Syrian activists criticise Arab monitors

Arab League observers in Syria are preparing to visit more cities that have been at the heart of the anti-government uprising, amid accusations by opposition activists that the mission is not doing enough to stop the violence in the country.

Monitors were working in the Damascus suburbs, Syrian state television reported, as activists said that 24 people were killed across the country on Thursday.

The observers were also due to go on to the city of Deraa, the cradle of the uprising, as well as Hama, which have experienced massive protests followed by a brutal crackdown, and Idlib, which witnessed clashes between army forces and military deserters.

The Arab League mission got off to a controversial start when its leader, Mustafa al-Dabi, said he had seen "nothing frightening" on his first trip to Homs on Tuesday, the deadliest city in uprising.

During their second visit to the central city on Wednesday, the monitors faced angry crowds, gunfire and explosions, as fresh violence flared just a few miles away from where they were gathering accounts about the government's crackdown on dissent.

One of the monitors who spoke to Al Jazeera from Syria on the condition of anonymity said the situation in Homs is "very dangerous" and that it is under constant shelling.

He said that some areas are under the control of the so-called Free Syrian Army, a group of soldiers who defected from the regular army to side with pro-democracy protesters.

Activists sceptical

Against this backdrop of violence, some activists called the Arab League mission a farce and accused the government of President Bashar al-Assad of trying to bide time and avoid more international condemnation.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Hadi Abdullah, an activist in Homs, said that the mission experienced first hand the crackdown on protests, but he is suspicious it will report what it saw or act upon it.

"The observers saw a lot of violence in the city. They saw how security forces shoot at protests. They also saw the bodies of dead people," he said.

"The monitors also saw destruction in the city. One of the observers asked residents of Baba Amr neighbourhood ‘how can you live in this place."

Another activist, Aram al-Dumi, from Douma, told Al Jazeera that there is a lack of coordination between activist and the observers.

"The delegation is relying solely on street signs when visiting the cities, they should rely on satellite images in order to locate the areas.

"There has been reports of security forces changing the street signs, this has been the case in Douma, today we went to the grand Mosque square after a funeral procession to demonstrate and greet the observers but the army fired at us."

In Baba Amr, residents refused to allow observers in because they were accompanied by an army officer, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The standoff only ended when the officer withdrew.

"We want to fully co-operate with the mission," Abdullah, the activist, said. "But we believe the officer that was accompanying the mission was responsible for massacres in the city."

Activists also charged that the army had pulled back heavy armour from Baba Amr in advance of the monitors' visit, accusing the government of deception.

Al-Dabi, the mission head accused by activists of undermining the situation in Homs, has said the 20 observers will remain in Homs "for a long time".

Activists uploaded footage on the internet showing crowds in Homs surrounding a monitoring team's car on Wednesday shouting "those who kill their people are traitors".

In another video, orange-vested monitors rushed behind a concrete building amid heavy shooting and blasts.

The body of five-year-old Ahmad el Rai, who activists say was killed in the presence of the mission in Homs, was laid on the bonnet of a car used by the Arab observers, another footage showed.

In Hama, residents reported heavy security presence in the streets and marksmen on rooftops on Thursday before the delegation's arrival.

Abu Hisham, an opposition activist the city, said people were preparing to take to the streets once the mission arrives.

"People really hope to get to reach them. We do not have much access to the team. The people stopped believing anything or anyone now. Only God can help us now," Abu Hisham said.

'Objective investigations'

On the diplomatic front, Hong Lei, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said: "China welcomes the Arab League observers' objective investigations in Syria."

China "hopes parties concerned can make joint efforts to earnestly implement the mission protocol to create conditions for the proper settlement of Syria's crisis," he said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, urged Syria to give the Arab League observers maximum freedom as they go about their mission.

"We constantly work with the Syrian leadership calling on it to fully co-operate with observers from the Arab League and to create work conditions that are as comfortable and free as possible," Lavrov said.

The US also demanded that Syrian authorities allow the mission full access and urged monitors to report what they find to the international community.

"We obviously look to these individuals to be intrepid in their search for the truth of what's happening on the ground," Mark Toner, the US state department's deputy spokesman, said.

"The regime used the last several days as an opportunity to escalate their attacks on several ... neighbourhoods in Homs and other cities prior to the deployment of these monitors."

The Arab League plan endorsed by Syria on November 2 calls for the withdrawal of the military from towns and residential districts, a halt to violence against civilians and the release of detainees.

Syrian state television reported on Wednesday that the government has released 755 detainees "whose hands were not stained with blood".

But Human Rights Watch, a US-based rights organisation, accused the government of hiding from the observers hundreds of detainees held in its crackdown on dissent.

"Syrian authorities have transferred perhaps hundreds of detainees to off-limits military sites to hide them from Arab League monitors now in the country," according to an HRW statement.

The UN estimates more than 5,000 people have been killed in the crackdown since anti-government protests began in mid-March.

The Syrian government says most of the violence has been perpetrated by "armed terrorist groups" that are working against the government.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies