‘UN did not deploy in Syria just to bear witness to the slaughter of innocents,’ says Ban

ISTANBUL (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Syria Thursday to stop its attacks, saying U.N. observers monitoring the ceasefire were not there to watch the killing of innocent people.

“We are there to record violations and to speak out so that the perpetrators of crimes may be held to account,” Ban told a summit of the Alliance of Civilizations, a forum promoting understanding between the Western and Islamic worlds, days after more than 100 people were massacred in Syria’s central Houla region.

“The more the international community knows,” Ban said, “the more likely it is that we can advance on our most important goal: to help find a political solution, a solution that safeguards the lives and interests of all the Syrian people.”

“Let me state plainly, however: The UN did not deploy in Syria just to bear witness to the slaughter of innocents,” he said. “We are not there to play the role of passive observer to unspeakable atrocities.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meanwhile, called on the world to pay heed to the desperation of families whose children are massacred in Syria.

Erdogan said these are “our children who are massacred in Hama, Homs and Houla, as much they are the children of desperate Syrian families.”

He said the world should not remain silent in the face of “oppression.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that every day of slaughter in Syria is strengthening the case for tougher international action, yet stressed that military intervention would need international support, including from Syrian ally Russia.

Speaking to Danish university students, Clinton noted that U.N. and international backing made possible last year’s international coalition against Moammar Gadhafi in Libya but said Russia and China are standing in the way of similar action in Syria. She also suggested that a military effort against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime would be far more difficult.

Asked when the U.S. might opt for a military option, Clinton said, “Every day that goes by makes the argument for it stronger,” even if Moscow in particular remained unconvinced. She said Washington would continue pressing its case to Russia, which has promised to block any moves at the United Nations to obtain a military mandate for intervention.

Clinton spoke as activists reported more shelling in the central Houla area where more than 100 people were massacred last week.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees activist groups said Thursday’s shelling of Houla was mostly by heavy machine guns. Survivors of last week’s Houla massacre blamed pro-regime gunmen for the killing of many children and women, though the government denied the involvement of its troops.

The Obama administration has called for Assad to step down and clear the way for a political transition. Mindful of a war-weary American public, it has stopped short of advocating direct U.S. military engagement in the country and stressed the need for diplomacy, particularly with Moscow, which holds a veto on the U.N. Security Council and continues to sell weapons and provide political support to the Assad regime.

On the first leg of a weeklong trip to Europe, Clinton recited the list of hurdles to any military action in Syria.

Beyond international support, she said Syria’s opposition lacked the unity that the anti-Gadhafi camp rallied in Libya. Syria’s professional military and substantial air defenses also would make intervening far more difficult. And the Arab League is split on whether military options should be entertained, whereas in Libya the U.S. was able to count on the support of Gulf countries in monitoring a no-fly zone and carrying out some airstrikes.

Clinton also warned about the danger of Syria’s unrest spiraling into a larger civil war, which could morph into a proxy war that draws in Iran and other regional powers. She cited Jordanian concerns about its territory, Turkish worries over Kurdish terrorists operating from inside Syria and neighboring Lebanon’s long struggle to emerge from decades of sectarian civil war and political instability.

“We know it could actually get much worse than it is,” Clinton said. “We are trying to prevent that.”

But she said doing nothing wasn’t an option, either.

Russia’s continued support for Assad “is going to help contribute to a civil war,” she warned.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.