MEDIA STATEMENT
31 JULY 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Pakatan Rakyat has found it necessary to address the continuing acts of inhumane violence against civilians at the hands of the Assad regime in Syria. In particular, the killing of 90 civilians, 32 of which were under the age of 10 on the 25th of May 2012; reports from Human Rights Watch (HRW) of heavy weapons (i.e. tank and artillery shells) being fired into dense residential districts and other population centres; and the chaotic, seemingly disorganized massacre of civilians in both rural and urban areas have led to the reported 15000 civilians killed and more than a million displaced to date.
Claims by the regime to evade blame and attribute atrocities to terrorist organizations are obviously false – the responsible parties, as was reported by the HRW, were too well armed, too coherent, and too uniform in both appearance and conduct, to justify their labels as irregular terrorist forces. The mass violations of human rights in Syria are clearly perpetuated by the Syrian military acting on orders from the Assad regime.
As such, the lack of a response by Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs other than the recent evacuation of Malaysian students back to Malaysian shores is nothing less than shocking considering the ongoing massacre of civilians in Syria.
Pakatan believes that this ongoing silence is entirely untenable in the face of such violations. The Malaysian government cannot practice “selective persecution” – taking an active part in condemning Israeli led and state sponsored atrocities but staying silent in the face of Assad’s brutality.
After 15 months of near-constant violence of escalating intensity, Pakatan demands that the following conditions be met in order to vindicate the gross violations of justice, humanity and democracy in Syria:
The Syrian military must stand down and halt their acts of violence against the civilian population; a new ceasefire should be established and diplomatic methods to resolve the matter resumed in a continuation of Kofi Annan’s peace plan for Syria; the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs must cease their show of revolting indifference and condemn the massacres of civilians in Syria; and the government should further refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) before discharging the Syrian ambassador and cutting all official diplomatic ties with Syria in protest, alongside the international community.
Pakatan stands by its position that inaction on the part of Malaysians and the Malaysian government is no longer a viable course of action. Inaction is a gross statement of political apathy and indifference toward the lives lost and the lives in danger to this day in Syria. Malaysia should embrace our Syrian brothers and sisters and support their call for freedom and democracy.
Dr. Dzulkefly Ahmad, MP for Kuala Selangor
PAS
Nurul Izzah Anwar, MP for Lembah Pantai
KEADILAN
Liew Chin Tong, MP for Bukit Bendera
DAP
