Many Arab monitors leave mission in Syria

Many monitors in the Arab League's troubled mission to Syria are angry over what they see as its failure to halt attacks on protesters and more are likely to pull out in protest, an Algerian former monitor told Reuters on Thursday.    

Anwar Malek, who withdrew from the monitoring team this week, said three colleagues had already left Syria because they believed their two-week-old operation had done nothing to stem President Bashar al-Assad's violent crackdown on dissent.    

"We were giving them cover to carry out the most repugnant actions, worse than what was taking place before the monitors came," he said in a telephone interview.    

The only factor preventing larger numbers from pulling out was that most were under government orders, he said, adding that many appeared to put the priorities of their own countries ahead of those of the Arab team.    

Malek said Sudanese monitors sent reports to their own government before delivering them to the mission's operation centre in Damascus, while Iraqi colleagues were reluctant to visit opposition strongholds.    

"Monitors could not do anything if they were taking orders from their country," he said, adding that most members of the team were either intelligence officers or diplomats.      

Reuters