The European Union has decided to get serious with the regime in Damascus, after the recent massacres. This is the main political indication that emerges from the Summit of Foreign Ministers of the 27 EU countries, meeting today in Poland. On the agenda, among other things, there was a new round of sanctions against the Government of Bashar Assad, who does not mention to loosen the repression against the protest movements that challenge him for five months.
The new round of sanctions, the third to be approved by the EU, affects one of the main voices of the Syrian economy, the export of oil. The crude weighs for 25 percent of GDP Syrian and Europe receives the 95 percent of oil exports. The prohibition on importing Syrian crude will come into force "immediately", as stated by a spokesman for the EU to Reuters, but Italy will have a derogation until November 15 to meet the deadline of some current contracts. In addition to oil, the EU has stretched with the names of four other members of the scheme and three Syrian organizations the list of persons and entities whose assets were frozen and which was imposed the travel ban in the territory of the Union.
The new sanctions, according to Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal, "go straight to the heart of the regime '. A regime that, said the Polish President Radoslaw Sikorski ' is massacring its citizens '. European declarations are added to those of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who yesterday on the sidelines of the International Summit on Libya in Paris, he repeated that Assad ' must go '.
Despite the satisfaction for the European decision, the British Prime Minister David Cameron expressed his ' frustration ' for the fact that in the UN Security Council is not able to obtain, due to the Russian and Chinese opposition, a resolution of condemnation of the Syrian regime, that opens the way for international sanctions more widespread and stringent and the blocking of assets of the scheme, including those of President Assad. "Assad has had the chance to prove to be ready to genuine reforms – Cameron said commenting on the new sanctions – the had and has wasted."
European determination was reinforced by the spread of the video in which the former Solicitor-General, Adnan al-Hama Bakkour, announced his resignation. Within three minutes of shooting that is making the rounds of the network, the former Prosecutor says he can prove that 72 people were killed in the prison of Hama last July 31. Among the victims, political prisoners and activists against the regime. Other accusations are equally chilling: 420 bodies buried in mass graves in the parks of Hama; arbitrary arrests of thousands of activists; at least 320 people tortured to death and an unknown number of civilians killed by the army into crumble on their homes.
Are allegations that confirm and Excel report released a few days ago by Amnesty International. The NGO had detected 88 cases of death in Syrian prisons over the past five months, including some adolescents. The figures provided by al-Bakkour are much more severe, and relate to the city of Hama, one of the most affected by the repression with which the regime tries in vain to stop the protests.
Damascus, the official news agency Sana, tried to discredit the video – which does not allow elements to identify when and where was shot – saying that al-Bakkour was kidnapped by "criminal gangs" and forced to lie. The same al-Bakkour, however, reached by telephone from Al Jazeera, denied he was kidnapped and said to be safe, protected by opponents.
In Syria, meanwhile, was another Friday prayers and protests in different areas of the country. According to Al Jazeera, the deaths caused by the intervention of the security forces have been at least 11, including four in a suburb of the capital Damascus and three to Deir ez-Zor, in the East of the country. The heart of the regime does not seem to still weakened.
Joseph Zarlingo
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