US Dipolmat: "for President Assad - there's quite a number of the population, maybe as many as half, if not more, who stand behind him."

'Syrians know their Bashar'

'b' at MoA
"...A member of the UN independent panel investigating human rights violations in Syria, Karen Abuzayd, said what we have asserted here all along.
A majority of the people of Syria stand behind their president Bashar al Assad.
Thanks to J. Bradley for a comment that pointed to Monday's CBC Radio Show As It Happens.
Starting at 2:00 minutes into the first part of the show Karen Koning AbuZayd, a former U.S. diplomat, is interviewed about the latest UN Human Rights Council report (pdf) about the situation in Syria.
At 5:35 min into the audio with regard to a question about a possible indictment of Assad a comparison is made to Milosovic and Serbia. There Karen Abuzayd, who was involved with Bosnia, says:

"... Milosovic had a lot of his population strongly behind him, throughout, until the end, until now I would say, and the same goes for President Assad - there's quite a number of the population, maybe as many as half, if not more, who stand behind him."