U.N. observers continued their mission Monday in Syria to chronicle
what is happening in the beleaguered nation, though even the team's
leader admitted its efforts are futile unless all factions commit to
full candor and peace.
"Ten unarmed observers,
30 unarmed observers, 300 unarmed observers, even 1,000 unarmed
observers cannot solve all the problems," Maj. Gen. Robert Mood told a
swarm of reporters in Damascus on Sunday, shortly after arriving in the
country. "So I call on everyone to help us and cooperate with us in this
very challenging task ahead of us."
After months of violence, Arab League-U.N. envoy Kofi Annan weeks ago helped broker what he hoped was a cease-fire.
Yet violence has continued in the Middle Eastern nation.
At least 25 people were
reported dead across Syria on Sunday, according to the Local
Coordination Committees of Syria, a network of opposition activists. The
deaths include nine in Hama and eight in Homs.
The bodies of a father
and son were found in a house in the western city of Homs on Sunday,
days after a massacre in the city, the group said. In addition, security
forces fatally shot four people in Deir Ezzor, Hama and the Damascus
suburbs.
Demonstrations broke out
in several cities, with participants chanting for freedom and demanding
the regime's ouster. In Daraa, intense gunfire could be heard at
checkpoints. The city lacked electricity.
Syrian state television,
meanwhile, broadcast images early Monday showing a damaged police car in
Damascus and a pillar with a missing chunk of concrete outside the
Central Bank of Syria building, also in the capital.
Both were attacked by
"armed terrorist group" members using rocket-propelled grenades, state
TV reported, adding that there were no casualties in the bank incident
and four police were wounded in the other.
The LCC responded with a
statement saying that Syria's "security apparatus has resorted to
fabricating staged explosions that have taken the lives of dozens of
Syrians." The opposition network pointed specifically to "suspicious
explosions in or near several government buildings, including the
official state media and television office; a security center in
Rukneddine; and the Central Bank building."
The group said it "holds the regime and its security apparatus fully responsible for the bombings and the resultant effects."
"These tricks no longer
fool anyone, especially given the fact that the regime has resorted to
these escalations every time there is political movement at the Arab,
regional or international level to find a political solution to the
crisis in which the regime kills its people who are demanding freedom,"
added the LCC.
The most high-profile
aspect of the latest international efforts is the U.N. observer team,
many of which arrived ahead of Mood earlier this month.
Mood emphasized Sunday
that the success of joint U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's initiative
depends not on him or his fellow observers, but more on Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad's forces and opposition fighters.
"To achieve the success
of Kofi Annan's six-point plan ... I call on all to stop the violence
and to help us on a continued cessation of violence in all its forms,"
Mood said, echoing a plea made by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and
many others in recent months.
The state-run Syrian
Arab News Agency reported Sunday that a delegation of U.N. observers was
visiting the al-Khaldiyeh neighborhood of Homs.
Roughly 30 monitors are
expected to be on the ground by Monday, and a total of 300 are slated to
arrive in the coming month. The United States is not providing monitors
but is helping with funding and logistics.
"This is a matter of
utmost urgency for the United Nations and all efforts are in place to
make sure that we get the people on the ground as quickly as possible
... apart from Damascus, we have permanently based observers in Homs,
Hama, Daraa and Idlib, so this process will continue," said Neeraj
Singh, the observer team's spokesman, on Sunday.
Opposition activists in
Homs, a bastion of anti-government sentiment, have said attacks by
al-Assad's forces only stop when U.N. monitors visit.
"We were able to get the
civilians' corpses out of the streets because of the help and presence
of the U.N. monitors," one man says in a video purportedly shot Saturday
on the streets of Homs. "The corpses were dumped on the ground for over
40 days, and we couldn't get to them because of Assad's thugs and
snipers. The bodies are decomposed, so we had to wear muzzles because of
the foul smell so we can get to them and bury them. Just look the
destruction that happened here in Homs because of Assad."
CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video.
Since the cease-fire
deadline passed April 12, at least 700 people have been killed,
according to the Local Coordination Committees.
"The plan as a whole is
failing thus far," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland
said Friday. "Obviously, we can all see that it is the Assad regime that
is failing to meet its obligations under the six-point plan."
But Syrian state media
slammed the "international community," saying it "continues to ignore
the crimes committed by the armed gangs and their terrorist acts."
"We see the example of
the Secretary-General of the United Nations recently avoiding any
discussion about the violations by these armed groups while he only
focuses in an outrageous manner the Syrian state as usual," an editorial
in the state-run Tishrin newspaper stated Saturday.
Syrian Information
Minister Adnan Mahmoud said armed terrorist groups have violated the
cease-fire more than 1,300 times, "stressing that Syria has met its
obligations" according to the Annan plan, SANA reported.
Syria has been engulfed
in violence since March 2011, when government forces started cracking
down on demonstrators who were peacefully protesting al-Assad's regime.
The president's family has ruled Syria for 42 years. Some opposition
members have since taken up arms against the regime forces.
The United Nations
estimates at least 9,000 people have died in the conflict, while
opposition groups put the death toll at more than 11,000.
CNN cannot independently
verify reports of violence and deaths within Syria, as the government
has restricted access by most of the international media.
Meanwhile, Lt. Riad
Ahmed from the rebel Free Syrian Army said Sunday his group was unaware
of an arms shipment purportedly destined for rebel fighters.
The state-run Syrian
Arab News Agency reported a day earlier that Lebanese military forces
seized weapons from Libya bound for Syrian rebels.
The military intercepted
a ship in the Mediterranean Sea and found heavy and light weapons
aboard, Lebanon's National News Agency reported. Ten crew members and
the vessel's agent were arrested after the inspection in Salaata port,
north of Beirut.
"For over a year, we
heard that the Libyan rebels were planning to send us a shipment of
weapons for our fight against the daily slaughter and the massacres
committed against our people, but it was all rumors," Ahmed said. "We
have been asking for weapons to protect our civilians, over and over,
but we haven't received any support, whatsoever."
Source: CNN News