Amnesty International Nepal organized a demonstration program on 13th June, 2012 urging to UN Security Council members to take immediate action to stop the killings in Syria. The program held outside the UN house, Pulchowk, Lalitpur.
On the occasion, hundreds of people like members of AI Nepal, other human rights organization’s representatives and general public participated. Participants demonstrated various slogan and banner calling to all members of the international community including UN security council, Arab League countries and Russia for the protection of Syrian people.
Speaking on the program, prominent human rights activists Krishna Pahadi said that UN Security council should take immediate action to stop the killings in Syria. He further added “Otherwise human rights violation could create difficult situation in this world”. Rashmila Bhochhibhoya General Secretary and Rajan Kuinkel Deputy General Secretary of AI Nepal also shed light on the subject matter.
Signature collected
Similarly, Amnesty International Nepal launched a signature collection campaign urging to the UN security council members to take special initiative for the protection of Syrian people . On the occasion, more than 500 signatures collected. Collected signatures will hand over to the Russian ambassador to Nepal soon . Despite the fact that the Syrian authorities accepted the six-point plan proposed by the Joint Special Envoy for the United Nations and the Arab League on 25 March 2012, the agreed ceasefire on 12 April and the deployment of 366 unarmed military observers and international civilian staff as part of the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria, violence continues to mount in Syria. One of the most shocking incidents involved the recent attack of by Syrian forces on the Syrian town of Houla on 25 May, where 108 individuals, including 50 children were killed.
Although peaceful demonstrations have continued, the unrest has turned increasingly violent, with armed opposition groups, many loosely under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) carrying out attacks mainly against Syrian security forces. Abuses by opposition forces have also been reported including torture or killing of captured members of the army and security forces, including the pro-government gangs known as shabiha and perceived supporters of the government and suspected informers.
In some parts of the country, the situation appears to have evolved into a non-international armed conflict between government and opposition forces. Amnesty International has obtained the names of more than 9,900 people reported to have died or been killed in relation to the unrest since mid-March 2011, over 1460 of those have died since the members of the UN Supervision mission initially arrived on 14 April. Thousands of suspected opponents of the Syrian government have been arrested since protests broke out and many continue to be held, often in conditions amounting to enforced disappearance. Many, if not most, are believed to have been tortured and otherwise ill-treated. Amnesty International has the names of more than 380 people reported to have died in custody in this period and has documented many cases of torture or other ill-treatment. AI Nepal organized this demonstration program under the AI’s campaign on Syria.