EU Tightens Sanctions on Syria as Nine Killed in Crackdown
September 23, 2011, 11:00 AM EDTBy James G. Neuger and Nayla Razzouk
(Updates with toll, killing of woman starting in third paragraph.)
Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- European Union governments stiffened sanctions on Syria, banning investment in the country’s oil industry as security forces extended a crackdown on anti-government protests.
“The EU continues to aim at putting an end to the repression and assisting the Syrian people to achieve their legitimate aspirations,” the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said in an e-mailed statement from Brussels. Today’s decision, which follows an earlier move to halt oil imports, also widens the range of Syrian officials subject to an asset freeze and visa ban, and bars the delivery of banknotes to the country’s central bank.
Nine protesters were killed today in demonstrations across Syria following Friday prayers, Al Arabiya television reported. Security forces are surrounding the southern city of Daraa, where the unrest began in mid-March, and there were also demonstrations in Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria and in the central city of Homs, Al Jazeera said.
European leaders have followed the U.S. in imposing sanctions including bans on oil exports and urging President Bashar al-Assad to cede power. The Syrian government has called the unrest foreign-backed terrorism.
Killed in Custody
Amnesty International confirmed today the discovery on Sept. 13 of the mutilated body of Zainab al-Hosni, 18, who had been in custody. The family was visiting a morgue to identify the body of Zainab’s activist brother Mohammad, who had been tortured and killed in custody, when they found her body decapitated with her arms cut off and skin removed, the London- based group said.
The killings bring the number of reported deaths in custody recorded by Amnesty International to 103 since unrest began.
Before this week, more than 3,600 people had been reported killed since the demonstrations began, according to Ammar Qurabi of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, in protests that have echoed uprisings that toppled the longstanding leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.
The International Energy Agency estimates that Syria exported about 127,000 barrels of oil a day in the first quarter of this year to European members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The European Commission says its Sept. 2 ban on Syrian oil will affect sales valued at 3.2 billion euros ($4.3 billion) last year.
As a result of the sanctions, Syria missed crude oil deliveries this month, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
--Editors: Ben Holland, Heather Langan, Karl Maier.
To contact the reporters on this story: James G. Neuger at jneuger@bloomberg.net; Nayla Razzouk in Amman at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss on sev@bloomberg.net.
