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Subscribe to RSSAn Arab League advisory body called Sunday for the immediate withdrawal of the organization's monitoring mission in Syria, saying it was allowing Damascus to cover up continued violence and abuses, Reuters reported.
The Arab League has sent a small team to Syria to check whether President Bashar al-Assad is keeping his promise to end a crackdown on a nine-month uprising against his rule.
The observer mission has already stirred controversy. Rights groups have reported continued deaths in clashes and tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to show the observers the extent of their anger.
The Sudanese head of the mission also infuriated some observers by suggesting he was reassured by first impressions of Homs, one of the main centers of unrest.
Clashes erupted in Syria on Friday as activists estimated that 500,000 protesters filled the streets, while Arab League officials continued monitoring the situation on the ground.
'Anger'
The Arab Parliament, an 88-member advisory committee of delegates from each of the League's member states, on Sunday said the violence was continuing to claim many victims.
"For this to happen in the presence of Arab monitors has roused the anger of Arab people and negates the purpose of sending a fact-finding mission," the organisation's chairman Ali al-Salem al-Dekbas said.
"This is giving the Syrian regime an Arab cover for continuing its inhumane actions under the eyes and ears of the Arab League," he said.
The Arab Parliament was the first body to recommend freezing Syria's membership in the organization in response to Assad's crackdown.
An Arab League official, commenting on the parliament's statement, told Reuters it was too early to judge the mission's success, saying it was scheduled to remain in Syria for a month and that more monitors were on their way.
The parliament called on the League's Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby to convene a meeting of Arab foreign ministers to adopt a resolution to withdraw the mission immediately.
The continued abuse and killing of innocent Syrian civilians was a "blatant violation to the Arab League's protocol", Dekbas said.
Syria's state news agency SANA said there had been "massive demonstrations" throughout Syria on Friday in support of Assad, and denouncing "the plot which Syria is exposed to."
It said demonstrators had denounced "the pressure and biased campaigns targeting Syria's security and stability" and the "lies and fabrications of the misleading media channels."
Syrian authorities have accused foreign powers of arming and funding "terrorists" in the country and say 2,000 of the government's soldiers and police have been killed.
Meanwhile The Associated Press reported that the Swiss supreme court has rejected a demand by a cousin of Assad to visit his lawyer in Switzerland.
Hafez Makhlouf had petitioned Switzerland's Federal Tribunal to grant him a visa so he could discuss with his lawyer how to overturn international sanctions imposed against him.
The verdict published Thursday was reported Sunday by Switzerland's NZZ am Sonntag newspaper.
The 40-year-old army colonel heads the Damascus branch of Syria's General Intelligence Directorate.
European Union sanctions against Makhlouf say he is close to Assad's younger brother Maher, believed to be leading the crackdown against regime opponents.
Last week Switzerland revealed it had frozen some 50 million Swiss francs ($53 million) linked to senior regime officials.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Everyday I give thanks that I do not live anywhere near the whole region.
The whole mideast region and Mexico too. I can't blame Mexicans for wanting to leave Mexico and come to the US. And as bad as Mexico is, the mideast is even worse. Instead of the "cradle of civilization", it should be called the "casket of civilization".
If you like to kill your children, you live in the Middle East.
Happy New Year!! Looks like the Arab League (AL) wants to cut and run without taking the steps necessary to cut Assad off at the knees. It appears that the AL was hoping to find that the reformers were full of $hit and that they were the problem. Now they know that Assad and his den of forty thieves are the problem, but Arab protocol requires guests in a country to leave with a kiss on both cheeks and to find a hole in the ground in which to stick their heads. Its only when Arabs get their noses bloodied by Israel that the AL asserts itself to blame the Jews. The actions, or the lack of action in this case, of the AL in its monitoring mission of Syria shows that the Arab world is incapable of doing what's right. I still say that the Syrians have to settle this amongst themselves without US or Western interference......no matter what the outcome.
Some of the Arab League nations like Bahrain, Yemen, Saudi Arabia are worse than Syria.
The chief monitor is the best of all and he belongs to most "secular" Sudan!
I've seen this before. Wasn't Ghadaffy saying the same thing? Well, we seen how that turned out for him.
The first thing that should be done ............take the group or individuals who put this Sudanese character in charge and relief he/or she of any job above the level of gutter cleaner, then take the ex general and try him for crimes against humanity.
Then look real careful at this Arab League
if your monitors can be recalled because they a not returning information to your liking or approval, why send them in the first place?
The motion to recall them is because their mission failed, not because they're returning unpleasant information. The monitors were put into place in the hope that their presence would restrain the Syrian government. That hasn't worked.
These Sunni dominated bigoted seventh century corrupt rulers headed by Saudi Arabia expected the Sudanese chief to dance and do dramas as they wanted. He tried to be too smart and he forgot who sent him and what for!
You guys are all wrong on this .
They didn't like HOT LEAD cumming at them , so the ran all the way home . They didn't like the idea of being killed in that s#%* hole sand box country .
Translation: "It's a New Year. Let us Oppressive, Lying, Blood Thirsty Arabs get back to MURDERING some more of our citizens. Now leave us alone and don't come back until we're done."
They will blame it on the US, as usual. It is our fault because we didn't invade and become a bigger problem.
And on the Jews!
way to turn your eyes Arabs
"Arab Parliament?" Now there's an oxymoron if I've ever heard one. You know like, "pretty ugly'' or "painless dentistry." Were they elected in a free and fair election? Do they have prescribed powers or are they just a rubber stamp for the tyrants in control? Are they part of a long tradition of power sharing and compromise? Were the writers trying to be funny or just the usual misinforming?
I thought exactly like you!
May be the rich Sharks of Saudi Arabia, UAE and other Sunni ruled nations thought about European Parliament. So why not give a modern name of "parliament" for the most bigoted and highly corrupt assembly of their servants!
Oh, come on, we have one like that too. It's in Washington DC, and we call it Congress (parliament is too British for our taste). Are you going to pull that 'democracy' sh*& that they make you believe that America is a democracy? And if it is a democracy, neither you or the majority of us are part of the 'demos.'
Doug, You have said it as well as it could be said. Best post!
Jusiceforall, My thoughts exactly...we are no better than the damn AP! Our Congress hasn't done @!$%# in over a year...they sit on their asses and people just look the other way...we are no longer the great nation that we used to be thanks to all the bought and paid for politicians and a Congress that don't want to work...keep turning a blind eye and we'll end up a friggin' third world country! At least we have a President that isn't killing his own people.
At least until Obamacare goes live in 2014!!
Assad has absolutely no intention of stopping the slau ghter of his own countrymen just because the Arab League sent a few people to look around. Syria is on its way to a civil war just as soon as the protesters can find a way to get arms and ammunition. Syria has closed its land borders to keep people from crossing in or out, and Assad assumes he will simply keep el im inating protesters until there are no more to el imi nate. If the Arab League does not intervene -- because the US and Britain are not going to -- this will continue until everyone else is d e a d.
"The Arab Parliament, an 88-member advisory committee of delegates from each of the League's member states, on Sunday said the violence was continuing to claim many victims."
The Arab Parliament sent an expert in "human rights" Sudanese boss! Great job for the "Parliament" and "human rights" monitoring!
Assad should hire the Sudanese Gen and take care of his opponents. He appears to be best in the business of "cleaning" with "human rights" intact!
As Saudis are involved everone will be happy!
For infidels: don't worry, be happy!
Just dedicated muslims practicing good ol fashioned islam...
Aint it grand?
You are ignorant and know nothing of Islam. Please stop going out of your way to reinforce the Stupid American stereotype.
Thanks.
JesusFChrist, your second sentence is a stereotype in itself.
The ancient Arabic culture continues to be a malevolent force that loves death, yet proclaims to the world to know God and want to spread their religion of peace to the whole world.
"Behold, you are with child, and shall bear a son; you shall call his name Ishmael; because The Lord has given heed to your affliction. He shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen." (Genesis 16:11-12 RSV).
Too bad Christianity hasn't died out. Just as violent a history, if not more so.
Seriously... one good reason NOT to read the RSV!!
KJV simply says He shall be a wild man... Nuff said.
@ Laura
The quote given by eScribe from the RSV is what the original Hebrew reads.
very funny - when people don't say what you want, in this case the monitors, the you pull them out. These arab despots- who are an embarrassment to humanity, are complete drunks that do more to advance vice (whoremongering , alcoholics that they are - ever seen them in Europe or the US? - some are even buggers! full on homosexuals -) around the world than anything else - the keepers of Mecca, much like the Koran I now believe it being sheltered by whores and liars - then stench of it even reaches the heavens. They sell out their own people over a bottle of gin and a sypholis covered prostitute.
Your ignorance astounds. No wonder the rest of the world believes America is full of stupid people. They have people like you as such a shining beacon. They are not 'ignoring' what happened, did you even read? They want to end the mission because the mission failed. They were hoping the presence of the monitors would restrain the Syrian government, and it didn't. Instead the presence of the monitors lead to MORE unrest and more people started dying because of the unrest caused by them being there and now the Syrians can shift blame to the Arab League and that is why they want to withdraw the monitors.
Assad is doing a great job creating martyrs, just let him do his job. He's reducing the number of actual and potential terrorists in the world so how can anyone call that bad.
lol!
i believe that the CIA is behind all this, as SYRIA is on the list of country's where the U.S. wants to overthrow the govt.
it'd be nice if their govt was overthrown (along with the rest of the dictatorships), but we can't afford to lose any more money or American lives
It seems their eyes have been opened. Question is what are they going to do now? The only problem with the AL is that they do not have a military wing like that of the UN to go in and put a stop to this.
The member nations should therefore gather a force and go in and take care of this situation.
Not going to happen!
That does look like the only option available to them, afer trying the role of intercessor/observers, but as you say not one they are likely to adopt, mainly because of complexly conflicting poitical agendas. Of course they can always try the age old international approach of sitting on their hands until it's too late and then getting up off their hands and wringing them. But that is less popular these days than it used to be and doesn't play well on social media.
Ok - read the article guys ... Arab League sent the Monitors - this is the combined leadership of the Arab world. They acted after the Arab Parliament reccomended suspending Syria from the League due to the violence. The Arab Parliament you will note is the name given to an advisory group of the AL ...which means it consists of people who are advising. Now, their advice is the intention of sending observers has failed, the violence has not been capped and in fact the AP suggests the continued presence of the observers is giving Syrian administration a form of official cover for their action and is counterproductive to the stted intent of the AL. The article surprisingly enough is not about how Arabs are running away from a fire fight, or how noble secular Generals are being subverted by evil islamists,or any number of imaginative spins that might be cast.
absolutely agree. the ap realizes the effect of their observes in syria is not doing what it was intended to do. that's a good thing.
now i guess, what is the next step.
nonetheless, it's such a good thing to see the arab league recognizing the reality of the situation in syria.
the notion that the observers presence is causing the violence is absurd, considering Muslim Sudan has been ruthless with non Muslim, that's like Mussolini backing Hitler
That is not what the article said.
Syria's state news agency SANA said there had been "massive demonstrations" throughout Syria on Friday in support of Assad, and denouncing "the plot which Syria is exposed to."
Sure there were, sure there were.
Who lives by the gun die by the Gun. Assad may ends up just like Qaddafi....He should be indicted by the ICC and brought to Justice for genocide.
If it comes to that he may try to work out a deal like President Saleh of Yemen did. If he ends up like Qaddafi he'll need a coffin.
These other dicators really don't want to know the truth of what is going on there.
The Observer Effect: The act of observing will influence the phenomenon being observed.
In the social sciences and general usage, the effect refers to how people change their behavior when aware of being watched (see Hawthorne effect). For instance, in the armed forces, an announced inspection is used to see how well soldiers can do when they put their minds to it, while a surprise inspection is used to see how well prepared they generally are.
The related social-science term observer bias is error introduced into measurement when observers overemphasize behavior they expect to find and fail to notice behavior they do not expect. This is why medical trials are normally double-blind rather than single-blind. Observer bias can also be introduced because researchers see a behavior and interpret it according to what it means to them, whereas it may mean something else to the person showing the behavior. See subject-expectancy effect and observer-expectancy effect.
simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect
Assad, Bin Laden, Khadaffi, and Hussein. What do these 4 lunatics have in common ? Nothing yet !
What do they have in common? They are/were evil , violent men. Two died by gun shots, one by hanging and one is a dead man walking.
"Monitors must quit Syria". WTF ? it is so nice they want to stay longer and enjoy the vacation, relax on the beach, eat some Kabobs around the grill with Fatima belly dancing around, just chill. Either that or they are going to bomb the place, or are pretending that.
Assad is out of step with the pace of history and is in a downward spiral that could very well end with a Kadafy style execution.
He should find a good refuge country and hightail it out of Damascus before things REALLY get bad....as they surely will.
Save yourself and your family from the mobs you have enraged by killing and torturing their loved ones.. You are beyond forgiveness and any return to the past.
Go now and dont make things any worse...
3 scenarios for the Arab League.
1. Remove Assad by force
2. Finance a Civil War
3. Do nothing and let the Syrian people figure it out for themselves.
Prediction:
#3