Diary of a genocide: 62 more killed in Syria as crackdown intensifies

March 8, 2012 – SYRIA – At least 62 people were killed in Syria on Thursday as former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan cautioned against outside military intervention, saying it could worsen an already precarious situation. But, Annan told the Arab League summit in Cairo, “the violence and killings must stop immediately.” Annan, the special joint envoy to Syria for the United Nations and the Arab League, began a visit to the region in Cairo on Wednesday. The U.N. said he will visit Damascus on Saturday ‘to seek an urgent end to all violence and human rights violations and to initiate efforts to promote a peaceful solution. I hope that no one is thinking very seriously of using force in this situation,” Annan said Thursday. “I believe any further militarization would make the situation worse. We have to be careful not to introduce a medicine worse than the disease.” Activists say Syria’s escape routes are being targeted. Meanwhile, shelling and explosions rocked several Syrian cities early Thursday, and there were reports of violence in several locations as the Syrian regime continued assaults against opposition strongholds. Thursday’s death toll included members of a whole family, according to the Local Coordination Committees, a Syria-based opposition activist network. Fifty-two people died in the city of Homs, the LCC said; 44 of them were executed in a field. Security forces attacked a funeral procession in the Damascus neighborhood of Mazzeh and targeted the car carrying the body, the network said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another opposition group, said those arrested numbered in the dozens. Violent clashes were reported in Idlib province, and more than 50 young men were arrested in a “detention campaign” in Hama, the LCC said. Two blasts rocked the town of Izaz near the Syrian-Turkish border Thursday morning, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The blasts were followed by fierce clashes between government soldiers and soldiers that had defected. Meanwhile, Syria’s Oil Minister has defected. He is the highest-ranking government member to abandon Bashar al-Assad saying he does not wish to die and wishes to join the opposition. Shelling and rocket attacks were also reported in the Homs neighborhoods of Bab Tadmur and Jib al-Jandali Thursday, the fifth day in a row of government attacks there, the group said. Syria, which blames the violence on “terrorists,” has said it is trying its best to get aid to hard-hit areas. –CNN