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The general in charge of the 67-strong group of observers, Mohammed al-Dabi, says they are prepared for the long haul
Arab League monitors in Syria are only "at the start" of what could become a lengthy mission and are seeing "enough" co-operation by the regime, the Sudanese general in charge of the mission has said. Mohammed al-Dabi will be in Cairo on Sunday to report to a crucial meeting of league ministers who will decide whether the controversial operation should continue, be reinforced, or admit failure and seek punitive action against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad by the UN security council.
"This is the first time that the Arab League has carried out such a mission," Dabi told the Observer in an exclusive interview. "But it has only just started, so I have not had enough time to form a view."
Qatar, which is leading Arab pressure on the regime, is urging that the hastily deployed, 67-strong observer mission be reinforced with help from the UN – a move that Syria would resist fiercely. Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, Qatar's prime minister — and a hate figure for Damascus — said on Friday that "some mistakes" had been made. "If the killing does not stop immediately, I think having observers or not having them would be the same, and this even makes us part of what is taking place in Syria, and we don't want to be part of that," he told al-Jazeera TV. Syrian opposition groups have also warned that the monitors must improve their performance or withdraw and have the issue referred to the UN – the outcome of "internationalisation" that is most feared by Damascus.
Omar Idlibi, of the Syrian National Council, said: "We want additional Arab observers to be specialists; to be provided with logistic tools; and we want them to be neutral, not to be subjected to policies of regimes who help the Syrian one."
Dabi, 63, attracted controversy from the start of the mission because he is a former head of Sudanese military intelligence in Darfur. He is also close to the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted for war crimes there by the International Criminal Court.
Dabi complained about attacks on him in the US media as well as charges that the mission was ineffective and providing a fig leaf for continuing repression. "Nobody can be happy with such coverage," he said.
The general was widely criticised after visiting the city of Homs – the scene of many killings by security forces — for saying that "some places looked a bit of a mess but there was nothing frightening". He said that he was prepared for a long-haul monitoring of the bloodiest current chapter of the Arab spring in which the United Nations says 5,000 people have been killed. "Missions like these can take a long time… The African Union mission in Sudan began in 2004 and it is still there. I can't say how long this one will take.''
Nabil al-Arabi, the league's Egyptian secretary-general, has defended the mission for securing some prisoner releases and removing tanks from the streets, while admitting that snipers are still killing protesters. But activists have complained that the monitors are unprofessional and are being misled. "Soldiers wear police uniforms, drive repainted military vehicles and change the names of places, but this does not mean the army withdrew from cities and streets, or that the regime is applying the provisions of the Arab protocol," said the Local Coordination Committees, which estimated that at least 390 people have been killed since the mission began.
Syria was initially unwilling to sign the protocol with the league, citing concerns about its sovereignty, but it backed down in the face of Russian insistence.
Under the agreement, Assad's government is also required to permit peaceful protests, enter into dialogue with the opposition, and allow free access for Arab and international media. None of these conditions have been met, though the league is asking journalists to complain if they are refused visas. Monitors have been mobbed by angry Syrians offering evidence of arrests, abuses and killings. Dabi is said to have been handed the names of 15,000 people in detention. Yet even critical Syrian activists admit that the presence of the team has created more space for protests.
At a diplomatic level Nadim Shehadi, a Chatham House analyst, said that it was possible both to reinforce the mission and go to the UN security council with Arab League support. "There is no contradiction," he insisted.
Western governments generally believe that a weak monitoring mission may be better than none at all, given the difficulties of forging any agreement in the face of Russian opposition at the UN and the legacy of anger over Nato's intervention in Libya. "The Arab League has pushed at the boundaries and gone to places where the regime cannot easily control events," said one diplomat. "Does anyone have a better idea?"On Friday monitors were deployed to the site of an apparent suicide bombing in the Damascus suburb of Midan, whose victims – 25 were reported- were buried amidst emotional scenes on Saturday. The attack was quickly blamed by the government on al-Qaida but Syrian opposition groups and independent observers have suggested it may have been some sort of macabre deception to give the impression that anti-government protests have been taken over by "armed terrorists."
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