UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon today urged Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to quickly implement a peace plan he has accepted that calls for the army to return to its barracks.
Speaking in Kuwait, Mr Ban said: "I strongly urge President Assad to put these commitments into immediate effect. There is not time to waste.
"He was referring to a plan the UN-Arab League's special envoy, Kofi Annan, said Dr Assad has agreed to, which stipulates the Syrian leader pull troops and heavy weapons from cities before peace talks with his opponents.
"This an important initial step that could bring an end to the violence and the bloodshed and provide aid to those people who are suffering," Mr Ban said, adding a political dialogue would serve "the long-held, legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people."
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said Dr Assad bore direct responsibility for what his troops were doing and was therefore liable for war crimes prosecution. Ms Pillay said children in detention were being tortured."It's just horrendous," she said.
"Children shot in the knees, held together with adults in really inhumane conditions, denied medical treatment for their injuries."
The United States has responded cautiously to Syria’s sudden acceptance of the UN plan, wary that president Bashar Assad’s regime may use its apparent willingness to compromise as cover to press on with a year-long political crackdown.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a guarded welcome to the Syrian government’s endorsement of the six-point plan that calls for an immediate ceasefire with rebels and an eventual democratic transition.
She said it was an important step towards peace, but stressed that Dr Assad now has to deliver. “Given Assad’s history of over-promising and under-delivering, that commitment must now be matched by immediate action,” Ms Clinton told reporters in Washington.
“We will judge Assad’s sincerity and seriousness by what he does, not by what he says. If he is ready to bring this dark chapter in Syria’s history to a close, he could prove it by immediately ordering regime forces to stop firing and begin withdrawing from populated areas.”
Despite the acceptance, Syrian government forces kept up heavy weapons fire and siege tactics against opposition strongholds today.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported military action against towns and villages from the southern province of Deraa to the Hama region 320km to the north.Shelling was also reported in parts of Homs, Syria's third largest city, where Dr Assad toured the devastated streets yesterday of a rebel bastion overrun by his troops earlier this month after weeks of bombardment."
Military forces accompanied by dozens of armoured vehicles stormed the town of Qalaat al-Madiq and nearby villages [in Hama]," the activist website reported. "This comes after weeks of heavy gun and mortar fire and several failed attempts to invade the town."
Ms Clinton said Dr Assad also must implement the rest of UN envoy Kofi Annan’s plan, which includes allowing international aid workers unfettered access, releasing political prisoners, granting foreign news media unobstructed access and beginning a real political dialogue that can lead to democracy.
Her hesitation reflected the Syrian leader’s previous promises to meet the demands of protesters and later Arab League monitors with democratic reforms that never were enacted.
The increased militarisation of the conflict has led to fears of an outright civil war and some countries in the region are pushing for foreign intervention to aid the rebels.
Diplomatic efforts to solve the crisis have failed, and Washington and its allies are sceptical of Dr Assad’s intentions. They say he has repeatedly reneged on reform pledges and no longer has legitimacy as a leader.
But after spending months publicly badgering Syria’s ally Russia to acquiesce to UN mediation, the US is in a position where it has to give diplomacy a chance. It also has few alternatives, considering the administration has removed military options from the table for now. Moscow would oppose any UN mandate for countries to provide weapons to the Syrian rebels or otherwise engage in an armed intervention.
Ms Clinton said the US and its international partners would work to disarm the Syrian opposition in the event that Dr Assad lives up to his commitments.
She said intensive work would take place in the coming days as the United States and 60 other countries prepare for Sunday’s “Friends of the Syrian People” meeting in Istanbul.
The Syrian opposition “must clearly demonstrate a commitment to including all Syrians and respecting the rights of all Syrians, and we are going to be pushing them very hard to present such a vision”, Ms Clinton said.
Agencies