International pressure on Syrian Leader Assad to end violence

As the Syrian government intensifies its crackdown against pro-democracy protesters, the international community steps up its pressure on president Bashar al-Assad ( Photo on Left ) to stop the bloodletting.

In a session on Tuesday, members of the UN Security Council discussed the uptick in violence, but failed to issue a collective statement.

Still, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, condemned the violence against "peaceful protesters" and called on the Syrian government to respect the people's rights to freedom of expression. "I condemn, utterly, the continuing violence against peaceful demonstrators, most particularly the use of tanks and live fire that have killed and injured hundreds of people," Ban said.

"It goes without saying that Syrian authorities have an obligation to protect civilians and respect international human rights. That includes the right to free expression and peaceful assembly."

Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, has also criticised the Syrian government for what she called the "abhorrent use of violence to quell protests."

"Anti Democratic Assad is disingenuously blaming outsiders—at the same time seeking Iranian assistance to repress citizens," she said.

Panel of experts finds credible reports of war crimes during Sri Lanka conflict – UN says

The panel of experts set up to advise Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on accountability issues with respect to the final stages of the conflict in Sri Lanka has found credible reports of war crimes committed by both the Government and Tamil rebels and calls for genuine investigations into the allegations, according to a report made public today by the United Nations.

The decision to release the report, which was submitted to the Secretary- General on 12 April and shared with the Sri Lankan Government, was made as a “matter of transparency and in the broader public interest,” Mr. Ban’s spokesperson said in a statement.

“The Secretary-General sincerely hopes that this advisory report will make a contribution to full accountability and justice so that the Sri Lankan Government and people will be able to proceed towards national reconciliation and peace,” the statement added.

Mr. Ban is carefully reviewing the report’s conclusions and recommendations, “including its disturbing assessment that a number of allegations of serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law committed by both the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government of Sri Lanka are credible, some of which would amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

“In regard to the recommendation that he establish an international investigation mechanism, the Secretary-General is advised that this will require host country consent or a decision from Member States through an appropriate intergovernmental forum,” the statement added.

The three-member panel of experts was set up following the Joint Statement made by Mr. Ban and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa after the Secretary-General visited the South Asian nation shortly after the end of the conflict.

The members of the panel were Marzuki Darusman of Indonesia (chair), Yasmin Sooka of South Africa and Steven Ratner of the United States. They began their work in September 2010.

You can reach the Full Report by Visiting tghe following link;

http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Sri_Lanka/POE_Report_Full.pdf

( the above article was extracted from UN Web Portal )