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Lapses in Cease-Fire Reported as U.N. Monitors Prepare to Begin Mission in Syria
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
Published: April 15, 2012
BEIRUT, Lebanon — With an initial team of six United Nations military observers scheduled to arrive in Syria on Sunday to monitor compliance with the cease-fire, government shellfire continued to rake central Homs and other flash points.
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U.N. Votes to Send Observers to Syria Amid a Shaky Truce (April 15, 2012)
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The monitors will be ready to start patrols as early as Monday depending on the cooperation of the Syrian government, said Ahmad Fawzi, spokesman for Kofi Annan, the main architect of the truce under United Nations auspices. Another 25 to 30 monitors, drawn from United Nations military missions in the region, will join them almost immediately, he said, with the full contingent expected to grow to 250 after further negotiations with Syria.
Opinion on the streets of Damascus was mixed. Government supporters, remembering how United Nations weapons inspectors in next-door Iraq wanted to enter everywhere, including President Saddam Hussein’s private quarters, fretted that the force would become intrusive.
“I have no trust in the U.N. and its organizations, which did nothing good for Arabs,” groused Ali, 40, a government employee and member of President Bashar al-Assad’s minority Alawite sect, which has remained staunchly behind the president. He and others interviewed on Sunday would give only first names, out of fear of retribution. “Russia is standing with Syria, but its recent position was not strong as it was a few months ago,” Ali added.
On the other side, supporters of the uprising wondered if even the full contingent of 250 observers would be enough to track the cease-fire, and pointed out how the presence of Arab League monitors in January had not halted the violence.
“The Syrian government was forced to accept those observers,” said Abu Abdu, a 30-year-old Syrian interviewed in downtown Damascus. “I think this mission will be the last opportunity for a peaceful and political solution to the Syrian crisis.”
Another man, Mohamed, a 25-year-old student, said an embattled province like Dara’a, where the uprising started in March 2011, would probably need 50 observers alone to follow all the violence in the various hamlets. “The Annan plan has six points, and we want to see the implementation of the six, not a partial cease-fire,” he said.
Reports from around Syria suggested that the cease-fire that went into effect on Thursday was holding in places, with notable exceptions.
A video posted online said to have been shot Sunday in the central Khaldiya neighborhood of Homs showed a building going up in flames soon after a shell exploded on it. The whizzing of shells roaring overhead could be heard every few minutes.
In the north, government forces were shelling the village of Khirbet Jouz, aiming at a group of fighters from the Free Syrian Army there, said a statement for the Local Coordination Committee, an activist group.
At least 10 Syrian civilians were killed, according to activist organizations. Those reports could not be independently confirmed.
The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, a force within the Syrian National Council, the main umbrella group for the opposition, issued a statement saying that the Annan plan should not be open-ended, requiring a timetable for the political transition it envisions. “We stress that continuing to carry out Annan’s plan without a time limit while the other side maintains its killing and violations will be a means of mocking the lives of the Syrian people,” it said.
As with every day since the cease-fire went into effect last Thursday, demonstrators in modest numbers took to the streets in towns and cities across Syria to demand the end of Mr. Assad’s rule.
On Saturday, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to send an advance team of up to 30 military observers to begin monitoring the tenuous cease-fire. It was the first time since the Syrian uprising began 13 months ago that the Security Council was united in demanding a halt to the violence. Russia and China had either vetoed or sought to dilute previous such efforts.
The resolution required Syria to withdraw its security forces from population centers and to begin a dialogue with the opposition, both key parts of the six-point plan designed to end more than a year of violence that has left at least 9,000 people dead, by the United Nations’ count.
Hala Droubi contributed reporting from Beirut, and an employee of The New York Times from Damascus, Syria.
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By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
Published: April 15, 2012
BEIRUT, Lebanon — With an initial team of six United Nations military observers scheduled to arrive in Syria on Sunday to monitor compliance with the cease-fire, government shellfire continued to rake central Homs and other flash points.
Related
U.N. Votes to Send Observers to Syria Amid a Shaky Truce (April 15, 2012)
Connect With Us on Twitter
Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines.
Twitter List: Reporters and Editors
The monitors will be ready to start patrols as early as Monday depending on the cooperation of the Syrian government, said Ahmad Fawzi, spokesman for Kofi Annan, the main architect of the truce under United Nations auspices. Another 25 to 30 monitors, drawn from United Nations military missions in the region, will join them almost immediately, he said, with the full contingent expected to grow to 250 after further negotiations with Syria.
Opinion on the streets of Damascus was mixed. Government supporters, remembering how United Nations weapons inspectors in next-door Iraq wanted to enter everywhere, including President Saddam Hussein’s private quarters, fretted that the force would become intrusive.
“I have no trust in the U.N. and its organizations, which did nothing good for Arabs,” groused Ali, 40, a government employee and member of President Bashar al-Assad’s minority Alawite sect, which has remained staunchly behind the president. He and others interviewed on Sunday would give only first names, out of fear of retribution. “Russia is standing with Syria, but its recent position was not strong as it was a few months ago,” Ali added.
On the other side, supporters of the uprising wondered if even the full contingent of 250 observers would be enough to track the cease-fire, and pointed out how the presence of Arab League monitors in January had not halted the violence.
“The Syrian government was forced to accept those observers,” said Abu Abdu, a 30-year-old Syrian interviewed in downtown Damascus. “I think this mission will be the last opportunity for a peaceful and political solution to the Syrian crisis.”
Another man, Mohamed, a 25-year-old student, said an embattled province like Dara’a, where the uprising started in March 2011, would probably need 50 observers alone to follow all the violence in the various hamlets. “The Annan plan has six points, and we want to see the implementation of the six, not a partial cease-fire,” he said.
Reports from around Syria suggested that the cease-fire that went into effect on Thursday was holding in places, with notable exceptions.
A video posted online said to have been shot Sunday in the central Khaldiya neighborhood of Homs showed a building going up in flames soon after a shell exploded on it. The whizzing of shells roaring overhead could be heard every few minutes.
In the north, government forces were shelling the village of Khirbet Jouz, aiming at a group of fighters from the Free Syrian Army there, said a statement for the Local Coordination Committee, an activist group.
At least 10 Syrian civilians were killed, according to activist organizations. Those reports could not be independently confirmed.
The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, a force within the Syrian National Council, the main umbrella group for the opposition, issued a statement saying that the Annan plan should not be open-ended, requiring a timetable for the political transition it envisions. “We stress that continuing to carry out Annan’s plan without a time limit while the other side maintains its killing and violations will be a means of mocking the lives of the Syrian people,” it said.
As with every day since the cease-fire went into effect last Thursday, demonstrators in modest numbers took to the streets in towns and cities across Syria to demand the end of Mr. Assad’s rule.
On Saturday, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to send an advance team of up to 30 military observers to begin monitoring the tenuous cease-fire. It was the first time since the Syrian uprising began 13 months ago that the Security Council was united in demanding a halt to the violence. Russia and China had either vetoed or sought to dilute previous such efforts.
The resolution required Syria to withdraw its security forces from population centers and to begin a dialogue with the opposition, both key parts of the six-point plan designed to end more than a year of violence that has left at least 9,000 people dead, by the United Nations’ count.
Hala Droubi contributed reporting from Beirut, and an employee of The New York Times from Damascus, Syria.
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