United Nations Live Blog

1 week 8 hours ago - New York

International envoy Kofi Annan Tuesday told the UN Security Council he intends to return to Damascus in the coming days, British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said.

Annan was reporting to the Security Council on his efforts to mediate an end to the violence in Syria. The exact date for his visit to Damascus has not been set yet.


Annan visited Damascus at the start of his mission, but has not been back since.


According to diplomats, he told the UN's chief decision-making body that his peace plan may be the "last chance" to avoid civil war in Syria as the  regime of President Bashar al-Assad pursues attacks and the torture of prisoners.

Tags Kofi Annan, syria, UN Security Council, United Nations
1 week 1 day ago - Syria

More than 9,000 people have been killed in Syria in the last 14 months, which is a "totally unacceptable and intolerable situation," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday.


The priority for the United Nations is to deploy a supervision mission as soon as possible, Ban said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. He said the violence by all parties must stop.

Tags Ban Ki Boon, United Nations
1 week 4 days ago - Syria

United Nations observers visited the city of Hama on May 3. This activist footage shows Norwegian Major General Robert Mood, the head of the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria, speaking with activists.

Mood speaks with an activist in this clip. He says: “I will ask your patience. Today… because it’s five days into the mission.

"I’m going to several visits, several villages, to link up with people. But the point is let’s develop a relationship and a channel where we can meet in a more private setting, and talk and see things when we move forward. In the meantime, stay safe.”

Tags Hama, Robert Mood, United Nations
2 weeks 8 hours ago - United Nations

Syrian security forces have kept heavy weapons in cities in breach of Annan's peace plan, but the government and opposition both have committed truce violations, a top UN official said on Tuesday.

The 34 unarmed military observers now in Syria have seen Howitzer guns, armoured personnel carriers and other weaponry in cities, UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told reporters.

Ladsous insisted, however, that the monitors were having an effect in cities where they have been allowed to go.

"Regarding the heavy weapons, yes, our military observers do see a number of APCs, for instance, they see a number of Howitzers and other military equipment in most places where they are," Ladsous said.

Syria has told the monitors that the armored carriers have been disarmed but this has not been verified, Ladsous added.

Ladsous said both government forces and opposition groups have broken the truce.

"All the parties need to take further steps to ensure a cessation of violence in all its forms," he said. "The important fact is that violations do come from both sides." [AFP]

Tags Herve Ladsous, syria, UN observers
2 weeks 9 hours ago - United Nations

More than 34 children have allegedly been killed in Syria since the UN-brokered ceasefire between security forces and opposition fighters officially took hold last month.

 "Since a truce was agreed on April 12 ... and despite the deployment of United Nations ceasefire monitors, more than 34 children have allegedly been killed," the UN special envoy for children and armed conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, said on Tuesday.

"I urge all parties in Syria to refrain from indiscriminate tactics resulting in the killing and wounding of children." [Reuters]

Tags children, Radhika Coomaraswamy, syria
2 weeks 3 days ago - Syria

A veteran Norwegian peacekeeper headed to Damascus on Saturday to take charge of a UN mission overseeing a troubled truce, a day after a deadly suicide bombing fuelled scepticism  over its prospects.

Major General Robert Mood was already en route for the Syrian capital when UN chief Ban Ki-moon publicly announced his appointment late on Friday, diplomats said.

He takes over a mission that faces major obstacles and doubts before the full 300-member force approved by the UN Security Council has even gathered.

Mood himself has highlighted the "abyss of suspicion" between President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition, in the face of an uprising that has killed more than 9,000 people since March last year, according to UN figures.

Ten civilians were among 14 people killed in renewed bloodshed on Friday, more than two weeks into a promised ceasefire, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based watchdog said two civilians died in the Damascus suicide bombing.

Tags damascus, Robert Mood, UN observers, United Nations
2 weeks 4 days ago - United Nations

After the appointment of Norwegian Major General Robert Mood as head of UN monitors to be deployed to Syria, Norway's Defence Minister Espen Barth Eide highlighted the unarmed observers' "risky" mission.

The situation in Syria remains fragile," Eide said in a statement. "We therefore have to have realistic expectations in terms of what the observer force can achieve. Still, our hope is that the presence of the observers may help reduce the level of violence in the country."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said:

The general "brings to his new position extensive command experience and knowledge of peacekeeping attained through service at the national and international levels".

Mood was head of the UN Truce Supervision Organisation, which monitors Middle East truces, from 2009 until 2011. He was also twice part of the international force in Kosovo between 1999 and 2002.

Mood joined the Norwegian army in 1979 and served as a peacekeeper in civil-war stricken Lebanon in the late 1980s, while moving up the ranks to become Norway's chief of staff in 2005. [AFP]

Tags Norway, Robert Mood, syria, UN observers
2 weeks 4 days ago - United Nations

The United Nations has appointed the Norwegian Major General Robert Mood, a veteran of troublesome truces, to head the force monitoring the faltering ceasefire in Syria.

Mood was understood to be already heading for Damascus when the deadline passed for UN Security Council objections to his nomination by UN leader Ban Ki-moon passed on Friday. 

Fifteen monitors are already on the ground, and the UN says 15 more will arrive by Monday. [AFP]

Tags Robert Mood, syria, UN observers
2 weeks 5 days ago - Syria

The Syrian National Council (SNC), an opposition group that has been acting as an interlocuter for foreign governments, has called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting.

It has also accused the government killing more than 100 people in Hama in recent days.

"We are calling for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council so that it can issue a resolution to protect civilians in Syria," the SNC said in a statement.

"Hama in recent days, and following a visit by UN observers, witnessed a series of crimes... that left more than 100 people dead and hundreds wounded because of heavy shelling.

"The city also witnessed summary executions, raids, arrests and the flight of residents," the exile group added.

[AFP]

 

Tags AFP, Syrian National Council, UN, United Nations
2 weeks 6 days ago - Syria

Syrian opposition activists have accused the United Nations of "playing with Syrian lives" by dragging out the deployment of ceasefire monitors in the country. 

Responding to the announcement that it will take another month to deploy 100 unarmed military observers to oversee a shaky April 12 truce agreement, most activists reacted with a mixture of anger and apathy. 

"It takes them a month to arrive? Are they coming on horses?" said a resident from the city of Homs, which has endured sustained shelling by the army. He asked to be referred to only by the nickname 'Sami' for fear of arrest. 

There are currently 15 monitors in Syria, visiting areastorn by a 13-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, whose government has responded to protests with gunfire and shelled central districts of opposition strongholds, saying it is fighting an "armed terrorist" revolt.  

On Tuesday, UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told theSecurity Council, which has authorised 300 monitors to go to Syria, that it will take a month to deploy the first 100. 

"After one month we will have maybe 1,000 or 2,000 people killed - it's ridiculous. How can the international community watch without moving quickly," said Mousab al-Hamadi, an opposition resident from Hama province, where activists say 31 people were killed on Monday when the army shelled and stormed the Arbaeen district of Hama city, a day after the monitors visited. 

"When killing happens in Palestine, even though the United States is an ally of Israel, the whole international community presses Israel more than they have pressed the Assad regime," he said. 

Walid Fares, an activist living in nearby Homs city, which has seen months of shelling, said that the United Nations was "playing with the lives of Syrians," by its slow progress to get monitors on the ground. 

"This has just given the regime more time to kill us," he said over Skype. "We are being killed right now, we are not being killed in a month's time." 

[AFP]

Tags AFP, homs, United Nations
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