Syrian referendum slammed as Homs bloodshed continues

Syria's Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar Syria said almost 90 per cent of voters approved a new constitution in a referendum which Washington condemned as "absolutely cynical" as 144 people were reportedly killed on Monday. fWorld powers, meanwhile, piled the pressure on the regime to end its deadly crackdown on dissent.
The charter brought in by President Bashar Al-Assad after 11 months of anti-regime protests won 89.4 per cent of votes cast in Sunday's referendum, with a turnout of 57.4 per cent, Interior Minister Mohammed Al-Shaar announced.
The results came as the European Union imposed fresh sanctions on Damascus and while Moscow hit back at US criticism for standing by Assad and frustrating international effort to end the regime's clampdown.
EU foreign ministers agreed to freeze assets of Syria's central bank, impose a travel ban on seven Syrians close to Assad, ban cargo flights into the 27-nation bloc and restrict trade with Damascus in gold and precious metals.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said he wanted Syria dragged before an international court of justice, while Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani called for the arming of Syrian rebels.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin slammed the West's "cynical" stance on Syria, staunchly defending Moscow's joint veto with China of two UN Security Council draft resolutions condemning Damascus.
He accused the West of "lacking the patience to work out an adjusted and balanced" resolution that also required opposition forces to cease fire and withdraw from flashpoints such as the besieged central city of Homs.
"A refusal to do so was cynical."
Syrian regime forces on Monday kept up their assault, killing at least 30 civilians, while 11 members of the security forces also died in clashes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Eleven civilians were killed in shelling of the rebel-held district of Baba Amr, in the central city of Homs, under bombardment for a 24th straight day, the monitoring group said.
In what it termed a "massacre," the Observatory's head said armed men killed 68 people on Monday in Homs province and called for an independent investigation to find the perpetrators.
"Sixty-eight civilians were killed today in the western countryside of Homs, in a rural area between the villages of Ram al-Enz and Ghajariyeh, and were taken to the state hospital in the city of Homs," said Rami Abdel Rahman.
"They were killed by 'shabiha' (pro-regime gunmen)," according to the reports received by the Observatory, Abdel Rahman said. "But we cannot confirm or deny this information."
Efforts to evacuate foreign journalists from the rebel-held Baba Amr district of Homs failed on Monday, a Western diplomatic source in the Syrian capital said.
"The evacuation of journalists did not take place but three wounded Syrians were able to leave in Syrian Red Crescent ambulances," the source said.
The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP earlier that talks and preparations were taking place to rescue two wounded Western reporters trapped in Baba Amr.
Volunteers from the local affiliate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were allowed to reach the Baba Amr district to remove casualties requiring treatment, including Paul Conroy, a British photographer working for the Sunday Times, and Edith Bouvier, a French correspondent for Le Figaro.
Both were both wounded last Wednesday during the same bombardment that killed Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times and Remi Ochlik, a French photographer. Recovering the two corpses had also been the aim of the operation.
However, the ICRC said: “Neither the foreign journalists nor the bodies of the two other foreign journalists were able to be evacuated. We do not know the reason why.” Three Syrian civilians were taken out of Baba Amr for treatment.
Last Friday, three ambulances from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent reached Baba Amr by agreement with the regime and brought seven wounded civilians out of the area. On that occasion, the ICRC said that Conroy and Bouvier had “refused to be evacuated” by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent when the group “offered to take them out”. The journalists, both of whom have suffered leg injuries, might have been worried about the impartiality of this organisation’s local volunteers. Opponents of President Bashar al-Assad believe the Syrian Arab Red Crescent is under the influence of the regime
Last night the journalists were understood to have been similarly reluctant, with Bouvier being particularly unwilling to leave with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. Personnel from the ICRC itself were able to reach Homs, but not Baba Amr.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland asked how a democratic process such as Sunday's referendum could take place in the country while Syrian government guns and tanks were still firing.
"We dismiss it as absolutely cynical," Nuland told reporters.
"Even the referendum that they put forward is ridiculous in the sense that it requires that the state approve any of these patriotic opposition groups," Nuland said.
The draft text of the constitution that was overwhelmingly approved by voters ends the legal basis for the five-decade stranglehold on power of Assad's ruling Baath party but still leaves huge powers in his hands.
The Syrian opposition says the changes are cosmetic after nearly a year of repression by Assad's security forces that human rights groups say has left more than 7,600 people dead.
The United Nations also doubts the credibility of the referendum held amid "pervasive violence," a UN spokesman said.
Any vote in Syria must be held "in conditions free of violence and intimidation," UN deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey told reporters, adding that UN chief Ban Ki-moon had just "noted" the vote.
"While a new constitution and the end of the Baath party monopoly on power could be part of a political solution, a referendum must take place in conditions free of violence and intimidation," del Buey said.
"It is unlikely to be credible in a context of pervasive violence and mass human rights violations," he added.