OTTAWA - Canada joined allies across the world Tuesday in expelling Syrian diplomats, as the slaughter of the innocent in Houla provoked a broad severing of global ties with the pariah Assad regime in Damascus.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Canada was expelling Syrian diplomats in the wake of the weekend massacre in Houla. The United Nations said 108 people died in the massacre, including 49 children and 34 women — one of the deadliest events in the 15-month uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.
Canada took part in a co-ordinated diplomatic offensive along with the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and the Netherlands as the UN revealed more gruesome details of the events in Houla: the massacre included the close-range shootings of scores of children and parents in their homes.
The report did not specify who carried out most of the killings.
In Ottawa, a small but noisy crowd began to gather outside the Syrian embassy as several RCMP officers stood guard on the sidewalk.
Halah al-Horani, a high school English teacher in Damascus until she emigrated to Canada four years ago, was initially numbed by the violence in Houla before she came out to add her voice to Tuesday's dissent.
"I spent two days not speaking," said al-Horani, 53. "All the time, I was imagining how those children were feeling when they were watching their friends, other families, getting slaughtered by those monstrous people."
Raed Arab, 46, said the diplomatic expulsion was long overdue.
"We asked for this a long time ago. But it took more lives for the Canadian government to take action. We thank the government for taking this action," said Arab, a Palestinian-Canadian, whose mother is Syrian.
"This regime is a Mafia," he added. "The latest killing just shows just how murderous this regime is. And how brutal they are."
Baird said all remaining diplomats in Ottawa and their families have five days to leave Canada. As is the case in several other countries, Syria's ranking diplomat is a charge d'affairs, not an ambassador.
As well, another Syrian diplomat waiting to come to Canada will be refused entry.
Baird said Canadians, like other people around the world, were horrified to learn on the weekend about the massacre, including nearly three dozen children under the age of 10.
"Canada and our partners are speaking loudly, with one voice, in saying these Syrian representatives are not welcome in our countries while their masters in Damascus continue to perpetrate their heinous and murderous acts," Baird said.
"The ongoing violence must stop immediately, and the Syrian people must be free to realize for themselves a better, brighter future. Canada remains committed to working with the international community to find solutions to this crisis."
Britain said further sanctions would be considered against Syria, but there was no prospect of any more intervention.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague signalled that Russia — a supporter of Syria — would face more pressure following Tuesday's action.
"We will continue to discuss this with Russia. Russia has particular leverage on the regime and therefore has a particular role in this crisis."
Hague said the situation in Syria is more complicated than the events in Libya last year, when the UN Security Council approved air strikes that ultimately contributed to the ouster of dictator Moammar Gadhafi's regime.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay wouldn't speculate on whether the Security Council would ever be able to act in unanimity, in the face of veto-wielding members China and Russia.
"China and Russia in particular have been very reticent to agree to a Security Council resolution, at least one that would mirror similar efforts to try to bring to an end the violence. But we continue to push along with our partners," MacKay said Tuesday.
Related on HuffPost:
FULL STORY: Entire Families Executed At Home.. Most Shot Close-Range
Syrian policemen inspect the site of a car bomb explosion on Mazzeh highway in the capital Damascus on July 13, 2012. AFP PHOTO/STR (Photo credit should read -/AFP/GettyImages)
U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice tweets:
| @ AmbassadorRice : #Syria regime turned artillery, tanks and helicopters on its own men & women. It unleashed knife-wielding shabiha gangs on its own children. |
Russia says international envoy Kofi Annan will visit Moscow on Monday to discuss the ongoing crisis in Syria. Russia also called for an inquiry into an alleged massacre that took place in the village of Tramseh on Thursday. "We have no doubt that this wrongdoing serves the interests of those powers that are not seeking peace but persistently seek to sow the seeds of interconfessional and civilian conflict on Syrian soil," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement, according to Reuters. Moscow did not apportion blame for the killings.
Read more on Reuters.com.
The Associated Press obtained a video that purports to show the aftermath of an alleged massacre in the village of Tramseh, near Hama.
How do Syria's fighters get their arms? An overview put together by Reuters explains that there are three gateways to the country -- Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq.
Syrian rebels are smuggling small arms into Syria through a network of land and sea routes involving cargo ships and trucks moving through Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq, maritime intelligence and Free Syrian Army (FSA) officers say. Western and regional powers deny any suggestion they are involved in gun running. Their interest in the sensitive border region lies rather in screening to ensure powerful weapons such as surface to air missiles do not find their way to Islamist or other militants.
Read the full report here.
This citizen journalism image made from video provided by Shaam News Network SNN, purports to show a victim wounded by violence that, according to anti-regime activists, was carried out by government forces in Tremseh, Syria about 15 kilometers (nine miles) northwest of the central city of Hama, Thursday, July 12, 2012. The accounts, some of which claim more than 200 people were killed in the violence Thursday, could not be independently confirmed, but would mark the latest in a string of brutal offensives by Syrian forces attempting to crush the rebellion. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network, SNN)
This citizen journalism image made from video provided by Shaam News Network SNN, purports to show a man mourning a victim killed by violence that, according to anti-regime activists, was carried out by government forces in Tremseh, Syria about 15 kilometers (nine miles) northwest of the central city of Hama, Thursday, July 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network, SNN)
According to the Hama Revolutionary Council, a Syrian opposition group, more than 220 people have been killed in a new alleged massacre in Taramseh. Earlier reports said more than 100 people were killed. "More than 220 people fell today in Taramseh," the Council said in a statement. "They died from bombardment by tanks and helicopters, artillery shelling and summary executions."
Fadi Sameh, an opposition activist from Taramseh, told Reuters he had left the town before the reported massacre but was in touch with residents. "It appears that Alawite militiamen from surrounding villages descended on Taramseh after its rebel defenders pulled out, and started killing the people. Whole houses have been destroyed and burned from the shelling," Sameh claimed.
Read more on Reuters.com.
Syrian activist Rami Jarrah tweets that Syrian State TV has confirmed deaths in Tremseh. "Terrorists" is often the term used by the Syrian regime for opposition forces.
| @ AlexanderPageSY : Syrian State TV: clashes between security apparatus & terrorists in #Tremseh of #Hama leaves large numbers of terrorists killed #Syria |
| @ Reuters : UPDATE: DEATH TOLL IN SYRIAN FORCES' ATTACK ON VILLAGE IN SYRIA'S HAMA REGION IS MORE THAN 200, MOSTLY CIVILIANS - OPPOSITION ACTIVISTS |
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| @ Reuters : At least 100 killed in Syrian village: opposition activists http://t.co/FG3fJwu8 |
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CP | By Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press Posted: 05/29/2012 8:32 am Updated: 05/29/2012 3:22 pm