Syrian crackdown

The United Nations General Assembly's human rights committee on Tuesday voted to condemn Syria's eight-month crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, gaining support from both Western and a number of Arab states.

The resolution was drafted by Britain, France and Germany and passed 122-13, with 41 abstentions. Arab states that supported the statement were Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The resolution "strongly condemns the continued grave and systematic human rights violations by the Syrian authorities" and speaks of "arbitrary executions" and "persecution" of protesters and human rights defenders.

The vote came the same day that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made his strongest condemnation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad yet, saying for the first time that that he should step down and comparing him to Hitler.

"Fighting your own people until the death is not heroism - it's cowardice," he told his ruling AK party. "If you want to see someone who fights his people to the death, look at Nazi Germany, look at Hitler, look at Mussolini."

Turkey, traditionally an ally of Syria, has become increasingly critical of its neighbor to the south since the crackdown on the anti-government uprising began in March.

Syria's UN Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari rejected the resolution, saying it "has no relevance to human rights, other than it is part of an adversarial American policy against my country."

Author: Andrew Bowen (AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Michael Lawton