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Muslim Brotherhood cries genocide in Syria

A Syrian protester gestures victory signs behind their national flag as they shout slogans calling for Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to step down during a protest in front of the Syrian embassy in Amman April 17, 2011. UPI
1 of 3 | A Syrian protester gestures victory signs behind their national flag as they shout slogans calling for Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to step down during a protest in front of the Syrian embassy in Amman April 17, 2011. UPI | License Photo

UNITED NATIONS, April 29 (UPI) -- The exiled Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood described alleged attacks by Syrian forces on protesters as an act of genocide.

The U.N. Human Rights Council passed a measure Friday condemning the Syrian government for its brutal crackdown on pro-reform demonstrators.

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"Significantly, today's resolution mandates an urgent mission by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law, with the goal of ensuring full accountability for the perpetrators of the violence," said Susan Rice, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations, in a statement. "The United States strongly supports this decision."

Syria's Muslim Brotherhood group in a statement expressed its support for demonstrators in Syria and called on them to unite in a singular voice of freedom, a posting on the main group's official Ikhwanweb site states.

The movement said the attacks on protesters in Syria was an act of genocide and dismissed the official Syrian narrative that outsiders and thugs were behind the violence.

If the regime in Damascus was serious about reforms, the group said, it would put an end to the violence.

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Syrian President Bashar Assad enacted a serious of reforms in an apparent attempt to address protester demands. Rice in comments earlier this week suggested that, given the level of violence in Syria, those reforms were a sham.

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