BEIRUT ? The chief of the U.N. observers in Syria warned Friday that spiraling bloodshed is hindering the ability of his team to fulfill its obligations, casting into doubt the continuing viability of the mission that lies at the heart of a rapidly disintegrating U.N. peace plan.
Gen. Robert Mood, who heads the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria, said in a statement issued in Damascus that both sides in the conflict have been escalating the violence in ways that are jeopardizing the safety and effectiveness of the 300-member team.
?Violence, over the past 10 days, has been intensifying ... willingly by the both parties, with losses on both sides and significant risks to our observers,? he said. ?The escalating violence is now limiting our ability to observe, verify, report, as well as assist in local dialogue and stability projects.?
The U.N. monitoring mission is central to the implementation of a U.N.-mandated peace plan that has now patently failed to halt the bloodshed. An April 12 cease-fire brought only a brief respite, and many in the international community are warning that Syria?s 15-month-old uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad is at risk of turning into an all-out civil war.
The observers? role is only to ?monitor a cessation, not to stop, armed violence,? Mood stressed. But it is now clear, he said, that the plan is not being implemented, by either the rebels or the government.
?There appears to be a lack of willingness to seek a peaceful transition. Instead there is a push towards advancing military positions,? he said.
?This is not a static mission,? he added, pointing out that the mission, whose mandate was for three months, would soon come up for review at the U.N. Security Council.
Mood did not indicate whether he advocated strengthening the mission, abolishing it or otherwise changing its mandate.
But the growing violence had already called into question the ability of the unarmed and lightly protected monitors to do their job. Since the mission began April 29, monitors have been shot at on several occasions and their convoys have been targeted by roadside bombs.
On Wednesday, Assad supporters surrounded the monitors? vehicles to prevent them from visiting the embattled town of Haffah, outside the port city of Latakia, where a fierce battle had been raging for more than a week. The scenes of men hitting the two vehicles with iron rods and jumping on their roofs, posted on the Internet, seemed to underscore the monitors? vulnerability.
When the team members were allowed into the town by Syrian officials the next day, they found it deserted, devastated and infused with ?the stench of dead bodies? after the rebels had fled and government forces took control.
Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=c2fb2974307d38bebb40394e02496a84
cnn world news 2011 cnn world news africa cnn world news anchors cnn world news asia cnn world news bbc world news
No comments:
Post a Comment