Ban: Syrian crisis 'getting worse'

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned that the crisis in Syria is getting worse and claiming more lives every day even though President Bashar Assad’s government insists it is withdrawing troops ahead of a UN deadline to end the violence.

The UN chief last night appealed to Assad “to show vision and leadership” and keep his pledge to pull troops and heavy weapons out of cities and towns by April 10, and he urged the opposition to be ready to stop all violence if the Syrian government meets the deadline.

“Cities, towns and villages have been turned into war zones. The sources of violence are proliferating,” Ban told the UN General Assembly. “The human rights of the Syrian people continue to be violated... Humanitarian needs are growing dramatically.”

His comments came as activists reported that Syrian troops attacked the Damascus suburb of Douma, an assault they said shows that Assad is intensifying violence in the days before the April 10 deadline. His crackdown on the year-long uprising has left at least 9,000 people dead, according to the UN

Yesterday a UN team arrived in Damascus to negotiate the possible deployment of UN monitors for any ceasefire between Syrian troops and rebel forces.

Kofi Annan, the UN-Arab League envoy trying to end the conflict, said Syria has informed him of partial withdrawals from three locations – Idlib, Zabadani and Daraa – “but it is clear that more far-reaching action is urgently required”.

Annan and Ban spoke to the General Assembly minutes after the UN Security Council called on Syria to “urgently and visibly” fulfil its pledge to halt the use of troops and weapons by April 10. It raised the possibility of “further steps” if Syria doesn’t implement the six-point peace plan outlined by Annan, which Assad agreed to on March 25.

“All points of the plan are crucial, but one is most urgent: the need for a cessation of violence,”

Annan told diplomats from the 193 UN member states by videoconference from Geneva. “Clearly, the violence is still continuing. Alarming levels of casualties and other abuses continue to be reported daily. Military operations in civilian population centres have not stopped.”

Ban said despite the Syrian government’s acceptance of Annan’s plan, “the violence and assaults in civilian areas have not stopped”.

“The situation on the ground continues to deteriorate,” he said.

Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari confirmed that hostilities have escalated in some “hotspots” where he said armed groups have “jumped to fill the vacuum” when they heard that the Syrian government withdrew some military units.

He reiterated the government’s commitment to “the success” of Annan’s six-point plan and said all heavy weapons would be withdrawn by April 10. But he also appeared to put at least one condition on the pullout of Syrian troops from cities and towns.

Ja’afari accused Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, France and the United States of assisting the Free Syrian Army and said his government needs “a crystal cut commitment and a guarantee by Mr. Annan himself after he consults with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the others that once the government will observe and will respect the end of violence, the other parties will do the same and not fill the vacuum”.

He said obtaining the guarantee before the April 10 deadline for the pullout “is an integral part of the common understanding between Mr. Kofi Annan and the Syrian government.” He added that Syria needs “a written commitment from everybody including the imam of Saudi Arabia.”

Ja’afari called the press conference last night to attack General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, who is from Qatar, for refusing to allow him to present Syria’s position at the General Assembly or to call for a one-minute silence to honour all those who’ve died in the Syrian conflict.

Annan said all opposition parties his team has talked to “are committed to call for cessation of violence once the Syrian government has demonstrably fulfilled its commitments regarding use of heavy weapons and troop withdrawals.”

In planning for a possible cease-fire, a team led by Norwegian Major Gen Robert Mood arrived in Damascus to begin discussing with the Syrian authorities “the eventual deployment of this UN supervision and monitoring mission,” Annan’s spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said.

He said the UN is looking for a team of 200 to 250 soldiers to monitor a ceasefire.

The deployment of UN monitors would first have to be authorised by the 15-nation Security Council.

While a halt to violence is a beginning, Annan stressed the importance of moving forward quickly on a Syrian-led political process including all parties to restore peace and “meet the aspirations of the Syrian people.”

Annan has courted support for his six-point peace plan at meetings with leaders in Moscow and Beijing and now plans to visit Tehran on April 11, Fawzi said.

Russia and China have vetoed two Security Council resolutions condemning Assad’s regime for the crackdown on protesters, and have ruled out any mention of possible sanctions against Syria.