UN chief urges end to killing as Syria announces amnesty

UN chief Ban Ki-moon yesterday urged Syria’s Bashar al-Assad to stop killing his own people, saying the path of repression was a “dead end”, as Damascus announced a general amnesty for crimes committed during the unrest.

“Today, I say again to President Assad of Syria: Stop the violence. Stop killing your people.

The path of repression is a dead end,” Ban said in a an address at a conference in Beirut on democracy in the Arab world.

The emir of Qatar said in an interview with US network CBS, for broadcast yesterday, that he favoured dispatching Arab troops to Syria to “stop the killing.”

It is the first public call by an Arab leader for an Arab military presence in Syria.