EU Council conclusions on Syria

3106th FOREIGN AFFAIRS Coun­cil meet­ing, Brus­sels, 18 July 2011
The Coun­cil adopt­ed the fol­low­ing con­clu­sions:
“1. The EU deplores the fact that the Syr­i­an lead­er­ship has cho­sen to ignore repeat­ed calls made by the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty and con­tin­ues its pol­i­cy of delib­er­ate vio­lent repres­sion of peace­ful pro­tes­tors. The EU reit­er­ates its con­dem­na­tion of this pol­i­cy in the strongest terms. The vio­lence must be stopped imme­di­ate­ly in order to pre­vent fur­ther blood­shed.

2. In this con­text, the EU calls for a polit­i­cal process lead­ing to rapid and con­crete imple­men­ta­tion of sub­stan­tial reforms, address­ing the legit­i­mate demands of Syr­i­an peo­ple on their way to a peace­ful, gen­uine and irre­versible tran­si­tion to democracy.

3. The EU salutes the deter­mi­na­tion and courage of the grow­ing num­ber of Syr­i­an peo­ple who con­tin­ue to voice their legit­i­mate aspi­ra­tions by peace­ful protests. They do so despite the increas­ing num­ber of casu­al­ties and report­ed cas­es of tor­ture and oth­er fla­grant human rights abus­es, some of which have been alleged by inde­pen­dent sources to be crimes against human­i­ty. This must be sub­ject to an inde­pen­dent, trans­par­ent and effec­tive inves­ti­ga­tion, as request­ed by the UNSG, and the per­pe­tra­tors of such acts must be held to account. The EU extends its sin­cere con­do­lences to all vic­tims and their families.

4. The EU con­demns the crack­down by the Syr­i­an secu­ri­ty forces in a num­ber of cities, most recent­ly in Hama. The EU urges Syria’s lead­er­ship to call off such secu­ri­ty oper­a­tions imme­di­ate­ly and refrain from the con­tin­ued use of force against civilians.

5. The EU recalls that Pres­i­dent Al-Assad promised to launch a Nation­al Dia­logue and notes that the first meet­ings took place. How­ev­er, the Syr­i­an regime still has to ful­fil all legit­i­mate demands to imme­di­ate­ly stop vio­lence and release pris­on­ers as a pre­req­ui­site for a cred­i­ble nation­al dia­logue lead­ing to gen­uine tran­si­tion to democ­ra­cy. The EU empha­sis­es that, if a dia­logue is to be cred­i­ble and gen­uine, it must be tru­ly inclu­sive and con­duct­ed in an envi­ron­ment with­out fear and intim­i­da­tion. For a dia­logue to be inclu­sive and mean­ing­ful, the par­tic­i­pa­tion of the oppo­si­tion with the full free­dom of assem­bly is essential. 

6. The EU fur­ther recalls that the Syr­i­an gov­ern­ment adopt­ed reforms, notably the lift­ing of the state of emer­gency and guar­an­tee­ing the right to peace­ful protest, which have nev­er been put into prac­tice. The EU reit­er­ates that by choos­ing a path of repres­sion instead of ful­fill­ing its own promis­es on broad reforms, the Syr­i­an regime is call­ing its legit­i­ma­cy into ques­tion. The reforms should be ful­ly imple­ment­ed with­out delay.

7. The EU strong­ly deplores the fact that despite the amnesties announced by the Pres­i­dent thou­sands are still held in deten­tion. All pris­on­ers of con­science and those arrest­ed in con­nec­tion with peace­ful protests should be released urgent­ly. The EU calls on the Syr­i­an lead­er­ship to halt its far-reach­ing per­se­cu­tion, includ­ing arbi­trary arrests, abuse of detainees in cus­tody and intim­i­da­tions, to respect human rights, allow unhin­dered access by human rights mon­i­tors, and coop­er­ate with the Office of the High Com­mis­sion­er for Human Rights includ­ing by grant­i­ng its mis­sion access to Syria.

8. The EU notes with extreme con­cern the dete­ri­o­rat­ing human­i­tar­i­an sit­u­a­tion of many Syr­i­ans. Thou­sands of peo­ple con­tin­ue to be dis­placed, includ­ing in the neigh­bour­ing coun­tries, as a result of the vio­lence. Pro­vi­sion of basic goods and ser­vices has been inter­rupt­ed repeat­ed­ly. The Syr­i­an author­i­ties must ensure that no fur­ther inter­rup­tions occur. The EU stress­es that the Syr­i­an author­i­ties bear respon­si­bil­i­ty for the human­i­tar­i­an sit­u­a­tion of the Syr­i­an peo­ple and strong­ly urges them to allow safe and unhin­dered access by human­i­tar­i­an agen­cies to all affect­ed areas.

9. Not­ing that some lim­it­ed access was giv­en to inter­na­tion­al media, the EU urges the Syr­i­an author­i­ties to allow inde­pen­dent and inter­na­tion­al media to oper­ate in Syr­ia with­out restric­tions. The Syr­i­an peo­ple should not be deprived of access to free media, includ­ing the Internet.

10. The EU strong­ly con­demns the attacks direct­ed against diplo­mat­ic rep­re­sen­ta­tions, includ­ing of one of its Mem­ber States, and the total­ly inad­e­quate response of the Syr­i­an author­i­ties. It fur­ther reminds the author­i­ties of their oblig­a­tion to pro­tect diplo­mat­ic rep­re­sen­ta­tions in Syria.

11. The sit­u­a­tion con­tin­ues to affect neigh­bour­ing coun­tries and con­sti­tutes a threat to region­al peace, secu­ri­ty and sta­bil­i­ty. There­fore, the EU per­sists in its efforts to ensure that the UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil assumes its respon­si­bil­i­ty in this respect, includ­ing by con­demn­ing the ongo­ing vio­lent repres­sion. The EU acknowl­edges the efforts by Turkey and oth­er region­al part­ners on the dif­fer­ent aspects of the cri­sis, in par­tic­u­lar the human­i­tar­i­an aspects, and will work with them to address the sit­u­a­tion in Syr­ia. The EU con­tin­ues to stand ready to assist in address­ing the human­i­tar­i­an impli­ca­tions of the cri­sis in the region.

12. Until the unac­cept­able vio­lence against the civil­ian pop­u­la­tion is halt­ed and deci­sive progress achieved towards ful­fill­ing the legit­i­mate aspi­ra­tions of the Syr­i­an peo­ple for a demo­c­ra­t­ic tran­si­tion, the EU will pur­sue and car­ry for­ward its cur­rent pol­i­cy, includ­ing through sanc­tions tar­get­ed against those respon­si­ble for or asso­ci­at­ed with the vio­lent repression.” 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union 

Face­book and/or on Twit­ter

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →