Ban condemns failure of Syria ceasefire

SEOUL: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday voiced bitter frustration at the failure of the Syria ceasefire and stressed the need for international unity to end the violence.

October 29, 2012 - From Web Edition

"I am deeply disappointed that the parties failed to respect the call to suspend fighting," Ban said in the South Korean capital Seoul, where he received a peace prize from his home country. "This crisis cannot be solved with more weapons and bloodshed," Ban said, calling on the UN Security Council, regional countries and all parties "to live up to their obligations and promote a ceasefire".

The four-day truce proposed by UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi collapsed amid clashes, shelling and car bombings hours after it had been due to take effect with the start of Eidul Azha holidays on Friday morning. The Syrian army and opposition forces blamed each other for breaking the ceasefire.

Although Ban did not seek to apportion blame in his speech, he noted the bombings of "densely populated" cities by the Assad regime. Rights groups say more than 35,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which began as an anti-regime uprising. It is now a civil war pitting mainly Sunni rebels against President Bashar Assad's regime dominated by his minority Alawite sect.

Brahimi is expected to go to the Security Council in November with new proposals for talks between Assad and the opposition, and will head to Russia and China this week to discuss the crisis. Russia and China have three times used their powers as permanent Security Council members to block resolutions that could have led to Syria sanctions. As long as the international community "remains at odds", the suffering of the Syrian people will only deepen, Ban said in Seoul.

Past winners of the Seoul Peace Prize include former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.