Syria urged to respect UN truce plan after violence reported

Syria urged to fully respect UN truce plan after violence reported International envoy Kofi Annan has criticised Syria for failing to implement the UN Security Council demand that it withdraw troops and heavy weapons from populated areas, while activists reported further deaths

as both the opposition and regime allegedly violated the ceasefire.
The grassroots Local Coordination Committees (LCC) network said 15 people were killed across Syria on Friday. They also claimed that Syrian security forces were waging a campaign of intimidation, trying to prevent demonstrations in Banias, Damascus, Damascus suburbs, Deraa, Hama, Idlib and Lattakia. It said three people have been killed so far. Rallies were also reported to have gone on in Aleppo, Deir Ezzor, al-Haskah, Homs and Qamishli, Erbeen and Babila in Damascus, and al-Sakhur in Aleppo.
The reports could not be independently verified.
In Damascus, troops and pro-government militiamen known as shabiha surrounded a mosque in the Qadam neighbourhood and beat people staging a protest inside the house of worship, said the LCC. In another Damascus neighbourhood, Barzeh, demonstrators called for the downfall of the regime, the LCC said. In Aleppo, troops fired teargas at marchers gathering outside the Grand Mosque, the group said.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated that tens of thousands of protesters calling for Assad's ouster marched in cities and towns across Syria.
The LCC also said that security forces were deployed in Deraa's Nawa area around the Al-Imam Al-Nawawi Al-Kabeer mosque to prevent demonstrators from participating in the opposition-dubbed "Revolution For All Syrians Friday".
Security reinforcements backed by armoured vehicles and vehicles carrying anti aircraft guns reportedly entered the Mouadamiyeh area of Damascus. The LCC said snipers were deployed on a number of buildings, and security checkpoints stationed around the city
In Damascus suburbs, entrances and exits in Harasta and all mosques were allegedly besieged, in addition to communications being deliberately disconnected in the area
Hama activist Mousab Alhamadee told UK's The Guardian newspaper that an attempted demonstration had been fired on by the security forces.
"All protesters tried to gather in this square so troops opened fire on us and till now one of my colleagues [was] killed and we don't know the exact number of the wounded.
"Here on the ground there isn't any ceasefire from the side of the regime. There is a kind of slowdown. They are just slowing down. They are just slowing the number of people they usually kill. Instead of killing 100 for example, they just kill 20 or 30 now. That's the difference."
He also slammed a UN proposal to send observers to Syria.
"We had [a] very bad experience with Arab monitors in Syria. They came just to watch us being killed. When Arab monitors were in Syria, the number of people being killed increased and we fear that the same will happen now. We don't want monitors we don't want people to come and watch how we are being killed. We want people to come and stop the killing and defend us."
 The UN Security Council is discussing a resolution which could lead to the deployment of up to 200 observers to Syria to monitor its compliance with the plan.
“What they want to do first is send about 20-30 advance monitors into Syria," Al Jazeera reporting from the UN, said. “For its part, the Syrian government says it has nothing to hide, and they're happy to approve of this advance monitoring team."
South Africa's UN Ambassador Baso Sangqu said discussions on the text of a UN resolution authorising the deployment began on Thursday afternoon, and diplomats said it could be adopted as early as Friday.
The draft resolution would authorise an advance element of up to 30 unarmed military observers and demand that the government ensure their "full and unimpeded freedom of movement throughout Syria" and guarantee the mission's ability to interview any individual "freely or in private". The draft would have the 15-nation council say it “demands the Syrian government implement visibly its commitments in their entirety ... to (a) cease troop movements towards population centres (b) cease all use of heavy weapons in such centres, and (c) begin pullback of military concentrations in and around population centres.”
It also demands all parties in Syria to immediately to cease all armed violence in all its forms and to cease all arbitrary detentions, abductions, and torture.”
The Annan six-point peace plan requires that both government forces and opposition fighters stop attacks.
Diplomats said Annan told the Council he had received unconfirmed reports of sporadic violence in some cities after the truce took effect on Thursday, but said this was not unusual in the early hours of a cessation of hostilities.
"What has happened today does not constitute full compliance by the Syrian government," Annan was quoted as saying by video link from Geneva. "Syrian troops and armour must return to their barracks immediately."
Syrian UN envoy Bashar Jaafari said Damascus had already complied with calls to withdraw troops from towns and called on its opponents to honour the ceasefire, saying there had been eight violations by armed groups on Thursday morning.
The UN says more than 9,000 people have been killed since anti-government protests began in March, 2011. Authorities say about 2,500 security forces and police have been killed.