On
Syria,
Ban Ki-moon
Belatedly
Tells Press
Assad "Has Not
Kept His
Word," Harder
Crackdown
Predicted
After Libya
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 22 --
"It is
troubling that
[Assad] has
not kept
his word"
about stopping
military
operations, UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon told
Inner City
Press on
Monday, five
days after
Ban
quoted Assad
on August 17
that "military
operations had
stopped."
Inner
City Press
twice
last week
asked Ban's
acting deputy
spokesman
Farhan Haq if
Ban
believed
Assad's
statement,
despite what
was seen even
on television.
Haq said Ban
thought an
investigation
should take
place.
On
August 22,
even
High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights Navi
Pillay said
that at least
39
people have
been killed by
Assad's forces
since Ban's
quote of him.
And so at the
end of a Ban
Ki-moon media
stakeout
Monday morning
about
Lybia,
with Haq
trying to end
the session
without the
question
being posed,
Inner City
Press asked:
Inner
City
Press: On
Syria, you had
said that
President
Assad said
that
military and
police
operations,
when you spoke
with him.
Since then,
according to
Navi Pillay,
39 more people
have been
killed. Did
you
ever believe
that
statement? Do
you believe it
now and what
should
be done?
SG
Ban:
This is what
he clearly
told me when I
had the
telephone talk
with him and
he assured me
that the
humanitarian
assistance
assessment
team will be
able to visit
different
places. And,
as you
know, our team
is already in
Syria - they
are now
assessing the
situation. It
is troubling
that he has
not kept his
word. Many
world leaders
have been
speaking to
him to halt
immediately
military
operations
that are
killing his
own people,
and he assured
me [he
would] do that
and military
operations
have already
stopped. Now
he
has seen and
he has heard
all these
serious and
urgent calls
to him,
and I
sincerely hope
that he heeds
the
international
community’s
appeal and
call.
Meanwhile
the UN
humanitarian
assessment
team fled Hom
under fire.
Ban &
Assad,
previously,
who called who
on Aug 17 not
shown
A
Ban Ki-moon
administration
official on
Monday
predicted to
Inner City
Press that
events in
Tripoli would
make Assad
"crack down
harder" to
avoid
Gaddafi's
fate. Another
told Inner
City Press
that it was
Assad
who called
Ban, and not
the other way
around --
Assad called
Ban
looking for
ground cover.
Given
the
invisibility
at the crucial
moment of
Ban's two
Libya envoys /
advisers Ian
Martin and Al
Khatib,
the question
of whether Ban
will
try to appoint
an envoy to
Syria "is
moot," one
said -- it
wouldn't make
any
difference.
Watch this
site.
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in