Syria: 108 massacred, including 50 children... Enough is Enough!!!

‘How much blood must we pay before the world helps?’ - Abu Suhaib, a Syrian hospitalised in Jordan.

The village of Taldou, near the town of Houla in Syria's Homs province was the scene of one of the worst massacres in the country's 14-month-long uprising on Friday.

United Nations observers on the ground have confirmed that at least 108 people were killed, including 49 children and 34 women. Some were killed by shell fire, but the majority appear to have been shot or stabbed at close range.

Syria Massacre - photo from The Telegraph: AP

But at whose hands they died remains a matter of contention...

Anti-government activists, eyewitnesses and human rights groups - including the UN's high commissioner for human rights - point the finger at the Syrian army and the shabiha, a sectarian civilian militia that supports the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

The government however denies all responsibility, saying its soldiers were attacked and armed terrorists went on to shoot and knife civilians.

This latest atrocity has shocked many, and brought condemnation from the UN Security Council. 

Is condemnation enough though? Urgent action needs to be taken to stop the killing of innocent men, women and children.

Amnesty International reports that they have the names of over 9,750 people killed since the crackdown on largely peaceful protests began in March 2011. Many more have been injured. 

On 27 March 2012 the Syrian government accepted a ‘six-point plan’ by Kofi Annan and a ceasefire was agreed on 12 April. A UN observer mission entered the country two days later but the violence continues to rage - more than 1,300 people have been killed since. 

Amnesty was one of the first organisations to recognise the actions of the Syrian authorities in response to the peaceful protests that began in March 2011 as what they were: crimes against humanity.

Call on Russia to support Syria’s referral to the International Criminal Court

And yet as the UN Security Council fails to take decisive action, blocked from action by veto wielding member Russia, more family homes have been bombed and more civilians massacred. 

The bloodshed must be stopped and the people responsible for killing civilians must be held to account. 

Tell Russia to stop obstructing UN Security Council action!!

It is time for Russia to stand up against this brutality and call on the Syrian government to stop the bloodshed and fulfill its obligations under the ‘six-point plan’.

Let's all #prayforsyria

Much love,

Anokhi