UN observers turn down mourners’ plea for help
The massacre of 114 villagers – including 32 children – in Syria has left the UN ceasefire in tatters, write Hala Jaber and Hugh Macleod in Beirut.
An infant girl wailed as doctors bandaged the wounds she had suffered during the shelling of a Syrian village where 114 people died in the worst atrocity since a supposed ceasefire began in April.
The extent of the baby’s injuries was unclear yesterday, but video footage appeared to show that an arm poking out from her bandages had been badly burnt. Her mother was not there to comfort her – she had been killed in the attack on Houla, near Homs in western Syria, on Saturday.
‘‘She is only 1 month old,’’ a woman shouted to the camera as a doctor plunged a tube into the tiny body. ‘‘Her mother and sister were killed in the shelling and her father is in Lebanon.’’
In all, 32 children died in the attack, the youngest just 4 years old. The number of adults who were killed rose last night to 82.
More than 250 United Nations observers are in Syria to oversee the ceasefire brokered by Arab League envoy Kofi Annan. Two of their vehicles arrived in Houla yesterday.
The villagers pleaded with the observers to stay behind to protect them during the burials but were told that the UN mission entailed only documenting events and the monitors could not get involved. A video uploaded later appeared to show a UN monitor talking to members of the Free Syrian Army in Houla. The monitor was heard apparently imploring them not to protest so as not to incur punishment.
According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Houla came under indiscriminate shelling late on Saturday after clashes between rebels and Syrian troops. Videos posted on Youtube showed horrifying images of children’s bodies lined up on the floor of a mosque, some badly mangled. At least one child had part of his head blown away.
A resident said that the attack began after security forces opened fire on protesters from Houla. In response, local rebels from the Free Syrian Army, which had been largely in control of the area, stormed military checkpoints and attacked an army base.
The Syrian army counterattacked, launching a barrage of rocket fire on the villagers, using heavy weapons similar to those deployed during the assault that had devastated the Baba Amr district of Homs this year.
European leaders described the attack as a ‘‘massacre’’. It resulted in the highest death toll of any single incident since the ceasefire came into effect on April 12. Annan denounced what he described as a brutal breach of international law. British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged the UN security council to respond to an appalling crime.
From its first day, the ceasefire has been violated by both the regime and by rebel fighters, with the death toll from more than a year of violence climbing to above 9000, according to the UN. Michael Young, an expert on Syria, said: ‘‘The Annan plan is dead.’’
In an allegation that could not be independently verified, an activist from Houla said that as the shelling gathered force on Saturday he had seen government-backed shabiha militiamen arriving on five buses guarded by soldiers. He said that rebels had later found civilians stabbed and shot.
Other residents denied the shabiha had been engaged in slaughter and said all the dead had been killed by shellfire.
A resident named Ahmad told the observatory that the shelling followed the rebels’ raid on a former Syrian army intelligence building in the village, where two officers and several other soldiers were killed.
The Syrian army apparently withdrew to another position on higher ground before beginning the shelling. In one house an entire family of five were killed.
Once the shelling stopped, Ahmad said, residents collected the bodies together. On video footage some of the children can be seen with their eyes open, while others have them closed as if they are asleep. But their bloodstained clothes and injuries show they suffered terrible deaths.
A girl, perhaps aged 7 and wearing a headscarf and pink diamante belt, lies face-to-face in death with a much younger boy. Another little boy in a yellow jumper lies with his arms stretched out, almost cradling the head of the girl next to him. Blood covers their faces and soaks their hair. Cries of ‘‘Oh God’’ can be heard off-camera.