Sporadic violence across Syria in violation of a shaky 4-day-old truce cast doubt over UN plans to expand a small observer mission charged with overseeing an end to 13 months of conflict, the US envoy to the United Nations said today.
A handful of observers arrived in Damascus yesterday, a day after the 15-nation UN Security Council voted unanimously to authorise an initial deployment of up to 30 unarmed observers.
The council needs to pass a second resolution to expand the mission to 250 as requested by UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan, who brokered the truce that came into effect on Thursday.
US ambassador Susan Rice, who is president of the Security Council for April, said the United States was gravely concerned that sporadic violence continued across Syria and had appeared to intensify in cities like Homs in recent days.
"This is absolutely unacceptable," Ms Rice told reporters.
"Should the violence persist and the ceasefire, or cessation of violence more aptly, not hold, that ... will call into question the wisdom and the viability of sending in the full monitoring presence," she said.
UN human rights investigators said on Monday they had received reports of shelling and arrests by Syrian forces since the ceasefire, as well as executions of soldiers captured by rebel forces, although the violence was generally less than before the truce came into effect.
Since the uprising against president Bashar al-Assad erupted in March 2011, Russia and China had blocked two previous Western attempts to pass Security Council resolutions condemning Mr Assad's government. Saturday's resolution was the first on the crisis adopted by the council.
Russian UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said on Saturday he hoped a resolution to expand the UN observer mission to 250 people could be passed by the UN Council quickly.
The UN estimates Mr Assad's forces have killed more than 9,000 people in the uprising. Syrian authorities say foreign-backed militants have killed over 2,600 soldiers and police.
Earlier, in a statement, the team led by Brazilian expert Paulo Pinheiro voiced concern at what it called the "deteriorating humanitarian situation" in Syria where tens of thousands of civilians fled escalating fighting in the run-up to the truce that took effect last week.
It acknowledged generally lower levels of violence in some parts of Syria since the truce, but said "it is seriously concerned over accounts of a number of incidents since then, including the shelling of the Khaldieh neighbourhood and other districts in Homs by government forces and the use of heavy weaponry, such as machine guns in other areas, including Idlib and some suburbs of Damascus.
"The commission is also concerned by reports of new arrests, especially in Hama and Aleppo."
A team of six observers arrived in Damascus late last night, led by Moroccan Colonel Ahmed Himmiche.
"The mission will start with setting up operating headquarters this morning, and reaching out to the Syrian government and the opposition forces so that both sides fully understand the role of the UN observers," spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said in a statement.
"The remaining 25 are expected to arrive in the next few days," he said.
Reuters