16/08/12

By By EDITH M. LEDERER

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The Security Council agreed Thursday to end the U.N. military observer mission in Syria in the face of an escalating civil war and back a new liaison office in Damascus to support U.N. and Arab League efforts to end the country’s 18-month conflict.

France’s U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud, the current Security Council president, said members who have been deeply divided on tackling the conflict were united behind U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s proposal to replace the 300 unarmed observers with a small group of military advisers and political, human rights and civil affairs experts.

Araud said the council agreed that conditions set for possibly extending the observer mission - a significant reduction in violence and an end to the Syrian government’s use of heavy weapons - had not been met and the mission’s mandate would end Sunday.

The mission has been severely limited in its work by the violence in Syria, and members have been mainly confined to their hotels since June 15.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, whose country is the most important ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, invited U.N. ambassadors from key nations and regional and international organizations who agreed in June in Geneva on guidelines for a Syrian-led political transition to a meeting Friday at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Churkin told reporters he wants the Geneva action group - along with “important actors” Iran and Saudi Arabia, who are not members - to make “a joint or parallel appeal to all the parties of the Syrian conflict that they end violence as soon as possible by a certain point in time.”

Churkin said the appeal should also urge the government and opposition to appoint representatives “to negotiate towards a political solution, and in particular towards the establishment of a transitional governing body as provided for in the Geneva document.”

In a letter to the council last Friday, Ban said the conditions for extending the observer mission had not been met, but he added that “it is imperative for the United Nations to have a presence in Syria” aside from its humanitarian operation in order to support U.N. and Arab League efforts “in mediating and facilitating a peaceful resolution to the crisis.”

The Security Council initially authorized the 300-strong observer mission to deploy to Syria for 90 days to monitor implementation of a six-point peace plan brokered by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan. The plan was to start with a cease-fire and withdrawal of the government’s heavy weapons and culminate with Syrian-led political talks.

Assad’s government and opposition forces agreed to the plan, but it was never implemented.

Because of the worsening bloodshed and insecurity, the observer mission has been cut by about two-thirds.

U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet told reporters after briefing the council behind closed doors that the observer mission “will come to an end at midnight Sunday.”

There are currently 101 observers and 72 civilian staff members in Syria, he said. In order to have an orderly departure, the last observers will leave Aug. 24, but they will not do any work after Sunday.

Mulet said discussions are under way on the new U.N. liaison office, which he said has been approved by the Syrian government and will have about 20-30 staff members.

Russia and China have vetoed three Western-backed Security Council resolutions that would have stepped up pressure especially against the Syrian government by threatening sanctions if the fighting didn’t stop.

Frustrated at the escalating conflict and the failure of the Security Council to unite to stop the chaos, Annan announced last month that he was resigning effective Aug. 31.

Mulet said he expected an announcement of a replacement for Annan “very soon.”

On Tuesday, a spokesman for Annan said Syrian authorities have backed former Algerian Foreign Minister Lakhdar Brahimi, a veteran U.N. troubleshooter in hotspots including Afghanistan and Iraq, as his successor, but it was unclear whether Brahimi had accepted the post.

Several U.N. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because no announcement has been made, said Brahimi wants a signal of support from the council.

Associated Press Writer Ron DePasquale contributed to this report from the United Nations

Video: “Tell them.. If they won’t come tomorrow.. they will beat us” a young Syrian speaking to observers in Qaboon youtube.com/watch?v=WBmrFf…

— Zaid Benjamin (@zaidbenjamin) August 14, 2012

13/08/12

DAMASCUS - A total of 21 UN observers left Syria Monday as the mission’s extended mandate will expire on Aug 20, sources told Xinhua.

The reason behind the observers’ departure remains officially unknown, however, sources told Xinhua that the head of the mission Gen. Babacar Gaye has taken the decision after consultations with the UN Security Council.

A day earlier, the mission’s spokesperson told Xinhua that there are 150 UN observers currently operative in Deir-al-Zour, Homs and the capital Damascus.

The UN Supervision Mission in Syria was extended for a final 30 days mandate in July. Shrinking the 300-observer mission into half was part of the extended mandate.

The mission has done little to stem the simmering violence in the unrest-hit Syria.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The head of the United Nations monitors in Syria said on Monday violence was intensifying across the country, blaming both President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebel fighters for ignoring the plight of civilians.

“It is clear that violence is increasing in many parts of Syria,” General Babacar Gaye, head of the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria, told journalists in Damascus.

“The indiscriminate use of heavy weapons by the government and targeted attacks by the opposition in urban centers are inflicting a heavy toll on innocent civilians.

“I deeply regret that none of the parties has prioritized the needs of civilians.”

Activists say more than 18,000 people, including soldiers, rebels and civilians, have been killed since the start of the Syrian uprising against Assad in March last year.

Assad’s forces are battling to regain control of the biggest city, Aleppo, from rebel fighters who went on the offensive last month, seizing districts of the capital and the northern commercial hub, as well as several border crossings.

Free Syrian Army rebels also control towns and villages in a wide swathe of territory near the northern border with Turkey.

Assad’s forces have hit back, regaining much of Damascus and bombarding opposition strongholds in and around the capital. Residents reported overnight shelling from the Qassioun mountains overlooking north Damascus into Jobar neighborhood.

13/08/2012

Activists also reported shelling in the northern Damascus suburb of Tell, which they say has been under rebel control for two weeks, and in Muadamiya suburb, where they said four men had been found executed after troops pulled out.

State television said the army was battling rebels in the city of Homs and had attacked “terrorist lairs” in the town of Talbiseh to the north.

The mandate for the U.N. monitors, whose original mission was to observe an April ceasefire that never took hold, expires on August 19. Their numbers have already been cut to a third because violence has made it impossible for them to move around.

“But the remaining 100 observers, along with our civilian colleagues, will operate till the last minute,” Gaye said.

“I call on the parties to cease military operations and come to the (negotiating) table,” he said, adding that he and his colleagues had delivered the same appeal in person to the government and the Syrian opposition abroad.

(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Lakhdar Brahimi has served as a UN special envoy in Iraq after the US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein [Reuters]

10/08/2012

Diplomats have said  Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign affairs minister, is a strong candidate to replace Kofi Annan as the United Nations’ peace envoy to Syria.

Brahimi’s possible appointment could be announced as early as next week, but the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said late on Thursday that there could be last-minute changes if a key government has concerns about the choice.

The former Algerian foreign affairs minister has a long history as a diplomatic troubleshooter, and will if appointed face tough challenges in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is using his security forces to try to crush a 17-month-old uprising.

Brahimi, 78, has served as a UN special envoy in a series of challenging circumstances, including in Iraq after the US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, and in Afghanistan both before and after the end of Taliban rule. He was posted in South Africa as it emerged from the apartheid era.

Syria, however, may present an unusually vexing assignment, in part because international action to try to end the violence has been stymied by the disagreements between the five veto-holding permanent members of the UN Security Council.

While the security council united in April to approve the deployment of 300 monitors to Syria to observe a failed ceasefire as part of Annan’s peace plan, Russia and China vetoed three other resolutions that criticized Syria and threatened sanctions against Damascus.

‘Finger-pointing’ 

Annan, a former UN secretary-general and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said last week he would step down as the special envoy because he was unable to do his job with the UN Security Council hopelessly deadlocked over Syria.

In announcing his resignation, Annan explicitly blamed “finger-pointing and name-calling” at the Security Council for his decision to quit, but suggested his successor may have better luck.

In accepting Annan’s resignation, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon thanked him for having taken on “this most difficult and potentially thankless of assignments”.

A spokesman for Ban, who is expected to formally name Annan’s successor, was not immediately available for comment.

DAMASCUS (AFP) - The Syrian village of Treimsa, where monitors say more than 150 people were slaughtered, bears signs of having been pounded with heavy weapons, the UN mission said on Saturday.

The homes of rebels and activists had borne the brunt, a statement added, referring to “pools and pools of blood spatters”.

Sausan Ghosheh, spokeswoman for the UN Supervision Mission in Syria, said a team of observers had visited the village in central Syria on Saturday.

“On the basis of this preliminary mission, UNSMIS can confirm that an attack, using a variety of weapons, took place in Treimsa on July 12,” she said in a statement, without specifying who may have carried out the attack.

Activists say more than 150 people were killed in Thursday’s attack, which they allege was carried out by the army, backed by pro-regime militiamen known as shabiha (“ghosts” in Arabic).

Syria’s military however said the army had killed “many terrorists” in Treimsa, but no civilians, in a “special operation… targeting armed terrorist groups and their leadership hide-outs.”

Ghosheh said a “wide range of weapons were used, including artillery, mortars and small arms.”

“The attack on Treimsa appeared targeted at specific groups and houses, mainly of army defectors and activists. There were pools of blood and blood spatters in rooms of several homes together with bullet cases.

“The UN team also observed a burned school and damaged houses with signs of internal burning in five of them.”

The number of casualties was still unclear, she added.

The Treimsa killings have triggered a global outcry against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon calling for urgent action to stop the bloodshed.

The head of Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP it “might be the biggest massacre committed in Syria since the start of the revolution” against Assad in March 2011.

If confirmed, the 150-plus toll would exceed that of a massacre at Houla on May 25, when a pro-Assad militia and government forces were accused of killing at least 108 people.

Ghosheh said the observers planned to return to Treimsa on Sunday for further investigations.

“UNSMIS is deeply concerned about the escalating level of violence in Syria and calls on the government to cease the use of heavy weapons on population centres and on the parties to put down their weapons and choose the path of non-violence for the welfare of the Syrian people who have suffered enough,” she said.

The Observatory said earlier that Syrian troops and pro-regime militias had stormed and torched a town in southern Syria on Saturday.

Hundreds of soldiers backed by helicopter gunships attacked Khirbet Ghazaleh in the province of Daraa — the cradle of a 16-month uprising — amid heavy gunfire, the watchdog said.

An activist on the ground who identified himself as Bayan Ahmad gave a similar account, saying pro-regime militias has set alight houses in the town.

“The army entered without resistance as the rebel Free Syrian Army left town. The shelling has wounded dozens of people but we don’t have medical resources to treat them,” he added.

Elsewhere, a pregnant woman was among 72 people killed across the country on Saturday, the Observatory said, a day after 118 people died including dozens of civilians gunned down by troops at anti-regime protests.

Those killed were 34 civilians — including nine women and seven children — 17 rebels and at least 21 soldiers, it said.

An AFP journalist said fighting Saturday near the Turkish border between government troops and rebel fighters had left at least 10 rebels dead and 15 wounded.

Treimsa is near Al-Kubeir, where at least 55 people were killed on July 6, according to the Observatory. Like Al-Kubeir, Treimsa is a majority Sunni village situated near Alawite hamlets.

Assad belongs to the Alawite community — an offshoot of Shiite Islam — although most Syrians are Sunni.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon lashed out at the Syrian regime and called for the UN Security Council to urgently act to stop the bloodshed, as failing to do so would give “a licence for further massacres.”

The Treimsa killings have added urgency to deadlocked Security Council negotiations on a Syria resolution.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said on Twitter that the killings “dramatically illustrate the need for binding measures on Syria” by the council.

Western nations have proposed a resolution that would impose sanctions on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over the conflict, which rights activists say has cost more than 17,000 lives.

Britain, France, the United States, Germany and Portugal have proposed a resolution that would give Assad 10 days to stop the use of heavy weapons, in line with the Annan plan, or face sanctions.

They also want to give the UN observer mission a new mandate, but for only 45 days. Their mandate ends on July 20.

Russia has rejected as unacceptable any use of sanctions. It is proposing a rival resolution that renews the mandate of UNSMIS for 90 days.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday it would not agree to a threat of sanctions to end the 16-month conflict in Syria as a deeply divided U.N. Security Council began negotiations on a resolution to extend a U.N. monitoring mission there.

The 15-member council must decide the future of the U.N. mission, known as UNSMIS, before July 20, when its 90-day mandate expires. UNSMIS was deployed to monitor a failed truce as part of international envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan.

Russia has proposed extending the mission for 90 days, but Britain, the United States, France and Germany countered with a draft resolution to extend the mission for just 45 days and place Annan’s peace plan under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.

Chapter 7 allows the council to authorize actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention. U.S. officials have said they are talking about sanctions on Syria, not military intervention.

The Security Council is currently due to vote next Wednesday.

President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have killed more than 15,000 people since a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters began in March 2011, some Western leaders say. Damascus says rebels have killed several thousand of its security forces.

“We are definitely against Chapter 7. Anything can be negotiated, but we do not negotiate this, this is a red line,” Russian Deputy U.N. Ambassador Alexander Pankin told reporters.

The opening stance by Russia, a key ally of Syria, was no surprise to Western diplomats. Russia and China previously vetoed U.N. resolutions designed to pressure Assad.

“They would say that at this stage wouldn’t they,” said Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant. “It’s clear that there’s very strong support for the text.”

Negotiations are unlikely to move quickly. After the first round of talks on Thursday, French U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud said that negotiators started 10 miles apart, and “now we are 10 miles less 5 centimetres.”

‘TIME TO ACT’

The Western-backed draft resolution in particular threatens the Syrian government with sanctions if it does not stop using heavy weapons and withdraw its troops from towns and cities within 10 days of the adoption of the resolution.

A Western diplomat, who did not want to be named, said the resolution had been drafted with the strongest possible language and action because “it’s long past time for the council to act.”

“It’s frankly outrageous that the council would leave unarmed observers twisting in the wind and not use all the tools they have at their disposal,” he said. “We’re now at the point where 100 or more people are dying a day.”

Opposition activists said more than 200 people, mostly civilians, were massacred in a Syrian army and militia onslaught in a village in the rebellious province of Hama on Thursday.

Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Ja’afari said on Wednesday that countries raising the threat of sanctions were not helping efforts to end the conflict and maintained that Damascus was committed to Annan’s peace plan.

Annan asked the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to make clear to Syria’s government and opposition there would be “clear consequences” for not complying with his plan to broker peace in a conflict that has killed thousands.

“The United States is determined to support him (Annan) because our experience of the last year makes it absolutely clear that the Assad regime will not do anything without additional further pressure,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday during a visit to Cambodia.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has recommended a shift in the emphasis of UNSMIS’ work from military observers - who suspended most of their monitoring activities on June 16 because of increased risk amid rising violence - to the civilian staff focusing on a political solution and issues like human rights.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Russia’s deputy UN envoy, Igor Pankin (right), says the resolution was sent to the council’s other 14 members ahead of a briefing on July 11 by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan on efforts to revive his peace plan.

A member of the Free Syria Army walks past a destroyed Syrian forces tank in the town Atareb in northern Aleppo province

(CNN) — Despite the escalating violence in Syria that led to the suspension of monitoring activities, the United Nations can continue to play a crucial role in the embattled country, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a report to be presented to the Security Council.

An advance copy of the report, which is circulating among Security Council members, was obtained by CNN ahead of a Wednesday briefing on Syria to the council by Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan.

The document outlines the efforts to implement a six-point plan that would impose a cease-fire and take measures to protect human rights, and admits that it has not worked.

In some places, the levels of violence are even higher today than they were before an initial cease-fire attempt, the report says.

The 300-strong U.N. team in Syria, whose mission is to observe and help implement the plan, has been unable to do its work as envisioned because of present conditions, the document states.

Last month, the United Nations announced that it was pulling back its unarmed monitors because of escalating violence. Opposition groups slammed the international body for the suspension of its work.

The U.N. mission’s role in Syria was based on the premise that there would be a cessation to the violence, and failing that, “a calibration of effort in response to the situation on the ground would be appropriate,” Ban writes.

Basically, the three options Ban puts on the table are: withdrawing the U.N. team, increasing its size or adding armed protection for them; or retooling the mission of the current team.

Ban elaborates the most on the idea to shift the strategy of the current U.N. team.

The team could retain its military observer capability and continue its fact-finding work, but with a limited scope in light of the violence in Syria, the report says.

In this scenario, the U.N. mission would move its personnel from the field back to Damascus, where it would focus on pushing forward the six-point plan to the Syrian government and the opposition.

“From a central hub in Damascus, the civilian component would continue liaison and dialogue with opposition and Government representatives in the provinces as security conditions allow,” Ban writes.

The other options — withdrawal or augmentation of the force — could have more negative consequences than good, the report concludes.

Withdrawing from Syria would ensure the safety of the team, but it could signal a loss of confidence in the hopes of a cease-fire and leave the U.N. without a way to monitor progress, the report says.

“(Withdrawing) would likely precipitate a further blow to efforts to stabilize the situation on the ground, and render the prospect of a negotiated Syrian-led transition, as laid out by the Action Group, more difficult,” Ban writes.

Expanding the size of the mission, with or without armed protection, poses an “unacceptably high” security risk, given that there are no signs of the violence receding immediately, the report says.

These options must be considered, Ban writes, because “in spite of the best efforts of (the mission) to support the parties in the effort to de-escalate the crisis, there is not a cessation of violence, and the basic human rights whose protection is at the core of the (six-point) plan continue to be violated,” the report says.

According to the opposition Local Coordination Committees in Syria, 71 people, including 10 defectors, were killed across the country.

In fighting in Aleppo Province since Friday, four Syrian troops and one opposition fighter were killed, another group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Heavy fighting was reported in Idlib, where the town of Al-Tamani’a was shelled by forces who tried to raid it, the group said.

Shelling was reported in several suburbs of Damascus.

The state-run SANA news agency reported at least four different incidents where “terrorist” attacks were foiled by security forces throughout the country. According to the agency, more than 11 fighters it identified as “terrorists” were killed by security forces, and at least 10 vehicles, some with weapons inside, were destroyed.

CNN cannot independently verify government and opposition claims of casualties because access to Syria by international journalists has been severely curtailed.

Rome-born Jesuit is infuriated by the perception among many Christians that an Assad ouster would lead to an Islamist takeover and ill-treatment of minorities.

Father Paolo Dall’Oglio talks to a visitor in the courtyard of the restored Byzantine Monastery Deir Mar Musa al Habashi (St. Moses the Abyssinian). (Louai Beshara, AFP/Getty Images / July 11, 2007)

(06/07/2012) Al-Latamna, Hama, #Syria | UN observers were present to view the destruction by helicopter gunships 

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR and ALAN COWELL

Published: July 5, 2012

Major-General Robert Mood, head of the UN Supervision Mission in Syria. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

4 July 2012 –

WASHINGTON — The White House renewed calls Saturday for Bashar al-Assad to step down at a “critical juncture” in Syria after UN observers suspended their mission, saying it was discussing the way ahead with allies.

The unarmed observers have been targeted almost daily since deploying in mid-April to monitor a UN-backed but widely flouted ceasefire brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan, and they were likened to “sitting ducks in a shooting gallery” by Susan Rice, the US envoy to the United Nations.

“We call again on the Syrian regime to uphold its commitments under the Annan plan, including the full implementation of a ceasefire,” a White House official said.

Explaining the decision to halt the observer operation, mission head Major General Robert Mood spoke of an escalation in fighting and of the risk to his 300-strong team, as well as the “lack of willingness” for peace by the warring parties.

“At this critical juncture, we are consulting with our international partners regarding next steps toward a Syrian-led political transition as called for in Security Council Resolutions 2042 and 2043,” the White House official added.

“The sooner this transition takes place, the greater the chance of averting a lengthy and bloody sectarian civil war.”

UN Security Council resolutions 2042 and 2043 addressed the deployment of monitors to Syria.

Mood said the observers will now no longer conduct patrols and will remain at their locations until further notice, adding that “operations will resume when we see the situation fit for us to carry out our mandated activities.”

Violence in Syria has killed more than 14,400 people since an uprising against the Assad regime erupted in mid-March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UN mission’s suspension came two months into its three-month mandate, and after the United Nations accused both sides in the Syria conflict of willingly intensifying the violence.

With world powers at loggerheads over how to stem the bloodletting, Syrian ally Russia urged that pressure be increased “on both the regime and the opposition (to) make them cease fighting” and start talking peace.

Middle East Online

DAMASCUS - France said on Friday that world powers could hold a summit on the Syrian crisis at the end of June as the deadly revolt against President Bashar al-Assad entered its 16th month.