SYRIA: U.N. monitors tour Hama where some residents say the situation has improved since the military took to the streets to restore order

Record ID: 280774

  • Title: SYRIA: U.N. monitors tour Hama where some residents say the situation has improved since the military took to the streets to restore order
  • Date: 4th May 2012
  • Summary: HAMA, SYRIA (MAY 3, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MOTORCADE WITH UNITED NATIONS (UN) MONITORS DRIVING ON HIGHWAY TOWARDS HAMA VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF HAMA GOVERNORATE BUILDING STREET SCENE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HAMA RESIDENT, GHADIR, SAYING: "The situation was in crisis before the intervention of the army. After the army intervened, the situation as you see -- people started
  • Embargoed: 19th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Syrian Arab Republic
  • Country: Syria
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAF4GZ7EQG6OINW1EOZ0SSR4F3L
  • Story Text: Members of a United Nations (UN) monitoring mission visited the Syrian city of Hama on Thursday (May 3), where people were seen out on the streets shopping.
    The city's Governorate Building had a large picture of syrian President Bashar al-Assad hanging outside.
    On the streets people felt peace had been restored since the military intervened.
    "The situation was in crisis before the intervention of the army. After the army intervened, the situation as you see -- people started to come out onto the streets and there is freedom of movement," said one woman, Ghadir.
    Meanwhile, Syrian security forces and students armed with knives stormed a protest march at Aleppo University early on Thursday, activists said, killing four and rounding up 200 demonstrators demanding President Bashar al-Assad step down.
    The pre-dawn raid was an unusually bloody incident for Aleppo, Syria's normally fairly peaceful commercial hub, and marked one of many breaches of a three-week-old United Nations truce between state forces and rebels.
    The incident prompted protests in several cities across the country, video posted to social media websites showed.
    One man in Hama said a political solution is the only way out.
    "There must be a political solution. A military solution is unacceptable. All parties must engage in a political solution," said Ali Qutba.
    Nevertheless, the head of the monitoring mission in Syria told reporters during the trip to Hama on Thursday (May 3) observers were having a "calming effect" and that state forces appeared willing to cooperate with the truce.
    UN Major General Robert Mood told reporters it was time to move onto a different track.
    "We have now the opportunity to turn this around. We should not have more children, more women, more suffering, more killing. We need to put it in the direction of the political track," Mood said.
    But a Reuters team in the opposition centre of Homs said they could hear continuous gunfire and the occasional sound of shelling, despite a permanent presence of monitors there.
    Video posted on the Internet showed students chanting against four decades of Assad family rule but being drowned out by gunfire. Activists posted images of a dead student, his shirt drenched in blood, and what they said was a burning dormitory.
    Around 300 monitors will be deployed by the end of May.
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