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The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on the Minister of International Relations to summon the Syrian ambassador to her office and deliver a strong letter of protest over the recent human rights developments in Syria.

Two recent incidents should compel the Minister to take swift action on the Syrian issue:

This weekend’s devastating bombardment of the city of Homs by the Assad regime’s forces, in which over 200 Syrian citizens, including 99 women and children, were killed. This is one of the bloodiest episodes of the 11-month uprising. The United Nations (UN) now estimates that over 5 400 Syrians have been killed since March last year.
The UN Security Council's failure yesterday to pass a resolution to ensure that decisive action was taken to stop the escalating violence in Syria. A resolution condemning the crackdown by President Assad’s forces, and backing the Arab League plan for President Assad to step down, was vetoed by Russia and China.

The decision by Russia and China to veto the resolution is deeply disappointing.

The resolution was an important show of support by the international community for the plight of the Syrian people, but was fairly benign in that it contained no reference to sanctions, an arms embargo or military intervention. It should therefore have been passed without opposition.

We believe that Russia and China have turned their backs on the Arab world to support tyranny rather than the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people.

The DA commends the South African government for having supported the UN resolution. It now needs to take the logical next step, and convey its dismay about continuing human rights abuses in Syria to the Syrian ambassador.