There is currently an informal UN General Assembly meeting on Syria.
As now has become a regular feature, right in time for the UN GA today a new "massacre" was claimed to have happened by the rebels and picked up as news rather than rumor in all "western" media. That "massacre" is supposed to have been in al-Qubeir and was said to have 86 victims. A video of that "massacre" shows some ten seemingly dead children and women.
But something is weird here. No wounds are visible. Two black pieces of whatever, not recognizable as bodies, are introduced as "burned children". The speaker in the video is clearly propagandizing calling for "the world to act." While I can not prove that it is a complete fake, the video does look staged to me.
There was fighting in the area of al-Qubeir reported by the Syrian government:
[T]he Syrian government troops raided a hideout of armed groups in a village of central Hama province, clashing with armed men and killing an unspecified number of them, Syria's state TV channel said on Wednesday.
Two of the government troops were killed in the clashes that took place in al-Qubair village, the TV channel said, adding that the troops' raid was conducted after the local residents asked for help.
The observers tried to reach the area today but were first held back by the Syrian army which said that the area is too dangerous. The observers passed anyway and, the Annan mission said, were later shot at with small arms.
I watched the UN GA on the UN live webcast.
The GA is currently chaired (not unintentionally) by the representative of Qatar who's government is, according to its own statements, arming the rebels in Syria and contributes to the $300 million slush fund for implementing violent regime change in Syria. The first speaker was UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon. He was clearly propagandizing for the anti-Assad party which I found quite shocking for someone who is supposed to be neutral towards UN member countries. He called for "united international action" against Syria which seemed to be a request for sanctions.
He was followed by a spokesman from the Arab League who spread more propaganda and called for Security Council sanctions on Syria under Chapter 7.
Then came Kofi Annan who had a bit more neutral comment on the situation but noticeable also on the anti-Syrian side. The violence has increased he said. This somewhat contradicts this McClatchy report which says that the total number of casualties are down while government casualties have been going up. He mentioned yesterday's "massacre" as it was confirmed when it so far has not been confirmed. He confirmed that the Syrian government has recently again released hundreds of its prisoners. He also confirmed the "presence of a third force", aka terrorists, in Syria. He still seems to dream of a "peaceful transition" without saying what such a "peaceful transition" would be or how it could be implemented when his plan has been rejected by the rebels from the very first day.
Annan was followed by the vice president of the UN Humanitarian Rights Council Simonovic. He differed from Annan in calling yesterday's massacre "not yet confirmed". He again confirmed violence and torture by both sides in Syria. But the reports of his council on Syrian, he says, are only based on witness reports taken outside of Syria. Simonovic seemed to threaten with the International Criminal Court when he called the conflict near to a "internal armed conflict" and said that this characterization has legal consequences.
Then followed the Syrian representative Ja'afari and suddenly the UN webcast picture went black. The sound continued though and the representative asked for a minute of silence for all victims of violence. The UN webcast then suddenly switched to UN Security Council meeting about some old tribunals in Guatemala. After some three minutes the webcast went back to the General Assembly. Ja'afari was still speaking but any watcher of the UN webcast will have missed his first remarks or the minute of silence should it have happened.
Other representatives followed giving the opinion of their governments. On could clear distinguish the U.S. puppets from neutral countries with the first propagandizing against the Syrian government versus the later emphasizing a political process like China, Brazil, Iran and others did.
Interestingly France and the U.S. only send their deputy representatives to read out their statements.
The Russian representative more or less accused the rebels of committing the massacres as they have interest in foreign intervention. He spoke out against any regime change and condemned the delivery of weapons to the rebels. He said that Russia was open to a conference of countries that would help to find a political solution to the situation. This may have allured to a new phase of the Annan plan.
