AFP: #ArabLeague seeks #UN help in #Syria #AssadCrimes

AFP: Arab League seeks UN help in Syria

clipped from article: "we need the experience from the UN and we need to see how we can evaluate if they go back, how they will work." ...

Sheikh Hamad said that if the observer mission goes back, the Syrian government must keep its "commitments" under the accord made with the 22-member Arab bloc.

Arab League ministers are to discuss the mission at a meeting on Saturday.

Sheikh Hamad said ministers would evaluate the crisis and "we will see whether we can continue the mission or not and how we can continue the mission. But we need to hear the reports of the people who have been on the ground first."

Arab League observers have been in Syria since December 26 trying to assess the Assad regime's implementation of a peace agreement aimed at ending the violence.

The mission has come in for scathing criticism from Syrian democracy activists who denounced it as "unprofessional" after the Arab League chief admitted snipers remained active in the country despite its presence.

The criticism came from the Local Coordination Committees, which also added that the Syrian regime was finding it easy to deceive the Arab observer mission.

"Soldiers wear police uniforms, drive repainted military vehicles and change the names of places, but this does not mean the army withdrew from cities and streets, or that the regime is applying the provisions of the Arab protocol," the committees said in a statement.

The LCC estimate at least 390 people have been killed since the observers began their mission.

The White House has said it is "past time" for the UN Security Council to act, as "sniper fire, torture and murder" were continuing in Syria and the Arab League conditions for the regime have been dishonoured.

"We want to see the international community stand together united in support of the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

But the Assad regime denounced the United States for "gross interference" in Arab League affairs and "an unjustified attempt to internationalise" the issue.

And, in bid to show it was implementing the Arab peace roadmap, it on Thursday announced the release of 552 prisoners, taking to almost 4,000 the number freed since the start of November.

The official SANA news agency said "552 prisoners involved in the latest events in Syria and who have no blood on their hands were released."

"The released persons are not involved in terrorist bloody acts of killings and explosions against Syrians," it said, adding 775 were freed last week and 2,645 during November.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi has acknowledged that "there are still snipers" in Syria, but defended the monitors' mission for securing prisoner releases and removing tanks from the streets.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the deaths of 10 more civilians on Wednesday.[ read more at link]