Kurdish-Turkish ties stronger than ever - Kurdish Globe

The Kurdish Globe No. 349, Monday, April 23, 2012 12UN authorizes full Syria monitor missionThe United Nations votedSaturday to send 300 unauarmed ceasefire observersto Syria, but the UnitedStates warned it may veto anew mandate for the forcebecause its patience was"exhausted."In the restive Syrianprovince of Homs, the firstdispatch of UN observersarrived to monitor a shakyceasefire, as two civilianswere said to be among atleast 11 people killed acrossthe country, according tothe Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights.Under UN Resolution2043, the military observeuers will be sent for an initutial period of 90 days if UNleader Ban Ki-moon determumines it is safe for them togo.Sporadic clashes betweengovernment troops andarmy deserters have rockedDamascus in recent weeks,ahead of the shaky ceasefirebetween the governmentand rebels that went into effufect on April 12. Monitorssay more than 200 peoplehave been killed in Syriasince then.Russia's UN Ambassadudor Vitaly Churkin, whosecountry played a leadingrole in drawing up the resolulution, told the UN SecurityCouncil that the measurewas of "fundamental impuportance to push forwardthe process of the peacefulsettlement in Syria."The United States, howeuever, warned it may preventthe renewal of the missionafter the first three months,while urging greater internunational pressure on thegovernment of PresidentBashar al-Assad.Susan Rice, the US ambubassador to the United Natutions, told AFP that Banmust make a "careful judgmument" about conditions inSyria before sending thelarger contingent of unauarmed monitors there."Our patience is exhausteued. No one should assumethat the United States willagree to renew this missionafter 90 days," Rice told theSecurity Council after it aututhorized the full mission.Several western envoysstressed the dangers ofsending the observers toAP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP videoA demonstrator holds a burning placard with a picture of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad afterFriday prayers in Talbiseh, near Homs April 20, 2012.Syria, where UN officialssay well over 9,000 peopuple have been killed in 13months of violence."It is an unprecedentedstep to deploy unarmedUN personnel into such adangerous environment. Itis fraught with risk," saidBritain's UN AmbassadorMark Lyall Grant.The small advance teamof monitors that is alreadyin Syria, and previouslyprevented from visitingHoms for "security reasusons," was able to tour diffuferent districts of the city ofthe same name, includingbattered Baba Amr.Regime forces shelledBaba Amr for a month,leaving hundreds dead,according to monitors, befufore retaking it from rebelson March 1. Two Westernjournalists were amongthose killed.The visit came as the oppuposition Syrian NationalCouncil claimed that Homsneighborhoods were beiuing pounded, although anactivist in the city said thesituation was calm.After the UN vote, Russusia called on all sides in theconflict to stop fighting andcooperate with the monitoriuing team.But in the town of Qusayr,near the Lebanese border inHoms province, a snipershot a woman dead, theBritain-based Observatorysaid.Ahead of the UN vote,state-media reported aututhorities released 30 peopledetained for their allegedrole in Syria's anti-regimeuprising, but who have "noblood on their hands."The move takes to nearly4,000 the number of peoplethe authorities have reluleased since November,SANA reported.AFP