emailed a statement saying that shelling was especially concentrated in the Janoub al-Mala’ab and Manakh districts. The group also claimed in the E-mail that civilians were being shot and houses shelled. Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory For Human Rights, warned that "We might be witnessing another massacre in Hama." Russia’s Foreign Ministry's Middle East and North Africa Department chief, Sergei Vershinin, reminded the UN that his country was not "categorically" against adopting a UN resolution condemning the violence in Syria, but the Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister, Faisal Mekdad urged India to ignore Western "propaganda" if there was a vote over it in the Security Council. A total of 200 were killed in Hama by 4 August. Aftermath The Attorney General of the Hama Governorate announced his resignation on 1 September in response to the government crackdown on protests. The government claimed he had been kidnapped and forced to lie at gunpoint. On 28 February 2012, government forces shelled a town in Hama Province, Helfaya, killing 20 civilian villagers. Activists said the 20 deaths of Sunni Muslim villagers there were among at least 100 killed in the province in the last two weeks in revenge for rebel Free Syrian Army attacks on security forces commanded by members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect. International reactions Supranational organisations The Security Council passed a resolution that "condemns widespread violations of human rights and the use of force against civilians by the Syrian authorities." on 4 August. The European Union imposed travel bans on five more military and government officials and extended sanctions against Mr Assad's ruling clique on 1 August. States -The chairman of the German government's committee on foreign relations declared that there should be a global boycott of Syrian gas and oil exports with the aim to pressure Syria into ending its violence against protesters. Meanwhile, on the same day (8 August), a German government spokesman declared that if Assad continues to reject dialogue and resort to violence, the Syrian government will lose its legitimacy. – Foreign Minister Franco Frattini called the events in Hama "a horrible act of violent repression against protesters." – Former Prime Minister and leader of the March 14 alliance Saad Hariri condemned what he called a "massacre" and the "bloody murders" that he said the Syrian people endure. - On 1 August, the Kremlin, which has been a Syrian ally, in the person of