China demands end to violence as Syria blocks aid
Bashar al-Assad sparks international outrage:
SYRIA: China called for an end to violence in Syria Sunday as the
regime of Bashar al-Assad sparked international outrage by blocking aid
from reaching the battered Baba Amr flashpoint in Homs city.
As more bloodshed was reported across Syria, Britain and Turkey
joined the outcry, accusing the regime of committing a crime by barring
Red Cross convoys from entering Baba Amr for the second day.
China, which twice joined Russia in blocking UN Security Council
resolutions against Syria's lethal crackdown on dissent, urged all
parties in Syria to “unconditionally” end the violence.
Xinhua news agency cited a foreign ministry statement attributed to
an unnamed official calling for dialogue between the Syrian regime and
those expressing “political aspirations.” But the official reportedly
added: “We oppose anyone interfering in Syria's internal affairs under
the pretext of 'humanitarian' issues.'” As condemnation spiralled, the
bodies of US reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik
were flown back to Paris overnight from Damascus.
Relatives of Ochlik were there to meet his coffin as the regular Air
France flight, via Amman, touched down at Charles de Gaulle airport in
the French capital, an airport source said.
The two western journalists were killed in a rocket attack in the
rebel Baba Amr neighbourhood of Homs on February 22.
Colvin's body was expected to be flown on to her native United States
on Monday or Tuesday, according to a representative of her newspaper,
The London Sunday Times.
French reporter Edith Bouvier of Le Figaro newspaper and British
photographer Paul Conroy were wounded in the attack that killed their
two colleagues.
Bouvier, 31, and photographer William Daniels, 34, who was not hurt
in the rocket attack, have already been smuggled out of Homs by
activists to Lebanon and on to Paris.
The pair recounted their harrowing experience from the moment Syrian
rockets began hitting their makeshift media centre, and said Syrian
forces seemed to be directly targeting journalists in Homs.
Conroy said the bombardment of the besieged Syrian city amounted to a
“medieval siege and slaughter,” and denounced the Damascus government as
“murderers”.
AFP |