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Syria slams UNHRC condemnation as "unjustified, hasty"

02 June 2012 01:15 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Syrian foreign ministry spokesman on Friday slammed the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution that condemned Syria for the Houla massacre as "unjustified and hasty," APA reports quoting Xinhua

The resolution was "unjustified hasty jumping to conclusion before the end of the investigation for obvious political reasons, " the spokesman, Jihad Makdissi, told Xinhua.

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution at a special session Friday, requesting the UNHRC commission of inquiry on Syria to "urgently conduct a comprehensive, independent and unfettered special inquiry" into the Houla massacre that took place last Friday and claimed the lives of more than 100 people, many of them were kids.

The resolution blamed the killings on "pro-regime elements" and army shelling on the area.

For his side, the UN-Arab League joint special envoy Kofi Annan said Friday that he is "impatient and frustrated" following the Houla massacre and urged the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to take bold actions on implementing his six-point peace plan that calls for a full cessation of violence from all parties.

The recent attacks in Houla, some 25 km northwest of Syria’s central city of Homs, claimed the lives of more than 108 people, including at least 49 children under the age of 10 and 32 women. The carnage has unleashed a barrage of international condemnation followed by expulsion of Syrian diplomatic missions in more than 13 countries to protest against the killings in Houla.

At a press conference to announce the initial assessments Thursday, Brigadier-General Qasem Jamal Sulaiman said the armed groups attacked several posts of the government troops that responded in self-defense. He stressed that the government troops did not leave their bases.

He said that the targeted families were peaceful ones who neither participated in any anti-government activities nor took up arms against the government.

Sulaiman stressed that "these are only initial assessment," adding that "the initial reports were based on testimonies from witnesses."

The Syrian government and the opposition traded barbs over the bloody attacks that did not even spare those children.

Damascus denied any involvement of its troops in the carnage and accused armed groups of carrying out the killings in order to frame the government before the advent of UN-Arab League joint envoy Kofi Annan to Syria. Opposition activists, meanwhile, accused the government forces of shelling the village, adding that pro-government militiamen have done the bulk of the killings after the army’s alleged bombardment.

Syria has set up an inquiry committee to probe the circumstances of the carnage to bring the assailants into trial. It said the final investigation results would be submitted to the international community once done.

Meanwhile, the head of the UN Supervision Mission in Syria Maj- Gen Robert Mood welcomed Friday the release of as many as 750 Syrian detainees.

In a statement emailed to Xinhua, Mood regarded the government’ s step as "a positive act in these challenging times," adding that "It is an encouraging step towards the implementation of joint special envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point plan."