UN calls for peace in Syria after a decade of bloodshed and violence
The violent battle between Bashar al-regime Assad’s regime and rebels has thrown Syria into a brutal civil war for more than a decade.
CAPE TOWN, March 16 (ANA) – From the moment military forces opened fire on demonstrators who backed the democratic process in the city of Deraa, the violent battle between Bashar al-Assad’s regime and rebels threw Syria into a brutal civil war, with more than 593,000 fatalities as of December 2020.
According to The Independent, nearly 88,000 civilians were tortured to death in detention centres and prisons, the SOHR (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights) says.
As civil unrest and bloodshed filled the streets of Deraa, Damascus and Aleppo, protesters demanded democratic reforms and the liberation of political prisoners.
According to the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), nearly 11 million people need humanitarian aid, six million are internally displaced, and 5.5 million Syrian refugees reside in neighbouring countries.
International powers’ “you first” approach is prolonging a catastrophic war that has killed or maimed 12,000 children, says UNICEF.
The United Nations (UN) Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Otto Pedersen, has called for establishing a new international forum to end Syria’s 10-year civil war.
The UN-led process has centred on constitutional reform. According to Al Jazeera, the constitutional committee created by the opposition and the government has yet to begin any substantive work after 15 months.
“We should try put in place a new international format as a forum for the necessary discussions … in a manner where we bring in all the different parties that have an influence on this conflict,” Pedersen, Norwegian diplomat and UN Special Envoy for Syria, said in a news briefing to the UN.
Pederson believes it is important to take advantage of the conflict’s relative calm to press for a national truce and political process.
“What is needed is to identify with realism and precision and implement in parallel mutual and reciprocal steps for steps, step by step, from Syrian and international players,” he said.
Pedersen said that he was in contact with countries such as Syria’s main allies, Russia and Iran, and Turkey and European countries that have supported the Syrian opposition to press for a diplomatic solution.
Years of deadlock over Syria’s political future – Syria and its allies have dismissed President Bashar al-Assad’s demands for stepping down – may be broken in phases, according to the envoy.
Aside from the ongoing instability, Syrians are also grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic and declining economic conditions, causing further instability across the region.
Pro-Syrian forces have retaken large parts of Syria, and a fragile truce has been established between the government and rebels in Idlib, Syria’s last province under rebel control. However, the civil war has almost irreparable damage.
African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Naomi Mackay