'Step up and do something': NZ group calls for Syria sanctions

Syrians in New Zealand are calling for the Government to do more, in the wake of a brutal massacre in the city of Homs.

While the numbers of the dead are disputed, Hadi Abdallah, a Syrian activist in Homs, told AFP the bodies of 26 women and 21 children have been found, some with their throats slit and others bearing stab wounds. Sixteen bloodied bodies, with arms bound behind their backs, were shown on state television.

The Syrian Government has blamed "terrorist gangs" for the attack, while the opposition has blamed President's Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Spokesman for Syrian Solidarity New Zealand, Ali Akil, 30, said he was "completely devastated" when he learnt of the massacre, but was not surprised.

"It's basically another crime against humanity that the regime has committed while the entire world is watching," he said.

"Unfortunately it is no surprise to us. We know this regime very well and we know how it operates."

Mr Akil said it was long past time the New Zealand Government and the internationally community "step up and do something to stop the bloodshed as soon as possible".

"[The New Zealand Government] have been doing a little bit in terms of lobbying within the United Nations and trying to put some pressure on Russia (who with China vetoed a United Nations resolution), and we thank them for that, but they need to provide medical aid and humanitarian aid for the people who are dying due to the lack of food and necessities, including very basic medical aid."

Mr Akil also called on New Zealand and other countries to cut off diplomatic and economic ties with the Syrian regime.

"If every country boycotts the regime they have nowhere to go, they will collapse very soon. But the longer we continue supporting them by acknowledging them the longer they survive and the longer they kill."

Mr Akil left Aleppo, a city in the north of the country, as a child and arrived in New Zealand in 2000, however almost all of his extended family remain in Syria. Communication with his family is getting more difficult as the conflict continues.

"Although I've been away we have very close contact, we know exactly how this regime operates and how it is trying to provoke sectarianism for the sake of being in control. They are not succeeding. The Syrian people have been always living together for thousands of years peacefully. We have always been a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-sect region. That is something we celebrate and enjoy, and see as enrichment of our culture."

Mr Akil knows personally what the regime is prepared to do to smash an uprising.

"My dad and my uncle suffered personally in the first revolution 30 years back, when the regime ended the revolution by slaughtering more than 40,000 people in three days in the city of Hama after three years of revolution.

"My father, along with my uncle, were arrested. My uncle was actually executed by the regime's forces. My father, very miraculously, managed to escape; otherwise he would have been killed as well."

Mr Akil said in some cities communication, water supply and power are completely cut, and food and supplies cannot get in.

"The humanitarian conditions ... the least you can say is they are in crisis mode. They are even bombarding petrol pipes, so that people are dying out of not being able to breath. One kilometre from where that took place children have blood coming out of their eyes as a result of the chemicals in the atmosphere."

Syrian Solidarity New Zealand and Amnesty International are holding a vigil in Aotea Square in Auckland on Saturday marking the first anniversary of the beginning of the Syrian revolution.

"Basically we are trying to get as much support as possible for the people who have been suffering for an entire year, sadly with the silence of the international community," Mr Akil said.

"The regime is doing what they can to keep in power. But they are not succeeding. It's just sadly the longer they stay, the more people who have to die. There is no doubt in the end they will be toppled and they will have to let go."