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Syrian activists call for solidarity with detained defector

Arab World Materials 20 September 2011 11:40 (UTC +04:00)

Syrian activists called for a day of protest Tuesday to support an army defector detained by the regime last week dpa reported.

"Tuesday will be a day of solidarity with Hassan Harmoush," the first military officer to publicly declare his desertion from the Syrian army in early June.

Harmoush was reportedly captured by at his hideout in Turkey last week. He appeared on Friday on Syrian television denying that he had defected.

Pro-democracy protests have been calling for the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad since mid-March.

Security forces have killed 2,700 people since the riots began, including at least 100 children, the United Nations said.

Kyung-wha Kang, the deputy UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Monday "the scale and nature of these acts may amount to crimes against humanity."

She said her office would share its list of 50 suspects with the International Criminal Court, if the UN Security Council refers the situation in Syria to the Hague-based court.

She also called on al-Assad's government to cooperate with an international inquiry.

Assad has repeatedly said Syria is facing a "foreign conspiracy" and has blamed most of the deaths on "armed criminals."

Nine people were reported killed in the latest violence Monday.

"Five residents, including a woman, were shot dead on Monday by security forces, who have been conducting a sweep in Houla since Sunday," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Syrian official news agency SANA said an "armed terrorist group" killed four security police overnight in an ambush near the central city of Hama.

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