Turkey slams UN inertia as Syrian conflict deepens
14 October, 2012
ISTANBUL: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan rebuked the UN Security Council for inaction over Syria on Saturday as war intensified across the country, saying the world body of superpowers was repeating mistakes that led to massacres in Bosnia in the 1990s. Syrian President Bashar al Assad's forces used air strikes and artillery to bombard insurgents on several fronts in the 19-month-old conflict, which risks dragging in regional powers with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough. Turkey - increasingly entangled after having intercepted a Syrian airliner carrying what it said were Russian-made munitions for the Syrian army, infuriating Moscow and Damascus - has led calls for intervention, including no-fly zones enforced by foreign aircraft to stop deadly air raids by Assad's forces. But there is little chance of UN support for robust action. China insists any solution to Syria's crisis must come from within while Russia has said many Syrians still support Assad. "The UN Security Council (UNSC) has not intervened in the human tragedy that has been going on in Syria for 20 months, despite all our efforts," Erdogan told a conference in Istanbul attended by dignitaries, including Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby. "There's an attitude that encourages, gives the green light to Assad to kill tens or hundreds of people every day." The bloodshed has worsened markedly in the past two months although neither side has been able to gain a distinct advantage, with government force relying heavily on air power and artillery to batter the rebels. Combat has been reported nationwide but the crucial strategic battles are being fought in an arc through western Syria, where most of the population lives. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was expected to meet UN Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi on the sidelines of the Istanbul conference later. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said this week Brahimi would visit Syria soon to try to persuade Assad to call an immediate ceasefire. The government dispatched warplanes to attack insurgent forces surrounding the Wadi al Dayf military barracks near Maarat al Numan in Idlib province, injuring 22 rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The UNSC, divided between Western powers on one side and Russia and China on the other, has proved helpless in halting a conflict, which has spiralled into civil war and killed more than 30,000 people. Erdogan said a system, which allowed one or two nations to block intervention in such a grave humanitarian crisis was inherently unjust, and that Syria would go down in history as a UN failure much like Bosnia in the 1990s. "How sad is that the United Nations is as helpless today as it was 20 years ago when it watched the massacre of hundreds of thousands of people in the Balkans, Bosnia and Srebrenica," Erdogan told the Istanbul conference. Turkey scrambled two fighter jets on Friday after a Syrian helicopter bombed Azmarin and has warned of a more forceful response if Syrian shells continue to fly over the border. Syria's state news agency SANA said Damascus was ready to accept a Russian proposal for a Syrian-Turkish joint security committee to try to contain the border violence. There was no confirmation of this from the Turkish side. End.
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