Bashar al Assad does not exude the same sense of madness and depravity as Muammar Gaddafi. The London educated ophthalmic surgeon sports sober tailored suits, a tidy mustache, a ‘western’ wife and an aura of calm and compassion.

He looks every inch the European democratic politician. But in truth, the man is nothing more than a murdering despot, like his father before him. In the 1980s, Bashar’s father Hafez, ordered his Air Force and Army to pound Hama from the air and ground. Conservative estimates show that some 40,000 people died in that attack.

Last week, 100 people, most of them children, were murdered. They were summarily executed with bullets to the back of the head. One wonders how hard they cried. Yesterday, the vile specimen of a human that is Bashar Al Assad, denied that his government, or his hired thugs (the shabiha), had anything to do with the massacre, saying that not even “monsters” would carry out such a crime.

Just like the monster Ian Huntley, who once gave an interview to Sky news about how sweet Holly and Jessica were, when they were still missing and no one had figured out he was the killer, the monster Assad says: “If we don’t feel the pain, the pain that squeezes our hearts, as I felt it, for the cruel scenes — especially the children — then we are not human beings”.

He blames foreign extremists and terrorists for the revolt that has gripped Syria over the past year and more. His remarks suggest he is still standing his ground, despite widespread international condemnation over his deadly crackdown on dissent. Even China and Russia, which have sprung to his defence in the UN on more than one occasion, are changing their tune.

The opposition and the government have exchanged accusations over the Houla killings, each blaming the other. UN investigators have said there are strong suspicions that pro-regime gunmen are responsible for at least some of the killings.

The revolt began last March with mostly peaceful protests, but a ferocious government crackdown led many in the opposition to take up arms. Now, the conflict has morphed into an armed insurgency and risks turning into a fully fledged civil war involving Sunni, Shia, Alawite and Coptic Christian elements. It has even spilled over into neighbouring Lebanon.

Activists say as many as 13,000 people have died in the violence. One year after the revolt began, the UN put the toll at 9,000, but hundreds more have died since. A cease-fire plan brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan is violated by both sides every day. Fears also have risen that the violence could spread and provoke a regional conflagration.

Al Qaeda-style suicide bombings have become increasingly common in Syria, and Western officials say there is little doubt that Islamist extremists, some associated with the terror network, have made inroads in Syria as instability has spread.

Assad has acknowledged there are genuine calls for reform, although the opposition says he has offered only cosmetic changes that do little to change a culture where any whisper of dissent could lead to arrest and torture. Two weights, two measures. This man has killed more people than Gaddafi could have ever hoped to, yet still, the international community sits back.