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UN says Syria plan on 'track' amid violence
[Al Jazeera] The UN-backed peace plan for Syria is on "track", the office of international mediator Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...has said, as activists reported renewed violence in the country. Ahmad Fawzi, Annan's spokesperson, said on Friday negotiations were being "conducted under the radar" involving the Syrian government and its opposition to cease all hostilities. But Fawzi said there were continuing violations of truce conditions such as heavy weapons in populated areas, despite "small signs of compliance". "The Annan plan is on track... And a crisis that has been going on for more than a year is not going to be resolved in a day or a week," Fawzi told a UN briefing in Geneva. His comments came as the Local Co-ordination Committees, an opposition activist network, reported the deaths of 33 people in renewed violence across the country. Massive anti-government protests were also reported. In the central city of Hama, government forces used gunfire to disperse protesters in two districts of the city and in another town of the same province, activists reported. Abu Omar, a local activist, said troops also fired on demonstrators outside the main mosque in the Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... neighbourhood of Jubar. Similar incidents were reported in other neighbourhoods of the capital and surrounding towns as well as in Hasakeh, in the northeast of the country. Opposition activists had called for nationwide protests under the slogan "Our commitment [to the revolution] is our salvation". Anti-regime demonstrations have been staged after prayers each Friday since the revolt against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad's Trampler of Homs... rule broke out in March 2011. Posted by: Fred 2012-05-05 |
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