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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
U.S. pressures Russia over Syria
Assad blames rebels for massacre in Houla
Saul Loeb / The Associated Press Hillary Clinton talks with Danish Foreign Affairs Minister Villy Sovndal on Thursday in Copenhagen. (CP)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- The U.S. is heaping new pressure on Russia to change course and support international action in Syria, warning intransigence by Moscow may lead to open civil war that could spill across the Middle East with devastating effects.
Speaking on Russia's doorstep in Denmark, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton derided the Russian government for continuing to support Syrian President Bashar Assad, even after last week's massacre of more than 100 people in the town of Houla. In pointed remarks, she said Russia's position "is going to help contribute to a civil war" and rejected Russian officials' insistence their stance actually is helping to ease the crisis.
On the first stop of a European tour, Clinton said Russia and China would have to be on board before the U.S. and other nations might engage in what could become a protracted conflict in support of a disorganized rebel force.
Syria on Thursday blamed up to 800 rebel fighters for the massacre in central Syria last week that killed more than 100 people, nearly half of them children, in its most comprehensive explanation to date of the bloodshed.
The narrative starkly contradicted accounts of witnesses who blamed "shabiha" or the shadowy gunmen who operate on behalf of President Bashar Assad's regime. The UN also said it had strong suspicions those pro-regime gunmen were responsible for much of the carnage last Friday in a cluster of villages known as Houla.
Russia, along with China, has twice vetoed UN Security Council sanctions against Syria. Russia is Syria's closest ally other than isolated Iran, and Clinton said without its support the international community is essentially frozen from taking concrete steps to end the violence.
"The Russians keep telling us they want to do everything they can to avoid a civil war, because they believe that the violence would be catastrophic," Clinton said, noting they are "vociferous in their claim that they are providing a stabilizing influence."
"I reject that," she said, complaining that in fact Russia is propping up Assad as his government continues a brutal, 15-month crackdown on dissent in which some 13,000 people have died.
The Obama administration has called on Assad to step down and clear the way for a political transition.
-- The Associated Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 1, 2012 A23
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