WORLD_ Syria violence continues despite pledges to end it: UN

Syria violence continues despite pledges to end it: UN
Mon Apr 23, 2012 3:56pm GMT
By Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Fighting in Syria continues despite announcements from the Syrian government that it will comply with a U.N.-backed truce and has withdrawn troops and heavy weapons from cities and towns, the U.N. political affairs chief said on Monday.

More than 9,000 people have died in Syria during 13 months of fighting sparked by a popular uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. At least 20 people were killed in shelling on Monday, activists said.

"The cessation of armed violence remains incomplete," Lynn Pascoe, U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, told the 15-nation Security Council during an open debate on the Middle East.

"Too many lives have been lost, human rights violations are still perpetrated with impunity. It is our hope that the deployment of observers will help to stop the killing and consolidate the calm," Pascoe said.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Saturday that authorized an initial deployment of up to 300 unarmed military observers to Syria for three months to monitor a shaky truce implemented earlier this month.

But the resolution conditions the deployment of observers on a U.N. assessment of compliance with the truce, reflecting U.S. and European concerns that Damascus' failure to halt the violence, return troops to barracks and withdraw heavy weapons from towns makes the prospects for success slim.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem wrote to U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan, who brokered the truce, on Saturday to inform him that Damascus has now withdrawn heavy weapons and troops from Syrian cities, according to Syria's U.N. envoy, Bashar Ja'afari.

Annan is due to brief the Security Council on Tuesday.

"It is essential that the government of Syria fully and immediately implement its obligations to stop using heavy weapons and to pull back military forces from populations centers," Pascoe said.

"Measures taken by the Syrian authorities to date, including on the release of arbitrarily detained persons and the respect of the right to demonstrate peacefully, are clearly insufficient," he said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will also brief the Security Council every 15 days about developments in Syria and submit to the Security Council proposals as needed for adjusting the mandate of the observer mission, to be called UNSMIS.

The U.N. Council also noted in Saturday's resolution that the cessation of violence by the government and opposition in Syria is "clearly incomplete" and warned that it could consider "further steps" in the event of non-compliance with its terms.

REUTERS




Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog"
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .



conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
24042012
___________
CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC