Western powers push for end to Syria crackdown

Western powers push for end to Syria crackdown

Geneva -- Western powers pressed the UN's top human rights body Friday to investigate possible abuses in Syria, where officials say the killings of more than 450 people during protests may include crimes against humanity.
The United States and the European Union urged a divided UN Human Rights Council to order a probe and insist that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad allow in foreign journalists and ease Internet restrictions.

Diplomats from China, Russia, Nigeria and Pakistan -- the latter two representing the 53-nation African Union and 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, respectively -- said that any council action could be interpreted as meddling. Along with the opposition, some Arab countries were expected to abstain from Friday's vote.

The UN nuclear agency, meanwhile, was setting the stage for more potential international action on Syria. Diplomats in Vienna said the agency will report that a Syrian target bombed by Israeli warplanes probably was a secretly built nuclear reactor meant to produce plutonium. Syria denies the unfinished building had any such uses.

In Geneva, UN human rights deputy chief Kyung-wha Kang, said the Syrian government "risks creating a downward spiral of anger, violence, killings and chaos" through tactics such as ordering tanks and other artillery to fire on peaceful pro-democracy protesters and snipers to shoot people trying to help the injured or remove dead bodies from public areas. She said around 1800 people also have been injured in Syria.