Syria, International envoy Kofi Annan arrived in Syria on Monday amid growing fury over a gruesome massacre that killed 108 people in one town.
He vowed “serious” discussions with President Bashar al-Assad and said he had a message for “everyone with a gun”: to halt the violence.
Rebel leaders have said Annan’s six-point plan is already “dead” following the killings in Houla, a suburb of the anti-government bastion of Homs. U.N. monitors in Syria said 49 children were among those slaughtered there Friday.
Al-Assad’s regime insists it was not behind the massacre and blames terrorist groups. Throughout the uprising against the government, Syria has blamed violence on “armed terrorist groups.”
But throughout Syria, people pointed fingers at the government. One man who helped prepare the bodies of children — including a baby — for burial asked a U.N. observer, “Why are they treating us like animals?”
Annan, the U.N.-Arab League special envoy, will meet with al-Assad and senior officials, as well as representatives of the opposition and civil society.
He will review the work of the U.N. monitoring mission in the country as well.
“I have come to Syria at a critical moment in this crisis,” Annan said, according to his spokesman. “I am personally shocked and horrified by the tragic incident in Houla two days ago, which took so many innocent lives, children, women and men. This was an appalling crime, and the Security Council has rightly condemned it.”
He said Syrian citizens “are paying the highest price in this conflict,” which “must end now.”
“I urge the government to take bold steps to signal that it is serious in its intention to resolve this crisis peacefully, and for everyone involved to help create the right context for a credible political process.
And this message of peace is not only for the government, but for everyone with a gun.”
Opposition leaders say the massacre is the latest in Syria’s brutal crackdown against protesters.
But Syrian U.N. representative Bashar al-Jaafari called the deaths “an appalling, horrific unjustified and unjustifiable crime” and insisted Monday that the Syrian government will work to find the people behind them.
He called on the U.N. Security Council to “convene to define those who arm, host, harbor and encourage the terrorist groups to continue their violence in Syria and bring them to justice,” according to state-run news agency SANA.
He railed against “member states” of the Security Council who are helping the opposition. “Those who are very interested in halting violence and making the comprehensive national dialogue in Syria a success should stop interfering in our internal affairs and should stop arming, hosting, funding and protecting the armed terrorist groups in my country,”
Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who has expressed outrage about the massacre in Houla, was in Russia on Monday, hoping to push Russian officials to pressure the Syrian regime to abide by Annan’s peace plan.
He met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. But after the meeting, there was no clear sign that international action would ratchet up.
“It sounds very noble to say Russia is supporting the Syrian government, and when it stops supporting the Syrian government, everything will be fine,” Lavrov told reporters.
But in reality, he said, “We do not support the Syrian government. We are supporting the Kofi Annan plan that addresses both the Syrian government and the armed opposition. … We have to be objective.”
The U.N. Security Council’s attempts to formally condemn the Syrian regime have been repeatedly blocked by China and Russia, which sells arms to the Syrian regime.
After the Friday massacre in Houla, rebel leaders once again implored the international community for airstrikes against regime forces.
Meanwhile, overwhelming grief has washed over Houla as opposition activists and residents blame al-Assad’s regime for the bloodbath.
“By God, I washed the dead bodies of nine children. One was less than 9 months old!” a man screamed to a U.N. observer. “Why are they treating us like animals? We are humans.
Did the infant carry an RPG? Was he a fighter? It was a baby, he had a pacifier in his mouth.”
Images from Houla show a room crammed with the mangled and bloody bodies of children — some with their skulls torn open.
The Houla massacre reignited international fury against al-Assad’s regime for its 14-month crackdown on dissidents seeking an end to his rule.
On Sunday, some U.N. Security Council members condemned the Houla attacks “that involved a series of government artillery and tank shellings on a residential neighborhood” as well as the killings of civilians by close-range gunshots.
“Such outrageous use of force against the civilian population constitutes a violation of applicable international law,” Azerbaijan’s deputy ambassador Tofig Musayev said.
U.S. National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said the United States was horrified by “credible reports” of the massacre, “including stabbing and ax attacks on women and children.”
And some call Syria’s promise of an investigation a farce.
“There’s no way a Syrian military commission can credibly investigate this horrendous crime when so much evidence suggests pro-government forces were responsible,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Annan should insist that Syria grant access to the U.N. commission of inquiry to investigate this and other grave crimes.”
Over the weekend, members of the rebel Free Syrian Army said the Annan plan was “dead” after the Houla massacre.
“The joint command of the FSA inside Syria announces that it is no longer possible to abide by the peace plan brokered by Kofi Annan, (which) the regime is taking advantage of in order to commit more massacres against our unarmed civilians,” Free Syrian Army spokesman Col. Qasim Saad Eddine said in a video posted Saturday.
“This is a clear evidence that Kofi Annan’s plan is dead and a clear indication that Bashar Assad and his criminal gang do not understand anything but the language of force and violence,” Eddine said. He urged the U.N. Security Council to “issue urgent and swift resolutions to save Syria, its people and the entire region by forming an international coalition mandated by the UNSC to launch airstrikes” against regime forces and their strategic points.
U.N. officials say more than 9,000 people, mostly civilians, have died and tens of thousands have been uprooted since the Syrian crisis began in March 2011. Opposition groups report a death toll of more than 11,000 people.
CNN cannot independently confirm details from Syria nor the authenticity of videos, as the Syrian government strictly limits access by foreign journalists.