Syria`s Ambassador at UN: UK riots are only 1% of Syria`s

Thursday 11 August 2011

Syria`s Ambassador at UN: UK riots are only 1% of Syria`s

Syria at UNSC (Archive)

(Dp-news) UN- United Nations Security Council met on Wednesday to discuss the deteriorating situation in Syria. But Syria's ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Ja'afari, back in New York from meetings with President al-Assad government officials in Damascus, has sparked diplomatic furor by comparing the unrest in his country to the riots in Britain, adding that anti-government groups had killed 500 Syrian security forces.

ABC news reported that UN Security Council has met to discuss the crisis. Britain's representative Philip Parham says tougher measures against Damascus are on the cards “So we need the Syrian regime to heed the calls that have come now from the Security Council and from the region. And you saw the presidential statement which the Security Council issued last week which gave a clear, a strong and a united message to the Syrian regime about what they needed to do.”

Parham added “And if they continue nevertheless along their current path and they fail to heed those calls then we believe the council must look at taking further steps to keep up the pressure on the Syrian regime to get things onto a better track.”

For his part, Syria's UN ambassador Bashar Ja'afari has caused a diplomatic stir of his own. He claims anti-government troops have killed 500 Syrian security forces and he's drawn a comparison with the unrest in Britain.

Ja'afari said ” It's very indicative and informative to hear the prime minister of England describing the riots and the rioters in England as by using the terms gangs while they don't allow us to use the same term for the armed groups and the terrorist groups in my country. This is hypocrisy.”

Bashar Ja'afari says the country's sovereignty "is a red line that must not be crossed".

"We know our commitments, our obligations but at the same time we know what our rights are. And our rights do not stem from any political pressure. They stem from our own political will," he said after sessions at the United Nations Security Council in New York.

He criticised Western nations for accepting the British government's denunciation of rioters as members of gangs, while denouncing Syria for its crackdown on anti-government elements.

"They don't allow us to use the same term for the armed groups and the terrorist groups in my country. This is hypocrisy, this is arrogance," he said.

"They tried to manipulate the truth and to hide important facts and elements related to the so-called situation in Syria," said Ja'afari.

While some Western envoys at the UN are speaking with one voice Russia's UN ambassador says sanctions won't help end the crackdown that human rights groups say has claimed at least 1,700 civilians since the uprising against Syria's regime erupted in March, according to Human Rights groups and International bodies.

"We will do whatever is necessary to restore order on our streets!"
Police Raid Houses across London over Riots

Police began raiding houses across London on Thursday to make arrests over the riots that rocked the British capital, with more than 100 warrants issued already, a senior Scotland Yard officer said.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Kavanagh announced the raids after a heavy police presence on the streets of London and other cities prevented a fifth night of the unrest.

"In the early hours of this morning we started knocking on doors to arrest people," Kavanagh said. "We have got more than 100 warrants which we will be working our way through over the coming hours and days.

"With so many officers on duty we want to use their time by going out there and arresting burglars, robbers and thieves -- those people who cause concern and crime in our communities."

So far the Metropolitan Police has arrested 888 people in connection with violence, disorder and looting since Saturday, and 371 people have been charged. There have been more than 300 arrests in other English cities.

Around 16,000 police officers have been deployed in London for the past two nights in response to the riots, in which four people have died across the country and dozens of shops and homes have been burned down. The riots have also sparked a debate about the government's plans to cut police budgets as part of austerity measures to reduce Britain's record deficit.