PRESS RELEASE

(Unofficial Translation)

The massacre perpetrated from last night (3 February) until this morning by the Syrian Security Forces with heavy weapons against the people of Homs, claiming the lives of hundreds of civilians and injuring an even greater number of people, including women and children, has aroused great indignation. The shelling by a country's official security forces of its own cities constitutes the most concrete indication that the government of that country has totally lost its legitimacy to rule. We condemn in the strongest possible terms and reprobate this massacre.

This merciless act aimed at punishing the people of Homs without making any distinction between children, women and elderly, also constitutes a flagrant indication of the unlawfulness and despair which the Syrian administration has fallen into. The international community must not remain as bystanders to this situation.

It is the international community's joint conscientious responsibility to make sure that these crimes against humanity committed by those perpetrating mass atrocities against a city do not go unpunished.

In view of this last massacre which has taken place on the 30th anniversary of the Hama and Homs events of 1982 engraved in the history of mankind as a dark stain and at a juncture when the UN Security Council is discussing a resolution on Syria, it is incumbent upon the international community to shoulder the responsibility without losing another minute in order to prevent anymore of the brutality and violence that the people of Syria are subjected to.