Dubai UN-Arab League envoy has told the Syrian government and rebels that the year-long conflict must end at 6am local time on April 12 if the government meets an April 10 deadline to begin a ceasefire.
Kofi Annan told the 193-nation UN General Assembly by video link from Geneva that he was urging "the government and the opposition commanders to issue clear instructions so that the message reaches across the country, down to the fighter and soldier at the local level."
"We must silence the tanks, helicopters, mortars, guns and stop all other forms of violence too — sexual abuse, torture, executions, abductions, destruction of homes, forced displacement and other abuses, including of children," he said.
Meanwhile, Syrian troops launched a fierce assault on a Damascus suburb with activists describing it as one of the most violent attacks around the capital since the uprising began.
Snipers
In the suburb of Douma, activists said snipers on 20 buildings were firing at "anything that moved" and residents had endured eight hours of shelling. They said soldiers marched into a main square behind detainees used as human shields. The offensive tapered off by late afternoon, and an activist said five civilians were killed.
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported at least 33 people, including 14 soldiers, killed yesterday, 16 of them in the city of Homs and 14 in Idlib province.
Annan addressed the assembly after the 15-nation Security Council increased the pressure on Syria by unanimously adopting a so-called "presidential statement" endorsing next week's deadline and warning Damascus of "further steps" if Syria did not meet the deadline, which the Syrians have publicly accepted.
"The Security Council calls upon the Syrian government to implement urgently and visibly its commitments ... to a) cease troop movements towards population centres, b) cease all use of heavy weapons in such centres, and c) begin pull back of military concentrations in and around population centres," the statement said.
The council also urges Damascus to "fulfill these in their entirety by no later than 10 April, 2012."
Annan said the Syrian government had told him it had started moving troops out of Idlib, Zabadani and Daraa.
Negotiating team arrives
A team led by a Norwegian major general arrived in Damascus yesterday to negotiate the possible deployment of a UN team that would monitor a ceasefire agreement between Syrian government troops and rebel forces, a spokesman for the UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said.
Ahmad Fawzi said the UN is already asking member nations to contribute about 200 to 250 soldiers who would monitor a ceasefire that should come into effect on April 10.
Annan has asked the Norwegian major-general, Robert Mood, to "begin discussing with the Syrian authorities the modalities of the eventual deployment of this UN supervision and monitoring mission," Fawzi said.
Such a contingent would first have to be authorised by the 15-nation Security Council on which permanent members Russia, China, the US, Britain and France have veto powers.
—Agencies
