CHINA: China calls on both sides to halt the violence and implement UN peace plan in Syria

Record ID: 280930

  • Title: CHINA: China calls on both sides to halt the violence and implement UN peace plan in Syria
  • Date: 9th June 2012
  • Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (JUNE 8, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY CHINESE NATIONAL FLAG FLYING CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN LIU WEIMIN WALKING IN FOR REGULAR NEWS CONFERENCE JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN LIU WEIMIN SAYING: "In the current circumstances, we believe that the importance of envoy Annan's mediation
  • Embargoed: 24th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVACXWGTIW50AVHORSCFZV384RR6
  • Story Text: China on Friday (June 8) called for both sides in Syria to halt the violence and implement envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan, as the clamour grows to back tougher action against the Syrian government.
    U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described as "unspeakable barbarity" the reported killing of at least 78 villagers by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and warned that a civil war was imminent.
    Ban said hopes for consolidating the peace plan were fading and Annan himself warned the U.N. Security Council that the crisis in Syria could soon spiral out of control, diplomats said. Annan, Ban's predecessor as U.N. secretary-general, called for "substantial pressure" on Damascus to stop the violence.
    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin did not answer repeated questions about whether China endorses Annan's call for "substantial pressure", but said in response both sides in Syria should stop the fighting.
    "In the current circumstances, we believe that the importance of envoy Annan's mediation efforts has not diminished but rather increased. The support of all sides for the envoy Annan should strengthen, rather than weaken," Liu told a regular news conference in Beijing.
    Liu said China "strongly condemns" the deaths of innocent civilians and calls for the perpetrators to be punished.
    "We express strong condemnation of the recent barbarity involving attacks on innocent civilians, especially women and children, and we hope that the perpetrators will be punished according to the law as soon as possible," Liu said.
    Russia and China -- permanent members of the U.N. Security Council with the power to veto resolutions - have stymied efforts by Western powers to condemn or call for the removal of Assad, whose forces, the U.N. says, have killed at least 10,000 people in more than a year of unrest.
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