negotiations centrifugal: Syria Violence: Wounded Journalists Escape, Military Pounds ...

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
AMMAN, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Syrian forces shelled an opposition stronghold in Hama province, killing 20 people, on Tuesday and hit rebel-held parts of Homs, activists said, as two wounded foreign journalists trapped in the city were reported to have been smuggled safely to Lebanon.
President Bashar al-Assad sent units of an elite armoured division, which is led by his brother Maher, into Homs overnight, activists said. Tanks with the words "Fourth Division Monsters" painted on them moved close to the besieged Baba Amro district.
French journalist Edith Bouvier and British photographer Paul Conroy, both wounded last week in an attack in Baba Amro, were now safe in Lebanon, a diplomat and opposition sources said. It was not clear how they escaped.
In Hama province, security forces bombarded the town of Helfaya, a hotbed of protests in the uprising against Assad.
Activists said the 20 deaths of Sunni Muslim villagers there were among at least 100 killed in the province in the last two weeks in revenge for rebel Free Syrian Army attacks on security forces commanded by members of Assad's minority Alawite sect.
The reports could not be independently confirmed. Syrian authorities tightly restrict media access to the country.

Opposition groups say hundreds of civilians have been killed or wounded in the siege of Baba Amro and other rebellious districts in Homs, where terrified residents are enduring dire conditions, without proper supplies of water, food and medicine.
Syrian forces on Tuesday launched the heaviest bombardment in their three-week assault on Baba Amro, activists said.
Assad, projecting an aura of normality in a land ravaged by 11 months of conflict over his right to power, decreed that a new constitution was in force on Tuesday after officials said nearly 90 percent of voters had endorsed it in a referendum.
Opposition groups and Western leaders seeking Assad's removal denounced Sunday's vote as a charade that diverted attention from the violence in Homs and elsewhere.

"BARBARISM"
Assad's government had "broken all the limits of barbarism". French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said.
"And when I see the Syrian president paraded around this voting station in Damascus for this phony referendum, it makes you deeply indignant," he told RTL radio.
Juppe said he felt "immensely frustrated" at difficulties in obtaining security guarantees to enable wounded civilians and Western journalists to be evacuated from Homs.
American reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed in Baba Amro on Feb. 22 in a strike on a house in which Conroy and Bouvier were wounded.
The Syrian Arab Red Crescent did manage to evacuate three people from Baba Amro on Monday, but not the foreign reporters, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
The outside world has proved powerless to halt the killing in Syria, where repression of initially peaceful protests has spawned an armed insurrection by army deserters and others.
"As long as we have not halted the massacres, we are impotent, but we are not inactive," Juppe said.
He told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday it was time to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court and warned Assad he would be brought to justice.
Foreign powers have argued over whether to arm Syrian rebels trying to resist Assad's forces, but there is little appetite in the West for any Libya-style military intervention.
Russia and China have used their vetoes to protect Syria from any action by the U.N. Security Council, where Western and Arab powers had sought backing for an Arab League transition plan under which Assad would voluntarily relinquish office.
Qatar joined Saudi Arabia on Monday in advocating arming the Syrian rebels. "We should do whatever is necessary to help them, including giving them weapons to defend themselves," Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said in Oslo.
Assad says he is battling a foreign conspiracy featuring "armed terrorist groups" and al Qaeda militants, while pressing ahead with political reforms toward greater democracy.
His opponents scorn his calls for dialogue as meaningless while Syrian security forces are violently repressing dissent.
The Syrian leader says the new constitution will lead to multi-party elections within three months.
The document drops a clause making Syria's Baath party the leader of state and society, allows political pluralism and limits a president to two seven-year terms.
But this restriction is not retroactive, implying that Assad, 46 and already in power since 2000, could serve two further terms after his current one expires in 2014.
The opposition dismisses the reforms on offer, saying that Assad, and his father who ruled for 30 years before him, have long paid only lip service to existing legal obligations. (Additional reporting by Dominic Evans, Erika Solomon and Mariam Karouny in Beirut; Writing by Alistair Lyon, Editing by Rosalind Russell)

Venezuela has continued fuel shipments to Syria despite growing international condemnation of the Syrian regime, the country's energy minister said on Tuesday.

From the AP:

Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said the possibility of facing international sanctions won't deter Venezuela from helping Syria. He said Venezuela's state-run oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, has sent two loads of 300,000 barrels each to Syria.
"Syria is a blockaded country," Ramirez said. "If it needs diesel and we can provide it, there's no reason not to do it."
Chavez is a close ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has drawn widespread international criticism for his tough military response to an 11-month-old uprising.
Syria is not facing an economic blockade as Ramirez alleged. But European Union countries have frozen the assets of Syrian government officials and the country's central bank, and the bloc has also sought to cut Syria's supply of equipment for its oil and gas sectors. So far, the EU sanctions have had little effect on Assad's regime.

A Free Syrian Army soldier walks next to a burned tractor in Sarmin, north of Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012. According to the residents of the city at least fourteen people were killed yesterday during clashes between the Free Syrian Army and President Assad's forces. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Villagers prepare the tomb for Ghassan Ali, 40, who was killed during clashes between the Free Syrian Army and the government forces in Sarmin, north of Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Residents stand by their house destroyed in clashes between the Free Syrian Army and President Assad's forces in Sarmin, north of Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Reuters and the Associated Press released video out of Homs that purportedly shows security forces relentlessly shelling the city's civilian neighborhoods.

Al Jazeera interviewed two fathers in Damascus, who tell the network their sons have been targeted by Syrian security forces.

The International Committee of the Red Cross delivered food and supplies to the cities of Homs and Idlib, Reuters reports on Tuesday.

"We managed to bring relief material into Homs city and Idlib today which was handed over to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent branches in both cities to be distributed as soon as possible," ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan said.

Yet the group warns security has to improve before the aid can be distributed. The organization calls for a daily ceasefire to guarantee civilians safe access to the aid supplies. "People need to have a daily window during which they know they will receive the necessary help," Hassan told Reuters.

The Central Bank Building in Damascus on February 28, 2012. (ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images)

The BBC aired what appears to be some of the most recent images from Syria's Homs. Security forces kept up their attack on the city on Tuesday.

Testifying before the Senate, U.S. Secretary of State Clinton said on Tuesday that Syria's President Bashar Assad fits the definition of a war criminal.

From the AP:

Asked if Assad is a war criminal, Clinton said he would fit into that category. She stopped short of saying the international community should make that designation and level charges, pointing out that such a step often makes it difficult for a leader to step down.

Fayssal al-Hamwi, Syrian Ambassador in Geneva delivers his statement to the urgent debate on Syria during the 19th session of the Human Rights Council, at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Feb. 29, 2012.

The Syrian ambassador blamed members of the human rights body of promoting terrorism and prolonging the Syrian crisis, according to the AP. "We are convinced that the real aim behind holding this session today is to cover up for the violence and murder perpetrated by the armed groups against innocent civilians," Al-Hamwi reportedly said.

The U.N. estimates more than 7,500 people have died since the start of the conflict in Syria in March 2011.

@ AP : BREAKING: UN political chief says "well over" 7,500 people have died in Syria violence.

Reuters reports Tunisia offered to give president Bashar al-Assad and his family political asylum if it would help end Syria's crisis. An aide to Tunisia's president told Reuters that "Tunisia is ready in principle to grant political asylum to Bashar al-Assad and his family if this proposal will contribute to stopping the bloodshed."

A diplomat and rebel sources told Reuters that French journalist Edith Bouvier is also in Lebanon.

Yet according to the Associated Press, Bouvier is still in Syria. "The Syrian opposition group Local Coordination Committees and global activist group Avaaz said Paul Conroy was the only foreign journalist to escape Syria," AP writes.

The Sunday Times said photographer Paul Conroy, who was wounded in the same attack that killed American reporter Marie Colvin and photojournalist Remi Ochlik, arrived in Lebanon. According to the Associated Press, Conroy was smuggled out of the city of Homs by rebels.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reports a 17-year old videographer was killed in Syria's Homs on Friday.

According to news reports, Anas al-Tarsha was filming in the city's Qarabees district when he was killed in a mortar attack.

"At extraordinary risk, Syrians such as Anas al-Tarsha have picked up their cameras to document for the rest of the world the devastation caused by the government's ongoing attacks," Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, said on the group's website. "Syrian authorities have done everything they can to shut down news coverage of their actions. Anas al-Tarsha and other local videographers have given their lives to ensure that the Syrian government would not succeed," he added.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice slammed Syria, saying a referendum held in the country on Sunday was "clearly a sham."

According to Reuters, Syria's Interior Ministry announced on Monday that 89.4 percent of voters approved a new constitution, which would allow president Bashar al-Assad to remain in power until 2028.

The United Nations said on Monday that it found the referendum 'unlikely to be credible.'

@ AmbassadorRice : The so-called referendum yesterday in #Syria was clearly a sham.

A woman holds her daughter on the balcony of her building damaged by Syrian Army bombings in central Idlib, north of Syria, Monday, Feb. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A boy stands in from of a shop destroyed in Syrian Army shelling in the center of Idlib, north of Syria, Monday, Feb. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A family evacuates their belongings as they flee their home because of the Syrian Army shelling in central Idlib, north Syria, Monday, Feb. 27, 2012.

Activist group the Local Coordination Committees says 124 people have been killed across Syria on Monday. According to the Associated Press, the activists say among those killed were 64 people who were trying to flee Homs' embattled Baba Amr neighborhood.

The city of Homs has been under attack by Syrian security forces for weeks. Activists say hundreds of people have been killed in the assault.

The European Union expanded its sanctions on Syria to target the country's central bank and seven cabinet ministers, Reuters reported on Monday.

"Today's decisions will put further pressure on those who are responsible for the ruthless campaign of repression in Syria," Europe's high representative for foreign affairs, Catherine Ashton, said in a statement obtained by the news service.

"The measures target the regime and its ability to conduct the appalling violence against civilians. As long as the repression continues, the EU will keep imposing sanctions," the statement also said.

Reuters reports U.N.-Arab League envoy on Syria Kofi Annan held talks in Geneva with Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi And French foreign minister Alain Juppe.

Annan was appointed last Thursday as joint special envoy on Syria. In a statement released on Friday, the former U.N. chief called for the full cooperation of all parties and stakeholders to help bring an end to Syria's violence and human rights abuses, Reuters writes.

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad casts his ballot next to his wife Asma at a polling station during a referendum on the new constitution, in Damascus, Syria, on Sunday Feb. 26, 2012. Syrians began voting on a new draft constitution aimed at quelling the country's uprising by ending the ruling Baath Party's five-decade domination of power, but the opposition announced a boycott and clashes were reported across the country. (AP Photo/SANA)

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Thursday, March 1, 2012

Syria Violence: Wounded Journalists Escape, Military Pounds ...

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