Syrians rally for ‘dignity’ amid violent crackdown; U.N. urges access to aid teams

Syrians took to the streets of Homs on Friday despite an opposition warning of a “massacre” by thousands of regime forces and militias who encircled the protest hub for a final assault to crush dissent, as the United Nations called on Syria to allow the humanitarian relief teams into the country.

And local rights groups reported later that forces killed at least 41 people, including two children, when they fired randomly on protesters in Homs, one of many areas where people rallied after the main weekly Muslim prayers.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday hit back at criticism from President Bashar al-Assad, insisting that information on the number of deaths in the government crackdown is “very credible.”

In an interview with ABC News, Assad expressed doubts over the number estimated by the U.N. for the people killed since the begiining of the uprising in March.

Ban told reporters during a trip to the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya that he could not believe that less than 4,000 people had been killed, as the government has reported.

“All the credible information is that more than 4,000 people have been killed by the government forces. The high commissioner for human rights has made it already clear through all the various sources, very credible sources,” Ban said.

“Dignity strike” to end the tyrant regime

Pro-democracy activists had called on citizens to take to the streets across the troubled country in support of a “dignity strike... which will lead to the sudden death of this tyrant regime.”

Ahead of the demonstrations, the opposition Syrian National Council warned of a bloody final assault on Homs using the pretext of what the regime had called a “terrorist” attack on an oil pipeline, according to AFP.

“The regime (is) paving the way to commit a massacre in order to extinguish the revolution in Homs,” said the SNC, a principle umbrella group drawing together Assad's opponents.

Homs, an important central junction city of 1.6 million residents mainly divided along confessional lines, is a tinderbox of sectarian tensions that the SNC said the regime was trying to exploit.

“The regime has tried hard to ignite the sectarian conflict using many dirty methods, which have included bombing and burning mosques, torturing and killing young men, and kidnapping women and children,” said the SNC.

“The regime also took a significant step... in burning oil pipelines in the neighborhood of Baba Amro to blame what the regime calls ‘armed gangs’; in an attempt to crush the peaceful uprising on the pretext of a war on terrorism.”

Buildup of troops and Shabiha

Witnesses on the ground in Homs, already besieged for months, had reported a buildup of troops and pro-regime “Shabiha” militiamen in armored vehicles who have set up more than 60 checkpoints, said the opposition group.

“These are all signs of a security crackdown operation that may reach the level of a total invasion of the city.”

“We warn of the consequences of committing such a crime that could result in a massive number of casualties,” said the SNC.

“We hold accountable the regime, and behind it the Arab League and the international community of what could happen to innocent civilians in the next few hours or days, and the implications for the region as a whole in the near future.”

“The Syrian National Council also calls on all relevant international organizations and human rights organizations to take immediate action to pressure the international forums to provide immediate protection to civilians in Homs in particular, and throughout Syria in general.”

The Assad regime’s crackdown on dissent since mid-March has hit Homs particularly hard and activists say a great number of defecting soldiers have set up camp there to protect the protest movement.

An explosion on Thursday tore apart a pipeline taking crude to an oil refinery in Homs from eastern Syria, in an attack the regime blamed on “armed terrorist gangs.”

But the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), which organizes the protests, accused Assad’s government of deliberately destroying the pipeline which serves a region seen as staunchly opposed to his rule.

Two children--aged 10 and 12--were among the people killed by Syrian security forces on Friday in Homs and on the outskirts of Damascus, rights groups said.

Assad is held accountable for abuses

Meanwhile, Austria’s Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said that Assad must step down immediately and be held accountable for any human rights abuses committed during a crackdown on opposition protestors.

As a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Austria had a duty to help highlight the “atrocities of the regime” and to ensure they are judged at an international level, he said in a statement after meeting the main Syrian opposition leader in exile, Reuters reported.

“There can be no impunity. Assad will have to answer for his offences,” Spindelegger said after meeting Syrian National Council leader Burhan Ghalioun in Vienna.

Speaking to reporters in New York, U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay repeated her call for investigators to be allowed into Syria to assess the situation there. Pillay is expected to brief the Security Council about the crackdown in Syria on Monday, as requested by France.

“It will be useful because it will allow the Security Council to examine its own responsibilities” in the crisis, said a U.N. diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity.

Pillay acknowledged that almost 1,000 security forces may have been killed in Syria. But she told a press conference that more than 220 witnesses had been interviewed by U.N. human rights commissioners whose report was rubbished by Assad in the interview.

"Really it is not good enough for the president of Syria to simply brush all this aside with the unsupported assertion that the United Nations is not credible," she said.

Diplomats said they notice signs of a shift in attitude by opponents of U.N. action against President Assad. However Western governments are waiting to see what impact Arab League sanctions have on Syria.

Turkey urged Assad on Friday to punish the “murderers” of anti-regime protesters and accept observers proposed by the Arab League.

And Syria’s foreign ministry said it was studying a response from the Arab League to conditions sought by Assad's government to accept the delegation of monitors.

Aid teams must be allowed in

A senior U.N. official said on Friday that U.N. humanitarian relief teams must be allowed into Syria to assess the predicament of its people in the ninth month of violent unrest.

“I repeat my call to the Syrian government to really let us in,” said Valerie Amos, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, according to Reuters.

“We are concerned about the health impact of what is going on. We don’t have a very clear picture across the country because we do not have the access that will enable us to know exactly what is going on,” she told reporters in Stockholm.

“If, as the government say, they have nothing to hide, then I think allowing us in to see that that is the case and to do a proper assessment of what the implications of this are for the people of Syria is absolutely critical,” Amos said.

She said the United Nations did not have the data to assess whether or not humanitarian corridors or buffer zones, as proposed by some concerned states, would be helpful.

“If we don’t know where the needs are, where are we going to set up possible humanitarian corridors or buffer zones?”

Foreign reporters are barred from Syria except by government invitation.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday it had nearly tripled its budget for Syria for 2012. It has delivered food and health supplies in major cities, including Homs, the epicenter of the revolt against Assad and the government crackdown on pro-democracy protests.