Syrian governments accused of crimes against humanity while uprising death toll reaches dangerous levels.

Syrian government forces have carried out crimes against humanity as they try to crush opposition to President Bashar al-Assad in the restive province of Homs, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Friday.The report also called on Arab League delegates meeting on Saturday to suspend Syria from their organization. The same NGO requested that Arab League member countries ask the United Nations to impose sanctions on individuals responsible, and refer Syria to the International Criminal Court.”The systematic nature of abuses against civilians in Homs by Syrian government forces, including torture and unlawful killings, constitute crimes against humanity,” the group said in a statement accompanying the report.At least 104 people were killed in Homs since November 2 said the HRW report, when the Syrian government agreed an Arab League plan aimed at ending the violence and starting a dialogue with Assad's opponents.”Homs is a microcosm of the Syrian government's brutality,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The Arab League needs to tell President Assad that violating their agreement has consequences, and that it now supports (U.N.) Security Council action to end the carnage.”On the other hand, thousands of people in Homs — as in the rest of the country — were subjected to arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearances and systematic torture in detention, the group said. Most were released after several weeks in detention, but several hundred were still missing.HRW said it had documented 17 deaths in custody in Homs, at least 12 of which were clearly from torture.”Torture of detainees is rampant,” it said, adding it had spoken to 25 former detainees in Homs, all of whom reported being subjected to various forms of torture.Human Rights Watch said army defections had increased since June and that some residents in Homs had formed “defense committees” armed with guns and even rocket-propelled grenades.Meanwhile, Syrian security forces killed 20 people on Friday and protesters called on the Arab League to suspend Damascus's membership in response to continued violence, activists said.Activists in Homs, which has suffered the highest death toll of any Syrian province since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad broke out in March, said security forces killed nine civilians and one defecting soldier.The other fatalities were in Hama, the old Roman city of Busra al-Sham in the southern Hauran Plain and in the northern province of Idlib, they said.”The people want (Syria's) membership to be suspended,” shouted a crowd at a rally in the Deir Baalba district of Homs, appealing to the 22-member Arab League to act against Damascus when it meets in Cairo on Saturday, Internet footage of the rally showed.On Wednesday, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman revealed that his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, had “apologized” for his country’s recent illegal incursions into Lebanese territory, one that resulted in the death of a farmer near Aarsal. Assad is understood to have said that the violations were “unintended” and that he had “pledged to not repeat them out of respect for Lebanon’s independence.” The president also confirmed that mines had been planted along the Syrian side of its border with Lebanon.“Syria fully fulfilled its promises to respect Lebanon’s independence and sovereignty and planted mines along the border to prevent infiltration and smuggling,” Sleiman said.Agencies/Reda Bouzouina