Human rights groups urge halt of bloodshed in Syria
Date: 06/05/2012      Time: 11:25:00 AM
 
Human rights organizations for Syria have anew denounced killings and assassinations urging the government and opposition forces to stop ongoing blood-shedding that has continued in spite of deployment of international observers in the troubled country. The organizations, including the Arab Human Rights Organization in Syria, the Kurdish Organization for Defense of Human Rights and Public Freedoms and the Committees for Defense of Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights, called for forming an independent and neutral judicial panel, including representatives of the human rights organizations in Syria, to identify elements responsible for continuing violence and referring them to judicial authorities. These groups, in a statements received by Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) on Sunday, expressed profound concern for fate of Syrian citizens who have been arbitrarily detained, urging the security authorities to stop illegal detentions that constitute blatant violence of basic human rights and freedoms. They voiced concern at reports about wide-scale cases of torture that resulted in death of many detainees, stressing on necessity of allowing citizens to practice their rights of holding protests, peaceful demonstrations and expressing their legitimate and just demands. Moreover, the human rights groups called on the Syrian authorities to close file of political detentions, release all inmates held on political charges such as taking part in peaceful demonstrations, abstain from cracking down on the educated and active nationals and allowing these organizations to perform freely. Suppression and usage of excessive force have aggravated dire conditions across the country, they said, warning that such an approach will not be helpful in efforts for finding peaceful solutions to the crisis. Meanwhile on the field, the opposition group, the Local Coordination Committees, said in a statement 27 people were killed, on Saturday, during demonstrations calling for freedoms and ouster of the regime of Bashar Al-Assad. The protestors were suppressed and confronted with gunfire by the regime forces. The demonstrators were targeted with gunfire and concussions grenades by the regulars, despite deployment of international observers, the LCC said. In the town of Suraqeb, in the north, three defecting soldiers were killed when their car was hit with a shell, the group said. It also reported intensive shooting in the village of Al-Aridah, located on the Syrian-Lebanese border.