BRUSSELS, Belgium — European Union foreign ministers imposed sanctions Friday on Asma Assad, the British-born wife of the Syrian president, banning her from traveling to EU countries and freezing any assets she may have there.
The foreign ministers also imposed the same sanctions on President Bashar Assad’s mother, sister and sister-inlaw, and eight government ministers, in a continuing attempt to stop the bloody crackdown on opposition in the country.
In addition, the assets of two Syrian companies have been frozen, an EU official said. Bashar Assad himself has been the subject of EU sanctions since May.
Also Friday, the United Nations’ top human-rights body sharply condemned the crackdown in Syria, and the U.N. announced that the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy, Kofi Annan, would travel to Russia and China for more talks aimed at resolving the crisis peacefully.
The U.N. estimates that more than 8,000 people have been killed since an uprising began in Syria a year ago. Its children’s agency UNICEF said Friday that that toll includes at least 500 children, with hundreds more injured, placed in detention or abused while schools and health centers have shut down or become too dangerous for families to reach.
Activists said more than 20 people were killed Friday.
The EU has imposed 12 previous rounds of sanctions against the Syrian regime, yet the crackdown has only intensified. But French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said he believed that the regime was getting weaker.
“Their economic situation becomes ever more difficult. Syria has few reserves,” Juppe said. “We think its economic situation will become untenable.
Asma Assad, 36, was born in London, spent much of her life there and has British citizenship.
In thousands of personal emails apparently intercepted by the Syrian opposition and published in newspapers earlier this month, Asma Assad demonstrated a love of expensive furniture, fine jewelry and Christian Louboutin shoes.
In one e-mail she was reported to have ordered $46,300 worth of furniture and candlesticks from a Paris boutique.
“We had a certain number of indications — I am sure it has not escaped you — how the wife of president Assad uses her money. It is perhaps this that pushed us to toughen the sanctions,” Juppe said.
A month before the start of the Syrian regime’s brutal repression, Vogue magazine praised her for her charity work, calling her “A Rose of the Desert.”
Asma Assad, who is of Syrian heritage, moved to the country in 2000 to marry the president, who had previously been an ophthalmologist in Britain.
Britain’s Home Office said Friday that a British citizen subject to an EU travel ban could not be refused entry into the country.
But British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that “given that we are imposing an asset freeze on all of these individuals and a travel ban on other members of the same family and the regime, we are not expecting Mrs. Assad to try to travel to the United Kingdom at the moment.”
Annan and two aides will go to Moscow and Beijing to press the case for his six-point plan, his spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, said. Western countries have pushed for U.N. Security Council action, but Russia and China have twice vetoed resolutions criticizing Assad’s regime.
On Wednesday, the U.N.’s Security Council issued a nonbinding statement calling for a ceasefire and endorsing Annan’s plan, which includes continued talks and a daily two-hour halt in the fighting to provide aid.
Hague, speaking in Brussels, where the EU foreign ministers are meeting, said Friday that it was very important to increase pressure on the Syrian regime.
“Their behavior continues to be murdering and totally unacceptable in the eyes of the world,” he said on his way into the meeting.
In Geneva on Friday, the 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council voted 41-3 in favor of an EU-sponsored resolution that was backed by Arab nations and the United States. China, Russia and Cuba voted against it. Two countries abstained and one didn’t vote.
The resolution condemned “widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms perpetrated by the Syrian authorities,” including summary executions, torture and sexual abuse of detainees and children, and other abuses.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Syrians braved tear gas and gunfire to protest across the country Friday, vowing to storm the capital, Damascus, to oust Assad.
Security forces deployed in many cities to disperse protests. Activists said more than 20 people were killed nationwide in army attacks on opposition areas or clashes with armed rebels.
Information for this article was contributed by Ben Hubbard, Raf Casert, Robert Barr, Elizabeth Kennedy, Raphael Satter and Jamal Halaby of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 03/24/2012