SYRIA: Opposition group calls for temporary truce

Record ID: 281327

  • Title: SYRIA: Opposition group calls for temporary truce
  • Date: 14th August 2012
  • Summary: DAMASCUS, SYRIA (AUGUST 14, 2012) (REUTERS): MEMBERS OF THE SYRIAN COORDINATION ASSEMBLY SEATED AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) RAJAA AL-NASSER, MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL COORDINATION BODY, SAYING: "The agreement on a temporary truce between all parties that are using weapons on the top of which is the regime. This truce should start before Eid al-Fitr if it is possi
  • Embargoed: 29th August 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Syrian Arab Republic
  • Country: Syria
  • Reuters ID: LVAPP7JIG9I8EFD5I2F14BHLK59
  • Story Text: A Syrian opposition group called for temporary truce to violence in the country on Tuesday (August 14) ahead of the Islamic festival Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
    Rajaa al-Nasser, a member of the Syrian National Coordination Body for Democratic Change, a centrist bloc in the country, said the truce should be monitored by the U.N. mission in Syria.
    "The agreement on a temporary truce between all parties that are using weapons on the top of which is the regime. This truce should start before Eid al-Fitr if it is possible, where all parties can commit to stop any military action and not to change the situation on the ground," said al-Nasser reading from a statement at a news conference in Damascus.
    The group say the reconciliation initiative will decrease the death toll of civilians from ongoing conflict and if adhered to by all parties would achieve a full ceasefire.
    "The Coordination Body suggests that the United Nations supervises the plan through its mission in the country. The plan should be implemented after making the reforms on the strengths and duties of the observers. This should be approved by all parties of the Syrian crisis," al-Nasser added.
    The group called on conflicting parties to release detainees and "kidnapped" people.
    The statement said the initiative is directed at the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian government.
    The group added that it supported any kind of political pressure against the regime, and announced it was in contact with all of Syria's fractious opposition groups.
    Hundreds of people are fleeing Syria daily to neighbouring countries with some arriving wounded or reporting having been shelled or fired on in border areas, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
    The humanitarian plight has worsened over the past month as fighting has spread to the capital Damascus and the biggest city Aleppo. About two million people have been affected by the 17-month-old crisis and over a million are uprooted within Syria.
    U.N. efforts to launch a significant aid operation in recent months have been stymied by Syrian bureaucracy and insecurity.
    Displaced Syrians are pouring into Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, including 10,000 who arrived in Turkey over the past four days, raising the total there to nearly 60,000, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said.
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