Monitors no hindrance to Assad’s killers

At least four demonstrators were killed and more than 20 wounded in Douma, the protest center just north of the capital, when security forces sprayed protesters with bullets outside a mosque, a rights group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the shooting broke out as Arab League observers arrived at Douma's city hall, on the third day of a mission designed to halt a lethal government crackdown on dissent.
Four people were killed in Hama shortly after a monitoring team arrived. Two more people were shot in Idlib, another monitors' destination, as they passed a security checkpoint.
The cities the Arab monitors were visiting Thursday — Deraa, Hama and Idlib — lie along a 450-km arc of revolt from the south to the north of Syria. The Arab mission is the first notable international involvement in Syria's conflict, in which thousands have been killed in a military crackdown on the uprising against 41 years of rule by the family of President Bashar Assad.
But questions have arisen about the monitors' credibility as their movements appear to be restricted. Syrian state television reported that monitors had arrived in Hama and Deraa. Shortly before, anti-Assad activists said they had seen no sign of monitors on the streets by mid-afternoon and they were unable to contact them by telephone. Extra security forces were deployed around restive areas expecting monitors, they said.
"Where are they? We worked very hard for this visit, we got witnesses and documented deaths and sites of shelling. People wanted to march but the monitors are missing. The security presence is really strong — it looks like they have been preparing as much as we have," said activist Odei in Idlib.
In Hama, activists said protesters went down into the streets to await the Arab League delegation, amid heavy security with snipers pointing guns out of top floor windows.
"People really hope to reach (the monitors). We do not have much access to the team," said Abu Hisham, an opposition activist in Hama.