative to promote a peaceful
solution also included last week’s meeting of the “Friends of the
Syrian people” in Tunisia, which brought together representatives
from more than 65 nations and organizations. The meeting
demonstrated wide international support for the Syrian people and
sent a strong message to the Syrian authorities: the time has come to
stop the bloodshed.
Excellencies,
The
way towards a peaceful solution of the Syrian crisis is difficult,
but clear. First, there should be an immediate end to the
killings and violence. International relief workers must be allowed
in. Second, there is a clear need for an inclusive political
dialogue among all Syrian actors.
The
international community must align itself with the process led by the
Joint Special Envoy. To succeed, he will need our full and undivided
support. It is time for the international community to speak with one
voice, loud and clear.
Continued
division emboldens the Syrian authorities in their violent, dead-end
path.
Continued
delay in the humanitarian effort causes more human suffering.
Continued
violence on the ground risks a descent into full civil war and
sectarian strife that could haunt the country for generations to
come.
The
stakes are high, above all for the people of Syria -- but also for
the international community.
We
must act, urgently and in concert.
I
thank the Assembly for its support.
Follow me on Twitter @NabilAbiSaab
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