Assad denies responsibility for killing of protesters

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denied ordering the killing of thousands of protesters and said “only a crazy person” would target his own people, in a US television interview released yesterday.

Speaking to ABC News, Mr Assad brushed off widening international sanctions and questioned the UN death toll of more than 4,000 since the eruption of the unrest in March, saying most victims were government supporters.

Mr Assad – speaking to veteran journalist Barbara Walters in a rare interview to foreign media – said he was not responsible for the bloodshed and drew a distinction between himself and individual members of the military.

“We don’t kill our people,” Mr Assad said. “No government in the world kills its people, unless it’s led by a crazy person.”

“There was no command to kill or be brutal,” Mr Assad said.

Mr Assad said that security forces belonged to “the government” and not him personally.

“I don’t own them. I’m President. I don’t own the country. So they are not my forces,” Mr Assad said.

Mr Assad’s family has ruled Syria with an iron fist for four decades. Mr Assad’s brother, Lieutenant Colonel Maher al-Assad, heads the army’s Fourth Division, which oversees the capital as well as the elite Republican Guard.

Witnesses and human rights groups say Syrian forces have used intense force, mass arrests and torture to try to crush the biggest threat yet to the Assad family’s rule.

The UN estimates that more than 4,000 people have died since the uprising began in March, part of a wave of pro-democracy movements sweeping the Arab world that has toppled leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

Mr Assad dismissed the death toll, saying: “Who said that the United Nations is a credible institution?”

“Most of the people that have been killed are supporters of the government, not the vice versa,” Mr Assad said in English, giving a figure of 1,100 dead soldiers and police.

The conflict is said to have taken a heavy toll on children who either took part in protests or were targeted because of their parents’ involvement. A UN-appointed investigator said that Syria killed 56 children in November alone.

Ms Walters pressed Mr Assad on the case of Hamza al-Khatib, a 13-year-old boy who rights group say was killed in April after being shot, burned and castrated.

“To be frank with you, Barbara, you don’t live here,” Mr Assad said of alleged abuse of children.