FRANCE: Foreign Minister Alain Juppe strongly condemns what he calls the barbarity of the Syrian regime and blames Russia for blocking all efforts to solve the crisis

Record ID: 280321

  • Title: FRANCE: Foreign Minister Alain Juppe strongly condemns what he calls the barbarity of the Syrian regime and blames Russia for blocking all efforts to solve the crisis
  • Date: 29th February 2012
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (FEBRUARY 28, 2012) (REUTERS) PARIS SKYLINE
  • Embargoed: 15th March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France, France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA1YYL0TBBVRIW3NIYVO6C99OXQ
  • Story Text: French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe strongly condemned the continued violence in Syria on Tuesday (February 28), saying Bashar Al Assad's government has "gone beyond the limits of barbarity."
    In latest reports, Syrian forces shelled an opposition stronghold in Hama province, killing 20 people on Tuesday and hit rebel-held parts of Homs, activists said, as two wounded foreign journalists, French journalist Edith Bouvier and British photographer Paul Conroy, trapped in the city, were reported to have been smuggled safely to Lebanon, according to Syrian opposition sources.
    Juppe said he felt "immensely frustrated" at difficulties in obtaining security guarantees to enable wounded civilians and Western journalists to be evacuated from Homs.
    "We are still stuck and I feel immense frustration, we are working with the Syrian authorities to try and get safety guarantees, we are working with the Red Cross in order to get our wounded evacuated, we have not achieved yet and the bombs are still falling on Homs," Juppe said in an interview with France's RTL radio.
    "And when I see the Syrian president paraded around this voting station in Damascus for this phoney referendum, it is a profound indignation we feel, all of us who see this spectacle," he added.
    Assad, projecting an aura of normality in a land ravaged by 11 months of conflict over his right to power, decreed that a new constitution was in force on Tuesday after officials said nearly 90 percent of voters had endorsed it in a referendum. Opposition groups and Western leaders seeking Assad's removal denounced Sunday's vote as a charade that diverted attention from the violence in Homs and elsewhere.
    American reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed in Baba Amro on Feb. 22 in a strike on a house in which Conroy and Bouvier were wounded.
    The Syrian Arab Red Crescent did manage to evacuate three people from Baba Amro on Monday, but not the foreign reporters, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
    The outside world has proved powerless to halt the killing in Syria, where repression of initially peaceful protests has spawned an armed insurrection by army deserters and others.
    Foreign powers have argued over whether to arm Syrian rebels trying to resist Assad's forces, but there is little appetite in the West for any Libya-style military intervention.
    Russia and China have used their vetoes to protect Syria from any action by the U.N. Security Council, where Western and Arab powers had sought backing for an Arab League transition plan under which Assad would voluntarily relinquish office.
    "Of course, it's already too late. The massacre happens everyday. But we can't use force, we cannot provoke a conflagration with Russia who continues to block (efforts to stop the violence). We have to assign responsibility for this affair. We have done our maximum, but we haven't applied as much pressure as we can. So we will continue to increase pressure," Juppe said.
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