Annan appeals to Syria to give peace plan a chance

Time for military to go back to barracks, says UN envoy to Syria Kofi Annan as truce plan requires Syrian forces to pull out by Thursday

Syrian troops shelled and raided opposition strongholds nationwide on Tuesday, activists said, prompting an urgent appeal by international envoy Kofi Annan to the Syrian regime to halt violence and give his truce plan a chance.
The Syrian opposition as well as the US and its allies have been deeply skeptical that the regime would comply with the cease-fire because it has violated previous agreements and stepped up attacks in recent weeks.
The main Syrian opposition group estimated that some 1,000 people have been killed in regime attacks in the week leading up to Tuesday's withdrawal deadline. Tuesday's fighting claimed the lives of at least 29 civilians and 11 regime soldiers, activists said.
Syria's foreign minister claimed that regime forces have begun withdrawing from some areas in compliance with Annan's plan, which requires Syrian forces to pull back from towns and villages on Tuesday and both sides to cease all hostilities by 6 a.m. Thursday.
However, activists said Syrian forces carried out new attacks and there were no signs of a withdrawal.
Annan, the UN-Arab League envoy, expressed disappointment with the lack of compliance but insisted his plan has not failed and that Syria still has time to comply between now and Thursday. "The plan is still on the table and is a plan we are all fighting to implement," he told reporters in Hatay, Turkey, after touring a nearby camp of Syrians who fled to the area.
The envoy said violence must stop without preconditions.
"I had hoped that by now, we would have been much further ahead," he said. He included opposition fighters in his appeal for calm, but directed most of his criticism at the Syrian government, saying that it is "time the military go back to their barracks."
He said Syria gave him a list of areas from which troops purportedly withdrew, but added there are troop movements toward other regions and "rolling military action which we believe ... should stop."
Annan said the UN Security Council would discuss the truce plan later Tuesday. Options for ending the fighting appear to be dwindling with the international community unwilling to intervene militarily, and Annan suggested Tuesday that his cease-fire plan remained the only path forward. A collapse of the truce could push Syria even closer to an all-out civil war.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero on Tuesday dismissed Syria's claims of a withdrawal as "a new expression of this flagrant and unacceptable lie." British Foreign Secretary William Hague accused Damascus of using the cease-fire deadline "as a cover for intensified military efforts to crush Syria's opposition."
Even Damascus ally Russia seemed critical of Bashar Assad's regime, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov complaining that Syria's "efforts to implement the plan could have been more active and resolute."
Syrian opposition leaders said Tuesday they remain committed to the cease-fire, even though activists in Syria said they've seen no signs of a troop pullback. "Soldiers are not being withdrawn from towns and villages," said Fadi al-Yassin, an activist in the Idlib province close to Turkey. "On the contrary, reinforcements are being sent."
Regime forces have used heavy weapons including anti-aircraft guns against civilians, Bassma Kodmani, a spokeswoman for the largest opposition group, the Syrian National Council, told reporters in Geneva.
Kodmani estimated that some 1,000 people were killed since Annan announced the cease-fire timeline on April 2. "So every day is a very, very painful time that is given to the Assad regime," she said, adding the death toll was based on figures provided by various groups, including the Syrian Arab Human Rights Network.
Burhan Ghalioun, head of the Syrian National Council, called for UN protection for civilians in Syria.
Syria restricts the access of foreign journalists, and claims about casualties cannot be verified independently. The UN has said previously it believes more than 9,000 people have been killed in the 13-month uprising against Assad.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group, reported shelling attacks and raids in several locations in the north, center and south of the country. It said at least 29 Syrian civilians were killed, along with 11 soldiers shot dead by opposition fighters ambushing checkpoints.
In the northern province of Aleppo, troops fired shells at the town of Mareh, said local activist Mohammed Saeed, adding that earlier in the week several residents of Tal Rifaat, another town in the area, were killed by shelling. A video posted by activist online showed about a dozen charred bodies inside a room said to be in Tal Rifaat.
In northern Idlib and central Hama province, troops backed by helicopters were firing heavy machine guns to try to flush out opposition fighters, said al-Yassin, the activist from Idlib. Regime forces detained residents and set four homes on fire in Idlib's Ariha village and a contingent of 50 army vehicles entered the town of Kfar Zeita in Hama province, he said.
The Observatory said troops also fired shells at two neighborhoods in Homs. Additional raids were reported in two southern villages, the group said. An activist in the Damascus suburb of Douma, said tanks were patrolling the streets, as they have in recent days. Some tanks bore graffiti reading "Assad's shield," he said.
In Moscow, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem claimed the regime is complying with the truce deal.
"We have already withdrawn forces and army units from several Syrian provinces," he said in a joint news conference with Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister.
Over the weekend, there were already signs the regime was stalling for time, including a new, last-minute demand for written guarantees that the rebels would lay down their arms.
Moallem appeared to raise another new demand, saying that the cease-fire must start simultaneously with the deployment of the international observer mission. The deployment of observers was one of the terms of Annan's plan.
In another apparent shift, Moallem said Syria wants the truce guarantees to be issued by Annan, not by the opposition fighters.
"We did not ask for guarantees from armed terrorist groups that practice killing, take hostages and destroy infrastructure. We want guarantees from Annan," he said in Moscow.
The Syrian opposition has said it does not recognize the Assad regime and will not provide written guarantees.
Unlike previous peace plans, this one has the backing of Assad allies Russia and China because it did not call for the Syrian leader to step aside ahead of talks on a political transition.
But even Russia seemed to be losing patience with Damascus. Lavrov said the Syrian government could have done more to comply with the plan, adding that "we spoke about it quite frankly" to Syrian officials.
Yet he also seemed to place equal blame on the opposition for the difficulties in implementing the truce, repeating Russia's call for the West to pressure rebel fighters to halt violence. Russia and China have shielded Syria from UN Security Council condemnation in the past, arguing that only negotiations with the regime offer a way out of the crisis.
Lavrov also called for a speedy deployment of international observers — including Russians — in the country. Such a deployment is key to making a truce stick and a small contingent could be dispatched quickly, he said.
Sending UN observers currently posted on the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured by Israel from Syria in 1967, was being discussed, he said.
The uprising against Assad's regime has turned increasingly militarized in response to a brutal regime crackdown. The fighting is also spilling across Syria's borders, raising the risk of a regional conflagration.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday accused Syria of violating the border when Syrian forces opened fire the day before, killing a TV journalist in Lebanon and two people in a refugee camp in Turkey. He said his country was considering what steps to take in response but did not elaborate on possible measures.
Turkey, which has already given shelter to some 24,000 Syrian refugees, has floated the idea of creating security zones along its border, a step that could drag the Turkish military into the conflict.
Moallem on Tuesday accused Turkey of helping fuel the violence, saying it was hosting gunmen in training camps and allowing them to cross the border and smuggle weapons.
Asked about the possibility of a Turkish buffer zone on the border, he said that "Syria is a sovereign state and has the right to defend its sovereignty against any violation of this sovereignty."