Ban Ki-moon: 300 UN observers for Syria. The violence continues
Damascus (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon has urged the Security Council to authorize a mission of
300 observers to verify the cease-fire. Meanwhile
there are reports of clashes and killings at Deir Ezzor, Homs,
Aleppo and
Idlib.
In
a letter to the Security Council, Ban Ki-moon calls for the deployment of 300
observers to monitor the situation for at least three months. In
recent days, the first six observers arrived, reporting many violations of the
cease-fire accepted by the government and opposition.
Ban
said in the letter that "there are possibilities of progress" for the
truce launched by April 12, but it is also clear that the cessation of
hostilities "is incomplete". In
any case, he points out that since the day the truce was enacted, the level of
violence has decreased, as well as the number of victims.
Ban
speaks of a violence "armed in all forms" - meaning even that of the
rebels, but explicitly including Syria, which "has not yet
observed all its obligations." He
reaffirms that Damascus
must pledge to withdraw its troops and their heavy weapons from the rebel
cities and facilitate the mission of observers leaving them full freedom of
movement and communication.
Yesterday,
according to some witnesses, Syria
prevented the first UN observers from going to Homs, the city that has suffered army
bombardments for over a month. The
Government justified the decision claiming it was for safety reasons.
Meanwhile
news arrives from Deir Ezzor that the army has launched another attack today in
which a civilian has died. Yesterday,
according to the Observatory of Human Rights in Syria, close to the opposition,
there were 30 other deaths.
Some
NGOs claim that 16 civilians were killed in the province of Homs
and six others in the Idlib. In
the same area seven army soldiers were killed, two in Aleppo
and an officer in Douma, near Damascus.
According
to AsiaNews sources in Syria,
said that "the Annan peace plan has already failed ... neither side wants
to stop the violence. The war will last a long time" (see: 17/04/2012 As
rebels and regime violate the ceasefire, Kofi Annan's plan collapses).
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