Syrians mark anniversary of massacre

Syrian activists poured pools of red paint on to the roads of Hama on Thursday to commemorate the 30th anniversary of a bloody government assault, which rights groups say killed at least 10,000 people in the city.

The huge military crackdown on an Islamist uprising led from Syria’s fourth-largest city in 1982 was followed by harsh suppression of public dissent. Activists said this was the first time Syrians had ever commemorated the traumatic event publicly in their country.

Radwan Ziadeh, a US-based member of the Syrian National Council (SNC), the main umbrella group for opponents of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, said that a song about Hama composed by a protester in Homs with the lines “Hama forgive us, we will not forget you again” was sung in different parts of the country on Thursday.

Many observers feel that even as the death toll from 10 months of protests climbs to more than 5,000, the regime is avoiding committing violence in such a concentrated way as was done in Hama in 1982 to avoid provoking a more dramatic international response.

“Now they need to have slow-motion killing,” said Mr Ziadeh, who said that although the daily average of deaths had crept up from about 30 to about 100 “that is not accelerating the international support we were expecting. They are not doing a massacre of thousands”.

The commemorations in Hama took place as diplomats at the UN in New York embarked on another day of intense negotiations to try and win approval for a new resolution condemning the violence in Syria.

In the face of significant opposition from Russia, which has been one of Syria’s closest international allies, Arab and western diplomats have made several concessions from the text introduced on Tuesday, including dropping references to potential sanctions and referring Syrian officials to the International Criminal Court.

Diplomats were also looking for compromise language over whether there should be a transfer of power in Syria, which had been one of the key points of an Arab League resolution passed last month. The new text does not include a direct call for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, but does say the UN “fully supports” the Arab League proposal.

Asked whether the new resolution was now toothless, Nabil Elaraby, secretary-general of the Arab League, told CNN: “It will still put pressure on the Syrian government, because they realise that Russia cannot stand up forever. And they are under great pressure now. And you know, Russia does not want to be against the people.”

The latest draft also excludes a call to halt weapons sales to Syria, which had been another of the main sticking points for Moscow. Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s deputy defence minister, said on Thursday that Russia will continue to supply Syria with weapons in accordance with the two countries’ bilateral commitments.

“Russia is committed to its international obligations in the area of supplies of armaments and we will not violate any of our international commitments. Whatever is not prohibited is permitted,” he told a press conference. He added that Russia was not supplying “destabilising weapons” to the Mideast region.

Mr Antonov denied that any weapons such as Russian-supplied rifles were being used against demonstrators. He also denied allegations that Russian-supplied weapons could have fallen into third-party hands. “There are no leakages of Russia arms,” he said

Analysts said that Russia had a huge interest in maintaining arms sales to the Assad regime. “Russia would not endorse a Libya-style freeze on selling military equipment to Syria when they are so heavily invested in all three branches of the Syrian military,” said Scott Johnson, defence analyst at IHS Janes, the defence consultancy. He said Syria has $3bn in debts to Russia for military hardware.