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The U.N. sent its former chief, Kofi Annan, to Syria to help negotiate the cease fire. Annan also came up with a six-point plan toward peace, but the path is proving difficult - Syrian troops have so far refused to pull out of cities they had agreed to leave under the plan. Annan is calling on international peacekeeping troops to go to Syria and monitor the cease fire to make sure neither side violates it.
“I am encouraged by reports that the situation in Syria is relatively calm and that the cessation of hostilities appears to be holding,” Annan said. “All parties have obligations to implement fully the six-point plan. This includes both the military provisions of the plan and the commitment to move to a political process.”
Fear of civil war in Syria
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The protests have shared techniques involving strikes, demonstrations, marches, and rallies, as well as the use of social media to organize, communicate, and raise awareness. |
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The United Nations estimates that close to 9,000 Syrians have been killed by pro-government forces since the uprising against Assad’s government began more than a year ago.
The demonstrations in Syria are part of larger uprisings across the Arab world, often referred to as the “Arab Spring.” The Arab Spring movement has unseated leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and has seen uprisings in many other countries in the region, including Bahrain, Yemen and Morocco.
In addition to shooting at their own people in a bloody conflict, Syrian troops recently fired across the border into a Turkish refugee camp full of Syrian civilians. The incident spawned international outrage and fears of large-scale civil war in the region between the two major sects of Islam - Sunni and Shia. Sunnis make up most of the population in powerful Saudi Arabia, whose bitter enemy, Iran, is majority Shia.
Truth about conflict has been hard to uncover
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Because there are few independent journalists in Syria, news outlets are relying in large part on videos and blog posts of citizen journalists inside the country. |
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During the Syrian uprising, journalists and government officials have had an especially hard time finding out what is really going on inside the country. Most news organizations have struggled to cross the border into Syria to report on what’s going on there. That means it’s been difficult to confirm which reports coming out of the country are true and how many people have died in the violence.
The U.S. State Department, as well as many other Western countries, closed its embassy in Damascus and pulled all diplomats out of the country for safety reasons.
Embassies are representations of how strong relationships are between countries and Syria has became more and more isolated from the rest of the world as foreign delegations pulled out.
What happens next?
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he Syrian government claimed that its army is pulling back from towns and villages as part of a United Nations-brokered cease-fire plan. However, rebels reported shells were still falling across the country. |
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If the cease fire holds, U.N. officials hope that Syrian forces will retreat from cities they have occupied, release the prisoners they have taken and open a path toward free and fair elections.
However, most analysts and diplomats acknowledge that’s a lot to ask when more than 100 people have been killed since Assad’s government agreed to the peace plan on March 27.
Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi told the BBC that the Syrian government is “absolutely committed” to the peace plan, but Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., has said that Syria’s commitments "have little if any credibility."
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I think we've been witnessing violence for years, whether in reality through the media or through video games, and I don't think that's a first-hand effect.
