Paris Slams Assad Remarks: He Will Not Escape Justice
Embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “will not escape justice,” the French foreign ministry stressed Thursday.
“France does not give any credibility to Bashar al-Assad’s provocative statements, which totally contradict with the fact that acts of repression and violence against the Syrian people have continued unabated,” ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters, referring to Assad’s recent interview with ABC News.
“His people and the international community have put him on trial, and like all those responsible for the repression he must be held accountable for the crimes being committed in Syria since months,” Valero added, slamming Damascus’ “rejection” to respond to the demands of the Arab League and the international community.
In a rare interview with Western media, Assad said that he was not responsible for the nine months of bloodshed and drew a distinction between himself and the military -- an assertion that the United States called "ludicrous."
"We don't kill our people," Assad told U.S. network ABC. "No government in the world kills its people, unless it's led by a crazy person."
"There was no command to kill or be brutal," Assad told veteran ABC News interviewer Barbara Walters.
Assad said that security forces belonged to "the government" and not him personally.
"I don't own them. I'm president. I don't own the country. So they are not my forces," Assad said.
Assad's family has ruled Syria with an iron fist for four decades. Assad's brother, Lieutenant Colonel Maher al-Assad, heads the army's Fourth Division, which oversees the capital as well as the elite Republican Guard.
The United Nations estimates that more than 4,000 people have died as Syria cracks down on protesters, who have emerged as the greatest challenge yet to Assad amid a wave of uprisings in the Arab world that have toppled authoritarian leaders in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.
Assad dismissed the death toll, saying: "Who said that the United Nations is a credible institution?"
"Most of the people that have been killed are supporters of the government, not the vice versa," Assad said in English, giving a figure of 1,100 dead soldiers and police.
U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner dared Assad to back up his assertions by letting in international observers and media, saying that there was a "clear campaign against peaceful protesters."
"It either says that he's completely lost any power that he had within Syria, that he's simply a tool or that he's completely disconnected with reality," Toner told reporters Wednesday.
"It's either disconnection, disregard or, as he said, crazy. I don't know," Toner said.
Toner, reacting a day earlier to excerpts of the interview, called Assad's denial of responsibility "ludicrous," triggering a rebuke from Syria's foreign ministry which accused him of distorting the remarks.
Syria has come under growing international pressure, with Arab nations and Turkey joining Western powers in pursuing sanctions against Assad.
The Arab League has suspended Syria and has threatened new sanctions if Assad does not allow in observers. Syria initially refused but at the last minute offered to let in monitors in return for an end to sanctions.
The United States and France on Tuesday sent their ambassadors back to Syria in hopes that they can shine light on the violence and show solidarity with protesters, weeks after the envoys were pulled out due to safety concerns.
Source: Agence France Presse
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